October 2010, Parent Kids Right Newsletter
Autographed Book Winners
Congratulations to Jan Springer (from Facebook) and Sarah Kiberu (newsletter subscriber) who each won an autographed copy of Dr. Heins' book Two Arizona Blackbirds!
TINY ParenTip of THE MONTH
We tend to think of all habits as bad. “Jessica has the bad habit of leaving half-eaten food in her bedroom until it stinks.” “ Mark has the bad habit of forgetting to bring home his assignments.” I prefer to think about ways we can guide our children to embrace good habits rather than try to cure them of their bad habits. Did Jessica’s Dad tell her the house rule? All uneaten food must be put in the kitchen trash can. Did Mark’s Mom teach him about mental check lists? One, your assignments. Two, notes to be brought home. Before you leave school count One/Two and check that you have them. Maybe us parents are the ones with bad habits.
News from Dr. Heins
My 2002 Newsletter about Halloween got me a bit of flak from Halloween lovers (grownups who liked to dress up in costumes and grandparents who love any excuse to buy candy for the grandkids).
Maybe I was too negative. Here is an abbreviated version. You judge.
I'm the Halloween version of Scrooge. Bah, humbug, who needs it?
Halloween can be dangerous to your kid's health. Walking around at night with a mask on is not my idea of child safety. All that candy can cause cavities. Buying costumes can be tough on the wallet. The holiday can be harmful to grown-ups too. Lots of Halloween partying and alcohol-related accidents.
Parents: minimize the risks of Halloween:
- Face makeup instead of masks for Trick or Treat.
- Every young child accompanied by an adult.
- New tooth-saver rule: Each child can save seven pieces of candy-one for each night for a week-and the rest is given away.
- Money short this year? Make a creative costume
- Drivers: no alcohol
Humor me: consider a neighborhood or school party instead of Trick-or Treat. Be creative making costumes. You can charge a small admission fee to raise money for a charity. If I had a magic wand I would turn Halloween into the annual fall Holiday-to Raise-Money-for-the-Needy. But until this happens, have a safe and sane Halloween!
Check this out!
Two new ParenTips posted at ParentKidsRight.com today! Get on PKR today to check out our new tips entitled Head Banging and Managing your Marriage.
Thank you loyal subscribers! If you have any suggestions for me or for ParentKidsRight.com please respond to this e-mail.
Happy Parenting!
Dr. Heins
You can find Dr. Heins on Twitter where she will post website updates: http://twitter.com/drheins and on her parenting blog at Dr Heins’ Post: http://www.drheins.blogspot.com/