Nearly every child goes through a period when they get really clingy and get upset if their parent is leaving. Babies can show signs of it around 6-7 months. It typically peaks around 10-18 months and reduces when they are about 2 years old. For episode 122, we discuss some things you can do help your baby and child: – Get familiar with the caregiver. If you have a brand new person watching the baby, this may prove to be difficult. Give the baby some time to get to know the person who is taking care of them. – Start small – When they are real young, try to start with a short amount of time. Maybe it’s half an hour or hour at first – Say goodbye – Don’t sneak out the back. You disappearing isn’t very nice. Don’t cry or make it dramatic, just say a nice simple goodbye and give them a quick kiss or hug. Don’t make a big deal out of it. – Make it Routine – You should practice leaving every once in a while. Having the child always with you at every moment will have them expect that. It’s ok to have some alone time, and it’s healthy for the child to develop that ability to be apart. So what happens when your child continues to have separation anxiety as they get older? According to webmd, if the child is over 6 years old and still having an extreme fear, they may have Separation Anxiety Disorder. This effects approx 4-5% of children in the US ages 7-11. It only effects 1.3% of teens. Both boys and girls are equal. It’s usually is treated with either psychotherapy or medications including some kind of anti-depressant or anti-anxiety medication. If you do have a situation like …

Whether your kids are playing sports or playing a board game, losing is a part of life. Maybe they slam their game pieces on the board or throw their glove into the dirt? Losing is a reality. How can we have our kids enjoy competition yet understand how to cope with losing properly?  Is there such thing as losing properly? I played sports growing up and I recall losing was pretty devastating to me. I was a very competitive child. However I can’t recall any competitive losses that have stuck with into adulthood. They are really no big deal. At the time they may have been, but now they are not.  I personally think being competitive is a good thing. I do however think it’s important to understand how you act and deal with others when you win or lose is important. So how do we help our kids deal with losing? Here are a 8 tips: 1. Re-define Winning – We had expert coach Terry Liskevych who put things in perspective. The most important thing when kids are young is that they have fun. Discuss what sportsmanship is as well as possibly talking to them beforehand about the upcoming competition. 2. Set a good example – monkey see, monkey do. If you have a weekend basketball league and your kids see you throwing the ball against the wall in anger, you might want to re-evaluate that. 3. Give them positive attention – When they do something positive, make sure that is re-inforced. “I saw you help the other team member get up from the floor. That was really good sportsmanship”. or “You should be really proud of yourself for diving for the ball and going after it.  See our episode 109 for more on this. 4. Empathy – …

Monkey See, Monkey do.  In episode 120 our friend Alan joing Jason & Alan for another episode.  With many of the things we talk about here, we start with us leading by example. I thought we would bring a list together of 7 things we can do to positively influence our child. 1. Be Polite – They hear you saying please and thank you. They also hear how you talk to them. How you treat wait staff, employees, etc. 2. Help Others – Let them see you helping other family members, friends, and the community. Involve your kids in the process if you can. 3. Celebrate diversity – People are all different and that is a wonderful thing. Allow them to appreciate that everyone is different and that is what makes the world great. Take interest in other cultures. Have friends from different backgrounds. 4. Be responsible with money – they see how we spend and our attitudes about money 5. Express Emotion – Emotions are not good or bad, they just are. It’s ok for your kids to see 6. Work Hard – If you want something, you need to work for it. Hard work pays off 7. Enjoy life – It doesn’t matter what your passion is or what you enjoy, give yourself time to do it. It needs to balance with your desire. This can mean go on vacations, do things that bring joy into your life. 8. Take Care of Yourself – This means mind, body, and spirit. Practicing mindfullness like meditation and/or yoga as well as creating healthy eating habits. Some of these may seem obvious, but sometimes the obvious things are the things we miss because we take them for granted.…