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Here are some important questions for you. What time do you go to bed? What time does your child have dinner? What time does your child go to bed? How many hours of sleep does your child get at a stretch? What are your child’s

Stories are an integral part of a child’s life (in fact everyone’s life- child or adult). We learn through stories, we think through them, we live directly or vicariously through them, we think through them, we understand things and people

One of the important aspects of integrity is teaching to keep the deals that are made. This ability comes in handy in adulthood in relationships, workplaces as well as parenting. The common assumptions upon which we normally act are: Children don’t understand

“You didn’t say hi to me, now I am upset!” “You finish your food then I’ll be happy.” “Won’t you give me a hug? I’m feeling sad now!” “When you don’t listen to me, it makes me angry!” We hear these dialogues commonly being

Imagine a game where one person has many needs, continuously coming up but the person cannot speak or move or do much. The only things the person can do are perhaps squirm, move the arms and legs (that too with

No one can give anyone a template of good parenting done right. The demands of parenting are bound by many contexts like cultural, social, economic, gender, time period, support available, relationship of parents, transgenerational patterns, parents’ childhood experiences and so

How many of us have many memories of the first 3-4 years of our life? Even if we have some specific memories, we don’t have many. Naturally it is easy for us to believe that children don’t remember much of

What is a home for you? How does it feel ‘at home’? How do you think you want to feel ‘at home’? It can be many specific things but for most people, feeling ‘at home’ means they want to feel

Have you lied to your child? Perhaps your child wanted to watch a video on your phone and you told your child that your phone was not with you or the bird took it away? Perhaps your child wanted to switch on

“Don’t touch that, the shopkeeper will scold you.” “Don’t do that, that aunty will get mad.” “You drew on the wall, now I am going to tell the watchman uncle that you did this. He will scold you then.” Such dialogues are common

What happens if you give your child some food on their plate and leave them to eat on their own? Most likely they end up eating very little and playing a lot with the food. How do you find that idea of

The process of pregnancy, labour and the birth has much to it than meets the eye. Apart from the visible shifts in the body, many invisible processes take place.  The labour involves certain shifts which are traumatic for the body, especially

Do you feel the urge to remove your child’s hand from their mouth whenever they put it in their mouth? During the first couple of years, this urge comes up innumerable times since the baby puts their hands in their mouths

“Shhhhhh…” “Don’t shout!” “No shouting!” “Look at that other child. Is he shouting? No. Don’t shout.” “Look she is a good girl, she doesn’t shout, she is quiet.” “What’s wrong with you? Why are you shouting?” These are some of the responses some parents give to

What is a home for you? How does it feel ‘at home’? How do you think you want to feel ‘at home’? It can be many specific things but for most people, feeling ‘at home’ means they want to feel

The best way to build wellbeing practices into our child’s routines is to also build them into our routine. Here are some practices. Imbibing love in the body: We can build a massage into the daily routine of our child wherein as

Wellbeing is unfortunately not built into today’s world experience. The pace and demands of life make it crucial that we build practices that orient us to our wellbeing in our daily routines. Many adults find themselves struggling with life and

Children are often told that when they do something or don’t do some things, it makes us sad or angry. “I have made this so lovingly, if you don’t eat it, I’ll feel bad.” “Give me a hug, otherwise I will feel

Do we want our child to apologise for their mistakes? Do we want them to just say the right words of apology or do we want them to empathise with others and feel the need to apologise out of compassion

We all want to discipline our child. Here are some myths about discipline. A disciplined child is an obedient child. Discipline can be induced only through fear. Discipline is something to enforce on the child. Expressing too much love or giving autonomy will hamper

It is natural for parents or adults to ask our children what they did at school or at home while the parents were away. Usually many parents have a common complaint that the child doesn’t share what they did. Even

When we feel fear, our body responds in a programmed fashion. Our heart races, our breath stops and then shortens and quickens, our eyes become wide, our awareness expands to scan for threat and escape routes, our energy is quickly

One of the important aspects of integrity is teaching to keep the deals that are made. This ability comes in handy in adulthood in relationships, workplaces as well as parenting. The common assumptions upon which we normally act are: Children don’t understand

One thing most of us struggle to feel in our hearts is that “I am special/valuable/precious”. It is one or the other form of “I matter.” Remember or imagine a time when you have really liked a person, may it be

Nature has so many beautiful elements. The trees, the mountains, the sky, the rivers and so on. Nature also has beautiful elements such as the soil, the mud, the birds (including pigeons), the insects (including lizards). While we are comfortable connecting

