One of the more controversial parenting subjects that has appeared between my own childhood and the current era is the topic of leashes for children. Proponents insist that leashes increase a parent’s sense of ease in dangerous situations while providing a toddler with more range of motion than more traditional forms of restraint, such as…
Month: December 2010
You must be kidding
In a recent Attachment Parenting discussion, it was asked: Do you refer to your children as “children” or “kids”? It was posited in that question that AP and other ostensibly progressively minded parents are more likely to use “child” while more traditional parents are more likely to use “kid.” “Child,” after all, is more respectful….
The Microsoft Tech that Saved Christmas
Last night, our 18-month-old kidlet was in the mood to have me play a video game. I know this because he handed me an Xbox 360 controller and pointed emphatically at the television. Since I wasn’t doing anything else and it was a welcome break from the near-constant barrage of Scooby-Doo! episodes, I decided to…
Praising children
Prompted by a recent discussion on an Attachment Parenting community, I decided to read the first chapter of NurtureShock: New Thinking about Children, on the subject of praise. In the discussion on the community in question, one person (apparently proudly) announced that she never praises her children, because all praise is bad in that it…