Saturday, July 30, 2011
Professional marriage, parent, & family life coach and award-winning writer/published author Kindred Howard encourages parents not to freak out over bad behavior but simply to "nip it in the bud."
By nature, children are bad. Think about it, when was the last time you had to teach one of your children to hit, lie, steal, or throw a fit whenever his or her little highness didn’t get their own way? Let’s just go ahead and admit that, as much as we love our children, they are prone to impulsive, self-serving behavior. Left unchecked, they are little criminals. Take lying, for instance. Children, in case you didn’t know, are liars. They’ll tell you whatever whopper they think will get them what they want or keep them out of trouble. That is, of course, until a loving parent disciplines them so as not to lie. Just today, as I was writing this article, my four-year-old came bopping into my office and asked, “Daddy, may I have a cinnamon …
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Professional marriage, parent, and family life coach Kindred Howard admonishes parents to give their kids the gift of a great marriage via love and respect.
Okay, here’s a quick test. What’s the greatest gift you can give your kids? An iPad? A Wii gaming system? Extra cell phone minutes? A second chance instead of a spanking after they draw on your driver’s side door with a permanent marker? Answer: none of the above (although I’m sure they’d appreciate the second chance). The greatest gift you could ever give your kids is a close and loving marriage. Kids don’t need to be the center of your attention in order to be secure and happy. In fact, making your kids the center of the family wheel often has the opposite effect. Nope, what they need is to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you and your spouse love each other and are totally devoted to your marriage. Don’t believe me? If you have …
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Professional marriage and parenting coach and award-winning writer and public speaker, Kindred Howard, reminds us to say "thank you" to moms.
I write this week’s article as a salute to my wife, Meredith. Still gorgeous after 14 years of marriage, Meredith never ceases to amaze me. As a mom, she endures sleep deprivation and diaper defecations. She prepares meals, wipes little noses and fannies (hopefully not right before preparing the meals), runs errands, wages battles against ever advancing piles of dirty laundry, and cleans dirty dishes that seem to grow miraculously out of the bottom of our kitchen sink. Meredith is a tutor, a maid, a manager, a chauffeur, a pharmacist, a child psychologist, a crisis-control specialist, a chef, a cheerleader, a bodyguard, and—during those times when the kids seem to be holding my sanity for ransom—a hostage negotiator. No doubt about it; in …
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Professional marriage and parenting coach, humorist, public speaker, and award-winning writer Kindred Howard encourages parents to lovingly EXPECT obedience from their kids.
As a professional parenting coach, I’m constantly contacted by parents telling me that they cannot get their children to listen and obey. Such parents continually find themselves having to nag, yell, scream, threaten, bribe, bargain, or some combination thereof in order to get their children to respond. Even then, many of these parents often find themselves throwing their hands up in exhausted frustration as they give in to their child’s persistent disobedience or continual protests or tantrums. Such mothers and fathers have to start by accepting the unpleasant reality that the problem is actually not with the child: it’s with the parents! All children are prone to blow off their parents’ instruction. Kids (just like adults) are selfish …
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Award-winning writer, humorist, and professional marriage, parent, and family life coach Kindred Howard expounds on the "joys" of fishing with your kids.
A few weeks back, I took my two non-diaper-wearing sons, William and Carson, fishing for the first time. I’m not an accomplished fisherman. Most of the time, when I go on a fishing expedition, I return with little more than a few “the one that got away” stories and a bucket full of worms still grieving the fact that their brave comrades died in vain. Still, I wanted to take my sons fishing. So I loaded up my van and took William and Carson on a “guys’ weekend” to visit my parents in the North Carolina mountains. After taking a day to travel, we arose on Sunday and drove to a nearby trout farm. Of course, a true fisherman is likely to scoff at the notion of fishing in a stocked pond. But keep in mind, my ultimate goal was to ensure that my…
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Award-winning writer, humorist, author, and professional marriage, parent, and family life coach Kindred Howard reminds parents that today's underappreciated efforts are tomorrow's reminders of parental affection.
A few weeks before I turned 16, my father came home and surprised me with the news that every teenage boy longs to hear. "Come with me, son," he said. "I’ve bought you a car." YES! My own car! I couldn't believe it. No more watching every girl I remotely liked climb into an older guy's car and head off for a night of dating fun while I waited in front of the mall arcade to be picked up by one of my parents. Nope, now it was my time. Let the good times roll! A short time later, Dad and I pulled up to a house. It was then that my heart fell to the floorboard. There, in the front yard with a SOLD sign on the windshield, was a freshly washed, shiny red Pacer! I don't know if you're aware of what a Pacer looks like, but picture a giant, …
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Professional marriage, parent, & family life coach, humorist, and award-winning writer Kindred Howard shares with parents the importance of a parent-centric home.
The other day, as I pulled into the drive around dinner time, my children rushed to the car to meet me. They were excited to see Dad and immediately started bombarding me with information. I gave them all hugs and listened with "fascination" as William described how he'd skateboarded down the sidewalk without falling and Emerson shared about the sleepover to which she'd been invited. As my little paparazzi followed me, begging for my attention and expecting me to stop, I slowly kept moving as I said things like, "Really?” “That's wonderful, Buddy" and, "Sounds awesome, Sweetie." Entering the house, I found my wife, Meredith, cooking dinner and looking beautiful as always. It's then that I did the most important thing any father can do when…
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Atlanta's favorite "Dadlosopher" and professional marriage, parent, and family life coach Kindred Howard reflects on the "joys" of summer vacation.
Summer has arrived once more. Yes, it’s that much anticipated time of year when we pack up our kids, don our bathing suits, load up more beach paraphernalia than used by the D-Day invasion force, slather ourselves with as much sunscreen as Mommy thinks necessary to prevent any sunlight from actually touching her children's flesh, and head for the nearest beach. Recently, the Howard clan embarked on just such an adventure. Longing to smell the salt air and feel the sand under our feet, Meredith and I piled our kids into the minivan and took off for a week on the South Carolina coast. Of course, when you have small kids, vacations are about building memories--not relaxing. Before Meredith and I had children, vacations at the beach involved …
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Humorist, award-winning writer, and professional marriage and parent coach Kindred Howard makes readers laugh as he compares today's Easter egg hunts with those of yesteryear. Learn more about Kindred at www.familyupward.com.
Easter is different when you have small children. Once you become parents, the Easter Bunny, Easter egg hunts, dyed Easter eggs and candy—lots of candy!—all return. Of course, these days, one uses the term Easter egg “hunt” loosely. Most 21st century “hunts” are really just Easter egg pickups. The eggs are just lying there, usually in the middle of a big field, helplessly exposed and waiting to be claimed by snot-nosed little candy-hoarders. Finally, someone yells "go" and all chaos breaks loose! The whole scene resembles a munchkin fight-to-the-death cage match as small children become engulfed in a sea of flailing limbs, little body checks, and tear-producing collisions. All the while, shouts of "Mine! Mine! Mine!" and the sounds of …
Susan Eppley
8:47 am on Sunday, July 31, 2011
This is one of the most freeing principals of parenthood. I told this to a client the other day (for about the third time) and she had a huge AHA! moment. Everything fell into place for her and I could almost hear the Mommy Guilt falling off and hitting the floor. She was relieved and and she got very excited about parenting again. And, I believe she'll be a better parent now because she won't … more ›