Kids & Company Blog: Parenting

Posted on: Thursday January 31st, 2013

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

Over the years, I have gone on countless trips with my family: weekends to the cottage, weeks away at all-inclusive resorts, and even the dreaded twenty-eight-hour-drive down to Florida for March Break. My children are in their teens and older now, but I have definitely learned a lot over the last twenty-seven years of planes,… [read more]

Posted on: Friday January 4th, 2013

Posted by: Lisa Ruscica

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year celebration. The beginning of a new year brings new beginnings and lots of new resolutions. Is healthy eating and staying fit a part of your 2013 resolutions? Or maybe it’s been a part of the 2012 and 2011 resolutions as well but you really want to kick it into gear this year? Whatever your reasoning is for a healthier lifestyle, there really is no better time to give it a go!

Posted on: Friday December 14th, 2012

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

As I parent, I was always searching for the right place to go for dance classes, basketball, hockey, prenatal classes, and so much more. Being annoyed with this as a parent myself, I decided here at Kids & company we’re going to do something about it! We are so excited to soon be launching a… [read more]

Posted on: Wednesday October 24th, 2012

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

Power struggles are such a common occurrence with children of all ages for so many different reasons! You would think after the age of five or so they would taper off, but I’d have to say to this day I still experience power struggles… even with my oldest child!

One power struggle that is common for parents is the clothing dispute. Whether it’s your three-year-old daughter who insists on wearing a Christmas dress with rubber boots in the middle of July, or your four-year-old son who refuses to get dressed in the morning, clothing can be a tough one! When my eldest daughter was three years old, she decided that she was going to be picky about her clothing. In fact she decided not to wear clothes at all, and there was no way I was going to get anything on her. This was definitely difficult for us, as the number one rule in power struggles is to ignore the situation and not to engage in the battle.

Posted on: Tuesday October 9th, 2012

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

Whether or not to use a pacifier to soothe your baby has been a longdebated question for parents and pediatricians. There have beenstudies that suggest that pacifier use has health benefits for babies, including the reduction of SIDS in babies who use pacifiers. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Institute of Child Health and Human development recommend using a pacifier at night because of this.

Posted on: Tuesday September 18th, 2012

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

Eating and nutrition is definitely a hot topic among parents. Many always wonder, is my child eating enough, are they eating a wide enough variety of food, are they getting the nutrition they really need? What I’ve experienced is that all children (and people for that matter) are very different. In my household, we always had many different meals and food arrangements going on.

Posted on: Tuesday September 4th, 2012

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

One question I’m often asked is, “do you love playing with children?” Although this may come as a surprise to most, my answer to that question is “no.” I do have a special love for babies, nursing, cuddling and playing with them, but I have never had much of an interest in “getting down on the ground,” or playing house, cars, school, etc. I have always felt more of a pull in the direction of nurturing and loving them and I’ve left their playing and learning to be developed through each other and school.

Posted on: Wednesday August 22nd, 2012

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

Most of our parents have babies or small children, and sleep is a huge part of the entire family’s daily routine. If we haven’t slept well as a family then life is so much more difficult.
I have lots to share in future blogs about babies sleeping, toddlers and moving to “big beds”. I even have stories about baby number eight sleeping with us until he was close to five! This was not a good thing and is one of my parenting regrets.

Posted on: Wednesday August 15th, 2012

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

In the child care world, we often talk about “transitioning” from one part of the daily schedule to the next. Children might be playing on the carpet and then need to come to the table to have their snack. Most children manage this transition well and when told that it is “snack time” they jump up from their play and run happily to the table.
Some children have a harder time with this and need to be told a few times, “soon it will be snack time”, “a few more minutes”, “start to get ready” and other reminders like these. We find this makes things much easier.

Posted on: Friday August 3rd, 2012

Posted by: Victoria Sopik

Let’s talk about siblings. As mentioned in previous posts, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman’s Nurtureshock discusses several topics that are of interest to most parents. Chapter 6 of the book dispels the idea that being an only child has detrimental effects on the development of social skills.