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Bill Corbett: Posted on Sunday, February 05, 2012 12:57 PM
 Ever find yourself thinking about a great intention, such as making a date with someone special in your life, only to realize later that you didn’t do it? We have to accept the fact that most of us are living incredibly busy lives with so much to accomplish in any given day, week, month, or year. We definitely know that we don’t want to end up on our death bed thinking about all the things we didn’t get done. This means that we can’t just rely on our ability to remember to do something, we have to learn and use a process to help us get it done. |
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Bill Corbett: Posted on Friday, February 03, 2012 7:37 PM
 Too many parents are wired to react to their child's challenging behavior to simply stop it immediately. Rarely are they able to stop their reaction and examine what might be causing the behavior. Much of this reaction is fueled by the emotion the parent may be feeling at the moment, or it's the parent's internal belief system about the behavior. What if we contained our emotions or our belief systems long enough to find out why our children do what they do? We would become more effective as parents. |
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Bill Corbett: Posted on Thursday, January 26, 2012 9:11 PM
 Have you tried Pinterest yet? I know, another social media tool to overwhelm you and waste your time, right? Well this one is different because it allows you to post images on a virtual board to share with others. Putting a pin button on your browser, you can capture interesting images that you find while surfing the Web. You can then add text to further define what you’ve pinned and why. But you can pin up more than just images on the Web, Pinterest allows you to pin videos as well. |
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Bill Corbett: Posted on Sunday, January 01, 2012 8:21 PM
Don’t take it personal if they are embarrassed by you  According to Dr. Anthony Wolf, author of the book “Get Out of My Life, But First Could You Drive Me and Cheryl to the Mall?” teens develop an allergy to parents because the teens are shedding anything and anyone who is connected to their “baby-self.” Relax and know that you will be able to regain closeness with then on the “over side” of this development area, when they move into young adulthood. Know their friends and their friends’ parents |
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Bill Corbett: Posted on Monday, December 19, 2011 4:23 PM
Avoid forcing your child to say thank you this holiday season. Doing so does not help them develop the gift of gratitude, it only forces them to do something they may not want to do naturally at first. Be sure that you are providing lots of examples of how to feel grateful for things, especially when they do things for you. I watched a battle build between a parent and young child in a store when the parent tried to force the child to say thank you when another adult gave something to the child. |
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Posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2011 2:25 PM
The holidays are a good time to reflect on our children's ability to be thankful for what they have. Doing so requires us to first reflect on how well and how often we demonstrate gratitude for them. Being thankful does not come naturally for most children, as they see the world from an egotistical point of view; they are the center of the universe and everyone else encircles them and provides for them. It takes time and patience for children to develop the ability to behave in grateful ways, but also to feel being grateful for what they have. |
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Posted on Saturday, November 05, 2011 5:43 PM
When a parent demands that a child apologize for something, the child rarely feels any remorse for what he or she did. Instead, they are more likely to feel anger or resentment toward the parent for forcing them to do something they don’t want to do. The ability to apologize for both adults and children requires some sense of emotional intelligence and being able to understand how the other person feels. This must be developed over time organically. One day while watching over my grandchildren playing at a park, I noticed a young lady who was supervising a few children on a merry-go-round. |
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Bill Corbett / Cooperative Kids: Posted on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 5:21 PM
 I read with interest, Love and Logic’s Jedd Hafer’s entry in
this week’s newsletter to parents in regards to handling sibling rivalry. The
one thing that he stated that I agree with is that the argument belongs to
the children, not the parents. I even
support his position that the adult caregivers should state the obvious to the
kids by saying, “It sounds like you guys are having a problem (getting along)
and it will be interesting to see how you solve it.” But where Mr. Hafer has it wrong in my
opinion, is in his suggestion for what to do if the kids don’t solve it quickly
and the parents have to get involved. |
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Posted on Monday, October 24, 2011 4:10 PM
Settling Children’s Nighttime Fears
When my first
child came along and I didn’t know any better, I made the fatal “dad mistake”
when it came to helping her battle the monsters in her bedroom. Unwittingly, I
would frequently grab a baseball bat and head into her room in hopes of
quelling her cries for help by standing ready to battle the imaginary monsters.
As I lay on the floor swinging at those nonexistent creatures, I remember
shouting out in a Ray Romano like voice from the television show Everyone Loves
Raymond “there, I got all those mean monsters and now they are all gone. |
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Posted on Sunday, October 23, 2011 9:16 PM
When your child brings the report card home, begin by doing three important things during the encounter; allow your child to hold the card and read the grades to you, remain completely quiet during the reading, and listen with 100% of your attention. Once the reading is complete, do not pass judgment or invoke consequences or punishment. Your job as a parent is to ask open ended questions that will allow your child to make his own assessment (not yours) of his performance being reflected in the report card. |
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