Have you ever felt more relaxed when listening to music? Have you ever listened to music that instantaneously brought up strong feelings or brought you back to a special time from the past? Have you ever felt a sense of inner strength or peace when listening to music? Have you ever sung a lullaby to help comfort a crying baby or sung the alphabet song to a young child who is just learning the alphabet?
Often when couples are grappling with ongoing problems that don't seem easy to resolve, arguments can get going at home, and it's hard to avoid these happening out of earshot of the children. Even when we think they're unaware or unaffected, it can be a shock to discover that they have witnessed our angry outbursts, and may start to either act out or become depressed/anxious in response.
This may seem like a very easy question for families where both parents are together, raising their children under the one roof. For everyone else, though - families headed by a single and/or widowed parent, separated parents, and families where each partner has children from a previous relationship - the answer can be quite complex.
There's a lot of advice out there about how to cope with a partner's children - helpful tips about strategies to use, how to work as a team when parenting in a blended family, as well as some great insights about what the complexities are for everyone in this new family formation. Because children don't tend to read blogs or self-help books, most of this great information is pitched at adults - i.e. parents and step-parents.
Challenging kids don't behave badly on purpose -- they are simply struggling to "catch up" in key areas of psychological and cognitive development. If your child or teen's emotional or behavioral difficulties are getting in the way of success at home, at school, or in social situations, this is the book for you. Dr. Michael Bloomquist has spent decades helping parents to understand acting-out kids and support their healthy development. In these pages, he presents tried-and-true ways you can build your 5- to 17-year-old's skills to:
You've made the difficult decision to separate. What's the best way to help your kids deal with it? It's not easy, especially when you're having to deal with your own strong emotions about what's happening, as well as manage the practicalities of sorting your finances, where to live and so on.
When you and your partner deal with conflicts between you, what are your ideas about how you should work it through? If you have kids, what beliefs do you have about whether they should be around when you're fighting?
The following question and my answer are reprinted from Healthshare - an Australian website that offers Australians access to health expertise by providing a directory of health professionals around the country, and an opportunity to have your questions answered by the 'experts'. To find out more, go to http://www.healthshare.com.au/ Alternatively, feel free to post your questions directly to me and I will answer via this Blog.
It may have taken you a long time already - to get to the point where you (and/or your partner) have decided that it's not longer possible to stay in your relationship. It's time to end things.
But how can we move through a separation well? And where there are children involved, how can we end our relationship in a way that still ensures our kids are in no doubt that their relationships with each of us, and with our extended families, are well and truly intact and will be secure into the future?
There's a lot of advice out there about how to cope with a partner's children - helpful tips about strategies to use, how to work as a team when parenting in a blended family, as well as some great insights about what the complexities are for everyone in this new family formation. Because children don't tend to read blogs or self-help books, most of this great information is pitched at adults - i.e. parents and step-parents.
