A Fine Parent

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How to Make the Most of Visiting Grandparents Who Love Spoiling Grandchildren

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(This article is part of the Positive Parenting FAQ series. Get free article updates here.)

Spoiling grandchildren - main picYou know what they say about too much of a good thing?

Yeah, that’s kind of what visiting grandparents is like for us.

Every summer and winter holiday we go to the Midwest for a long visit with both sets of grandparents.

My kids love it. Which isn’t surprising at all considering how much both our parents love spoiling grandchildren.

My kids eat more ice cream in those few weeks than they do all year round. They’re allowed to stay up late. They consume more television than is humanly possible. They play all day, every day.

On one hand, it’s lovely. I love that my kids get to do this.

But it also drives me crazy.  No homework gets done. Kids are tired and cranky from missing bedtimes and getting up early. Vegetables are a distant memory.

And I end up with the unsavory task of wrestling things back to normal when we get back home.

Time at Grandma and Grandpa’s is special. It should be. I don’t want to get in the way of that.

At the same time, I don’t like how out of balance my parenting feels by the end of the trip.

So, for the past couple of years now, I’ve been trying out a few tricks to make the most of the fact that my kids have such wonderful grandparents, while at the same keeping it from straining my own relationship with my parents, or my kids.

Here are 4 things that have really helped:

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Positive Parenting in a Box:
Connected Hearts Journal

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(This article is part of the Positive Parenting FAQ series. Get free article updates here.)

For about a year now, I’ve worked with many of you to put together a beautiful, custom-designed, parent-child journal. It is time now for the big unveiling…

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Note: The print versions of the journal are SOLD OUT! I don’t have plans to reprint them at the moment. You can however get the downloadable PDF version of the Connected Hearts Journal HERE.

The “Executive Summary” Version

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And all this while requiring just a few minutes of your time, and done at whatever pace that works for your family’s schedule.

Got elementary school-aged kids? Then you don’t want to miss this!

What Makes the Connected Hearts Journal So Special?

You can walk into any bookstore and pick up a journal. So what makes this journal special? (And why should you absolutely get one for your kids? 🙂 )

The devil is in the details. And we have spared no effort. [Read more…]

A Personal Story:
Life, Goals and Gobi Manchurian

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(This article is part of the Wisdom From the Trenches series. Get free article updates here.)

Personal Story - Life, Goals and Gobi Manchurian - Main ImageDo you believe in the power of stories?

I do.

And today, on the almost-3rd anniversary of this blog (it’s on Oct 7th, woot!), I want to share with you a story that has driven some of the biggest decisions of my life in the recent years and helped me turn my life around.

This is a story from my college days.

As many of you know, I was born and raised in India. The culture and lifestyle there, particularly 20+ years back was very different than it is here now.

Back in India, parents fund children’s college years. There are no jobs for students to do to earn an income. You learn to make do with whatever allowance your parents give you.

I am a middle child from a middle-class family. My years in college overlapped those of my sisters… first my older sister and then my younger sister. Consequently, the allowances we received were pretty meager.

I didn’t think too much about it at the time though. It was the norm. Most students fell into one of two distinct classes — the “rich” or the “others”.

I firmly belonged among the “others” and for the most part, I was perfectly fine with it.

During the first years of my college, I received an allowance of Rs. 800 (USD 12) per month, and a little more in the later years. Out of this Rs. 600 – Rs. 650 would go towards my board (a small room shared with two others), food and electric bills. That left me with roughly Rs. 150 – Rs. 200 (about USD 2.25 – USD 3) to for all other expenses — from books to tampons.

The cost of living in India 20 years back was quite low. But still, Rs. 200 didn’t go very far. Ever the resourceful, we — the “others” — made up with creativity what we lacked in the financial department. [Read more…]

10 Instances When You Should Get Out Of The Way To Be a Better Parent

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(This article is part of the Positive Parenting FAQ series. Get free article updates here.)

How to be a Better Parent - Main PicSo, on this site we talk a lot about being connected parents.

About guiding and supporting our kids in their journey through childhood, so they can grow up to be fantastic human beings.

Today though I want to take a step back and look specifically at those instances when we need to get out of the way so we can be better parents.

It was amazing how many situations I could come up with once I got thinking!

We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s dive right in –

#1 When Your Lid Is About To Blow

Let’s just start off with a bang.

Sometimes there are instances when we can get angry in a controlled manner.

And then, there are those when all sanity has left the building, and we simply want to scream, rant and rave not caring a hoot to what destruction it leaves in its wake.

[Read more…]

8 Fascinating Insights from Psychology Research That Will Make You a Better Parent

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(This article is part of the Research Insights series. Get free article updates here.)

Psychology Research - Main PicDo your kids sometimes exhibit completely unexpected and irrational behavior?

Heck, do you sometimes do the same?

Psychologists have been studying human behavior and our minds for eons and some of the things they’ve discovered are fascinating.

I love reading about these studies that explain some of our crazy, cooky behavior! And while not all of the studies that I’ve come across are related to parenting, I find that their insights can nevertheless be applied to our day-to-day parenting choices to make us much better parents.

So today, I decided to consolidate some of these studies in one place. I hope you find them as fascinating as I do.

Alright, here we go –

#1 Marshmallow Experiment

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