My daughter recently turned three, and this is an age of great leaps in communication skills for her and her friends. When she started going to school in January, she experienced conflict with other classmates that sometimes turned physical, with her on the receiving end of pushes, head-bonks, bites, etc. The first time this happened, […]
The other day, my daughter told me that she doesn’t like two of the kids in her class because one of them asks why too much, and the other cries. She then labeled the two children as “The Why-er” and “The Crier.” I restrained myself from laughing at the irony of this, since she probably […]
Being a toddler, my daughter struggles with the concept of sharing with others. She likes to play with friends, but she also wants to have things go exactly her way. She gets frustrated when they don’t. She is learning a painful but important lesson about what it means to live in the world with other […]
A common relationship dynamic is the loaded question. You want something specific from your partner. Instead of stating the desire, you ask a seemingly innocent question with a correct answer in mind. If the question is answered incorrectly, you punish your partner for getting it wrong. Maybe you want a romantic evening on Valentine’s Day, […]
I’ve written before about why ultimatums rarely work in relationships. Relationship ultimatums tend to go along the lines of “Change your behavior, or I leave.” Most of these ultimatums don’t work because the person issuing the ultimatum isn’t ready to follow through with the threat to end the relationship; however, there are times when an […]
When you meet someone that you want to be liked by, you might be tempted to hide your limitations for fear that you won’t get a chance to have a relationship with that person. This holds true in personal and business relationships. You perceive that this person will reject you if you can’t give them […]
The way a person drives speaks volumes about they way communicate. Today, for example, I was at a four-way stop sign. There was a car stopped at the same time, directly across from me. The driver started to move forward without flashing a turn signal, so I assumed that she, like me, was going to […]
After reading an article about doing a financial 30 day challenge, I decided to try the article’s suggestion to sell one thing on Ebay per day for 30 days. There’s a lot of clutter in our house, and even though we give some things to charity on a regular basis, there are other things that […]
Recently, my daughter had her very first splinter in her foot. This splinter was obviously making her uncomfortable: she was favoring one foot and wincing as she walked around. I told her that we needed to take the splinter out, and that it might hurt a bit. Well, she was not interested in having a […]
Often in a relationship, there is one person who needs more personal space than their partner. It can be hard for someone who doesn’t require much space to understand their partner’s need for it. Often, that need can be interpreted as rejection. If you are someone who needs more space than your partner, it can […]