Decide on discipline beforehand
Decide with your partner how you are going to discipline your child. From a very young age children discern what they can get away with and with whom.
Our resident baby expert, Jenni Johnson, advises parent on the best way forward..
It can become a problem if you and your partner have completely different ideas as to how to discipline. The way to handle this is to agree to disagree and find a way together as to how you’re going to handle the situation without your child becoming confused.
To get out of the house on time in the morning, prepare what you can the night before, lunches and clothes to be worn. Teach your children to pack their school and sport bags before they go to bed and to leave it at the door. Wake up 15 minutes before everyone else. Have a place for everything, an in and out box for paperwork a stationary draw, a present wrapping drawer.
If you want your children to develop sound money habits in the future, helping them establish some financial goals and determining how the money is spent or saved can be invaluable. Taking your child to an actual bank to set up a savings account can be a powerful lesson about the importance of saving, perhaps when the piggy bank is full a bank account can be opened and when x amount is saved, half can be drawn out for that special toy.
Grandparents, here are some more ideas of special things to do with your grandchildren, Build a birdhouse out of a cold-drink bottle, sing karaoke with them, teach them oldies like ‘pretty Belinda’ and ‘when I’m 64’. Teach them how to make a paper airoplane. Let them bury you in the sand on the beach. Have a sleep over and watch a sunrise.
When your baby is 8 months old he or she is ready for lumpy food, it may seem as if the food is not enjoyed because there may be a lot of gagging that happens but the gag reflex will be desensitized if you persist . Initially make food slightly lumpy and then add more chunky bits like peas and potato pieces and protein like a chopped up fish cake.
* Catch Jenni on-air every day just after 10am with her tip of the day.
Jenni Johnson, our resident ‘Baby Whisperer’, has been a practicing child-care practitioner for 15 years, and owns a busy ante and post natal clinic in Durban.
At Jenni’s ante and post natal clinic in Durban, parents are taught a system that gives them structure and routine to the baby and childhood years. Jenni has a nursing background. She’s a registered nurse, midwife, psychiatric nurse and a practicing child-care practitioner for the past 15 years. Jenni’s online clinic, can be accessed online via www.jennisays.com. For appointments, e-mail [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter via @JenniSays or on Facebook by 'liking' The Berea Baby Clinic.