Toddlers + Young Children

Modeling and discussing physical boundaries can be a helpful place to start this conversation - such as, how many times will you pick up the toy they dropped? Or how much twiddling on your nipple while they nurse is ok? By sharing your boundaries they can begin to hear the language you use and also understand the very early stages of consent. Boundaries aren’t something earned, but are a given for all people no matter their age. Help them understand that their boundaries will

Process art is child-directed, choice-driven, and celebrates the experience of discovery. The final product is always unique and the focus lies in the creation or process, not the outcome. Product art is adult driven and there’s a specific outcome in mind and we're seeking a final product. There’s usually a wrong and a right way to do it. This kind of art can set kids up for frustration, disappointment and shame - it's not really supportive of setting them up for a positive r

Potty learning is a journey. Kids go through multiple windows where they become interested beginning around 13 months at the earliest and extending all the way until year 3 or 4. Saturating their world with pottying can be a good place to start: books, songs, media if you use it, and talking loads about potty. Put the potties all around so they have easy access. Bring the potty on the go so you have it anywhere. Any kind of potty is fine - to start with they tend to like the

There is so much to dive into here!! Our conversations around this topic range from co-parenting to grandparents to parenting in community. Your reaction and response largely depends on the role of the other person in your child's life. And even then, it's not always possible to find alignment. Sometimes it's an acceptance that we cannot (and should not) raise little ones in a perfect bubble. Learning resilience, critical thinking and emotional intelligence are only a few pos

Notes from our Guest Speaker, Kristi Keefe, an incredible wise, intuitive and experienced teacher: As caregivers and parents, we want our child to experience smooth and painless transitions, if possible. Not only for the sake of our child, but likely for our own sake as well. And for parents who have a particularly sensitive little one, this can feel especially daunting - as their stress and dysregulation can often trigger our own dysregulation. For these reasons I encourage

This topic is vast!! And there are so many viewpoints and positions that are all supported by research and experts and the truth is that technology is everywhere and at some point it will enter your child's life. For the most part, it's possible to control when and on what level for little ones. An important aspect to consider in the early years is parental use of screens/devices. The main issue with our own use as it relates to children is our diverted attention and the imp

An overload of invisible work may manifest in different ways: rage, resentment, anxiety, numbing, overwhelm, exhaustion, even illness. And somehow we've normalized this as simply being a mom. We've normalized mom's alone time at the grocery store or an appointment as self care. And some women have had to put their own health care aside in favor of taking care of their family. This topic is really important and essential to address and shift in the interest of our own health

What happens when we trust our child, and when is it hard for us to do that? For our Swaddlers conversation, a lot of the discussion centered on trusting our babies when it comes to sleep (theirs and ours) Trusting that they are waking for good reasons — developmental changes/growth (which might wake them on their own, but also means they might need more nursing), teething, feeling rested from late naps Finding ways of meeting our needs and their needs. For example, when o

We've been exploring Kristen Neff's work on having fierce self compassion and applying it to motherhood. Practicing this level of self compassion means to offer yourself the same amount of protection that you would your child. It means talking to yourself with as much love as you do your child and loving yourself just as much. You may find that it's necessary to sit with these invitations for a while first, practice often and offer yourself the opportunity for a re-do for mor

Developmentally we can expect two and three year olds to focus for about 5-10 minutes. Some little ones can play happily and independently for up to 30 minutes however it’s expected that they will want you to be nearby so it may be helpful to keep that in mind. In the past, we've talked about the benefits of uninterrupted play when we explored Yes Zones and essentially what we're talking about now is an extension and will continue to be an extension throughout childhood as t

Community play like going to the park, music classes, play dates, playgroups and library meet-ups can be exciting but also overwhelming and full of new firsts. Here are some of the suggestions we’ve shared in group: Sharing is not developmentally expected. It’s normal for toddlers to want to keep their toys safe or not want to stop playing to give the toy to a friend. It’s also normal for toddlers to take toys from one another as they work through some of the social expecta

Some babies are happy to sit at the table peacefully and eat with no end in sight while other parents find it hard to keep babies at the table. As always, there are a variety of perspectives. You can either keep very clear expectations with simple mantras like "your bottom stays in the seat at the table" or you can opt for the other direction which is to choose your battles carefully and meet them where they're at: consider getting on the floor for a picnic, offer smaller tab