School Age (6-10 years)
John's Most Recent Articles
Should I Tell My Best Friend to Discipline Her Bratty, Bossy Daughter?
Posted 6 days ago
Q: My best friend’s 6-year-old daughter is an only child and a spoiled brat. She screams at her parents when she doesn’t get her way, always wants to be first at everything and is extremely bossy...
Read MoreDiscipline Differences Between Divorced Parents
Posted 1 week ago
Q: We see my husband's 9-year-old son every other weekend and two weeks in the summer. He has major issues in school with both behavior and doing his work. He's well behaved when he's with us, but...
Read MoreDon’t Just ‘Settle’ Dispute, Solve It
Posted 2 weeks ago
Q: Our sons are six and four. When their same-age cousins, come over, they all go down into our basement to play. Invariably, within thirty minutes my youngest comes upstairs crying because his...
Read MoreOn Chores, Discipline, Potty-Training
Posted on 3/29/2022
Q: When I give my 5-year-old daughter a chore, she does it, but all the while she is muttering under her breath, huffing and puffing, and so on. Do I discipline that behavior or just let her...
Read MoreIn Defense of ‘Because I Said So'
Posted on 2/1/2022
Q: Concerning chores, another expert recommends giving a child a certain number of chips, like poker chips, every month and if he or she fails to do a chore or doesn’t do it properly, you take a...
Read MoreTime Out for Disrespectful 6-Year-old
Posted on 12/21/2021
Q: Whenever—and I most definitely mean every single time—I ask my six-year-old daughter to do something, she becomes very disrespectful. She stomps her foot, yells at me that I make her do...
Read MoreThe Biggest Problem Teachers Face Is Parents
Posted on 7/13/2021
When I ask a teacher, “What is the biggest problem you face?” the answer – there has never been an exception – is “parents.” That is certainly a recent phenomenon. My parents were...
Read MoreMicromanaging Child Always Produces Conflicts
Posted on 2/23/2021
A therapist takes a 10-year-old boy into what she calls “therapy.” The young fellow is belligerently defiant toward his parents and throws titanic tantrums when things don’t go his way. At school...
Read MoreBeware of 'The Protocol'
Posted on 12/29/2020
Q: Our son is seven years old and in the second grade. His school went virtual this past Spring and we see no end to it, not in the near term at least. When he was going to a brick-and-mortar...
Read MoreParents Can Recover From Not Getting Over the 'Hump of Parenting'
Posted on 10/20/2020
Q: In a recent column, you identified toddlerhood as “the hump of parenting.” As a grandmother who managed to raise five kids who were out of the house in their early twenties and are responsible...
Read MoreRecent Questions
Time for a Reboot
Posted 5 days ago
Since the first email our son (8yrs) was operated on for septic arthritis 6 months ago. The pain returned 2weeks ago (now gone). His hip bone has a small weakness and he needs to ensure he has no...
Read MoreBedtime Monsters
Posted 1 week ago
My 9 year old won’t go to bed at night, constantly crying about monsters etc which has never been an issue before. It seems to be one thing after the other. If he could sleep in my bed he would...
Read MoreChild Pooping in Pants
Posted 2 weeks ago
Our 9 year old poops in his pants. This has been going on for years with varying frequency. Sometimes every day, sometimes once a week. Once he went without accidents for 2 months. This happens...
Read More7-Year-Old's Annoying Antics
Posted 3 weeks ago
My daughter (almost 7) is becoming unbearable. She constantly makes an annoying voice and noises JUST with me (but will control it after spending a lot of time in her room and having privileges...
Read MoreDRAMATIC 7 YEAR OLD GIRL. YA THINK?
Posted on 4/21/2022
Hi there! We deal with a very ungrateful, dramatic 7 year old. Whenever we do something special - play with friends, ice cream, park play, or maybe a combination of the three, and we’re coming...
Read MoreNo Response is a Response: Let Them Be Silly
Posted on 4/21/2022
How do we teach our children to stop the constant silly talk/noises? One child is diagnosed with ADHD, autism, etc. I've set up a rule that the first 30 minutes after wakeup and the last 30...
Read MoreIt's Only Natural
Posted on 4/19/2022
My son, who turned 8 today…has something interesting going on. I have zero experience with male children. A few days ago, he left from the kitchen where I was preparing breakfast to get dressed. ...
Read MoreOut of Sorts with Sports--the Angst of a 7-year Old
Posted on 4/14/2022
Our seven year old son wanted to sign up for soccer this season. He played soccer once a few years ago but hasn’t played organized sports in a few years. So far, he has yet to go to a practice or...
Read MoreSelf control for an 8 year old.
Posted on 4/8/2022
My 8 year old likes the ticket system! But he still gets frustrated when he gets angry and asks, "What do I do when I get angry?" We bought the books, A Sibling Survival Guide and What To Do When...
Read MoreDon't bite off more than you can chew
Posted on 4/8/2022
I have a tickets question. Is it still workable to use tickets on three different children and use two target misbehavior issues? I could even reduce it to two children, but I was thinking it...
Read MoreTopics Covered
- ADHD and other disorders
- Adoption/Foster Parent
- Aggression
- Allowances
- Alpha Speech
- Anxieties, Fears
- Arguments with Children
- Audio Files
- Bedtime/Sleep
- Bedwetting
- Bullies/Bullying
- Character/Values (teaching)
- Chores/Responsibilities
- College
- Consequences/Punishment
- Daycare/Preschool
- Depression/Self-Harm
- Developmental Issues (e.g. late talking)
- Discipline Methods (e.g. time-out)
- Disobedience/Defiance
- Divorce/Custody
- Drugs (marijuana, cocaine, etc.)
- Education
- Electronics (Computers/Video Games/Television/Cell Phones)
- Extracurricular Activities/Hobbies
- Father
- Food/Eating Problems
- Gender
- Grandparents/Grandchildren
- High School
- Homeschooling
- Homework
- John's Discipline Methods
- Learning Disabilities
- Lying
- Manners
- Marriage Issues
- Mealtime/Eating
- Miscellaneous Discipline Problems
- Miscellaneous Editorial Columns
- Mothers
- Only Children
- Pacifiers/Security Blankets/Thumbsucking
- Parent Leadership and Authority
- Play
- Preschool
- Rebellious Behavior
- Respect
- Rewards
- School Issues
- Self-Esteem
- Shyness
- Sibling Conflict
- Single Parents
- Social Issues (fighting/arguing with friends)
- Socialization/Social Skills
- Spanking
- Step-Families
- Tantrums
- Teenage Issues
- Terrible Twos
- Toilet Training
