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How To Deal With Temper Tantrums

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2 Year Olds Kids Behavior Development and Related Issues

Posted by Sarah on January 24th, 2012

2 Year Olds Kids Behavior Development and Related Issues

Core Competencies and Kids Behavior

When your child begins touching two, they will further develop their sensory motor skill where objects around the house become the 2 year olds interest and kids behavior will be more prevalent in physical activity. Although this is a stage when the 2 year olds frequently test the boundaries, your kids behavior will be more controllable if some routines and consistencies are set for them.

Pushing and Pulling

2 Year Olds Kids Behavior Pushing Carts

Now that they have better physical balance on hands and feet, our 2 year olds will take on new and more exciting activities of maneuvering objects around them to establish concept of movements. Your child may be engrossed in pulling and pushing just about anything moveable by them. While the commotion and mess from this kids behavior may be unbearable at times, understand that he is just trying to experiment with their motor skills.

Running and Climbing

Throughout the day, the energetic 2 year olds just don’t seem to tired out with that constant running around and climbing up on high places. Although this type of kids behavior is common and a way to reinforce their physical aptitude, you should child-proof your home to prevent them from getting hurt.

Rough Handling

As our 2 year olds discover the marvels of object permanence, you will see them enjoy the hide-and-go-seek game by searching for an item over and over at the same place. Plus, they tend to take pleasure in dropping things (such as spoons and bowls) repeatedly as we pick up after them. Filling a container and spilling out thereafter is also common. Hence, if you wish to keep the mess and destructions of these kids behavior minimal, provide them with a proper play area and sturdy plastic wares during meal time.

Strong-Willed and Volatile Temperament

During this stage, resistance are quite obvious in kids behavior because their rapid improvement in hand-eye coordination gives urge to the 2 year olds to claim independence in performing daily tasks – eating, putting on shoes, opening and closing bottles, everything that was previously assisted.

However, many a times the struggle and frustration in the kids behavior put parents in mixed feelings of joy and annoyance as 2 year olds are prone to throw tantrum due to impatience and disappointment when encountering learning curves along the way. Hence, being available to guide them in times of difficulty will create less negative impact on their self-esteem and future kids behavior.

Semi-Isolation At Playtime

The concept of sharing and grouping is also something unknown to 2 year olds. While they require some level of companionship during playtime, the notion of sharing and turn-taking will be a difficult grasp in the kids behavior for their level of understanding. If there are older siblings around, the 2 year olds can imitate good kids behavior of sharing from them. Alternatively, parents can play the same role to convey the message through exemplary actions.

Defiant Kids Behavior

With the many changes taking place physically and emotionally, it is typical for 2 year olds to exhibit rebellious kids behavior such as showing disobedience by testing the limits of ground rules and doing things contradictory to parents demands. The good news is the 2 year olds are little creatures who crave for attention and praises to affirm their self confidence as well.

So, the best way to put a halt on undesirable kids behavior is by getting involved in guiding them to do right things and praise them along the way and if refusals turn into tantrums, remove your attention for a while to show your disagreement of the kids behavior before returning later to straighten things out while telling them in a firm tone that you prefer them to show you what they want rather than crying for their demand. Although this may not keep the kids behavior from returning, our repeated pattern of corrective handling will slowly plant the appropriate idea in our 2 year olds attitude.

Wrapping Up

As 2 year olds are barely out of babyhood stage, the future kids behavior patterns of your child largely reflect on how we manage our behavior in handling their situations now. Aggressive responses will imprint impatience and belligerence in kids behavior while maintaining calm and collected attitude to reason things out (even if 2 year olds don’t yet fully understand) will eventually teach them negotiation can also solve problems.

Kids Behavior Development Stages For Other Age Groups

1 Year Olds

3 Year Olds

1 Year Olds Kids Behavior Development and Related Issues

Posted by Sarah on January 24th, 2012

1 Year Olds Kids Behavior Development and Related Issues

Core Competencies and Kids Behavior

Babies at this age develop their first set of kids behavior around socio-emotional capacity. As parents and caregivers play their only major roles in their life, emotional attachment is extremely high where they learn about the value of love and trust in human relationship from the type of attention and response being given to them. The more responsive and patient you are to 1 year olds, the more trust and confidence will be developed in the kids personality foundation for social interactions.

Cries and Tantrums

Cries and tantrums will be normal scenes throughout the days in early life as their only way to communicate hunger, stress, tiredness and boredom is through these cues, and they are not kids behavior problems by any means. Although you may adjust routines (eg. meal time and amount) to space out demands frequency, forceful intervention to set a rigid schedule will be counter-effective and add stress to both you and your baby.

Mess and Destructions

Approaching their first birthday, your baby will start showing interest in exploring the surroundings with their hands and feet. Your baby might twist and turn whatever object that lands in their hand and the last thing you want to let loose is your temper as this will cripple their motivation and self-confidence for motor skill explorations. Instead, be supportive and encourage their inquisitiveness by placing them in a proper kids playing area and keep away things that you wish to protect.

Domineering and Selfish

As their curiosity inflates, your baby might even take objects of interest away from others as their own which led to some parents interpreting this as rudeness and a form of kids behavior issue. In actuality, it is common for 1 year olds to conceptualize the world as revolving around them and hence, the best a parent can do is to detach them from current situation through distraction.

Playing Protest

As babies are getting smarter earlier these days, our 1 year olds will discover their option to turn down things or crying to win their way in opposition. If you are upset over the little kids behavior of turning away from your feeds or refuse to sleep, distract them with other activities before returning to test their acceptance. Try reshuffling the routine or the type of food given for a few days to ‘reset’ their memory.

Wrapping Up

Overall, there are not much major kids behavior issues among 1 year olds as baby needs are pretty predictive and their biggest necessity is your comfort, reassurance and tons of patience.

