May 3, 2010

As I go around the country teaching parenting seminars and trying to help parents make healthy changes in their family relationships, I notice there are two things which get asked the most.

1.  What do you do for attitude problems?

2.  How do you stop tantrums? 

      I an not going to expound on tantrums today, but I will say that attitude problems are just tantrums at a different level.  The difference between the two are that tantrums usually happen when a person is small and they often include uncontrolled body movements and crying, and attitude problems are usually mostly verbal with abrasive body language.  Attitude problems are usually more controlled than tantrums.  Both tantrums and attitude problems are signs of frustration, anxiety and lack of healthy communication skills.

     I am pretty confident talking about attitude problems, because I was the attitude problem queen of my house when I was in my teen years.  I think my poor parents earned all their gray hairs during my attitude problem years.  Luckily, I had a very insightful young women’s leader who saw my problem and wasn’t afraid to tell me how to change.  

Great Advice

     One day I was at her home telling her daughter that my parents wouldn’t let me go to a youth party because they