In another chapter (I WANT MY CHILDREN TO BE HAPPY II) I talked about the principles of the practice of parenthood, based on Positive Psychology, and three techniques to increase positive emotions. In this chapter I propose to mention three other procedures that have the same purpose. HOW TO INCREASE POSITIVE EMOTIONS The three techniques to increase positivity in children, which we will talk about here, are: the management of praise and punishment, the avoidance of sibling rivalry and the games proposed by Seligman (2011) that parents can play together with their children, before going to bed. Praise and…
In this chapter I propose to point out the three principles of the practice of parenthood arising from Positive Psychology and three of the various techniques to increase positive emotions (Seligman, 2011). In a future text (I WANT MY CHILDREN TO BE HAPPY III), I will talk about three other techniques. WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE PRINCIPLES OF POSITIVE EMOTIONS Through the application of these principles, children obtain: A psycho-biological bank account: “Positive emotions expand and develop the intellectual, social and physical resources that your children will have at their disposal in adult life” (p. 310). When the mother…
In my book WHAT DO I DO NOW? NO ONE TAUGHT ME HOW TO BE A MOM! we narrate the hypothetical case of Susana, whose the children do not obey her. She relates feeling powerless to properly guide her children. That mother also pointed out that when her children misbehave, she usually threatens to tell their father when he arrives from work. That is not much help, however, since the father, depending on his mood, sometimes ignores her and on other occasions punishes them so severely, sending them to bed without eating, for example, that she herself ends up…
After a difficult divorce and a few dates with a ‘friend’, today I am in a stable relationship that seems to have a future. My partner is willing to share with my children but he is introverted, and treats them with cold courtesy; the children are not amused. We have had some friction because of this. He says that I must teach them to behave better, and I think that he should be more communicative with them. WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT WINNING OVER CHILDREN Your partner, it seems, is introverted and inexpressive, but as long as he is not…
My husband and I have been fighting and making up for a long time. He’s even left home several time, only to come back later when apparently everything is fine. I always feel confident that any effort to improve the relationship is worth a try; however, every time this happened we were soon right back fighting again. Finally, I realized that it was futile and I decided on a definite separation; however, now my problem is that our kids, especially our oldest who is six years old and is very rebellious, won’t accept our separation. My other boy is…
Who does not want happiness for their children and themselves? Humanity has always searched for different ways to achieve happiness, some look for wealth, some for peace, and so on… We chase after this so hard that we sometimes miss it all together. Advertisers promise happiness through their merchandise, others take the opposite route advocating the renunciation of material goods. Different religions also offer it to us. In short, there are so many varied and dissimilar proposals that they far exceed the space of this blog. WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT HOW TO INCREASE THE HAPPINESS OF YOUR CHILDREN Martin…