Kids Behavior Development Stages For Other Age Groups

Kids Behavior Developmental Milestones

Posted by Sarah on January 24th, 2012

Kids Behavior Developmental Milestones

Ever since day one, our child never fails to take us by surprise with their non-exhaustive kids behavior. Everyday seems to be packed with their brand new actions and reactions. No matter how much prior knowledge we gained from previous parenting experience, every new addition to the family brings forth a different library of kids behavior. So how do we tell if their “mischief” is simply developmental-related or ill-disciplined kids behavior that is looming to spell trouble?

If you are constantly blurred by the gray area in justifying your kids conduct, taking a little effort to understand kids development by stages can reduce the deviation of your expectation towards your kids behavior. As every parents would claim, their child are always the more stubborn, more difficult to handle or more mischievous than others. However, if we get the right tools to break down situations to key areas, working out kids behavior problems will be more manageable despite the stages your kids are in. Or better still, guiding the kids behavior from the first few years of life will help shape a more positive outlook in your kids personality.

Kids Behavior Guidance

A very good and easy to follow child behavior guide is one from CSUC Child Development summarized as follows:

Active Listening – Understand the children’s problems without prejudging the situation.
Behavior Modelling – Act as you wish to be acted upon by encouraging desirable kids behavior through examples.
Physical Environment – Promote positive and safe kids behavior by placing correct tools, removing dangerous objects and placing signs to direct children to do the right things rather than constantly correcting them verbally.
Consequences – Help children in seeing the logic of cause-and-effects by arranging some exemplary settings.
Problem Solving – Guide the children in correct ways to solve problems when they are facing frustrations so that your kids will learn the concept of solutions development to overcome difficulties.

Video – 5 Tools in Guiding Kids Behavior

According to the Stages of Growth Child Development – Early Childhood (Birth to Eight Years), Middle Childhood (Eight to Twelve Years) compiled from various psychological research studies, the primary years of a child can be divided into 3 main stages – Newborn, Early Childhood and Middle Childhood. As children undergo rapid physical and emotional developments, kids behavior can also fluctuate in intensity and pattern.

Check out some of the prominent kids behavior patterns associated with each milestone in your kids early stages of life.


1 Year Olds	2 Year Olds	3 Year Olds	4 to 5 Year Olds

6 to 8 Year Olds	9 to 10 Year Olds	11 to 12 Year Olds

Understanding Kids Behavior – What Every Parent Needs To Know

Understanding Kids Behavior – What Every Parent Needs To Know

Posted by Sarah on January 24th, 2012

Understanding Kids Behavior – What Every Parent Needs To Know

Every parent, at one stage or another are bound to deal with kids behavior issues. Like it or not, our babies won’t stay as babies forever and just as we get the hang of the kids behavior at a stage, they are on the way transiting to another; the parents’ lessons seemed endless. However, if we take the initiative to decipher every odds and end of our kids behavior in the early stages of life, perhaps we will be able to turn the chasing game around and stay ahead of the subject matter.

Why We Need To Comprehend Our Kids Behavior

As explained in Erik Erikson Developmental Stages in Psychosocial Development Theory, the first phase of personality development that is subsequently demonstrated through kids behavior and carried on to adolescence, is established during their initial years of life. Many parents think that occupying toddlers with mealtime, playtime and naptime is all that is required to keep their life in order, not realizing the importance of the daily actions and interactions input, or the lack of it may affect the shaping of kids behavior structure.

Understanding Kids Behavior To Deal Better With Situations, Not Just Responding To It

Do you find yourself responding to kids behavior 99% of the time? While typical parents often take the problem-solving approach in handling kids behavior issues, having a better grasp of the underlying factors and traits that shape and trigger those behaviors will enable us to have the upper hands in containing and dealing with undesirable kids behavior.

Understanding Kids Behavior To Improve Our Role As Parents

Understand that the context of comprehending kids behavior is not entirely an isolated case study that place parents looking in at the kids as the subject matter from outside the box. Rather, it should be an objective that gives the opportunity for us to reflect on what type of role model we are displaying to our children as kids behavior are bred from the perspective of interpersonal relationships and cultural values gained primarily from the parents and caregivers.

Understanding Kids Behavior To Define Child Personality

By taking the initiative to study your kids behavior, you get a better insight of your kids personality and get to mould them into a healthier and functional individuals that perpetuates to later stage of life.

Impacts of Kids Behavior Problems

Very often, public and parent associate the impact of kids behavior problems to exterior effects. While kids behavior problems bring a host of external inconveniences or damages most of the time, lack of the correct parental or guardian intervention may lead to proliferation of more severe problems which can be many folds more detrimental internally than externally.

Kids Behavior Problems Can Be Self-Damaging

Kids may be seen as being naughty for acting out when desires are not fulfilled but the uncontained kids behavior such as this may have rippling effect to more terrifying consequences where silent build-up of aggressiveness and egocentricity may impact their future social adjustments and cripple social interactions adaptability.

As summarized from G.W. Ladd and W. Troop-Gordon in The Role of Chronic Peer Difficulties in the Development of Children’s Psychological Adjustment Problems, the study underlined kids behavior impact by explaining that “Aggressive and anxious/fearful behaviors place children at greater jeopardy for friendlessness as well as for being rejected or bullied by their peers” and consequently “children who had experienced a history of chronic peer relationship problems would continue to show adjustment difficulties as a result of constructing maladaptive self-perceptions and peer beliefs.”

Are Kids Behavior Born or Developed?

While babies owe their basic temperament to genetic make ups, the magnitude and personality predisposition of kids behavior are largely shaped by the environment and society. Your child may be easily agitated when you flag times-up card for playtime but snatching the toys from her hands or detaching her through distraction technique can lead her to develop completely different personality later in life. Hence, parenting practices display a major role in shaping and structuring kids personality that eventually reflect in kids behavior.

