Family Meals Postpartum

A proactive way to avoid getting the "baby blues" is to arrange for meals to be delivered to your family after the baby is born. Ask your friends to sign up for date to bring you and your family a meal instead of a baby shower gift. This will alleviate you of a big responsibility, give you more time to interact with your other child, ensure that you are eating properly, and give your friends and family an easy way to assist you after you deliver your baby.

Parenting Styles

Parenting styles are often divided into three categories: authoritarian, permissive, and democratic. An authoritarian parent would get his child´s attention through punishment or bribes. A permissive parent would wait until the child comes to him to discuss something. A democratic parent would evaluate the social dynamics and get the child´s attention by figuring out what the child´s motivation is. Children want to learn and act appropriately. It is the setting which most often sets a child up for success or failure. Each of the parenting styles also apply to teaching styles.

Maintaining one on one time with kids

Continue to attend age specific mommy and me classes with your children even after the new baby is born. Set up a buddy system with another mother of two and trade babysitting. She will watch one of your children while you take the other to his class and you do the same for her on another day. You will have quality one-on-one time with your child and not incur child care costs.

Rules...

One thing I mention all through the year (I teach 4yr olds) is that we have choices to make every day. We can choose to follow directions or choose not to. If we choose to not follow a rule, there are consequences. This puts the responsibility for whether or not they have to ´pull a card´ in their hands. Also, I let my students make their own rules. You would be surprised that they come up with almost exactly the same rules as you would (also no more than 5--if you make them broad enough, that´s plenty).

Introducing baby to sibling

Want to minimize jealousy when you introduce your toddler or preschooler to your new baby? Buy the older child his/her own baby doll and take it with you to the hospital. Present the doll to your child as her own baby. The young child will enjoy holding and caring for her new doll as you hold and care for your new baby.

Link between food and tantrums

It is easier to avoid tantrums than to punish your child because of them. Tantrums are often linked to hunger. Monitor the time of day your child eats and the time of day which tantrums most often occur. Then make sure your child is fed before the time that s/he usually melts down. Often the tantrums can be proactively eliminated rather than dealt with using discipline.

Respect

"Don´t correct me in front of others if you can help it. I´ll take much more notice if you talk quietly with me in private."

A signal for NO

This is more of a "maintaining order" suggestion: We have used sign language with our kids since they were toddlers--nothing fancy, just a few signs. One is the "no" sign. Instead of always saying "no" and everybody being aware of it, we just put our thumb together with our index and middle finger. It is silent and avoids constant interruptions during reading time or conversation. It is very effective and the kids don´t feel as if they are constantly being told "NO!"