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I have noticed that the times that I am busiest at work seem to be when my kids muck up the most. It can be very annoying because I am a working mum and sometimes I just need to keep working at home as well.

What I have decided is that at times when my life seems busiest, those are the times that I most need to spend one on one time with my kids. Now I know this sounds crazy to do it when you are busiest. But I have discovered that if I don’t, I just bring more trouble into the house.

Kids crave attention and if they don’t get it in a good way you can be sure that they will do something naughty to get it in a bad way. I can remember when my son David had just turned three years old. I had just had my third baby. He was new born and I also had a 22 month old. I was pretty busy with three youngsters in the house.

Well obviously David didn’t feel that he was getting the attention that he needed. So one day he went into my cupboard and peed all over my dresses! He didn’t have the skills to understand what he was feeling and express himself to me properly. He just knew that he was feeling left out. So he did something to get my attention. Boy, did it get my attention. This was a long time ago and because I didn’t know any different then, I smacked David for it.

The wise parent would understand that this is a completely normal reaction from a three year old who isn’t getting enough attention. I have learned a lot since that episode.

It is our responsibility as parents to figure out what is the cause of our child’s misbehaviour. If you think long and hard you can generally come up with an underlying reason for most forms of naughtiness.

For me, one of the most helpful things is to just talk with my children regularly, not even at times that they are being naughty. Communicating with your child will help you know if they are experiencing problems at school or if anything in particular is bothering them.

My children have lots of sibling rivalry issues as there are four of them. So I take them every few months to talk to a Counsellor at Lifeline, whether they think they need it or not. It is good for them to hear stuff from another adult that is not their parent. It also gives them an opportunity to bring up things for discussion that I may have overlooked.

Children are naughty for a reason. Fix the reason behind the naughty behavior and you will stop the bad
behaviour.

Kim Patrick is a single mother with four children, living on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. She is author of the book, “Get Your Child To Behave In 30 Days Or Less”. Her web site is:

http://www.mychildcanbehave.com

Depressed children demonstrate many similar characteristics as adults who are depressed. Not everybody accepts that children can suffer from depression, especially if the youngster appears to have a happy and stable home life. However, it is a fact that the childhood years are a time in everybodys life when depression can take hold and affect you without you even realising.

To be able to understand childhood depression, you must first have a definition of depression in mind. Many folks say they are depressed when they have an especially unpleasant or sad day, but there is an essential difference between these short-lived feelings of misery and a genuine depressive disorder. Clinical depression is a continuous, pervasive sense of sadness, fear, and anxiety. If this type of true depression is left untreated, it can lead to serious health issues and even suicidal thoughts.

The general assumption amongst most adults is that children who are well fed, looked after properly and have a stable home life have no reason to be depressed. However, the reality is that early life is not completely the happy-go-lucky frolic we imagine it to be. Many youngsters feel tremendous pressure from their peers and society as a whole, to be something they are not in order to fit in. Additionally others feel that they must attain a certain degree of perfection in order to satisfy the important adults in their lives. Children have very little control over their own lives, and this can be very frightening for them in a sense that they have a difficult time understanding. It is in these situations that many children wind up being depressed.

Although scientists have a very limited understanding about the functioning of the human brain, they do know that certain chemical imbalances can lead to depression, which shows itself as an emotional response. Consequently, it is the imbalance that has to treated which often involves medications and relaxation techniques that balance out these chemicals.

Children who are depressed will often have continual feelings of sadness or be constantly tetchy. They will often express or exhibit a low self-image with statements such as ‘I am no good’ or ‘I am so stupid’ that seem to come out for no obvious reason. They will find it difficult to concentrate on any one thing and they may loose sleep, or start to sleep too much. There may also be a dramatic increase or decrease in their appetite and activity levels. Physical symptoms can often manifest themselves in the form of a continual stomachache or headache that have no obvious triggers. Other changes in the child’s normal routine or behaviour can also be signs of depression. Of course, the depression may be triggered by an obvious event such the death of a close relative or pet, a change of school or a sudden move. However, when the symptoms of depression persist for an extended period that is when it becomes dangerous.

If you, as a parent, suspect that you child is suffering from depression, it is important to seek immediate help from a doctor that has experience of dealing with depressed children. They may prescribe some form of medication or counselling for your youngster.

The most important thing to do as a parent is to be proactive and ensure that your child gets the necessary treatment, so that he or she can live an exciting and fun filled life; the sort of life that childhood is made for!

To learn much more about Healthy Living for Children, visit http://www.healthylivinganswers.com/childrens-health/ where you can find this and much more, including whether or not Parents are to Blame for Childhood Obesity

Kids love their fun and break periods. In fact, most kids look forward to their playtime and are very happy and excited when the bell for playtime goes off. Most of the time, these kids spend a lot of their time in playground which is where they often get to have fun. These periods are usually spent in the general local and neighborhood playground, school and other playground et.c.

With time however, things have changed drastically as parents now realize that it is possible to build a playground – even though small – at the back of their homes. While it does cost a bit more then your average toy the rewards in terms of safety and monitoring are phenomenal. Even though building a safe playground at the back of your house costs a lot, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the playground equipments are safe for the kids.

Therefore spending lots of money on buying very expensive playground equipments is not a guarantee of the child’s safety when he or she is using it. In fact statistics show that over two hundred thousand accidents resulting from injuries and wounds sustained in the playgrounds are treated annually. This rounds up to over five hundred occurring on a daily basis. Injuries that can be sustained from using the playground equipments include joint dislocations, bone fractures, concussions occurring as a result of the head hitting the ground and a host of others.