How To Go About Deciphering Kids Behavior

More often than not, we can swiftly describe our kids behavior in just two to three words – “He’s hyperactive”, “She’s drama queen” but what do we understand beyond these expressions? If you want to put a stop to potential disruptive kids behavior, you need to first accept and analyze your child personality.

Telling the difference between kids behavior developmental milestone-related and real kids behavior issues
Categorizing your child into a specific personality group
Delving into kids behavior related to that trait
Identify the factors and stressors that aggravate or mollify the situation
Get some quick guides and tips handy to save you from tricky situations

While we as parents feel distressed over negative kids behavior that frequently seemed to slip out of hand, our kids are equally stressed as they have even lesser capability to comprehend and handle abstract subject such as their own personality and why they act as they did.

The best that a parent can do is connecting to them in order to provide correct response to their kids behavior to bend their personality root in the right direction.

Kids Behavior Developmental Milestones

ModernFamily Life.net Has Joined Technorati!

Posted by Sarah on January 5th, 2012

Modern Family Life has finally joined the big family of Technorati to share tips and
guides with the web community. Hope you enjoy it.

NR4U3WHP4WDX

New Year Resolutions Around The World – Balancing 7 Aspects of Wellness in Life (Part 2)

Posted by Sarah on January 3rd, 2012

New Year Resolutions - 7 Aspects of Wellness

New Year Resolutions Around The World – Balancing 7 Aspects of Wellness in Life (Part 2)

INTELLECTUAL ASPECTS OF WELLNESS

New Year Resolutions #5 : Learn Something New

If you feel there exist a little flame in you that is constantly kicking to explore different things in life, you have probably tuned to the intellectual channel of your body. If you think including this in your New Year resolutions is an extra fulfillment out of curiosity, you may have overlooked the importance of continuous learning to better understand the world as well as yourself as an individual.

Adding value to one’s intellect by expanding knowledge base and skills is one of the most effective ways to nourish self-fulfillment and promote intellectual wellness. If you have been feeling stagnant at your stage for some time and longed for transformation via your New Year resolutions, you should start to nurture your intellect by engaging in new field of study or taking up new skills to brush up your creativity and resourcefulness.

If you have no idea on how to embark on this journey:

Start with something that has been hanging low in your mind and pick that as your first food of thought to Google and YouTube about to get an overview of the subject.
Join the related community online and offline to get an insight about what people are inspired to achieve on that subject to streamline your course of learning.
Find additional resources to further your exploration and try applying the knowledge into your daily life and see how it propels you to a new position where you will see things in a different perspective.
Imparting your knowledge to others who are interested will also encourage you to further develop the newly found skill to improve your intellectual wellness.

To learn more on how to be an effective learner, read up on the related information at About.com.

New Year Resolutions #6 : Time Management

Who doesn’t dream of having extra hours in a day? I bet most of us have a thing in common about New Year resolutions, where we want to get the most out of a day to fulfill all aspects of life. Time management, to many is about bargaining for more hours to accomplish something being set. But this is exactly why human has always remain at the back of the time-chasing game.

In actuality, it is the way we define the size of our assignments that hinder our success most of the time. If you feel that squeezing the tasks of painting the house and clearing the clutters within the same day freaks you out, then just paint the house and drop the cleaning for next day! Pushing yourself to accomplish both is either going to stress you out or deliver sub-standard works which yields no benefit to any area. The key to answer is: Prioritize and Simplify. Some of the important concepts of time management are:

Attempting too many things in the shortest time possible is the real buster of effective time management.
Know that you are not obligated to fulfill everybody’s demands. Identify and focus only on the tasks that are most important in your life and to people around you.
Don’t keep everything to yourself, delegate some tasks to other people or machines whenever possible.
Always find the shortest, easiest BUT viable ways to accomplish a task.
Identify and postpone or forego agendas that leave no significant impact to your productivity.

A comprehensive guide to time management to help you kick-start your New Year resolutions is available at Time-Management-Central.

New Year Resolutions #7 : Cut Down on Spending

If you are like those who are constantly trapped in the vicious cycle of compulsive buying and the post purchase guilt, maybe a few degrees lower than that, you should consider having this issue highlighted in your New Year resolutions. Financial management is just as essential as time management and making sure you understand the consequences of unplanned spending will set your foot firmer on the ground.

Although more and more people are buying the concept of earning more rather than spending less, it gives us a bottomless threshold to monitor spending if not done wisely. If you are looking for a less aggressive ways to tame down your spending habits, try some of the following suggestions:

Set a budget – Rather than setting tight funds for your expenses, allocate some threshold to the amount and keep the money in a dedicated account.
Assess your buying necessity – Whenever you feel that you really need to buy that particular item, try ignoring the urge and return home to gauge what impact it has on your daily life. If you managed to repeat this at least 3 times without giving in, chances are, you can forego that from your list.
Freeze the monthly savings – Never attempt to utilize your monthly balance, not even for financial rotations. If you lay your hands on it even once, it probably will never make a return to your account.
Pay with cash – While it is convenient to make purchases with Credit Cards, paying with cash will give you the real sense of your financial situation. Instead of giving away your signatures for the goods, paying with real money will make you more aware of how much you have rather than how much your drawing limits is available in your card.

For other creative ways to realize this aspect of your New Year resolutions, try out the options from the US News & World Report.

SOCIAL ASPECTS OF WELLNESS

New Year Resolutions #8 : Enjoy Life To The Fullest

As the famous saying goes “We only live once, and we should live it to the fullest.” But behind our pursue in life fulfillment as a whole, how many of us realize that the value we determined on social aspects of wellness directly influence our strive in search of happiness?

