Parenting tips from ‘real live’ parents who are in the parenting trenches just like us, working hard to be good people and good parents.

Parentip - creative with food

Sometimes You Should Get Creative with Food

My youngest daughter is a great eater…when she wants to be. This makes it even more difficult to please her though. You see her wolf down a plate of shrimp and think, “Great! The kid likes shrimp.” So you make her shrimp the next time and she shrieks in terror, “Noooooo! I hate shrimp!” Me: “But you ate all that shrimp the other day!” Her: “Yeah, well now I hate it.” Geez, thanks kid. She ate spinach without batting an eye on day. The next time I served it: “Ewwwwww! Mommy! I don’t like this!” For the record, I made it the exact same way as I did when she couldn’t get enough of it.

My solution – Make small changes on purpose. That way, it’s a totally NEW food she’s never had before, which she then gladly gobbles up.

Contributed by – Anonymous 

Parentip - kids silence

Kids’ Silence is not golden

You might think that when your kids are home and your house is quiet, perhaps they are getting along. That could be only wishful thinking though. Tempting as it is to lie there, reading your book without a care in the world, I implore you to get up at once and go look. That is when you will surely find that your older child has drawn all over your younger one with markers.

Contributed by – Linda