I’ll be honest; I’m late to the game. Maybe I should have read a few more parenting books when I was pregnant with our first child, perhaps had a bit more time, and didn’t have children already who already required my attention. I knew what kind of parent I wanted to be, and thought I knew what I would do in each given scenario. Turns out, I didn’t, and getting advice and techniques from others can be quite helpful. So here I am, 3 years in, finally gathering resources to collect little parenting tips and tricks that I feel work best for my family. While it takes practice, time, and effort to change both mine and my child’s behavior, I’ve found several resources that have helped me. Below are some of my favorites:
Books
The first time I read this, I read it so quickly, just trying to get through the book and collect all the tips and tricks. Turns out, it’s hard to implement several techniques at once and I probably skipped several steps. I ended up having to reread the book, slowing down, to really practice and implement one technique at a time to really give each suggestion a try and figure out what worked for our family. I did truly find that several of these worked for getting some cooperation from my child.
The Montessori Toddler by Simone Davies
This book gave great suggestions on how to properly engage your child with toys as well as techniques for temper tantrums and how to take turns with a younger sibling. This book also really helped me in finding ways to improve in the everyday routine of life – with a more willing child alongside me.
Podcasts
Janet Lansbury is known for her Respectful Parenting podcasts. They are usually in 20-30 minutes segments focused around a specific topic with several examples given. From mealtime, playground etiquette, potty training, and guiding our child’s emotions – the range of topics really is astounding. New podcasts are constantly being added and you’re sure to find one of the issues you’re currently facing. I often listen to these podcasts while I’m cleaning as it distracts me from actually cleaning, plus it makes me feel like I’m doing something to benefit myself and my family.
Television Show
I remember watching Supernanny with my mom and siblings when I was younger and enjoy doing this with my child now (as well as America’s Supernanny). It helps my child see and recognize inappropriate behavior such as pushing a sibling off the swing set, or only one child down the slide at a time. Its rules she can relate to. We’ve also picked up some techniques such as describing the behavior we wise to see from our child instead of just calling a name, hoping they understand what we mean. We were also big users of the 1-2-3 method but got advice on how we can use this in a more constructive manner. We are selective though as some of the episodes have cursing children in them and we prefer for her to not hear those!
