Here Are Parenting Strategies to Offer Parenting Help for Raising Children and Toddlers! This Is Simple Pre-framing.

How many times have you been in a mall, grocery store, bank or airplane and experienced a toddler having a screaming fit? It happens all the time. I know, having been a single mom with four children, that we make a sincere effort most of the time to keep some sort of peace with our toddlers and young children, and gosh, even our teenagers, now that I think about it.??

Here is what is so typical and what I used to do all of the time. I would take my children to the grocery store and the first thing I would do is get them a free cookie at the free cookies for kids bakery counter. Then, I would go as quickly as I could, hoping to complete my shopping trip before their cookie was done, always to no avail. Pretty soon, they were fighting over the cart or for some other reason, and I would leave the grocery store with everyone a little stressed out and obnoxious and frazzled. ??

Every parent who takes their child or children to the grocery store would choose to have their child cooperate, so they can get their shopping done and maintain their dignity as a parent. My husband Thomas Liotta taught me to find out what is important to your toddler, child, tween or teen. What is in it for the child to act in the way that is essential to you? In short, why should they?

To achieve this, all I have to do is to ask them, and then actually listen to their answer. Their answer is their fuel. It is their fuel for them to learn the life skills which I have deemed essential to their survival.

This was the first thing I learned from Thomas: to actually listen to my children, to hear what is important to them, to learn their fuel.

If their fuel is the cookie in the grocery store, you would simply have a brief conversation with your child before entering the store. "Little Timmy, I would love for you to have a cookie. For you to earn a cookie you will be quiet, calm and cooperative in the store. After you do all of this, after we come out of the store, you can have your cookie. Okay? Can you repeat back to me what I just said? What do you do in the store if you choose to earn yourself a cookie at the end?" Little Timmy will answer, "Be quiet, calm and cooperative." Now you praise little Timmy for being so smart! Taking just two to five minutes to pre-frame with your toddler will save you 30-60 minutes of frustration in the grocery store,!

This is all it takes. Two to five little minutes of pre-framing! The small ideas help us to parent better every day!