Handling Bad Behavior in Public Places: Alternatives to the Supermarket Squeeze
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 Posted in Changing bad habits into good ones, Comment Round-up, Emotion coaching, Mindfulness & Meditation, On Life & Being a Parent, Perfectionism, Real-life parenting, Self-discipline | Leave a Comment »“Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain.” –Author Unknown My point in writing the Bad Mother: Real-Life Tales ...
Losing my Mindfulness
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 Posted in Changing bad habits into good ones, Main essay, Mindfulness & Meditation, On Life & Being a Parent, Real-life parenting, Self-discipline | 8 Comments »It seems everyone who read the post about losing my temper in the supermarket has the same question: what should we do instead of employing the grocery-store grab? My complete answer to this question will be posted on next week’s ...
The Happiness Habit Tracker: Backbone of Our New Routine
Friday, August 21st, 2009 Posted in Changing bad habits into good ones, Discipline, Main essay, School & scheduling, Self-discipline | Leave a Comment »I love the Fall, the start of the school year. I always have, and I think it is because I love the new beginning it represents, plus the opportunity the school year brings for a new routine. But ...
Getting Back in the School Year Routine
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 Posted in Changing bad habits into good ones, Discipline, Empathy, Main essay, School & scheduling, Self-discipline | 2 Comments »"Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony." —Thomas Merton Summer is coming to a close...Summer is a time of lovely things that look like bad habits once school rolls around again: sleeping late, ...
How to get kids to do boring (but necessary) tasks
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 Posted in Changing bad habits into good ones, Discipline, Main essay, Rewards, Self-discipline | 28 Comments »Self-discipline is a form of freedom. Freedom from laziness and lethargy, freedom from expectations and demands of others, freedom from weakness and fear. —H.A. Dorfman After much background material about why I was using material rewards before (habit + ...
Punished by Rewards?
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 Posted in Changing bad habits into good ones, Discipline, Main essay, Rewards, Self-discipline | 17 Comments »Like most parents, I used to (okay, I sometimes still do) bribe my children. Constantly. As in: “I will give the first kid to have her room clean a whole sheet of new stickers.” Life is full of undesirable ...
Unhappiness is a Bad Habit
Thursday, April 16th, 2009 Posted in Changing bad habits into good ones, Discipline, Main essay, Rewards, Self-discipline | 9 Comments »The other day when I wasn’t giving Molly exactly what she wanted exactly when she wanted it, she yelled at me “If I can’t have a playdate with Claire right now, then I am never going to hug you again!” Made ...
Raising Cheaters
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 Posted in Changing bad habits into good ones, Cheating, Growth & fixed mindsets, Main essay, Success, Success & failure | 3 Comments »Last week I visited a high school that has a really spectacular Honor Code. There are no locks on the doors, and all the exams are unproctored. For more than 100 years, kids at this school haven’t cheated. But ...
Emotion Coaching: One of the Most Important Parenting Practices in the History of the Universe
Thursday, March 19th, 2009 Posted in Changing bad habits into good ones, Conflict, Emotion coaching, Empathy, Main essay, Teaching Emotional Literacy | 30 Comments »According to John Gottman, one of my all-time favorite researchers, emotion-coaching is the key to raising happy, resilient, and well-adjusted kids. His research—30 years of it—shows that it is not enough to be a warm, engaged, and loving parent. ...
Ten 2008 Tips for Raising Happy Kids
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 Posted in Changing bad habits into good ones, Conflict, Family meals, Forgiveness, Friendship, Gratitude, Kindness, Main essay, Materialism, On Life & Being a Parent, Optimism, School & scheduling, Video | 2 Comments »Replace Your Kids’ Annoying Behaviors with Happiness Habits Some of the most irritating things our kids do (whining and tattling come to mind) are nothing more than bad habits, and as we all know, bad habits are tough to break! ...
This blog is about science-based parenting advice. I'm a sociologist and the executive director of UC Berkeley's 
Appearances on ABC's "View From the Bay."
