Book Club is held generally on a biweekly basis in our closed Facebook group: Gentle Parenting of WNY. *Summaries are often statements by the author pulled right from the chapter being discussed. These statements, for me, carry weight and often are what the questions end up being about. Some questions, too, may be questions the […]
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adventures in Exclusive Pumping
Meet Sarah! Sarah Seweryniak is a freelance writer and marketing professional. She resides in Western New York with her husband Matthew. They welcomed their daughter, Genevieve, in the Summer of 2017. Adventures in Exclusive Pumping In the months leading up to the birth of my daughter, I had been prepping my idea of what […]
The Truth About Negative Reinforcement
When you hear the term Negative Reinforcement, what do you think? What does that mean to you? Does the term ‘negative’ immediately make you think ‘bad?’ If it does, you’re definitely NOT alone. Negative Reinforcement is often used as a way to say that ‘bad’ behavior is being reinforced: “We have to make sure we’re […]
Our Summer Idea List (free printable!)😘
The title was supposed to be The Ultimate Summer Bucket List. But as Clare and I talked about it, my husband added that bucket lists sound like ‘To-Do’ lists to him. And he’d rather not have a to-do list during the summer. Pretty sure his contribution to the items on our list was “throw out […]
Top 5 Travel Must-Haves (for our family)
*This post contains affiliate links. I wouldn’t say we travel a ton… but we do get around a bit. Since Danny was born last August we’ve been to Disney World and Tampa, Boston, Niagara Falls (this one feels like a cheat…is it really traveling when it’s only 45 minutes away? It is a huge tourist […]
Community Chat: SHARING
An interesting post about sharing was posted in the Facebook group not too long ago, and following it was a fantastic conversation on sharing and how some of our members handle this often-tricky topic. This is the shared post, written by Alanya Kolberg: MY CHILD IS NOT REQUIRED TO SHARE WITH YOURS. As soon as […]
How We Avoid Punishing Our Children
I often see comments in gentle parenting boards asking, “If you don’t punish, what do you do?” Or, “There are definitely circumstances where punishments are necessary, right?” As a BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analyst), I frequently have to hold back from defining the term ‘punishment’ because I know that’s not exactly what folks mean. I […]
Please don’t spank your child.
Please don’t spank your child. “But if I don’t spank them, they will grow up to be entitled brats.” Everything you do as a parent will impact your children. Whether you spank or not does not have anything to do with your child growing up to feel entitled. It will, however, impact the way they […]
The Truth About Positive Reinforcement
I recently read an article, a letter from a teacher to a parent, that discusses how positive reinforcement is not the real world. In his argument, he’s partially right about something: that giving your child something as a reward whenever she does a certain thing is not going to increase intrinsic motivation and only set […]
CIO: should we do it, or no?
CIO, or Cry It Out, can be a tough topic to discuss among parents. It’s often met with extreme feelings, no matter if you’re a proponent or not. I’ve noticed that occasionally folks may not truly understand what it is when it comes up in discussion, and what it entails. Is it CIO if you […]