Special Audios for Week 12

Topics Include

1. Transition to Peaceful Parenting

   If the peaceful parenting ideas are new to you, then you're probably encountering some internal questions and some external roadblocks as you transition your parenting approach. How do you explain to your child why you aren't punishing their sibling? How do you make repairs with your child for the times in the past when you screamed at them like a crazy person? How can you forgive yourself now that you see how to parent differently? How can you possibly find time to do Special Time and Roughhousing with each child every day? And maybe most urgently, how can you stay patient through your child's anger or crying if they have some backpack emptying to do? In this audio, Dr. Laura answers questions about the most common bumps parents encounter as they make the transition to peaceful parenting.

2. Connection

   You know that Connection is 80% of parenting -- but that doesn’t mean it’s easy! As you rebuild trust with your child, you may find yourself wondering exactly HOW to connect. How can you get your child talking? You're trying to be empathic -- but what if your child rolls her eyes or tells you to go away? How do you connect when your child resists? Or when you’re simply fed up? What if you just don't have time to connect? And what if you try to roughhouse, but someone always gets hurt? Or maybe you can't think of games to play, or your child wants to roughhouse dangerously. Or maybe -- you're not alone here -- you just hate roughhousing?! 

3. Special Time

   If you've started doing special time, you see why it's so special -- it's like an essential vitamin your child was missing -- but you probably also have some questions. How can you keep your other children busy while you do special time? What if your child resists special time? What if YOU can’t resist checking your phone, or you just find sitting still with your child excruciating? What if your child uses special time in a way that bothers you? What if your child has a meltdown when special time ends? Does a child need special time with each parent? Does a child without siblings need special time? And how much special time is enough? Dr. Laura has the answers!

4. Parental Self Regulation

   The hardest part of parenting is that kids push all our buttons. Given that, you may be wondering: How can you self-regulate when things get stressful? How can you keep yourself from flying off the handle? What tools can you use to calm yourself down when you're upset? How can you stop yourself from being critical with your child? What about when you feel disappointed, because you look at some other family, and they got an easy child, and you got a sensitive, strong-willed, challenging child? How can you stay regulated, instead of slipping back into bad habits? This is the audio for you!

5. Parental Self-Care

   Taking care of ourselves while taking care of our children can seem impossible. How can you find the time to take care of you, when every minute of the day is already taken up with someone else’s needs? In this audio, Dr. Laura answers questions about the challenges of caring for ourselves, including dealing with postpartum depression and anxiety, how to find time for self-care in your routine, and keeping yourself at a high level of wellbeing.
   

6. Emotion Coaching (Toddlers)

   Toddlers don’t have many words, but they certainly have big feelings. How can you help your toddler work through those big emotions in a healthy way? In this audio, Dr. Laura walks you through the process of empathizing, giving your child words for their feelings, creating safety, and helping your child empty their emotional backpack –even when they can’t yet tell you how they feel.

7. Emotion Coaching (Ages 4-6)

   You already know that children whose parents emotion-coach grow up to be more emotionally intelligent -- But learning to emotion-coach is hard for most of us. How do you handle all those big, inconvenient emotions? What if your child doesn't cry easily? What if you have a super sensitive child who takes things personally? What if you feel like you just don’t know how to be empathic? In this audio, Dr. Laura answers your questions about how to emotion coach with 4 to 6 year olds. 

   (Emotion coaching kids age 7 and up is covered in the "Older Kids/Preteens" audio below, which is #21.)

8. Setting Limits and Discipline (Toddlers)

   Toddlers' wants are often in direct opposition to their long-term developmental needs and safety -- so parents need to learn to set effective limits, all day, every day. But to help your toddler WANT to do what you say, or at least accept your limits without constant tantrums, you have to set those limits with empathy and connection, so you keep a strong relationship. In this audio, Dr. Laura walks you through how to teach your toddler the lessons that matter most, while at the same time helping your child WANT to cooperate.

