When a toddler uses profanity, don't make a big deal about it. If you do, you give the child more power. After all, it's only a wo...rd--one that won't do much harm to anybody. In fact, if you think about it, a nasty word is a step up from hitting or biting someone. So look at it as a sign of growth.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When I was a young girl salmon fishing with my father in the Straits of Juan de Fuca in Washington State I used to lean out over t...he water and try to look past my own face, past the reflection of the boat, past the sun and darkness, down to where the fish were surely swimming. I made up charm songs and word-hopes to tempt the fish, to cause them to mean biting my hook. I believed they would do it if I asked them well and patiently and with the right hope. I am writing my poems like this. I have used the fabric and the people of my life as the bait.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Everything here below beneath the sun is subject to continual change; and perhaps there is nothing which can be called more incons...tant than opinion, which turns round in an everlasting circle like the wheel of fortune. He who reaps praise today is overwhelmed with biting censure tomorrow; today we trample under foot the man who tomorrow will be raised far above us.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The toddler's wish to please ... is a powerful aid in helping the child to develop a social awareness and, eventually, a moral con...science. The child's love for the parent is so strong that it causes him to change his behavior: to refrain from hitting and biting, to share toys with a peer, to become toilet trained. This wish for approval is the parent's most reliable ally in the process of socializing the child.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Our children evaluate themselves based on the opinions we have of them. When we use harsh words, biting comments, and a sarcastic ...tone of voice, we plant the seeds of self-doubt in their developing minds.... Children who receive a steady diet of these types of messages end up feeling powerless, inadequate, and unimportant. They start to believe that they are bad, and that they can never do enough.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »