Vicki Hoefle's Blog, page 3

How To Lead When your Child is Screaming

You’ve been there. Maybe it was yesterday, or this morning, or 5 minutes ago when your child decided to lose their mind and completely dismiss what’s acceptable behavior in public. With everyone to watch. You know… Your child is running up and down the aisles or screaming non-stop on a crowded airplane (and everyone is […]

6 Surefire Tips to Manage Manners

Let’s face it, difficult if not downright horrid moments are going to arise when it’s time to visit friends and families over the holidays. The manners might go awry as fatigue, stress, and sugar are on the rise! The kids are going to whine, scream, sass, roll eyes, refuse to cooperate, and generally not give […]

Best Practices for Fostering Close Sibling Relationships

Want kids who are good friends well into their twilight years? Here are 6 of my favorite grounding philosophies/practices to strengthen the sibling relationship: 1. Notice when they get along. Get an accurate idea of how often your kids get along and how it “looks and sounds” when they are getting along. When challenged with […]

Sibling Rivalry Triage

Let’s say you’re having one of those June-Cleaver-would-croak-if-she-saw-you moments. Your kids are rowdy, screeching and tearin’ the place apart. You look into the mirror and say, “If only they could get along, my life would be bliss!” (Yeah right ). Screaming and fighting happens. Sometimes it’s as simple as a child who is over tired […]

Family Meetings: Multivitamin for Building Character and Staying on Track

Maybe you’ve heard of family meetings, maybe not. I’m willing to wager that if you’re familiar with family meeting you most likely think of it as a business meeting for the family. Mom and Dad tell the kids what they need to do, where they need to be, dole out chores, perhaps discuss some new […]

The Art of Encouragement

In The Dangers of Praise Part 1, I explain the reasons we need to break our habit of simply saying “Good Job!”, “You’re so smart”, “I’m proud of you” each time our child achieves success. Defining Encouragement Encouragement is an observation that can be given at any time, to anyone, in any situation. It is […]

Appreciations: Simple Sentences to Flip the Family Dynamic

I talk a lot about the power of appreciations. They have the ability to transform the family environment in positive ways and bring family members closer together. We all want kids who are kind to each each other, show respect and gratitude to us as their parents and who extend kindness, understanding and acceptance to […]

The Dangers of Praise – Part 1

As my daughter reminds me, I’ll drop F bombs any day of the week (or time of day for that matter), but the P word? No way. Anything but the P word. It’s not part of my vocabulary. And I really want you to banish it from yours. I’m talking about PRAISE and all the […]

Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Parents

Alright – let’s get REAL for a few minutes between running the kids to soccer, drama, jujitsu and LARP practice (yes I guess that’s a thing now… Live Action Role Play. I think that was what my parents called, “go play outside” but now it’s something that needs “practice”. Definitely sounds cooler as ‘LARP’ though). […]

Sibling Rivalry: A Parent’s Role

Many parents suspect that they have something to do with all their children’s fighting, but they simply can’t figure out what that something is. If they knew, they’d avoid it all together. Well, here’s the deal. Your kids are often fighting for you. Hard to believe, but true. Think about it – how many times […]