Author: Sharon Witt

The bond between mother and daughter is truly unique and has far-reaching effects on the development and socialisation of girls throughout their lifetime.

Increasing the emotional connection between mothers and daughters can foster mutual support. Here are some ideas to help you be an effective mother for your daughter.

Know your impact

Mothers are a powerful influence. The way a mother acts in front of her daughter largely influences her daughter’s behaviour. When a mother can model how to feel pride, take pleasure in her accomplishments, feel a sense of competence and hold a positive self-image she is empowering her […]

Author: Professor Lea Waters

Personality strengths—our character—play a big role in helping us build our talents. Think about anyone who has built a talent and imagine if it could have been done without character. Imagine Einstein without curiosity, The Beatles without creativity, Mother Teresa without compassion and Neil Armstrong without bravery.

Yet for decades, scientists were blind to character strength. We focused on talent, often on physical strength and skills. In fact, when I first ask young children what they think a strength is, they almost always point to their biceps or talk about being able to lift something heavy.
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Once you […]

Author:  Dr Rosina McAlpine

Recent events and current statistics highlight that as a nation we have a serious problem when it comes to domestic violence. While there’s no easy solution, together, we can do our part to stop violence against women. If you’re a parent or guardian, you can play an important role. Disrespect towards girls can begin in childhood, and we can break the cycle when we teach our children to be respectful and caring right from the start.

As parents, we have three main jobs:

First, to love our children and build a strong lifetime bond
Second, to keep them safe from […]

Author: Dr Jodi Richardson

If you’re the parent of an anxious child you’re most certainly not alone. The number of children experiencing an anxiety disorder is currently estimated at 117 million worldwide. Here in Australia, there’s an average of 2 anxious kids in every classroom; and they’re the ones with a diagnosis. Many more anxious kids are yet to have their anxiety identified and understood.

As much as we’d like to, we can’t rid our kids of their anxiety, but we can help them to manage it in ways that enable them move it from centre stage and get on with […]

Author: Michael Grose

Confident kids are competent kids. Past experience has taught them that they can be successful. The easiest (and most neglected way) to help develop competency is to give kids opportunities to help out at home. Don’t overburden them with jobs. Sensibly allocate chores according to their age, interests and study requirements.

Expect children and young people to help without being paid.

Provide pocket money, but avoid linking it to chores. Helping in exchange for money develops in children a notion of ‘What’s in it for me?’, which is a self-centred view of life.

However, many parents tell me that they […]

Author:  Michael Grose

If your child feels anxious, reassure them that these feelings are a normal response to new people, events or potentially challenging situations. Help your child understand that there is a great deal they can do to manage their anxious feelings, so they can get on with the activities they enjoy.

Explain anxiety

If your child is anxious he/she may struggle to explain how he feels. An important first step in anxiety self-management is explaining to your child how anxiety works.

Sufficient sleep, good nutrition and exercise are essential for anxious kids. Support your child to adhere to their optimal bedtime […]

Author: Michael Grose

Disciplining sensitive kids is usually never straightforward. Sensitive kids, those creative, empathetic types who generally wear their hearts on their sleeve and take even the slightest criticism personally need to be handled with care.

It’s tempting to avoid disciplining them altogether to avoid hurting their feelings. But sensitive kids need also to learn to become social and likeable so they can reach their full social potential. They also like to feel safe and secure so a permissive ‘do whatever’ approach is not for this group.

Some discipline techniques to avoid with sensitive children:

Shaming, naming and blaming

‘You should be ashamed […]

by Michael Grose

Recently, I saw a mother give a simple, yet profound resilience lesson to her three-year-old. The toddler fell into his dog’s bowl, saturating his t-shirt and giving himself a fright. His mum quickly helped him saying, “Oh well!” The three-year-old bravely parroted his mother, saying, “Oh well!” and dashed off to play.

It’s in our reactions to these and other everyday mistakes, mess-ups, muck-ups and hurts where the big lessons in resilience are taught and reinforced.

The lessons for the three-year-old were simple but profound. “Oh well” meant:

• Stuff happens
• Don’t look for fault or blame
• Keep your perspective

[…]

Author Maggie Dent

Research has shown that parents treat their boys and girls differently right from infancy.

For example, infant boys are touched more frequently and handled more roughly before the age of three months. Also, physical punishment is applied more significantly for boys than girls in many Western countries. This is despite the fact that research also shows boys are more vulnerable and fragile.

Why do we do this?

The stereotypical belief that the only way to get boys to do the right thing is by shaming them, hurting them or being hard on them needs to be challenged every day because it […]

Author – Michael Grose

Kids of all ages are excellent at wearing down the resistance of a parent who denies permission for them to go somewhere due to lack of safety or suitability concerns. Unfortunately, many kids use annoying methods such as:

• repetition (Can I go? Can I go? Can I go?);
• questioning (Why can’t I go?);
• guilt (You never let me go anywhere!);
• nagging (Can I, can I, can I go, pleeease!) and
• whining (Ahhh! Whyyy Caaan’t I gooo!)

Often we are so tired that we give just to gain some peace, which makes pester power a useful strategy as […]