With all that said, what are the necessary things you need to do to ensure that you minimize – to the lowest possible level – the incidences of injuries sustained from using the playground equipments? The answer to that is by fixing the root cause.

How? Build a safe playground for the kids to use.
So, how do you build a safe playground? What are the factors to be considered when building a safe playground?

First, ensure that the flooring on the playground makes for reducing the effects of a fall rather than worsening it. This can be done by building the floor using woodchips. Avoid the use of hard surfaces such as grass, sand, and asphalt as they will exacerbate the effects of a fall. There are better surfaces such as rubber mulch.

Second, always make allowance for more space. Therefore, the floor should extend to over six feet beyond the play area. If the fort is above 4ft, it would be a good idea to not leave the guard rails open. Keep them close together to disallow the kids from getting their head stuck in between them. For kids that are of school age, make sure that the railings are above thirty eight inches (38in) and finally make sure that you have enough space that can grow as your child grows.

For more information visit All About Playgrounds at http://www.AllAboutPlaygrounds.com – You can also request more information to find out how to build a safe backyard playgrounds for your kids.

Like many parents, you may be considering a hidden or covert camera to record the interaction and behavior of your babysitter and your children while you’re away. As you can see these so-called nanny cams or spy cams can be hidden in a variety of household objects and record activity without even a glimmer of suspicion on the part of your child care provider.

But is it legal? Are you risking criminal charges or a civil lawsuit by taping your sitter? The answer is yes, your nanny cam in most instances is perfectly legal. There are a few details which should be brought to your attention and discussed with an attorney licensed in your state if you have additional questions.

Visible video cameras (not hidden in any way) are generally not illegal if they are in a non-private place like the kitchen or living areas of your home. If the camera records sound as well as video, you must comply with federal and state wiretapping and eavesdropping laws. You will need consent of one or all parties to any recorded conversation, depending on your jurisdiction. Most states will allow you, the parent, to consent to the recording on behalf of your minor child. You will need to check on audio recording laws for more information about the necessary consent to an audio recording.

Hidden cameras (often referred to in the media as nanny cams or spy cams) are still usually okay from a legal point of view, unless the babysitter has a reasonable expectation of privacy. There is a federal law which makes it a crime to secretly capture photo or video images of people in places and situations in which they have an expectation of privacy, such as bathrooms, dressing rooms, locker rooms, hotel rooms and tanning salons. Most states now have similar laws. So, you definitely can’t record the nanny in the bathroom and probably not in her bedroom if she lives in with your family.

Most experts agree that you shouldn’t wait until you suspect some sort of abuse or neglect of your child before getting a nanny cam. If you install one before the nanny is hired and inform her that she may be monitored, your nanny cam may act as a deterrent to misconduct or abuse instead of an investigative tool. In fact, many nannies have no problem with nanny camera monitoring as long as they know about it or at least about the possibility that it is there. They often are offended however by secret, hidden cameras.

So, at the end of the day, you will need to balance the legal and ethical issues related to nanny cam recording. Reasonable video surveillance, especially if done without sound, is legal in every state as long as you stay out of the bathroom and the bedroom. Now you’ve just got to decide whether or not to disclose the existence and/or location of the camera to the babysitter before you switch it on.

The Author Sharon M was a teacher for over 30 years. She is dedicated to helping protect our children and families. You can find more information on Nanny Cams and Surveillance Equipment at http://www.A1-HiddenCamera.com

Did you know that most self confidence problems as an adult originate from childhood? For this reason, it is particularly important to that you pay maximum attention to other or your own children’s self confidence – in other words, help them to develop self confidence as much as possible. They will thank you for it later in life and benefit from it greatly!

To develop your self confidence, one factor is more important than all the others put together which is – unconditional love and approval. If you have that, little else will matter – though of course, instilling a sense of self discipline in yourself is also very important. Love and approval are right at the center of most of the confidence issues people face, though. This is how we tell children that they are appreciated and that they are perfect in exactly the way that they are rather than telling them what they have wrong with them and picking out negative things to say to them.

If we delay giving approval, or if we appreciate our children for their potential rather than for what they are right at the present moment, we are setting the scene for serious self confidence issues and possible other problems down the road. Many a well meaning parent have fallen into this trap.

It is very difficult to help your children develop self confidence if you don’t have good self-confidence yourself – it’s sort of like the blind trying to lead the blind. Ideally, if you yourself have issues with regard to self-confidence or self estemm, you must try to work them out. You can do this with therapy, or maybe by participating in a course, group or workshop, or even just by thinking, reading and working through your issues on your own, but the first step is deciding you need to work on this particular trait about yourself. We vary in our approach to issues like this. While therapy is generally a great idea, some of us really do better exploring problems on our own.

What happens if a parent has poor self confidence? The problem is that we tend to project our own self-image onto our children. Some people have a greater tendency than others to do this, but no-one is completely immune to it. Then, if you are projecting what you think of yourself onto your son or daughter,and you have poor self confidence, the message you send out will be a disapproving one. It’s hard to develp self confidence under those circumstances. Remember that you are you, and your child is your child – he or she has a separate life with its own unique set of challenges.

Support your child in all of his or her endeavors – that’s what you’re there for. While gentle correction and an insistance on self-discipline is helpful, disapproval isn’t. Take a good look at your parenting, and do your best to help your child develop self-confidence.

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