When it comes to making New Year resolutions that speaks of enjoying life to the fullest, just what exactly encompass the broad context of life? Although many people are constantly searching for tips to life happiness, the state of enjoyment won’t last long with the absence of understanding about life concepts. It is normal to have ups and downs in life, but what makes a person feeling happier than the other is how he/she view the things and events in life and the attitude being adopted to handle negativity that gets in the way.

What are the areas that determine life satisfactions and not meeting them will put you in great regrets?
What gives you the sense of security and reminds you of your of self-worth?
What is your perspective of value in the relationship with self, other beings and nature? What are the causes that bond and conflict each other?

By being honest in the quest for the meanings of YOUR life, you will see things at a better angle that complement your personality. Read more on intellectual wellness to open new doors to your New Year resolutions .

ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS OF WELLNESS

New Year Resolutions #9 : Getting organized

We may have vowed to clean the mess and get organized every year but these dreaded tasks always get the least attention in our New Year resolutions because many of us failed to relate it to the environmental aspects of wellness. Just like spiritual wellness, environmental wellness emphasizes on tuning our lives to the rhythm of Earth and Nature. If you understand the simple concept of “What goes around comes around”, you would come to relate on the importance of putting things in order to de-clutter the many problems in life.

At a glance, getting your home or workplace organized may seem something private to you but the degree of importance you give to your life’s order speaks a lot about how much you respect the environment. You don’t have to envision being an environmentalist for your New Year resolutions though. Merely sorting out your clutter can considerably change the course by:

Knowing what you have and don’t have can avoid making unnecessary purchases.
Freeing up spaces by giving up things you don’t need can reduce dusts traps and germs/bacterial infestations which can create green house effects .

By taking consistent little steps, you will be well on your way to proudly proclaim your environmental contributions to Earth’s preservation and sustainability besides putting the check mark on your New Year resolutions list.

OCCUPATIONAL ASPECTS OF WELLNESS

New Year Resolutions #10 : Career Satisfaction

To some, career means the whole world to them while to others; it is seen as just a financial generator to fend for the family expenses. Whichever concept you are holding on to, you probably are striving hard in seeking the “paradise” in a workplace manifested with political and social battles.

If you feel demotivated recently by the sluggish progress at work or resented your job for adding pressure to your already messed up family life, then you have probably included this in your New Year resolutions too. However, reaching for career satisfaction is not remedied by treating issues in isolation. The key to occupational wellness is through understanding of how you view the role of work in your life and its relation to monetary and recognition rewards.

Do you see work as the ENITRE or PART of your life?
Is career a disposable asset compared to family and personal relationships to you?
How much satisfaction or self-worth do you receive from your career advancement?
How does succeeding in your current job reflect in your personal life quality?
Does the workload and schedule arrangements compromise your life quality and to what extent?

By addressing your underlying concerns pertinent to occupational wellness, you will better streamline your New Year resolutions in respect of career satisfaction.

You can further your reading on occupational wellness with Vadim Motorine here.

So you might have probably found the direction to realize your New Year resolutions, but how long do you see committing to these challenges? Try reinforcing it with 7 Sure Ways To Accomplish Your New Year Resolutions and return to this page to see how far you have changed 12 months from now. Good Luck!

Return to Part 1 of New Year Resolutions Around The World to Balance 7 Aspects of Wellness in Life.

New Year Resolutions Around The World – Balancing 7 Aspects of Wellness in Life (Part 1)

Posted by Sarah on January 3rd, 2012

New Year Resolutions Around The World – Balancing 7 Aspects of Wellness in Life (Part 1)

With the year 2011 closing its chapters behind us, we are once again redefining our strategies by making constructive New Year resolutions to face the challenges for another 52 weeks down the road. Behind each New Year resolutions being made, do you realize in a bigger picture that it spans around the 7 aspects of wellness in life?

In fact, if we are able to relate our true desire behind each New Year resolutions to the 7 aspects of wellness, achieving the milestones will be more meaningful and will drive you closer to that goal as we are seeing a collective personal perfection rather than independent call-to-actions. So, let’s take a look at some of the most desirable milestones being enlisted in the New Year resolutions 2012 around the world and some tips to help kick starting them.

Contents at A Glance:

Part 1:

Physical Aspects of Wellness

Emotional Aspects of Wellness

Spiritual Aspects of Wellness

Part 2:

Intellectual Aspects of Wellness

Social Aspects of Wellness

Environmental Aspects of Wellness

Occupational Aspects of Wellness

PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF WELLNESS

New Year Resolutions #1 : Lose Weight

Losing Weight has never failed to make it to the New Year resolutions list annually. But yet, it is always the hardest to be achieved. By understanding that physical wellness promotes optimum body functions in the long run, you will better value the importance of losing weight as an initiative to keep dire illnesses at bay while getting your shape back. You may rain check the New Year resolutions year after year but diseases will not be so merciful to wait for its attack.

However, maintaining physical aspects of wellness does not necessarily mean starvation or vigorous workouts. Instead, you should:

Eat More, Not Less – In a piece of advice by dietitian Johnilee Slark of Marshfield and Wisconsin Rapids Centers, eating more berries, peas and high-fiber food brings your weight down more effectively than eating smaller portions of high-fat and -calories food. Read more on this at Wisconsin Rapids Tribune.
Take Your Exercises Out of The Slimming Studio – If you realize that you skip lessons after lessons at the gym, you should consider blending weight loss program in your daily routine. Simple activities such as gardening and doing your favourite dance can also help you in shedding your excess pounds. Most importantly, NEVER sit or head to bed right after meals. Read more on this at Wellness Watchers MD.

