by Sara Bean, M.Ed., Parental Support Line Advisor

What causes bad child behavior? James Lehman says it happens because children don’t yet know how to solve problems effectively. To put it another way, they’re trying to handle many of the situations that life throws at them by acting out. They do this, frankly, because it’s working for them. But here’s the truth: If you don’t find out what problem your child is trying to solve with his Read more »

by Debbie Pincus, MS LMHC

It’s a truth we don’t often admit, even to ourselves: we don’t always like our kids. I can hear the guilt in parents’ voices when they say, “Sometimes I really don’t like my child. He’s a pain, he argues with me all the time and he’s just not fun to be around.” Or maybe your child just isn’t the person you thought he would be: perhaps he’s not Read more »

by Carole Banks, MSW, Parental Support Line Advisor

Mikayla, age 13, has just been told she can’t go to her friend’s house. “You need to clean your room first,” says her mom, “You promised to do that, remember?”

Mikayla gets in her mother’s face and screams, “You’re the meanest mom in the world! I hate you!” She turns and runs into her bedroom, slamming the door.

“That’s it! You’re grounded, young lady,” her mom shouts back. She’s left feeling exhausted and defeated, and unsure if she’s done the right thing. Read more »

by James Lehman, MSW

Getting kids to do chores is one of the most common arguments families have. Who can’t relate to this picture? You’re yelling, “Why haven’t you cleaned your room yet?” while your child is on the couch watching TV, shouting back, “I’ll do it later!” The reason kids don’t like doing chores is the same reason adults don’t like doing chores: household tasks are generally boring. Read more »

Kids are kids because they are not grown up. It takes time for their physical and mental to mature. While they are growing, children will display the most unacceptable behavior such as biting, hitting or screaming. How do you think you can get help with such behavior? Read more »

by Debbie Pincus, MS LMHC, Member of
The Total Transformation Advisory Board

Why are temper tantrums so difficult for parents to handle? Besides the fact that they’re loud, annoying and embarrassing, we often feel it’s our job requirement to make our kids act the way we feel they should behave. If we can’t do that, we feel ineffective. We also don’t like the judgments that we imagine others are making of us when our kids are out of control. We don’t know what to do, but feel we must do something—after all, we are the parents. Read more »

by Carole Banks, MSW, Parental Support Line Advisor

As parents, we all make mistakes. On the Parental Support Line, I often encourage parents to give themselves a break—after all, it’s impossible for any of us to be perfect. Our kids test us at every age and stage; it’s part of their job as children to push boundaries with us and see where the line is drawn. As they get older, it can often feel like we are running through a parenting obstacle course: just when we’ve figured out one stage—and its many challenges—our kids move on to the next one. So you might feel pretty confident in your role as a parent when your child is nine, but then everything changes again when he moves on to the tween years and starts acting out in new, unimagined ways. Read more »

by James Lehman, MSW

I think a lot of parents feel it’s important to explain their reasoning to their children in an attempt to get them to understand. Realize that along the way, wanting your child to understand can easily shift into wanting their approval, or their acceptance of your reasons. When this happens, parents can get stuck in a dynamic where they’re over-explaining thin gs to their children. I personally think that once you’ve given your child a reasonable amount of input, any further explanation defeats the purpose. Read more »

Nothing will work if you don’t put the parenting skills you learned into practice. So, stop being a theorist and get practical to deal with disrespectful behavior. Here are some brief tips: Read more »

If you have a disrespectful kid at home, your patience are put to a test. Disrespectful kid shows behavior problems such as raising his voice, refuses to answer despite hearing you, shows persistent anger on you, walks away during confrontation or shows disrespectful gestures.

If we look into age group, different kid may show behave differently although you should tackle them similarly. Read more »

Kid who refused to listen

Is your kid’s behavioral problem escalating? Is he oppositional defiant, obnoxious, abusive, lying, disrespectful, back talking or misbehaving? Do you believe parents need to equip themselves with the right parenting skills to manage difficult kids?Should you answer yes to all three questions, then help is on the way. Some parents believe that their own kids difficult behavior are the cause of their own actions or negligence. As a result of poor parenting, kids behavior turns out of control and that’s where the root of problem is. Parents who had faith in themselves believe that they Read more »