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Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. When your child uses a swear word for the first time, it can trigger a range of reactions. Some parents may find it funny, while others might feel shock, disappointment, or embarrassment (or a mixture of all of these feelings). However, it's essential to understand that children often experiment with language as they learn and grow.
Read MoreWritten by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. Are you finding that you are asking your child questions or giving instructions to only be told “no”? Does this make you feel like everything is very hard work? When your child finds their voice and the word ‘no’, this can often create times of frustration and annoyance both from the child and from the adult receiving this response!
‘No’ is a very powerful word - it can often really stop us in our tracks. Our children see this and then use the word in order to fully understand its meaning. Our children very quickly realise the power that the word ‘no’ has and use this to assert themselves and their thoughts and feelings.
Read MoreWritten by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. There are always a lot of opinions when it comes to the use of screens with children and this could be a whole blog in itself, but for this blog I want to specifically focus on the use of screens (ipads, phones, TV’s) when a child is eating.
We live in a world where we have portable devices which allow us to access games, videos and TV wherever we might be. Whilst there are benefits of this, there are also times when it can cause some issues. We might remember the time when there was a lot of talk about ‘TV dinners’ and what impact these might be having on the family mealtime but also on our children…fast forward and we are now looking at the impact of screentime (specifically portable devices) on our children’s eating and mealtime experience.
Read MoreBy Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. Friendships and social interactions are a key part of our children’s lives. Friendships help our children learn about the way that we interact with peers, social cues and norms (which can be different with peers than with adults), and gaining a sense of belonging away from their family unit.
It is all very normal and natural for friendships to have their highs and lows but this can be extremely hard for a parent to watch if their child is having a difficult time. We all want our children to be happy and have friends, but this can take time to establish and there can be some very tricky moments.
Read MoreBy Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. It is important to start with looking at what you, as an individual, see as ‘showing affection’ as this can be very different for each of us. As human beings we all feel and show affection in different ways, while one person might be very tactile and love cuddles, another might avoid this where possible as it makes them uncomfortable.
Just like adults, not all children are affectionate (when I say affectionate, I mean cuddly as this is what most people see as a sign of affection from children). When a child is not showing affection (in the way we expect as an adult) it can be due to their personality but also where they are in their developmental stage.
Read MoreBy Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. When our little ones have meltdowns / tantrums / outbursts it can be extremely triggering for us. It can mean that we respond emotionally and not always in the way that we would want to. We need to be kind to ourselves and understand we are only human and that sometimes our emotions can go into overdrive and make us respond to situations in ways which we don’t expect or plan for.
Read MoreWritten by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. Has your child recently moved from a cot to a bed, and now keeps getting up to come and find you? This can be a very common situation that parents find themselves in and often a child can go from sleeping well in their cot to being awake several times per night and refusing to stay in their bed!
Read MoreWritten by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. Resilience is the skill of ‘bouncing back’ when you come up against tricky times, challenges, or stress. It is not something that you do or don’t have, it is something which is learnt, practiced, and strengthened over time. Our children have to learn resilience starting from a very young age and this is often developed (and experienced) through their play.
Read MoreWritten by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. Has your child suddenly started to say, “I’m scared!”, “I don’t like the dark”, or “I’m scared of the dark”? If so, please be reassured that this is a very normal phase of development and can be experienced by lots of children, their parents and carers. Most often the biggest impact of this can be around bedtimes where little ones are typically on their own and it is dark. This sense of fear can have an impact on sleep, bedtimes or even cause waking in the night.
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