New Year Resolutions #2 : Quit Smoking and Drinking

For those of you who finally include this in your New Year resolutions, congratulations! As power of intention is the first step to kicking the habits, consider tapering rather than abrupt quit because if your faith loosens grip, it tends to chain you to the addictions twice the fold. Some of the agendas to get you prepare down the road to physical wellness is:

Setting a date to look forward to your “freedom” date
Identifying the habit stressors and triggers and keep the checklist with you
Changing your environment by discarding all materials that may relate or entice you to return to the habits
Seeking your most comfortable medication approaches to help you alleviate \pain and pressure during the quitting challenge

We found some useful resources which may help you jumpstart your New Year resolutions to get rid of smoking and quit drinking to regain your physical wellness.

EMOTIONAL ASPECTS OF WELLNESS

New Year Resolutions #3 : Spend More Time with Family

As a woman of modern family, multitasking between the roles of a mom and employee is extremely challenging and when being caught in the quandary between attending to an urgent work demand and family, our job tends to take the upper-hand. More often than not, the resultant feeling of inadequacy and inefficiency leave emotional scars which silently sow the seeds of depression and guilt.

If you feel that this is one inevitable wish in your New Year resolutions this year, gather up and tell yourself in the mirror: “You are just a human!“. Only when you stop trying to be a perfectionist, will you start enjoying the things you have around you. Hence, the first step to reconnect with your family is by mindset-reprogramming. This will not only benefit your state of mental health but it resonates to your family as well. To help you in overcoming negativity, read more on Overcoming Working Mom Guilt and Anxiety.

Perhaps, you can steal some ideas below to achieve this are of your New Year resolutions:

Utilize what you already have – Instead of striving to spend more time with your family, put some thoughts on how you can spend quality time with them. There are a handful of tips on child-bonding available in 7 Great Child Bonding Tips For Working Mom.
Fall in Love with your spouse again – It may be something you resist or never thought of doing but there is nothing more emotionally-fulfilling than dating each other to revive the passion of courtship. Take the candlelight dinner or date him over lunch if you cannot leave the kids behind. You will be surprised at how much youboth can reminisce about the past and have a good hearty laugh over what had changed during these years.

SPIRITUAL ASPECTS OF WELLNESS

New Year Resolutions #4 : To Attain Spiritual Enlightenment

Day in day out we see millions of people pursuing spiritual wholeness by reaching to inner self where many are working hard to attain spiritual perfection through community prayers. Brought on by the wave of 2012 that claim the coming of the New Age characterised by spritial enlightement, many people are putting this on their list of New Year resolutions, wishing to pursue the enlightened path.

However, the reason why most of us failed to connect is because we lack the understanding of the primary key to spiritual enlightenment – that is unconditional love. As Professor Mario Beauregard of Montreal University’s Centre for Research in Neurophysiology and Cognition said “Unconditional love, extended to others without exception, is considered to be one of the highest expressions of spirituality.”

In an interesting explanation brought about by Psychiatrist M Scott Peck, the human Spiritual growth is developed through four stages:

Stage 1: Chaotic and disordered – People, especially young children who are usually self-centered do not understand and defy the greater power. Hence, they are not able to experience the power that love embraces.
Stage 2: Blind Faith – People who are willing to surrender and obey a subject of authority such as followers to God and children to parents without questioning their existence.
Stage 3: Scientific Skepticism – People who strive to back beliefs and faith in things explainable by logic and reasoning.
Stage 4: Embrace Nature – People who have holistic views about the great power of Nature out of genuine belief and are able to embrace the world and its subject without seeing them through a colored lens when it comes to giving out their hands to people in need.

Further reading can be accessed at UnconditionalLove.org. If you are also interested to develop your spirituality to promote well-rounded New Year resolutions, you may consider going for Yoga to tune and reconnect with your inner voice too.

Continue to Part 2 of New Year Resolutions Around The World to Balance 7 Aspects of Wellness in Life.

7 Sure Ways To Accomplish Your New Year Resolutions

Posted by Sarah on December 31st, 2011

Get Your New Year Resolutions Accomplished - Embracing 2012

7 Sure Ways To Accomplish Your New Year Resolutions

Before we even get over the Christmas fever, here we are, finding ourselves bombarding our notebook with fascinating goals BUT ever wonder if you will really accomplish your New Year resolutions for 2012?

Year in year out, we open our eyes to the first day on a new year, determined to put the check mark on our resolutions only to see our initiatives going on a steady depreciation and greet another Christmas with zero balance of net-book value. Sounds like you? Well, it does for me…

On the comforting side, consumer survey revealed that with a quarter of Americans break their goals within the first month and about 50% dropped out by the 6^th month, it is not surprising if you don’t accomplish your New Year resolutions after all. But being a mom of modern family, we should not be brought down by something this simple.

Hence, this year, let’s get us gather the power of sporting moms to get over the pathetic disappointment and see yourself accomplish your New Year resolutions gracefully. Stay on a little while, have faith, and you will soon get your mission in-sync with your family commitments.

1. LOVE YOURSELF

Never Feel Guilty to Accomplish Your New Year Resolutions

Yes, moms are moms after all. Throughout the year, you drown yourself in work and struggle with family commitments. All you wish is to see your kids grow up and succeed in life and that kind of “driving force” is what you should ignite in yourself to maintain your vitality to play this role. Don’t confuse career and resolutions. Work achievement underscore your intellectual quality BUT personal pursue add colors to your personality.

So, don’t hesitate to follow your real interests next year and be determined to accomplish your New Year resolutions. Modern moms like you should know better that being too engrossed in family members may not necessarily earn you due credits but honoring and following the call of your heart will gain you more respect because people will love you if you love yourself. IT’S TRUE.

2. PARDON YOURSELF

It Is Understandable If You Slack When Trying to Accomplish Your New Year Resolutions

Don’t be too harsh on yourself. While setting deadline to accomplish your New Year resolutions can get you closer to success, an ideal milestone is hard to come by for moms who need to juggle family and work demands, what more slotting in personal pursue.

