Protecting our children from every possible harm, emotional as well as physical is the most fundamental parental urge. It is as essential as loving and nurturing them. On the other hand, our children need skills to navigate in this hectic world and be able to recognize the potentially dangerous situations. However, how can we expect…
Parenting
Helping Kids To Be Present In This Pokemon Go Age
During a family vacation this summer I was strolling along the harbor front of Lake of the Woods in Ontario. The lake is my spiritual home, a refuge to escape into the almost five thousand square miles of sun-speckled water dotted with 14,000 wooded islands. The beauty and tranquility soothes my mind and provides an…
Bringing Mindfulness to Story Time
When my son was just four years old, he taught me a big lesson that changed me forever. I was reading to him, as we did every day. It was a little more rushed than usual. I was tired, hungry and sitting on the edge of the couch and going through the book with him….
Paige Wolf on Book-Writing, Balance, and an Inspiring Medical Recovery
Paige Wolf is a green living expert and the author of Spit That Out! The Overly Informed Parent’s Guide to Raising Healthy Kids in the Age of Environmental Guilt and the owner of Paige Wolf Media and Public Relations, a B Corporation certified eco-friendly PR firm focused on sustainable clientele. She lives in Philadelphia with her…
Mindful Parenting: Releasing Your Expectations
Editor’s note: We’re thrilled to welcome Dr. Shefali Tsabary’s voice to Green Child, as she shares her perspective on releasing the expectations we have on our children. To learn more about parenting from a place of peace, presence, and connectedness, check out her new book, The Awakened Family. If there is one fear that is common to most of…
Postnatal Care: How To Truly Blossom as a Woman and Mother
Motherhood. An amazing, gorgeous, exhausting, empowering, emotional, and beautiful journey. A journey that we, as women, have been called to embrace and enjoy. A journey that is unique and personal. A journey that lasts a lifetime. In order to truly tap into your full being as a mother, you must understand the importance of practicing…
5 Ways Modern Parents Can Improve Work-Life Balance
Before becoming a parent, work-life balance is generally achievable for most professionals. Even when you put in a 60-hour week at the office, you can manage to squeeze in enough hours in the day to keep your home clean, spouse happy, or even navigate your way through the dating scene if you’re not yet in a…
Family Nourishment: Making meals and sharing food as an act of love
When we sit down to eat together in a family setting, we are opening ourselves to more than just a moment of balanced nutrition and a healthy serving of food groups. We come together and dine to receive nourishment; to fill our cup with community, energy, relationship, shared experience and connection, as well as fuel…
Oscha Slings: Keeping Your Baby Beautifully Close
The connections we make with our babies are some of the most empowering, meaningful aspects of parenting. Along with this bond comes trust-building, awareness of a safe space, and the development of deep, emotional relationships. One beautiful way of achieving all of this is to wear carry your baby. Whether in a woven wrap, ring sling, or structured carrier,…
Baby Led Weaning: A Real Food Approach to Feeding Your Baby
With a new baby, every new phase can be exciting but also pretty stressful. Learning new cues, figuring out a feeding schedule…it’s a bit daunting. Then, once you finally get your feeding routine under control, what happens? Time for “solids.” The idea of starting baby off at the age of four months with purees is…
Xza Higgins on Bonding and Babywearing
Known as the heart and soul of MommyCon, Xza Higgins is rolling out a new project. WEAR: A Babywearing Conference was created “to preserve age-old indigenous babywearing practices, while showcasing the latest advances in babywearing innovation, design and fashion.” A long time friend of Green Child, Xza talks with us about her family, her passion for babywearing, and her…
Herbal Essentials for Nurturing Life
As parents, we all strive for a nurturing life. We strive to offer our closest loved ones the tender love and care that they need and deserve. Whether they’ve had a bad day and are in need of some extra gentleness or need their physical pains eased, it’s what parenthood – and family – is…
The Working Dad’s 5 Secrets of Success
For many working fathers, the time you get to spend with your children is limited. When work takes up the majority of the week, you have to take the little time you have left and make it count. Fortunately, with a little creativity and foresight, there are many ways to build on this. You can, in…
How Not to Do It All
The day-to-day running of a modern household is anything but typical. “Routine” is a fluid concept. Every day is different. Some moms stay home, some dads stay home. Some moms work outside of the house, some dads do. Many parents are working from home more frequently. This isn’t your grandmother’s norm. Yet, a lot of…
How to Choose a Breast Pump
Breastfeeding is not just best for your baby, it’s the biological norm. While breast milk has all the nutrients a baby needs during his first six months of life and offers protection against several illnesses, breastfeeding has many benefits for the mother, too. If you’re expecting and have decided to breastfeed your baby, you have probably…
Postpartum depression is real. It’s okay to call it what it is.
Postpartum depression……shhhhhh. We don’t talk about that here, that’s for other people. Even the acronym PPD feels safer to say: contained, sweet, easy. The truth is, I knew I was at risk, I knew all too well, but knowing doesn’t equate preventing. I mean, one can know they are about to be in a car…
Bonding with Your Child Through Yoga
Practicing yoga with children is one way to build a great relationship with them. Doing simple yoga poses together can help both parent and child to relax, be in the moment, and obtain physical activity at the same time. Many children lead rather stressful lifestyles that include constant lessons, test-taking, early mornings, long days, competitive…
Coping with Parenting Fear & Excessive Worry
“It was the middle of the night and my little one was struggling to breathe. We rushed to the ER, and it turned out to be a severe asthma attack. Everything turned out fine then, but I haven’t been the same since. Now, it’s like I’m always waiting for the other shoe to drop. When…
How to Handle Your Child Getting Lost
It can happen in a blink of an eye: you simply turn away in a crowded place. When you turn back, your child is nowhere to be seen. Losing sight of your child – even for a moment – can be frightening, but it is a reality many parents will face at some point in a…
Teaching Respect When Responding to a Disrespectful Child
Alicia was at a neighborhood party when her 8-year-old walked up to her and said, “Get me a drink!” A bit embarrassed, she said, “What do you say?” Her son rolled his eyes as he sighed and replied, “P-u-l-eeze.” When Alicia said she’d get it in a few minutes, he demanded, “But I’m thirsty NOW!”…
Guided Relaxation: Pausing to Understand Anger
Children love the use of the vivid guided imagery for fun and stress relief. You can guide your child to processing through his or her anger in a healthy way. Read this in a calm relaxed voice to your child before bed or anytime that relaxation is needed. These peaceful guided relaxation scripts are written…
The Healing Power of Rest: Lying-In With Your New Baby
When we talk about bringing baby home in America these days, it’s often discussed in a glossy magazine format. We need to have the Pinterest-perfect nursery ready (even if baby will be staying in mom and dad’s room). The baby must be enrobed in the most adorable, organic, unique layette. We allow every person who’s chomping at…
Nurture Self-Confidence with Family Bonding Activities
Parenting is the most all-encompassing, complex, overwhelming, and demanding job that has ever existed. Moms and dads are ultimately responsible for shaping tiny humans into socially acceptable beings that understand, behave, accept, share, and grow harmoniously with the people around them. One of the biggest challenges for parents is finding ways to instill self-confidence in…
Letting Kids Be Kids
As a mother, sometimes I feel like the general public expects my children to act like respectable forty-year-olds while out in public. It seems like every other day, a post comes up in my news feed relating how some restaurant patron was offended that their ten dollar plate of pasta was ruined because a child…
