Help! I'm a Parent How to Handle Temper Tantrums, Sibling Fights, Questions About Sex, and Other Parenting Challenges

CHAPTER 1Help! I''m a ParentAfter a tough day with two rambunctious preschoolers, a weary mother declared, "From the minute I got up this morning my kids were fussing and fighting and finding creative ways to drive me nuts. I tried everything to get them to settle down, but nothing worked. Sometimes on a day like this I just want to give them away cheap!" After a similar day with two teenagers, another frazzled mother confided, "I love them to death, but some days I''d like to knock them into the middle of next week!"If you have children you know how these mothers feel. Parenting can be a wonderful, enriching experience, but it isn''t always a piece of cake. Humorist Dave Barry clipped an article from the American Medical Association newsletter about a man who went to his doctor complaining of a hearing loss. When the doctor checked it out, he found that the man''s ear canal was blocked by a plug of hardened superglue! Barry comments:Now some of you are scratching your heads and wondering, "how does a person with an IQ higher than pastry get superglue in his ear and not know it?" but you parents out there are no doubt nodding your heads and saying: "It would not surprise me to learn that this man has a three-year-old son."And, of course you''re right. According to the AMA newsletter, the son "squirted the glue into the father''s left ear when the man was sleeping." Fortunately surgeons were able to unclog the man''s ear, but as medical consumers we can prevent this kind of ear-tragedy by remembering to take these safety precautions:1.Never keep three-year-old children around the house.2.If you do, never sleep.1Your children may not be quite so creative as to put superglue in your ear, but I''m sure they create their share of problems. If you have a toddler, you are probably facing meal or bedtime hassles, problems with toilet training, temper tantrums, and whining. If you have preschoolers, they have probably added fighting, talking back, and sibling rivalry to your life. Elementary school children are good at creating messy rooms and homework hassles, and squabbling with their friends. They also forget their chores, crouch outside their sister''s room like a cat outside a mouse hole, and are melodramatically bored on rainy days!Eleven- and twelve-year-olds are approaching adolescence at the speed of light and will soon acquire some dubious friends, clothes, music, grades, or attitudes. And if you have a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old, you are no doubt encountering occasional negativism, hypersensitivity, moodiness, and worries about their friends and the opposite sex.If these problems only popped up say, once or twice a month, most of us could cope just fine. But when they pile on top of each other for sixteen hours a day, or when you are trying to hold down a job and rear children at the same time, they quickly press us to the borders of our parental patience--if not our sanity! As another mother of preschoolers told me, "It''s amazing how two small children with half my intelligence can make me feel so helpless and infuriated."This book shows you how to manage your children so that you avoid or solve most of these hassles. I''m convinced that you don''t need to spend your whole day solving problems, refereeing fights, picking up after your children, and reminding them to put on their coats or to study for tomorrow''s math quiz. You can even teach your children to get along with each other-most of the time!Unfortunately, newborn babies don''t come equipped with an owner''s manual telling us how to solve these problems. So we do what comes naturally: We coax, plead, bribe, nag, threaten, and punish. Or we reach into our memory banks for the techniques our parents used on us. But while those old methods provide temporary relief, it doesn''t last long, and they miss the more important emotional and relational issues behind your children''s exasperating behaviors. This book gives you something like an owner''s manual for children from the toddler sNarramore, S. Bruce is the author of 'Help! I'm a Parent How to Handle Temper Tantrums, Sibling Fights, Questions About Sex, and Other Parenting Challenges' with ISBN 9780310462118 and ISBN 0310462118.