I firmly believe in the concepts from books like Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline and Positive Discipline – our children aren’t born knowing how to act or react to situations, they learn from watching the behavior we model (and really, should we expect them to behave more maturely than many adults?). Misbehavior can be an opportunity to teach if we can remember to take a deep breath before we react. So the first thing I needed to remember was to demonstrate good listening skills myself. No more half listening while changing a diaper or making dinner. If I needed to finish something before I could listen, I was going to try and remember to say so. Next I needed to teach my daughter how to listen and help her practice. I find it’s more effective to teach and practice something by making it a game! Steph shares her problem solvin’ approach to parenting and life at Problem Solvin Mom. She can often be found playing with her two girls in the kitchen or at the craft table, and sometimes on twitter as @psmom.
