Welcome! My guest for today’s show is a friend of mine and a fellow Positive Discipline parent educator. Kelly Pfeiffer lives in South Carolina and has raised four kids in a blended family situation. After a divorce, she remarried a man with two children, which blended their family with kids of ages 15, 15, 13, and 12. Those children are now young adults, and Kelly has been a parent educator for the last 16 years. Today’s topics include positive discipline parenting tools, focusing on our discussion of “special time,” a way to guarantee one-on-one time with each child to maintain the vital parent-child connection. Join us!

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• How Kelly was introduced to Positive Discipline: “Why do parents not know this?”
• Why having tools and a formula doesn’t guarantee an easy parenting road
• Variables in blending families
• The Special Time tool: how to present it to parents
• A magical connection between parent and child
• Kelly’s advice for Special Time:
• Plan it and put it on the calendar
• As much as possible, let it be child-led
• Incorporate non-competitive games
• Use bike rides, picnics, and other outdoor activities
• Limit distractions (Put away your cell phone!)
• Use bedtime routines
• Take advantage of time with a younger child when an older one has an activity
• Take advantage of time with an older child when a younger one needs to nap
• Have an older child help with dinner preparation
• How connection helps diffuse power struggles
• Tools to repair and recover from hurts
• Why parents need to say “I’m sorry”
• Don’t give up when a teen is resistant
• Ideas for saving Special Time money
• What does Joyful Courage mean to you? “Being courageous, feeling the fear, and doing it anyway---with JOY!”

Resources:

www.thinkitthroughparenting.com

Find Kelly on Facebook and Twitter (@posdisparenting)

Become a Positive Discipline Parent Educator at Kelly’s 2-day workshop in Greenville, SC, in October

Email newsletter: Find out more and sign up for these parenting tools on Kelly’s website!

Positive Discipline by Jane Nelson, Ed.D.

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