As the famous saying goes, “Pursuing goals isn’t about willpower; it’s about the power of your intention.” Hence, setting achievable goals are very important. The next time you fall behind schedule; don’t tap the brake just yet. Try reserving the “extra” time that you managed to squeeze out after completing your agendas to compensate lost time meant for accomplish your New Year resolutions rather than making last minute plan to occupy the bonus hours.

3. KNOW YOURSELF

Be Realistic and Relate Your Personal Interest to Accomplish Your New Year Resolutions

The timeless rule of breaking major goals into smaller chunks always works wonder. Nobody knows your schedule better than yourself. No matter how long it takes to accomplish your New Year resolutions, setting smaller milestones and allocating realistic timeframe will give you breathing space to better control over multitasking and doesn’t burn your enthusiasm.

The viability of a resolution also relates to your underlying call-to-action. If you try to accomplish your New Year resolutions merely to fulfill other’s expectation towards you or to sync with your social circle rather than seeing the meaning and value from your personal interest perspective, you will less likely to gain the momentum to accomplish your New Year resolutions.

But you might be asking: “What if my resolution is to clear up the store clutter and it is way out of my desire?”

Simple: Think of how you can utilize that corner to show-off your organizing skills and decoration creativity by overtaking that space as your home work-station or storage.

4. DEFINE YOURSELF

Be Specific With Your Goals To Accomplish Your New Year Resolutions

If you aim to accomplish your New Year resolutions without fail, make sure that you outline very specific descriptions of the results you want to achieve. Setting too broad a resolution will make you end up losing your aspiration. Instead, envisage the particular feeling, physical changes or material achievement that your resolutions can bring you,

A broad resolution such as “Learning Tango” can be streamlined to “Master that Slip Pivot and Oversway to dance to La Gitara Romana”. This way, you can visualize yourself doing the move that you exactly need to master rather than just attending the weekly lessons alone.

Prepare a manual or online journal with your milestone clearly described and pen down your progress and comments as you advance from one point to another. Paste photos to make results more tangible and motivates you to reach the peak.

5. BIND YOURSELF

Let Your Friends Witness and Judge How You Progress to Accomplish Your New Year Resolutions

Although they may not be obligated to ensure your determinations to prevail, telling your social network know about what and how you want to accomplish your New Year resolutions will make your resolutions more tangible than communicating with your inner voice only. Tell your friends in Facebook and Twitter. Make your resolutions video on YouTube.

To increase effectiveness, join in forums carrying the niche of your resolutions and you will be surprised on how supportive these people are in motivating each other and impart constructive knowledge to help you march closer to your goals.

6. “FLEXIBLY” DISCIPLINE YOURSELF

If You Don’t Have Time Now, You Won’t Have It Next Year To Accomplish Your New Year Resolutions

If you program a strong and solid intention to accomplish your New Year resolutions, you will give yourself no reason to postpone and step over the schedule to fulfill other everyday commitments.

Your strategy of planning should give you a satisfying journey to enjoy the achievement process. On contrary, setting a tight schedule will repel your urge and render your plan to accomplish your New Year resolutions as another painful life obligation. This is why many people give up halfway through because they are too accustomed to the daily rigid timetable and LOSE FLEXIBLITY in management of personal goals.

If tying independent goal to time block is difficult, break your milestone into baby-steps and let the activities overlap. This way, you can recap from your previous stop and warm up to the next when ready.

7. REWARD YOURSELF

Make Every Progress Meaningful To Motivate You To Accomplish Your New Year Resolutions

Remember how your kids are further motivated to do better when you reward them for the every little progress they made in school or co-curriculum activities? Some people might think this “incentives” produce spoiled brats but in reality, reward system accentuate your self-esteem and drive you to accomplish your New Year resolutions effectively.

Rewards don’t need to come in pricey tags. Not all of us come from family of riches after all. Simply buying yourself a mini bucket of ice-cream after hitting the 10-pound shed-offs will balance out your desire and motivation. Or buying that sexy Tango Dress to celebrate your major improvement in dancing skill will infuse the skill in your blood permanently. You will just want to keep on perfecting what you do to accomplish your New Year resolutions.

Video – Some Advice From 2011 That Can Be Recycled For 2012 to Accomplish Your New Year Resolutions

Conclusion

Remember that the key to accomplish your New Year resolutions are actually obvious and right in from of your eyes.

Find something you are DYING to master or find a way to BENEFIT personally from it if that tasks is inevitable
Setup an appealing reward system

So, GOOD LUCK, and watch the real you be motivated to accomplish your New Year resolutions in 2012.

How To Overcome Working Mom Guilt and Anxiety

Posted by Sarah on December 19th, 2011

6 Ways To Overcome Working Mom Guilt and Anxiety

Have you been constantly battling over the guilt and anxiety between your urge of defending your status as a working mom and your motherly instinct to pull out from your job to stay home for maximizing child bonding? You are certainly not alone. A survey on more than 3,700 women by The Working Mother Research Institute pointed out in their recent report “What Moms Choose” , the top two factors that put working mom’s guilt at the highest intensity:

71% being home-oriented women forcing themselves to be a working mom for the sake of paychecks, leading to constant over-worrying about children’s condition
55% being career-oriented women forcing themselves to strip the working mom title and stay home to avoid the guilt for being away from children, leading to self-conflict and depression

No matter in which category you belong to, your guilt revolves around your sense of inadequacy to contribute to your home and family in one way or another.

What Causes Working Mom Guilt?

