Bill Corbett

Whether children should be allowed to sleep in bed with their parents or in their own is a personal choice for the adults involved. I can quote experts and present evidence-based data to support both sides of this discussion. This article offers suggestions for those parents who have decided not to practice family bed sharing and who need help in getting the kids to their own beds and remain there. Bedtime can be a very stressful time of day for families. Parents and children come together after a tiring day of work or school and yearn to reconnect with each other. While parents do want that reconnection, they also see an evening full of tasks that must be attended to before they can truly unwind and relax. But with all those dinner, homework and cleanup tasks that must be accomplished, it becomes difficult to allow that reconnection to occur as it should. Oftentimes, the children feel frustrated, sensing that their caregivers aren’t there 100%, so they express the frustration even ...

Teaching Them to Say It. The phrase "Thank You" seems to lose its value when used too often or when it’s hard to embrace being thankful; so how about changing the word to bring it more into your child’s consciousness. Create some opportunity to enjoy diversity by teaching your child how to say thank you in a different language. My grandparents came to this country as immigrant children from Poland. They taught me to say thank you in their native language as Dziekuje (approximate pronunciation JE • KOO • YUH). I found an Internet Web site that has the expression thank you translated in over 465 languages: http://www.elite.net/~runner/jennifers/thankyou.htm. Similar sites can be located through your Internet search engine (such as Google or Yahoo). Helping Them to Visualize It. Regular meetings are an integral part of generating a strong family. This get-together held a few times a month helps develop the family as a loving team. One possible activity in a family meeting ...

It was a call for help from a parent I once helped with parent coaching, about eight years earlier and 1000 miles away in another state. As she explained how I had helped her immensely in raising her two little girls, who were aged 6 and 8 at the time, it didn’t take long to refresh my memory as to how we had crossed paths at one of my earliest parent lectures. Admitting she incorporated most of my advice, she revealed that she was calling for desperate help with one particular issue that she regretted not heeding advice in my teaching - no cell phones or online social networking tools for children. What Was Once Cute and Innocent This desperate mom explained how she allowed her girls to have cell phones at an early age, pressured by the influence of “everyone else was letting their kids have phones, so what was the big deal.” She went on to tell me that it was cute in the beginning when they were little, texting a few of their little friends and getting so excited, sharing informa...

When my first child came along and I didn’t know any better, I made the fatal “dad mistake” when it came to helping her battle the monsters in her bedroom. Unwittingly, I would frequently grab a baseball bat and head into her room in hopes of quelling her cries for help by standing ready to battle the imaginary monsters. As I lay on the floor swinging at those nonexistent creatures, I remember shouting out in a Ray Romano like voice from the television show Everyone Loves Raymond “there, I got all those mean monsters and now they are all gone.”  Gain cooperation with visual schedules at  SchKIDules But when I got up off the floor and attempted to kiss her goodnight so I could leave, she would announce that the monsters had escaped my attack and were now hiding somewhere else in the room. Each of my next attacks only led to the monsters mysteriously moving to yet another location when finally, my patience would be tried and I would usually end up snapping at her that the mo...

My step daughter Olivia is a tween and her mom and I are watching her out the window as she provides us with proof of the characteristics of this age group. The classic tween is an interesting species of the human race, still hanging on to child-like behaviors and yet, demonstrating some signs of maturity. At this moment, Olivia has two friends over to the house and they are standing by the side of the road, dancing. She is wearing a green colored winter ski cap with a cartoon character on the front, pulled down over her ears, and her female best friend is wearing a brown furry hat, complete with horns, resembling a buffalo head. Standing alongside of the two girls is a mutual male friend from down the street. He is wearing a comically oversized pair of sunglasses and a bright blue wig from a Dr. Seuss Thing 1 costume. Standing on the sidewalk, they are each doing their own dance routine, attracting the attention of motorists passing by and receiving frequent horn honks of approval...

As some of you know, I was running a contest for anyone willing to sign up to join this blog, and giving away timers, t-shirts, and books. My latest contest ended yesterday and I just drew the winners.  The Timer goes to Bron Mitchell, the T-shirt goes to Paula Comeau, and the book goes to Cathy.  If you're one of these folks, email me at bill@cooperativekids.com and provide me with a mailing address.  Thank you all for joining and be watching for more subscriber giveaways. If you want some free help with managing your children's behavior, or help for someone else, stop on over at my Web site http://www.cooperativekids.com/ and see a new Quick Solutions edocument that you can download for free. This new document asks you 4 important questions to help you come up with solutions for effective parenting.  Keep in touch and let me know how I can help you.

One day in 1994, my 9-year-old daughter called me at my office to tell me that she had left her lunch money at home again and needed me to bring it to her. This typical forgetfulness by my children was quite annoying but something I thought I was supposed to resolve as a father. On my ride to the school, I couldn’t help but think about the inconvenience. More importantly, I suddenly became concerned about how irresponsible my daughter would eventually be as an adult if I was constantly remembering for her or rescuing her. That evening, I gathered my three children for an impromptu family meeting to discuss a few changes that would take effect immediately. I announced that from now on, they were solely responsible for remembering to bring with them any items they needed for school that day — lunch money, homework, and school projects. I advised them that unless it was required for health and safety reasons, I was no longer willing to run home and retrieve what they left behind. My respo...