I loved this. I am a firm believer that if a child is getting enough attention from their parents then they will be less likely to be causing problems. Brayden was a high need baby and is now a high need toddler. There is a huge difference in his behavior on the days that I am less engaging with him. Those are the days that Kade gets picked on more, ”tantrums” are thrown, Brayden does the opposit of what I ask, etc, etc. If I am in the middle of mopping the floors and Brayden starts picking on Kade, I stop mopping and start playing with Brayden. He could only need 5 mintues of my time and will go back to playing ’nice’ or by himself. He is just looking to be “filled up”. Once his cup is full he is back to my sweet boy.

I love this. I actually printed it off and have it on our fridge. When Brayden has a “temper tantrum” I find that it only gets worse if I treat/ talk to him poorly while it’s happening. If I stay calm and really listen to him then I find that he can calm down and talk(most times).  I do not like time outs. I feel that it is not teaching the child anything except that they need to go “hide” if they want to show any emotions. Instead we try to do “couch time”, “Brayden’s room time”, etc. I join him and we talk through it. I feel that this teaches him that it is fine and perfectly normal to have feelings/emotions and to share those with others. It shows him that I want him to be comfortable coming to me when he needs to talk about these things. It is about learning to speak about those feelings instead of isolating himself.

http://www.alfiekohn.org/parenting/gj.htm