As a working mom, you are probably worried about slacking in home maintenance and improvement performance, decreased effectiveness in child bonding, security issues of non-parental care and the most impactful of all, facing the denunciation from the stereotype society and being stigmatized as selfish, irresponsible and materialistic. So if your swaying faith has been bothering you in justifying your decision to stay on as a working mom, perhaps the following initiatives can help address your primary concerns to decipher your guilt and anxiety.

Working Mom Guilt Buster 1: Every Family Is Different

Although your friends or neighbors may stress on their pride of bare-handedly raising up healthy and happy kids, it does not necessarily means working mom cannot provide the same growing platform. You should instead focus on the needs and priority of your own family by finding RELIABLE AND QUALITY workaround solutions to cater for your absence during work.

An attentive tuition-based daycare will help your children keep track of educational progress while a good nanny will emphasize on basic discipline and nutritional intakes. Identifying your demand and settling your children with someone you are most confident and comfortable with will bring separation anxieties to the minimal and effectively relinquish your bouts of guilt.

Working Mom Guilt Buster 2: Radiate The Self-Esteem of A Working Mom

Entering the phase of motherhood does not mean you should give up all your passion to be regarded as a dedicated mother. When you hold on to a job that gives you a sense of achievement, you project a positive aura that gain your children’s respect by showing them that upholding your dream while maintaining strong family bonding is the key to building a productive modern family and makes you healthier in person.

Children feel proud and secure when they have a confident working mom. Suppressing your identity will not only cause you to emanate negative energy when interacting with family members due to inadequacy stress but also project a low self-esteem model to your children.

Working Mom Guilt Buster 3: Connect To People With Same Mentality

Although your friends and family may lend their ears to your predicaments as a working mom, nobody better understand your situation than those walking in your very same shoes. Joining in support groups or social get-together with the same community can assert the justification to be a working mom. Besides that, you get to exchange knowledge and experience in strategizing family and work schedule, special ideas for child bonding as well as news and views circulating your community.

Additionally, a working mom tends to be more ready to help another working mom in ad hoc situations by temporarily managing their kids and positively comforting them too.

Working Mom Guilt Buster 4: Think of The Advantages of Being a Working Mom

As every bit of your hard work contributes to the family funding for basic necessities of education, clothing, food and medical as well as other lifestyle fulfillment, chasing your dreams is not entirely about yourself after all. Realize that your pursue benefits your family in its entirety. Your paycheck ensures that your children get the protection and coverage they are entitled to plus additional materials that add to their bonus on top of the satisfaction you obtain from being an asset to the industry. Danielle Hartmann of The Boston College Center for Work and Family reinforces the role of working mom in FoxNews Video.

Working Mom Guilt Buster 5: You Are Not your Children’s Entire World

Yes, working mom claims a big portion as the family driving force. But other family members and friends are just as important in keeping the equilibrium of your children’s social skills development in interacting and maintaining relationships with people. Your children need different amount of time for your physical presence in different stages. Infants may not notice much of the difference as they sleep longer hours. Toddlers may need more physical interactions while teenagers need moral and emotional supports. Your child will appreciate a working mom who is sensitive to their needs in different phases and not being over-protective or too distant.

Do not feel guilty for not participating in their activities during the day; use it as your conversation topics in the evenings. This will broaden everyone’s world and add colors to your life. Time quantity does not strengthen child bonding, it is the quality that does. What and how you utilize the few short hours of family time determines a working mom’s success in bringing them closer to you.

Working Mom Guilt Buster 6: Accept That You Can’t Be Omnipresent

Whether or not you are a working mom, there will be times when you can’t have the best of both worlds in handling family and personal agendas. Learn that you are a human with equal hours in a day and prioritizing is a skill that is valuable to be developed in you and your children. Rather than teaching your children to be despair when torn between situations, instigate your rationality in weighing agendas and finding ways to make up for the compromised areas. Withdrawing yourself to a corner and be engulfed in the flames of guilt will not get things done and is detrimental to the family dynamics.

Setup family rituals on weekdays and plan special events for the weekends. Look for something everyone has a soft spot on and build upon the interest together. There are plenty of ideas to initiate child bonding for working mom that do not necessarily require tonnes of your time.
Exercise your negotiation rights. If you have a job that requires you to work through long or odd hours, discuss over the urgency prioritization with your employer. You do not need to put up your off-days boundary, just making your schedule more predictable and letting them know that you would like to attend to less-urgent matters AFTER attending to the family needs will reduce the conflicts and misunderstandings between both parties.

Image Source: www.momlogic.com

Take note that plainly exercising these tips will not shed the guilt and anxiety of a working mom BUT it is through real acceptance and willingness to program your mind and heart to it that will eliminate these burdens.

7 Great Child Bonding Tips For Working Mom

Posted by Sarah on December 18th, 2011

Child Bonding Tips for Working Mom - Hugs

7 Great Child Bonding Tips For Working Mom

Can you remember when was the last time you hug your children or done any child bonding activities with them, and do you consider yourself being a working mom who always acts fair in juggling between family and career? Playing the role as working mom in a modern family is a tough call by itself and finding a chance to dedicate special time block exclusively for child bonding is as scarce as it can get. As more working moms have come to realize this fact, many of them have stood by the practice of utilizing routine moments to exercise child bonding.

Child Bonding Tips 1: Never Underestimate Physical Interactions Effectiveness

As working moms get more attached to their jobs overtime, simple body gestures may take a back seat with the rushing to and back from work. Working moms very often hush their kids into the car for schools, scurry them to finish meals and head for homework, shoo them to sleep after passing their bedtime, every gestures defeating the physical interactions for child bonding. Racing against the time may not earn you much extra minutes but burn the relationship bridge faster than you can imagine. Slow down… Child bonding can effectively be done in minutes!