9. Setting Limits and Discipline (Ages 4-6)

   Whether your child is shouting at you, lying, stealing or simply refusing to cooperate, setting limits calmly and patiently can be a challenge. In this audio, Dr. Laura answers your questions about how to use loving guidance to correct behavior while at the same time strengthening your relationship with your child, so that you can get out of the discipline business altogether.

10. Setting Limits and Discipline (Ages 7 and up)

    As kids get older, connecting with them so they WANT to cooperate, and setting effective limits without threats and punishment, can be much harder. In this audio, Dr. Laura answers your questions about how to put peaceful parenting to work in a variety of situations with your child, so you can build the relationship with your child that will make yelling and punishment unnecessary.

11. Rudeness and Disrespectful Language

    Even if you never use disrespectful language yourself, your child may well hear it somewhere and try it out on you. What should you do if your three year becomes obsessed with potty words? Or your five-year-old makes huffy rude noises when you won't play with him? Or your nine year old shows off at a playdate by being rude to you? Or your eleven year old swears at you? Dr. Laura has the answers!

12. Strong-Willed Kids

    If you have a strong-willed child, you know how determined they are to maintain their own autonomy -- and how frustrating that can be for a parent. Strong-willed kids want desperately to be "in charge" of themselves, and will sometimes put their desire to "be right" above everything else. They have to decide to follow your lead; they can’t be pressured into it. That would compromise their integrity! 

    So how do you convince a strong-willed child to do what you ask? How do you avoid power struggles? In this audio, Dr. Laura explains how to avoid power struggles by helping your child feel understood even as you set limits. Learn to create the win/win solutions that will keep your strong-willed child cooperating and teach them the essential skills of negotiation and compromise.

13. Helping Your Child with Anger and Aggression (Toddler through 4yrs)

    In this audio, Dr. Laura answers questions about guiding kids (toddlers through age 4) to use their words instead of their bodies – even when they don’t have many words yet. What if your toddler hits you and laughs? And if you move away from him, he follows you, hitting? Or what if you’ve stopped doing timeouts, and your preschooler has become more aggressive? What if he lashes out when he gets upset with his siblings or playmates? Or she bites you when she’s nursing? Here are the answers you need!

14. Helping Your Child with Anger and Aggression (Ages 5-6)

    If you have an angry, explosive or aggressive child, this is the audio for you. Does your child lash out at everyone around him? Is it easy for her to get stuck in anger, and hard for her to cry? What if your child is aggressive with their sibling? Or maybe your child attacks you physically? Here are the answers you need!

15. Helping Your Child with Anger and Aggression (Ages 7 and up)

    By the time kids are age 7 or older, their anger can become embarrassing to parents, because other kids this age don’t seem to be losing their temper – or at least other parents don’t talk about it. But some kids have hair-trigger tempers even as they get older, and parents can find themselves walking on eggshells, trying to prevent another explosion. If you’re nodding your head in recognition, please don’t miss this Q and A.

16. Helping Kids Manage Anxiety

    If you have a child who tends to be anxious, you know how hard it is to stay calm when your child gets worried, anxious, or defiant -- and to calm your child. This audio answers questions related to Separation anxiety, Social anxiety, Perfectionism, OCD and anxiety in general.

17. Special Needs & Trauma

    From learning disabilities and neurological challenges to sensory issues and autism, kids with special needs tend to be more sensitive, have bigger emotions, more anxiety, and a harder time self-regulating. Does peaceful parenting work when your child has special needs? This audio answers questions about supporting kids with a variety of special needs, including trauma and unidentified issues.

18. Routines

    In this audio, Dr. Laura answers questions about transitions, chores, mornings, bedtimes and how to make your daily routine a source of connection instead of a source of stress. It’s so much easier to stay peaceful when you’re on vacation, with no deadlines! But most of the time, we’re moving our kids through the schedule: out of bed, dress, eat, out the door, back later for homework, chores, dinner, evening routine, bedtime. Here are the answers you need to make your daily routine go smoothly!

19. Eating, Food and Mealtimes

    Do you and your child get into power struggles over food? What if your five year old has a meltdown at dinner every night? What if your seven year old is in the 99^th percentile for weight and you want to help her develop healthy eating and exercise habits? Should your nine year old be allowed to spend her allowance money on junk food? In this audio, Dr. Laura answers questions about eating, food and mealtimes.

