Head & Heart Parents

Would you like your life as a parent to be complicated? Would you like to live in a constant state of confusion and anxiety? Would you like to feel unsure about how to deal with the problems your children create? Would you like to frequently think to yourself something like, “Oh, no. Now what do [...]

For many years now, my children have unwittingly been actors in a drama… the play could be titled “Kerry’s Fantasies.” These fantasies consist of dreams and stories created by a much younger me in which my children are happy and well adjusted, squeaky clean and smiling. In this dream, there is an act by the [...]

On my kids’ first day of school this year, I first dropped off my high schooler. Gasp. How can I have a kid that old? I always thought being the parent of a high schooler was for grownups! Heck, I remember when I thought that having a child in elementary school was for grownups. As [...]

1.  Speak Your Family’s Love Language Read The Five Love Languages of Children, a quick, interesting book to improve how you express love to your family. Want to know the secret to making sure your child feels loved? Kids desperately need to know how much you love them. But if you don’t know their special [...]

Ten years ago, when my children were young, we began a ritual that the whole family still enjoys today. It all started because I wanted to teach Joshua, then age five, and Joel, then age two, about thankfulness in a way that was more fun and tangible than simply lecturing, “Be thankful.” The idea took [...]

For parents who deal with children being obstinate, defiant and challenging, here are a few thoughts on power struggles: If we deal with resistance by struggling back, not only will we damage our relationship with our kids and set them up to be rebellious, but we will be very frustrated.  It is a child’s JOB [...]

You know that family meals are important, and the research backs up what you know. Adults who have regular meals eat better, are healthier and are slimmer. Children and adolescents who have regular family meals do better nutritionally, socially, emotionally, academically and with respect to resistance to excess weight gain, drug abuse and early sexual [...]

How often do you hear this? And how often are your kids happy with the suggestions you make? Typical parents say, “I hear it often, and the kids are never excited with my suggestions.” I know a man who says that he once made the mistake of telling his parents that he was bored. For [...]

Question from a Mom: “My husband and I are disagreeing about the best way to get our three 3 year old to  stay in bed. I wonder if you can point me in the right direction to find information from Love and Logic on bedtime struggles with young children.”  Answer: Use the Love and Logic skill of [...]

How can you use the Love and Logic skill of enforceable statements to get kids to cooperate? When kids hear “No,” they hear fighting words. Their defenses come up and the battle starts. So instead of saying “No,” say “Yes” to something else. Say what you’ll do, what you’ll allow, or what you have control over. [...]