I make my children breakfast in bed every Valentine’s day.  It’s a tradition that we all look forward to.  It is my Valentine to them.  Some times we have red heart pancakes and sometimes we have eggs with candy sprinkles and chocolate chips.  :)  Try it.  Surprise them.    

“Grandparents need the lessons taught by Nicholeen. I have 43 grandchildren. As I took care of 5 of them just recently, using the “Family Council” as a way of solving problems (as taught by Nicholeen) was so helpful to me in working with the grandchildren. Thanks, Nicholeen!”
I loved this comment because it shows that the [...]

Nicholeen, 

Do you have any hope (techniques we can use)  for Narcissist to change?   I am dealing with a 50 year old son who we have diagnosed (finally)  and he is wearing us out emotionally and financially.

Thank you so much, 

      When I think about this situation I can’t help but ponder on the word “control.”He wants control [...]

Q:        “My Older children like to use the “disagreeing Appropriately” in what I consider to be inappropriate ways. For instance if I give an instruction that they simply don’t feel like doing, they disagree appropriately. I find that I want to say “no, you can’t disagree appropriately” because, I don’t feel it is appropriate to [...]

“My 2yo has started crying a LOT the past few days.  Over every little thing.   Nothing is different physically or environmentally that I can tell.  He already has his 2yo molars, too..   He’s just been crying about everything that he doesn’t like, with some pretty good tantrums thrown in the mix of the average crying.  [...]

“I was wondering….what do you do about name calling, or when children say bad words? My children say crap, stupid, dumb, etc… No matter how many times I tell them to stop, they don’t. So would you have them do a chore everytime they named called, or said a bad word? or Would you do [...]

My problem is that I never can think of appropriate consequences when my kids misbehave. Do you have any suggestions? I have five children ages 9-18. Thanks, Amy
Consequences can be difficult to think up, but the trick is to only do it one time.  A parent who has to reinvent the consequence every time a [...]

Q: “With my 2 and half yr old. She frequently will run away from me when I call her, wanting to turn it into a game of chase. Sometimes this is at a store or getting into the car, sometimes it is when she needs a diaper change etc.  I have tried to do roll [...]

Bedtime negative behaviors. my 5 year old just will not settle down. I get really frustrated with him. I don’t feel like I can do the rule of three or extra chores when he is supposed to be going to sleep, and if I tell him he has earned them for the morning, the consequence [...]

Q:  “With my 5 year old, when I am correcting negative behavior and I ask him to practice with me, he goes into goofy mode and doesn’t want to practice correct behavior, or does it silly. Should I give him consequences for this behavior? or should I skip the practice?”
 
A: 
I know just the goofy [...]