Rhythm is inherent in nature. Us being a part of that very nature, rhythms are also essential for us. For babies, one of the things that naturally occurs from early on is that they establish some fluid rhythms in their

“You are such a sweet, sweet child! “If you fall sick, you will need to eat bitter medicine.” “Don’t eat the lemon, it’s too sour!” These are some of the commonly said things about tastes. We also want our children to be open

When babies don’t understand the full meaning of words and language, they are highly sensitive to other aspects of communication such as our facial expressions, the tone of our voice and even our touch. A baby can identify the difference

We make ourselves a piping hot cup of coffee thinking we may get to enjoy it this time and the baby wakes up hungry. We then spend the next few minutes feeding the baby while the coffee sits there gradually

We all want to be ethical and moralistic. We all strive for that. We all fail at various points. With every value, all of us are on a learning curve. Some phases of life or situations in life or circumstances

Think about a person with whom you feel heard and seen, a person who gets you. Think about the safety or relief or freedom or acceptance or love or warmth you feel in the presence of them. If you can’t

What we think we ideally would do and what we end up doing in reality may be two different things. Ideal situations don’t really account for our fears and old patterns. Real situations may be overwhelming to step into the

“We are leaving in 5 minutes.” “I am going to switch off the TV in ten minutes.” The function of such reminders is that children prepare their minds to finish what they are doing and move on. Even after these reminders, we

When children can ask loudly and persistently for the things they want and can protest hard and loud for the things they don’t, we start experiencing some exhausting struggles. “I want candy right now!” “I don’t want to leave right now!” “I want

Accidents are a natural part of the potty training journey. Our responses to these accidents have an impact on the training itself as well as on their self-concept, self-esteem and their own emotional reactions to those and other failures. These

Imagine yourself having a bad day, being frustrated or even angry, definitely agitated, even helpless. Now imagine two scenarios.  In the first, you meet your partner, who is equally agitated. It’s easy to imagine how something you two say to each

For many parents, stepping out of the house may seem like a heavy task, with our child clinging to us, asking us not to go or crying when we step out or showing open and intense protest when we

As our children sit up, the world looks different to them. When they start walking, it’s as if they discover a new dimension of life. Now they can see many objects which they didn't see before. They can reach many

Since the time the baby is born, the most natural rhythm of the breath begins. There onwards, we develop many rhythms such as sleeping and waking, the rhythms of energy/alertness during the wakeful time, rhythms of hunger and thirst and

When our baby cries, the baby is essentially communicating some need. Our brains are naturally wired to respond to the distress of our baby with an urge to address the need. With little means of verbal communication it becomes an

Feeding is an activity which is done consistently no matter what. This creates a potent space filled with opportunities. It’s the initial contact with food, which can build a great foundation for healthy relationship with food  It can build a foundation for

Around this age, the child’s horizons rapidly widen. Their social circle expands with the addition of many new relationships. The relationship between the child and the caregiver builds the foundation for all the future relationships of the child.   One has to understand

Now our child no longer looks like a baby. They may speak like an adult or their body language may begin to resemble the adults. They may also be able to do many things and say many things and think

Have you ever been in a situation when two people were speaking something negative about you and you happened to be within earshot? If not, just for now let’s imagine. Imagine that the person sharing the negative information or opinion is

Do you love your child? Needless to answer. Does your child know how much you love them? To paraphrase Dr Gabor Mate, it doesn’t matter how much love you send to your child, what matters is how much of that love does the

“You make such a mess.” “Why don’t you sit quietly?” “Stop shouting.” “Stop jumping.” “You don’t listen to me at all.” “You don’t have any manners!” “Why don’t you share toys?” “You don’t have any patience.” Have you said or thought any of these for your child? A lot

You are playing with your child and you watch your child move away from you and towards something. You realise it’s a glass object which the child never gets to play with and suddenly you realise that the object is

When it comes to dealing with stubbornness, we have already looked at ‘leading with a yes’ and ‘not labelling’ as two important ways. Let’s look at two more. What happens as a result of the crying in the example above is important.

“My child is becoming more and more stubborn by the day” This is the experience of many parents around this time.  Let’s look at a fourfold plan to deal with stubbornness. We are going to use an example of a child who wants

When we speak about our child’s tantrums, we usually use the words ‘throw’.  “Why are you throwing a tantrum?” “No throwing tantrums!” “Why are you doing this?” “Stop!” We also talk about “creating a fuss” or “creating a scene/drama”. This is not only with respect to