Capture the brisk moments before leaving for work to cuddle and kiss your toddlers goodbye
Give encouraging pat or words while sending your older children to school
Catch short conversations when you fetch them home by asking what interesting things happened or been done during the day
Pay real attention by giving due responses to what they say to make them feel you are REALLY interested

Child Bonding Tips 2: Get Accustomed To Family Rituals

Being a working mom should not stop you from sticking to a set of predetermined activities that requires participation from every family member.

Have Meals together – Be a family-oriented working mom by making effort to get everyone sit together for dinner. Save the “don’t-talk-when-you-eat” rule. This is the golden opportunity for child bonding by bringing up casual conversation with your children. Be opened about their thoughts and deeds. You may give opinions but do not force your views and ruin the dinner. Leave the serious conversation for personal session.

Get Insights to Their Daily Work – Be an attentive working mom by going through their homework. Guide them if you can, or show some interest when they flaunt their new skills and knowledge to assert their confidence and enhance the memory. Don’t panic when they seek your help on something beyond your expertise. Be sporting and Google answers together!

Preserve Intimate Moments – Be a tender working mom. Obstetrician and Gynecologist, Dr. Laura Stachel suggested that bathing together and breast-feeding is extremely effective in child bonding in that it heighten the sense of love and care in infants and toddlers by building the foundation of their trusts and compassion through dedicated affections.

Bedtime Stories Are Never Outdated – Be a creative working mom by making bedtime story extraordinary. Instead of reading plainly from books, you can bring in favorite cartoons and family members as story characters. Blend child bonding-related values into the plots. Engage them in the story flow and let your imaginations run wild!

Image Source: www.enjoyfoodbeactive.org

Child Bonding Tips 3: Set Up Special Routines

Who doesn’t love anticipation of fun and exciting events? Despite not present by their side all the time, being a contemporary working mom will never be less valued by the family if you put some thoughtful planning in your calendar.

Share Common Interests – It may be impossible that every family member share the same hobbies. Identifying something in common and meaningful to everyone will be the greatest success of a working mom. Sit back and think what you both enjoy. Ever consider getting a pet? Or did they ever express interests in your research, experiments or explorations? Count them in, you will have nothing to lose.

Do Projects Together – Set out a specific day and time for participating in short/long term ventures. DIY projects, scrapbooking and photography sessions are some of the projects that can increase child bonding.

Log Important Dates – Set reminders on birthdays and anniversaries to allow careful party planning and get everyone excited to celebrate and be celebrated. I bet working mom can get this done even in between working hours.

Engage them in outdoor activities – Child bonding time is not confined to indoor. Sweat out with the children by going picnicking, playing games, fishing, jogging and swimming to name a few. Joining in community service can also bring working mom closer to children who realize the value of love and care in relationships.

Video – Ways To Reinforce Child Bonding For Working Mom

Child Bonding Tips 4: Turn House Errands into Child Bonding Moments

Just when you complain of house chores overload, look at it as opportunities to request your children’s engagement. Grocery shopping and gardening may be something feminine for girls bonding while the boys may prefer to involve in garage cleaning and minor car repairs. Child bonding is not entirely affection showering but can be used indirectly to train them on basic responsibilities. Most importantly, show your appreciation for their support in helping you juggling the family and career roles as a working mom.

Child Bonding Tips 5: Show Your Care BUT NOT Scrutinize

Working moms are quick to over-panic when the children draw a distance from them. A good advice is – never rush into child bonding. If you try to go under their cover to scrutinize the root cause, it may back-fire in many folds. Confronting them will just strain the relationship and your stress barometer will affect your working mood the next day, sparking a vicious cycle.

Understand that children grow fast and their needs for attention vary at different stages. Let them come to you. Just by letting them know your arms and doors are opened 24/7 is the best a working mom can do in working towards child bonding for older kids. Be supportive and respect their privacy and they will be more inclined to share their joys and predicaments with you.

Child Bonding Tips 6: Be A Consistent and Transparent Working Mom

Children don’t hate working mom for their jobs. They just despise it when you don’t walk your talk. Don’t just cancel the family activities when you need to rush for assignments deadlines. Instead, bring your work to their vicinity to maintain your accessibility if they feel like asking you questions or opinions. A little distraction won’t hurt but being there for them is extremely meaningful in child bonding.

When you foresee your absence, be honest in sharing your situations and difficulties with them. Let them know when you are unavailable and what your best effort is to reduce the impact rather than making empty promises. This way, you will not only gain their respect as a working mom but conveyed an important message about security and trustworthiness.

Child Bonding Tips 7: Save The best For Last

Although not every working mom has the same family tradition, deep down you know the best ways to child bonding. Toddlers and young children may prefer snuggles, kisses and soothing touches before sleep while older children and teens may just want a pat on the back as encouragements.

Forgive each other when conflict arises along the way and let them know that they are your important emotional support pillars.

We hope that these tips can help working mom in making child bonding a success. Putting above suggestions into practice will not only resolve your interest conflict as working mom but also take child bonding effort a step forward by instilling positive development on their social, cognitive and emotional skills in the long run.

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How To Overcome Working Mom Guilt and Anxiety

6 Ways To Overcome Working Mom Guilt and Anxiety

What Causes Working Mom Guilt?

Working Mom Guilt Buster 1: Every Family Is Different

Working Mom Guilt Buster 2: Radiate The Self-Esteem of A Working Mom

Working Mom Guilt Buster 3: Connect To People With Same Mentality

Working Mom Guilt Buster 4: Think of The Advantages of Being a Working Mom

Working Mom Guilt Buster 5: You Are Not your Children’s Entire World

Working Mom Guilt Buster 6: Accept That You Can’t Be Omnipresent

Image Source: www.momlogic.com

Take note that plainly exercising these tips will not shed the guilt and anxiety of a working mom BUT it is through real acceptance and willingness to program your mind and heart to it that will eliminate these burdens.

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