Archive for the ‘parenting’ Category

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My client, parent educator Betsy Brown Braun, and the author of two bestselling books, Just Tell Me What To Say and You’re Not The Boss Of Me, is often asked to weigh in on teaching children the about the spirit of giving around Thanksgiving and the holidays.  This year she shares her thoughts in the parenting section of the Huffinton Post.  Have a read — because believes the spirit of giving is not just seasonal.

 

 

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My client, parenting expert Betsy Brown Braun is the bestselling author of Just Tell Me What To Say and You’re Not The Boss Of Me.  She recently blogged for postivelypositive.com. In her piece “Be the Person You Want Your Child To Be,” she reminds us that our children do what we do not what we say.  To read more click here.

 

 

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My client, parenting expert and bestselling author of Just Tell Me What To Say and You’re Not The Boss of Me, Betsy Brown Braun was a recent guest on America Now. If you want to catch what she has to say and learn how you can set up an allowance system for your child watch here.

Betsy suggests several chores that will help your kids learn how to earn.

Potential Chores for Children:

  • Set the table
  • Clear the rest of the table, after each person clears her plate;
    push in the chairs, put placements away, sponge off the table,
    dust-bust under the table
  • Empty the dishwasher (starting at age six; breakables may require help)
  • Empty the silverware container of the dishwasher (at age four or five)
  • Empty the small room wastebaskets into the kitchen trash
  • Sort the laundry by color or by owner
  • Put clean socks together by pairs
  • Carry laundry to owners’ rooms
  • Bring in the newspaper
  • Bring in the mail
  • Take out the big trash bins; bring in the empty trash bins
  • Feed the pet; fill the water dish
  • Clean up the pet poop
  • Water outdoor plants
  • Pick up/rake leaves from specific areas
  • Sweep patio/porch/walkway/garage
  • Dust-bust the car
  • Dust bust anywhere!
  • Wash (spritz) the car windows
  • Sweep/dust-bust kitchen or common areas
  • Sponge off family room table; straighten the magazines

Betsy says that powerful kids make powerful adults, and power begins with personal responsibility.  If you start with a very small base pay, set up a regular schedule of chores above and beyond the base pay. Be consistent with the allowance and your child will have a more powerful understanding of why money matters.

 

 

 

The second is a segment about implementing an allowance system.

 

http://www.americanownews.com/story/15409734/why-money-matters-to-your-child

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Recently, my client Dr. Fran Walfish, a Beverly Hills Psychotherapist and author of The Self-Aware Parent shared her expertise with Central Valley Moms on the topic of gifted children and how best parents can nurture and support nurture their out of the ordinary child.

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Is Your Toddler Too Young For Math Bootcamp? Just how young is too young for a child to begin a hardcore academic regimen? Many parents now start children as young as three years old on intense biweekly math and reading drills. My client, leading Beverly Hills child and family psychotherapist, Dr. Fran Walfish, weighs in on this new trend to send kids as young as three to programs like Junior Kumon and Sylvan Learning.  Watch the story on CBS Los Angeles here.

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Millions of children are signing up for Facebook, and a recent survey released shows parents are helping their children lie to get online.The minimum age Facebook  or its social network is 13 — in line with federal laws to protect children’s online privacy.Yet according to a study funded in part by Microsoft and universities, more than half of all parents with 12-year-olds said they knew their children were signed up for the service. One in five parents of 10-year-olds knew of their children’s activity on the site. Asked how the kids signed up for the service — thus violating the site’s terms of service — nearly seven in 10 parents said they helped their children set up accounts. According to the survey, one in five parents acknowledged having a 10-year-old on Facebook. That number rises to 32 percent for parents of 11-year-olds and 55 percent for parents of 12-year-olds.  My client, parenting expert Betsy Brown Braun and bestselling author of Just Tell Me What To Say and You’re Not The Boss Of Me, shares her insights on this new trend with WTOP radio in Washington. Have a listen.

 

 

 

 

 

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My client Dr. Nina Shapiro helps keep our kids safe from choking on Halloween with these great tops featured in Westside Today.

What child doesn’t love Halloween? In fifteen years as a pediatric ear, nose, and throat doctor, Halloween is always my slowest workday. What parent would dare subject their child to a doctor’s appointment, or (perish the thought!) a surgery, on the most sacred of sugar-filled days? Everyone gets involved; newborns don some sort of cute, oversized pumpkin onesy, or get dressed up as a pea in a pod. Toddlers waddle around as bunnies, lions, and teddy bears; preschoolers wear capes or carry fairy wands, and elementary schools are laden with Harry Potters and Wonder Women. And the candy is endless! Sugar is limitless, kids are allowed to scare their teachers (within reason), and school assignments undoubtedly include some sort of crossword puzzle with the word ‘jack-o-lantern’ in it.

All of us know the good part about Halloween; I’ve never met a parent who hasn’t ‘shared’ in their child’s Halloween bounty, and many hope to snap an adorable kid-in-a-costume shot that may work for a holiday card photo. But we must remember the safety issues that arise on this holiday.

All of us rightly worry about losing our child on a dark, crowded street, errant cars injuring children who are running into the street, careless adults on cell phones, not paying attention to their children who are running into the street, or not being able to get our sugar-loaded children to sleep on a school night.

But here’s what I worry about, and, while Halloween day is often a quiet one, Halloween night can be frightful for an airway surgeon because of choking. I don’t mean choking on clothing that is too tight, or external choking by a teenage prankster. I mean choking on regular old candy. The kind your child brings home from preschool, receives from your neighbors, and likely the kind that you are giving out. Choking is the number one cause of accidental death in children under age three years. Yes, it’s true. One child dies every five days in this country from choking on food. Most of these kids are under age three, and most of the food items causing these horrors do not contain warning labels indicating the danger to the under-three crowd.

It’s that ‘magic’ age three, when kids cross the threshold and are allowed to play with toys comprised of ‘small parts’. But what about food with small parts, sticky bits, or unsafe fragments? What was the last food (or candy) label you’ve read with the commonly found toy warning “not for children under three”? Still thinking? Let me know, because those labels don’t exist. And now I’m here to rain on your Halloween parade; no candy is safe for children under three. Label or no label. This includes gum, even if it’s sugarless. Tots can chomp on a thin, plain chocolate bar, if they are seated (so don’t steal those Hershey® bars from your kid’s bag—that’s all they should be allowed to eat).

Children under age three years have neither the motor control, patience, nor airway reflexes to safely eat hard candy, chewy candy, caramel corn, popcorn, or nutty candy, especially on a busy, dark, Halloween night. Older children should be able to do so, but not while walking around trick or treating. Even kids over age four or five years are at high risk for choking on candy if they eat it while in action, and a choking event may go unnoticed if their face is hidden under a Darth Vader mask.

There is plenty of fun to be had on Halloween, while heeding these simple anti-choking tips; awareness is the first and most important step, which is why I’m writing this. So, Happy Halloween! From your neighborhood airway doctor. Let’s meet up at a party or while trick or treating, not in the emergency room.

Dr. Nina L. Shapiro is the Director,Pediatric Otolaryngology and an Associate Professor at the UCLA School of Medicine.

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In her recent blog in the Huffington Post parenting section about Competitive Child Raising, child development expert Betsy Brown Braun calls parents misguided in their notion that children tween-age and even younger are supposed to know their calling.

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What’s a parent to do when there kids don’t listen.  Leading parenting expert and founder of Parenting Pathways, Betsy Brown Braun shares her advice with America Now viewers.  Click here and you too can benefit from Betsy’s expertise.

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What is too much when it comes to texting your child at college – here is what child and family psychotherapist has to say.