Author: Dr. Charles Fay
“As soon as she started to walk, it felt like our lives were over!” Leah lamented. “Then our little Sara learned to say ‘No!’ to everything. We were always angry and frustrated…and feeling guilty for it, too.”
We at Love and Logic have met many young families going through this type of heartache and chaos. This inspired us to write our book, Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood in 2001. We expected it to be popular. We didn’t expect it to remain an award-winning bestseller for almost fifteen years.
Announcing the release of
Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood (Second Edition)
Now there are cutting-edge strategies for parenting
young children in the 21st century.
From the pages of this book, Leah and her husband learned some strategies for calming the chaos:
Apply the “Uh-Oh Song”
“Each time Sara started to get naughty, we learned to sing ‘Uh-oh’ and gently buckle her into her highchair or stroller. We were no longer yelling or threatening. A week later my husband sang, ‘Uh-oh’ and she stopped in her tracks, turned around, smiled, and said, “I stop, Daddy.”
Take the mayhem out of mornings
“Sara’s eyes were huge when we said, ‘Oh, Sara. We love you so much. The car is leaving when the timer on the stove rings. Will you be going with your clothes on your body or your clothes in a bag?” Leah giggled, “We only had to do this once.”
Button up bedtime
“Instead of telling her to go to sleep, we learned to barrage her with lots of tiny choices: ‘Do you want your light on or off? Are you going to go to sleep right way or in a little while? Will you be sleeping with your head at the top of the bed or the bottom?’ Then we’d say, ‘The only rule is that you have to stay in your room and not cause a problem for anyone else. We love you. Good night.'”
Do it all with empathy
“The best part,” Leah said with a smile, “was that we learned to precede consequences with empathy. This has dramatically cut down on the temper tantrums and rebellion…and has brought more empathy into our marriage.”
Parenting young children really can be a joy. That is, as long as we have the right amount of love and logic.
 Thanks for reading! Our goal is to help as many families as possible. If this is a benefit, forward it to a friend.
Dr. Charles Fay |
