Teaching Humanity Remotely with Dr. Mindy Shaw – Podcast Ep. 37

In the 37th podcast episode in my series titled Teaching Humanity Remotely, we continue discussing the final section of my new parenting book.  In case you’re not familiar, my recently published parenting guide is titled I LIKE HOW YOU SPEAK TO ME… A PARENT’S GUIDE FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION WITH CHILDREN, and the book is absolutely intended to be a handy and useful “how to” book for parents, family members or teachers.  As indicated by the book’s title, it’s all about creating and maintaining the clearest possible model for parent-child communication.  The opening section of the parenting book is comprised of what I call the “10 Governing Principles” for communicating with children. There is a middle section of the book that is actually a short children’s picture book that is intended to be a model for a parent-child conversation. Then the book ends with a detailed Q&A section which presents the TEN MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FROM PARENTS (plus one bonus 11^thquestion), and it’s that Q&A section of that book that we are currently discussing in my recent podcasts. 

We have been reviewing the questions and answers of the Q&A section of the book one question at a time, week after week.  This week, we take a deeper dive into sixth question from that Q&A and that is… “What do I do if my child won’t eat the food that I serve?”  One aspect of this question is that it leads us back once again to the notion of FRONT-LOADING.  Many, many aspects of parent-child communication and many of the exchanges that cause problems can be resolved before they happen by having prior agreements. Mealtime is no exception. Parents are busier than ever, and prior agreements about almost everything can resolve issues before they arise.  Using dinner time as an example, if there is an agreement regarding what’s for dinner agreed upon in advance, and then your child changes their mind, you cannot give in regarding that prior agreement.  Engaging is a losing proposition for you.  Also, if there is a deviation by your child and they refuse to eat the food that was agreed upon in advance, then a natural consequence is in order, and that natural consequence is going to bed without dinner.  That may seem like a drastic or dramatic scenario, and it is a painful scenario to both recommend and to execute, but if that natural consequence is enforced once with a child, the natural consequence will make certain that it won’t happen again.

There is also a segment of this podcast that talks quite a bit about giving responsibility to a child and what that means for both the child’s self-image and for the mutual respect that you will earn between you and your child.

The next podcast will focus on the 7th question in the Q&A section of the book about effective communication with children, so please stay tuned for that.  In the meantime, thanks for visiting and for listening.  You can hear Podcast 37 here:

https://learnwithmeremotely.podbean.com/e/teaching-humanity-remotely-with-dr-mindy-shaw-ep-37/

And you can find the parenting guide on Amazon right here:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WJRX7JF