“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” – Mother Theresa
This month was rough. The theme this month for my More Conscious Year was “Empathy” but I didn’t do so well. Mostly, we experienced a lot of struggles, conflicts and regression (my own…) and so this month’s inspirations are, perhaps, less inspiring, but more of a resource round-up – posts and advice that I found helpful in my parenting struggles this month. But the great thing about parenting struggles is that they are opportunities for learning and growth, as well as opportunities to find new resources for support (like this one on How to Be an Empathetic Parent Even When It Feels Hard).
I hope the following resources – on proactive planning for stressful times, positive parenting alternatives to knee-jerk reactions and some motivation and inspiration for those times you find yourself acting in less-than-positive ways – will be as helpful to you as they have been for me.
Proactive Strategies for Strong Emotions (Yours and Theirs)
In this great post, 6 Peaceful Solutions for Hitting and Anger, the author provides a few novel (at least to me) ways for children to safely express their big emotions. A few times since we talked about these, my daughter has voluntarily gone to her safe place or worked out her emotions through angry art without any prompting from me.
In Positive Parenting Connection’s post Making A Win-Win Parenting Plan, the author provides steps for making a proactive plan for stressful times, but also reminds us that most conflicts between parents and children come down to a battle of needs, rather than a battle of wills, and sometimes simply seeing both of these needs and trying to find a way to compromise and meet them both, can help more easily resolve the conflict.
I also love the advice and the visual Calm Down plan in Yummy Mummy’s post Steps To Help Calm Yourself Down When Emotions Rise Up.
If you are looking for resources to help your children with anger, this video, Just Breathe, might resonate with young viewers. In it kindergarteners talk about their experiences with emotions, breathing and mindfulness.
Positive Discipline Alternatives
52 Positive Discipline Tools from Positive Discipline
22 Alternatives to Punishment from the Natural Child Project
Positive Parenting Websites and Blogs from Force Free Parenting
5 Tricks to Help Create a Positive Relationship with Your Child from Natural Parents Network
Motivation and Inspiration for Difficult Days
Positive Parenting Connection’s post, Positive Parenting Isn’t Perfect Parenting and That’s OK is a great reminder for those challenging days.
This one is a classic, but if you haven’t read it already, it is a great motivator – Orange Rhino’s post, 10 Things I Learned When I Stopped Yelling at My Kids and Started Loving More.
Or for a side of humor with your supportive post, check out the Actual Pastor’s post, To parents of small children: Let me be the one who says it out loud.
And for any of you who may be stay-at-home-parents, here is a great newsletter read from Heather Forbes of Beyond Consequences, for those days when you feel like throwing in the towel.
More Conscious Parenting Resources
Doctor Laura of Aha! Parenting is offering her audio course Peaceful Parenting: How to Stop Punishing, Start Connecting & Raise a High EQ Child free (normally $59) when you pre-order her book, Peaceful Parent, Happy Siblings.
In, 4 Mindfulness Practices to Move from Surviving to Thriving in Parenting, the author gives us a nice reminder of how the practice of mindfulness can positively affect our parenting.
What about you? Do you have any go-to resources for conscious parenting in difficult times? If so, I’d love to hear from you.
Thanks for reading!
Sharon, Author, The Conscious Parenting Notebook
A More Conscious Life 