20. Sleep & Potty Learning

    If you’re struggling with either sleep or toileting, this is the audio for you! Are you trying to get your baby to sleep through the night? Or trying to night wean? Can’t get your preschooler to sleep in her own bed? Or your eight year old to go to sleep without lying down with her? Or maybe you’ve tried everything but your toddler has no interest in the potty? Or your seven year old is still wetting the bed or even having poop accidents? Dr. Laura to the rescue!

21. Older Kids/Preteens

    In this audio, Dr. Laura answers questions from parents of kids ages 7 through the preteen years about how to emotion-coach and stay connected, in those years when it gets harder for them to laugh, cry, and let their parents see what they're feeling. How do you connect with older kids and preteens? What do you do when you try to empathize and they roll their eyes? Are your kids too old to cry when they get upset? Are they starting to get a preteen attitude? Here are the answers you need!
    
    

22. Siblings

    In this audio, Dr. Laura answers questions about how to address sibling teasing, meanness, jealousy, competition, and fighting. What’s the best way to intervene when your kids fight? How should you handle teasing and meanness? What about those situations where one child hurts the other and you're not able to get them to the repair phase? What if your child seems to have a chip on their shoulder toward their sibling?  How can you lessen competition between siblings? And why does it drive us bonkers when our children fight with each other? 

23. Siblings when the younger child is two or under

    In this audio, Dr. Laura answers sibling questions for families where the younger child is two or under. What’s the best way to introduce a new baby to the family? What do you do when your older child hurts the baby? Or yells that he hates the little one and wants to kill her? What if they mostly get along, but the little one is starting to crawl or walk and get into the older one’s things, and the older responds by hitting? Dr. Laura gives you the answers!

24. Large Families

    In this Q and A, Dr. Laura coaches parents on using the peaceful parenting tools, from Special Time to Scheduled Meltdowns, when you have three or more children. You love the idea of peaceful parenting, but with 3, 4 or 5 kids, something has to give. And it’s usually your temper! Even if you can stay calm, how can a parenting approach that depends on connection work when you have so many young humans who need you – often all at once? Here are the answers you need!

25. Social Skills and Friendships

    In this audio, Dr. Laura answers parents' questions about supporting children as they learn to navigate social situations and peer friendships. How do you intervene if your four year old is a bully, or your six year old is being bullied? What if your toddler is biting, or your preteen just can't seem to read social cues? If your child is a bit awkward socially, how do you teach them social skills? These answers will help you support kids of all ages to develop healthy friendships.

26. School & Daycare

    In this audio, Dr. Laura answers questions about school and daycare, including homeschooling.  What do you do when your school has a punitive approach to discipline? How do you help your child cooperate with the teacher, or deal with a difficult teacher? How do you help her function well at school, including focusing in class and handling transitions? What do you do when she falls apart every day after school, or homework becomes a nightmare? Or maybe you have questions about homeschooling, or  you're wondering how to select the best daycare. Dr. Laura has the answers!

27. Coparenting

    What if you’re excited about peaceful parenting and you see positive changes, but your partner thinks you’re spoiling your child?! What if your partner models angry tantrums, or belittles your child? Or maybe you’re divorced, and when your child comes home from visiting your ex, there’s always a meltdown? In this audio, Dr. Laura answers questions about parenting with a partner.

28. Grandparents, Caregivers, & Extended Family

    Handling other people's opinions can be one of the hardest parts of transitioning to peaceful parenting. How do you explain to your parents or in-laws why you stopped punishing? What if your father spoils your child, or spanks him? What if your child hits their cousins -- or their aunt -- or the nanny? Or embarrasses you in front of the grandparents? What if your caregiver does timeouts? How do you teach your nanny peaceful parenting? Dr. Laura helps you figure out what to say.

29. Parenting in a Challenging World

    In this audio, Dr. Laura answers questions about Screens and Media, Body awareness and Child safety, Sexuality and Gender, Money and Materialism, Rewards and Punishment, and other cultural influences on our families.