Mailbag questions sometimes come in waves around here, and recently I've gotten a slew of them on the same topic: How to get your kid to stop a certain entrenched behavior. Hitting, fighting, throwing tantrums, refusing to go to school in the morning, and screaming ....
Toddlers and Younger Siblings: How Could YOU Make Our Baby Happy?
Last time, I answered a different mailbag question about this same topic: babies in a house full of their sibling's toys. That post was about babyproofing (or, more specifically, about NOT babyproofing). Today, I'm going to approach that same topic from a slightly...
Babyproofing the House vs Babyproofing the Baby
I've received a couple of related mailbag questions over the past couple of weeks about how we handle the issue of babies in a house full of their siblings' toys. Today I'll discuss the idea of babyproofing, specifically how I DON'T do it, and in a different post,...
Other People's Kids: controlling the chaos on preschool playdates
It's mailbag time again. Today we're going to discuss managing unruly children in your home . . . when they're not (exclusively) yours. The Question: Hi, Kendra! I enjoy reading your blog, and I find your posts on discipline and family culture particularly...
Are Older Siblings Overburdened by Responsibilities? Or Are They Empowered by Them?
I have a backlog of great mailbag questions I got during and since the ol' hiatus. So, here's another one. The idea that I might be overburdening my kids with responsibilities around the home is something that I have definitely worried about myself, but, so far, what...
little kids & BIG CHANGES: how much help does an older sibling need when a new baby comes along?
What do you do when you want to blog, but you ALSO really, really want to take a bath and hit the sack? Why, fish something out of the mailbag of course. It's already written and at least one person in the universe is interested in the answer. Today's question is from...
Mailbag: How Do You Stop the Fighting? (and a liturgical year heads up)
Question: How do you stop the fighting between your kids? What do you do with them? I've tried many things like separation, spanking (which I hate but it sure works on my older one!), toys taken away, stickers toward new toy for good behavior, etc. but I get the...
Babies and Discipline: When, Where, and How Much?
It's our first day of school! So . . . I'm going to throw up a question from the mailbag, since it's already typed up. Perhaps it would be of interest to some other newish mamas out there. Question:(it was a long one so I'm going to excerpt it here . . . )Dear...
The “It’s All YOUR Fault” Method of Divide and Conquer Parenting
I mentioned this technique in a post in which I used it on Miley Cyrus, Robin Thicke, and MTV, and I can't remember hearing much about any of them since, so I'm going to assume it was a big success and they've all decided to turn their lives around. In which case,...
Pushing Past the Nap Strike
It's pick on three-year-olds week here at Catholic All Year, which is odd since I don't even have a three-year-old right now. But I have had five three-year-olds previously, so I can say with some level of expertise, that those guys are generally up to something....
Why I Love the Terrible Twos
Guys? I need everyone to promise not to tell Grace about this post. She pretty much explicitly forbade its writing. But I wrote it anyway. INTJ and all that. Here's the thing: I really DO think twos are better than ones, and better than threes as well. I have written...
How to be the Boss of a One Year Old
I'm going to start this by saying that plenty of people do not discipline as early as I do. Which is fine. I am a firm believer in doing what works for your family. I also believe that the level of discipline in your home is up to you and can be changed at any time,...
Cryin’ Babies Go to Bed
Hey guys, it's me Frankie. You may remember me from such posts as: An Open Letter to the Church Lady Who Yelled at My Mom and What Cranky Frankie Taught Me About God (my Mom wrote that one, but it's about me!) So when Adam from Equipping Catholic Families...