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America's nanny offers a large dose of healthy parenting advice with secrets for raising happy, secure, and well-balanced babies and toddlers.
Babies don't come with instructions. And since today's parents are so overwhelmed with schedules and demands, they have little time to bone up on their parenting skills. Often removed from grandparents and relatives who in times past lived next door or just down the street, they have no one to guide them through the disorienting world of raising children. Enter Nanny to the Rescue! Michelle LaRowe, 2004 International Nanny Association "Nanny of the Year," gives her tried and true solutions to childcare. Her expertise with chapters titled "Who's the boss?" and "Discipline is not a four letter word" gives confidence to parents who need specific ideas for real day-to-day problems. A proud member of Christian Nannies, Michelle offers foundational truths sure to help encourge moms and dads.
Nanny To the Rescue Again
Faced with multiple choices regarding school, friends, and activities coupled with the ever-widening influence of the outside world, parents of 6-12 year olds need help. America's nanny is back to offer a large dose of healthy parenting advice with secrets for raising happy, secure, and well-balanced children.
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Discipline OR Punishment
Too often the words discipline and punishment are used interchangeably, when in fact, they stem from completely different ends of the parenting spectrum. Discipline is an act of love. Punishment is usually an act of anger.
Discipline is proactive. It's an ongoing process that eventually and gradually instills your families' values and morals into your children. Its literal meaning is "to teach and to raise up." Discipline builds up a child's self-esteem and self-worth, and never tears them down. It focuses on the behavior, not the child.
When a parent effectively disciplines a child, over time the child develops an inner compass that steers them toward the standards and expectations that the parent has set forth. If you've been proactive in establishing external boundaries, when a child eventually flies the nest to be on their own (even if it's for a few short hours at a friends house), those behaviors will have become internal. In other words, he'll usually behave the way you've taught him to because that's all he knows as acceptable. When children are held to high standards consistently, the standards to which they are held become their norm.
Punishment is reactive. It's a pain inflicted style of correction that results in fear based obedience. The child doesn't want the sting of the stick, the slap of the hand, or the lash of the tongue, so they do whatever is needed to avoid it. Mother says "Jump" and the child asks, "How high?" -- With no understanding of what is even being asked. There is no training accomplished, no lesson learned - just a clear understanding that they don't want to make mom or dad mad.
Understanding true discipline will get you in the perfect mind set that is needed to be a responding loving disciplinarian rather than a reactionary dictator. It will also ease the guilt of saying "no" and the feelings that we've all felt when we've had to "play the bad guy" will quickly subside.
I often have parents tell me "It's hard to say no" or "I want to be his friend." When you understand that discipline is a truly a gift of love, and that saying "no" at times is the best way to be a parent, you will be much more eager to dole out the discipline.
All children are good – it's there behavior that sometimes stinks – and understating the importance and true meaning of discipline will empower you to be the loving, disciplinarian that your child needs.
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Michelle LaRowe is the 2004 International Nanny Association Nanny of the Year. A career nanny specializing in caring for twins, Michelle has over a decade of nanny experience. Although she holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry, she has found her true calling, working as a professional nanny.
Michelle is an active member of the nanny community. She is the founder and president of Boston Area Nannies, Inc., a local non profit educational organization and has served on the International Nanny Association Board of Directors for the past five years. During that time she has also served as the associations 1st Vice President. Michelle is also a proud member of Christian Nannies.
She is called on by the media as a nanny and parenting expert, and has been affectionately dubbed America's Nanny. Michelle has appeared on television and has been featured in print. She is the author of the new parenting series, Nanny to the Rescue!, a contributing writer in the Experts' Guide to the Baby Years and a regular columnist in several parenting publications, including Twins Magazine.
To learn more about Michelle and to get your parenting tip of the day, please visit www.michellelarowe.com.
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