Page 1 of Kathy Slattengren's writing

1. Helping Kids Control Negative Thoughts Who will criticize your children the most as they grow up? They will! It is their own negative self-talk that they will hear most often. Everyone’s mind produces a steady stream of thoughts. When these thoughts turn negative, fear, doubt... (posted by Kathy 1 year 105 days ago.)

2. What Will Your Children Remember? The holidays are a busy time of year especially for parents. You plan special meals, wonderful gatherings of family and friends, and search for just the right gifts to delight your children. It's all a lot of work and so it's interesting to... (posted by Kathy 1 year 158 days ago.)

3. Great Parenting Stands the Test of Time Some parenting ideas come and go like fads. Others stick around for decades. The ideas that last are those that work well in the long run to help parents with the challenging job of raising children. The common foundation for many current... (posted by Kathy 1 year 193 days ago.)

4. Children Dangerously Breaking Rules We establish rules to help keep our kids safe. We'd all like to believe our children would make the right choice when presented with a situation like whether or not to answer the door to a stranger. But what would they really do? What would... (posted by Kathy 1 year 193 days ago.)

5. Three Keys to Developing Children's Empathy Children are not born with empathy. They are born with the capacity to have empathy but it only develops under certain conditions. Parents play a critical role in developing their children's empathy. In their book, Born for Love: Why Empathy... (posted by Kathy 1 year 193 days ago.)

6. Back to School, Back to Bullying? We certainly hope that back to school does not mean back to bullying! Unfortunately being bullied at school is the reality for too many children. According to the National Crime Prevention Council, "Bullying has become a tidal wave of epic... (posted by Kathy 1 year 268 days ago.)

7. Four Things That Matter Most in Parenting What four things matter the most in parenting? Could they be the same as the four things that matter most in life? It is likely they could be the same since our relationships with our children are some of the most significant ones we have in our... (posted by Kathy 1 year 291 days ago.)

8. Limiting Screen Time for Your Kids Do you feel your kids are spending too much time watching TV, playing video games and being on the computer? Do ever find it challenging to get them to turn off the TV or computer and go outside to play? If so, join the crowd! How much time... (posted by Kathy 1 year 350 days ago.)

9. Kids Swearing When children swear, it certainly catches our attention! How should we respond when this happens? There are a number of ways to handle it depending on the situation. Trying Out Swearing Young children often try swearing at some point. One... (posted by Kathy 2 years ago.)

10. Helping Our Children Shine Did you ever gaze into your children's eyes when they were babies wondering what they would be like when they grew up? Did you notice some of your children's strong personality traits even when they were very young? One of our challenges is to... (posted by Kathy 2 years 20 days ago.)

11. The Challenges of Motivating Children How can we motivate our children to work harder in school, in a sport or in practicing an instrument? Will the promise of a reward for practicing the piano help our child practice more? Or will the threat of punishment be more effective? When we... (posted by Kathy 2 years 55 days ago.)

12. Children Searching for Sex and Porn - Yikes! Norton Family Online recently released the most searched for terms by children in 2009. Across all three age groups (7 and under, 8 - 12, 13 - 18) sex or porn was in the #4 spot for most search for terms. Yikes! This data was gathered from the... (posted by Kathy 2 years 77 days ago.)

13. Critical Comments Flow Freely from Parents Do you make more positive comments or negative comments to your children? If you're like most parents, you make a lot more negative comments than positive ones. In her book, Building Moral Intelligence , Dr. Michele Borba writes "studies reveal... (posted by Kathy 2 years 126 days ago.)

14. Family Gatherings: Fun for Everyone? When families gather together for a celebration, each participant brings their own history, behavior and expectations. When these different expectations and behaviors clash, the celebrations are often far from the peaceful, loving gatherings... (posted by Kathy 2 years 160 days ago.)

15. What's the Tone of Your Home? Parents play a lead role in setting the overall tone in their families. Parents whose overall tone tends to be negative often have homes filled with stress and tension. While parents who take a more positive approach create calmer, happier... (posted by Kathy 2 years 174 days ago.)

16. Beware of Boomerang Words Do your children's words ever take you by surprise because they sound remarkably like something you've said? These "boomerang words" can be a good thing or not such a good thing. When we hear our children repeat our words, it's a strong... (posted by Kathy 2 years 218 days ago.)

17. Yelling at Kids in Anger Have you ever become frustrated with your children when they are begging you for something? If so, you can probably relate to this mom's story. Begging for Ice Cream One mom told me how exasperated she was while driving her... (posted by Kathy 2 years 245 days ago.)

18. Getting Off To School Making It Calm Instead Of Chaotic Do you ever find yourself rushing around in the morning desperately trying to get your kids off to school? Feeling rushed and hassled first thing in the morning is not a good way to start a day! Unfortunately many parents and children report this... (posted by Kathy 2 years 283 days ago.)

19. What's Wrong With Just Wanting Our Kids To Be Happy? "I really do just want my kids to be happy! What can possibly be wrong with that?" The potential problem is that it appears there is a connection between parents focusing on making their kids happy with those children actually being increasingly... (posted by Kathy 2 years 300 days ago.)

20. How Much Media Is Too Much? When parents discuss how much media they allow their children, the answers vary wildly. Some parents have very strict time restrictions on their children's media viewing while others give their children more control over the time they spend on... (posted by Kathy 2 years 343 days ago.)

21. What New Life Skills Will Your Kids Learn This Summer? We have until our children are about 18 years old to teach them all the basic skills they'll need to live on their own. Although it sounds like a lot of time, it goes by amazingly fast. Summertime can provide a little more free time for teaching... (posted by Kathy 3 years 12 days ago.)

22. What Does Death Teach Our Children? Death is one of those lessons we hope our children will not have to experience early in life. However, given death is an inescapable fact of life, we know our children will eventually need to deal with it. When and how we discuss death with our... (posted by Kathy 3 years 27 days ago.)

23. Avoiding Hearing "You're not listening!" Listening is one of those skills that really doesn't seem like it's all that difficult. Why then do so many children report that their parents don't listen to them? Maybe it's because there are a lot of ways for parents to unintentionally stop... (posted by Kathy 3 years 63 days ago.)

24. "Stop crying!" and Other Commands That Don't Work Moments of frustration can lead parents to issuing commands that really don't work. Any time we are ordering children to change their behavior we're not likely to succeed. Instead of producing the desired behavioral change, commands often lead to... (posted by Kathy 3 years 103 days ago.)

25. Postponing the Most Important Things As parents our days can easily be filled to overflowing with all the tasks that are required to keep our families running: making meals, doing dishes, driving kids to activities, washing clothes and working. These are certainly not the most... (posted by Kathy 3 years 132 days ago.)