Being a respectful parent, who doesn’t use punishment and who is surrounded by other like minded parents as friends, I forget that it’s still common practice for many parents to discipline using force. Whether you call it smacking, swatting, tapping, etc. I’m talking about using physical force to punish a child or ‘teach them a […]
Manners Don’t Need to be Forced
We don’t force manners. I recently had a couple of incidents with acquaintances and family trying to force my kids to say please/thank you/sorry. They were met with little confused faces. What indeed is the magic word? Of course, I feel the pressure in public. No one wants to appear rude. No one wants people […]
Socialisation
You’ve heard it before. The dreaded S word when homeschooling comes up in conversation. There are tons of great writing out there about it. I wanted to share my take. When I’m asked about socialisation, I will ask back: What do you mean by socialisation? What is it that concerns you? (because I guarantee we […]
Parenting a Headstrong Child Respectfully
I have wrote previously about parenting my sensitive child respectfully. Today I wanted to write about parenting a headstrong child respectfully. When you hear about headstrong children – or strong-willed, spirited, even ‘stubborn’ or ‘difficult’ – it’s often negative. My daughter is at a different space in the social and emotional spectrum. Before she could […]
“Mama, What Does Shy Mean?”
“Mummy, what does shy mean?” asks my (newly) four year old son. It dawns on me, in that moment, that he hears so many people call him shy. Shyness is stigmatised in society. Sensitive boys, in particular, are misunderstood and even bullied. Shyness is a personality trait, not a fault. My son is very self-aware, […]