Pizza Hut was a national pizza chain before there were national pizza chains. They were at one time, the largest pizza franchise in the world.
After 40 years of being America’s dominant pizza brand, Pizza Hut officially lost the lead to Dominos in 2018. In 2019 Pizza Hut announced it was shutting down 500 of their 7,500 locations.
In July 2020 their largest US franchisee, MPC International, filed for bankruptcy. This franchise alone was responsible for 20% of Pizza Hut’s operations.
The entire history of the rise and fall of Pizza Hut is documented in this video of Company Man:
Sad, but true. According to Restaurant Business, Pizza Hut’s overall year-over-year sales fell 2.2% in 2020. Meanwhile, its biggest competitors, Domino’s and Papa John’s, had net gains of 17.6% and 15.9%, respectively.
Pizza Hut’s declining sales were due in large part to the pandemic, which closed hundreds of locations across the country. The chain’s largest franchisee also declared bankruptcy, which caused the company to lock the doors, shutter 300 locations, and offer up another 927 locations for sale.
Pizza Hut was once known as a fast-casual dine-in pizza place with white and red checkerboard tablecloths. Fast-forward to 2021, and consumers don’t want dine-in pizza, they want to take it home…
It goes without saying, Netflix has been dominated streaming videos like BlockBuster dominated movie rentals. However new players are catching up and giving the iconic brand a real run for their money.
In a shocking reveal, instead of achieving the target of adding 2 million new subscribers in Q1 2022 that it set for itself three months earlier, they ended up losing 200,000 subscribers…Ouch
This is the first time the company has net loss of subscribers.
This could just be the tip of the ice burg as Netflix is expecting to lose an additional 2 million more subscribers in the ongoing quarter. The market response was brutal. Netflix lost ¼ of its value as the stock price tanked 25% in 1 day.
Competition is cut throat with the emergence of Disney, Hulu, HBO, Paramount, Peacock, Apple and Amazon. This has presented a serious challenge now as people are ditching Netflix for those streaming services that are available at much more competitive prices (Netflix premium is up to $19.99/month which is almost double the competition).
Pricing be damned, the other problem plaguing Netflix is their competitors are reducing the pool size of originalHollywood content they got to pick from over the last decade.
TV and film companies have more options of providers to negotiate with.
Hate networking but know you need to be doing more of it?
Here’s the only video you need to watch today. It’s one of the most watched videos on TedEx with over 2 million views on how to hack networking.
In his talk David Burkus, author of the book “Friend of a Friend“, examines the science of how networking actually works and reveals what the best networkers really do…
WATCH:
Who is David Burkus?
David Burkus is a best-selling author, a sought after speaker, and business school professor. In 2015, he was named one of the emerging thought leaders most likely to shape the future of business by Thinkers50, the world’s premier ranking of management thinkers.
His book, Friend of a Friend, offers readers a new perspective on how to grow their networks and build key connections—one based on the science of human behavior, not just canned networking advice.
David is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review and his work has been featured in Fast Company, the Financial Times, Inc magazine, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and CBS This Morning.
It goes without saying, Netflix has been dominated streaming videos like BlockBuster dominated movie rentals. However new players are catching up and giving the iconic brand a real run for their money.
In a shocking reveal, instead of achieving the target of adding 2 million new subscribers in Q1 2022 that it set for itself three months earlier, they ended up losing 200,000 subscribers…Ouch
This is the first time the company has net loss of subscribers.
This could just be the tip of the ice burg as Netflix is expecting to lose an additional 2 million more subscribers in the ongoing quarter. The market response was brutal. Netflix lost ¼ of its value as the stock price tanked 25% in 1 day.
Competition is cut throat with the emergence of Disney, Hulu, HBO, Paramount, Peacock, Apple and Amazon. This has presented a serious challenge now as people are ditching Netflix for those streaming services that are available at much more competitive prices (Netflix premium is up to $19.99/month which is almost double the competition).
Pricing be damned, the other problem plaguing Netflix is their competitors are reducing the pool size of originalHollywood content they got to pick from over the last decade.
TV and film companies have more options of providers to negotiate with.
By Brian Searcy
Active Shooter – Are You Prepared?
May 28, 2022
I am sure that most if not all of you are aware of what happened in Uvalde TX on Tuesday. 19 Young Students and 2 Teachers Killed in a horrific School Shooting at Robb Elementary School. Our prayers go out to the entire Uvalde Community.
We are starting to get a report that the door that the shooter entered through was unlocked. That is consistent with what I saw from the video of him entering the school. With most of our clients, prior to participating in our Situational Awareness Programs, it was not an unusual occurrence for doors to be unlocked, to be propped open, for people to be able to “hitch hike” into the building.
And this didn’t just apply to businesses, schools and churches. It applies to you in your home as well. The number of examples we have of people being victims because they do not lock their home, turn outside lights on, leave their cars unlocked are way too many to count.
What we do know. After going through our program, Situational Awareness Habits, Behaviors, and Mindset were learned and developed through the continuous practice of their process. They now keep the doors closed and locked and have a continuous awareness of what is going on around them.
An active shooting event like this, unfortunately today, can happen anywhere, not just at schools.
Details are still coming in. Could this event have been prevented if there had been different training, if the people in the school and community had learned and developed Situational Awareness? As mentioned above about the unlocked door, perhaps it could have been prevented, or a locked door could have added some additional “time and space” to all the emergency responders to arrive.
But we may never know. What we do know is that you, your family, your schools & churches, your businesses & your communities are more safe when this skill is part of your safety, security, mental health and leadership learning programs.
You are able to identify the changes in behavior, the indicators of potential problems, AND be empowered to do something about it.
Many people today do notice behaviors, even indicators, but then they do not ACT on it.
Remember, the World is Not a Safe Place today.
HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY!
Have you thought about what you would do in this type of situation? Do you know what you are capable of doing? Are you looking for the indicators so that you can potentially stop these types of events from happening?
If you have not developed your Situational Awareness Habits, Behaviors and Mindset and to not practice a process, give the Paratus Group a call.
E.A. Coe’s bestselling book ‘The Other Side of Good’ is one of those books that grabs you, and keeps you enthralled from beginning to end, making it a must-read. Coe is a brilliant writer, who creates compelling plotlines, and intriguing characters who venture into the gray of life while taking readers on an adventure that no doubt will leave them wanting more.
In ‘The Other Side of Good’ Theo Jackson proposes a donation to the city for a new youth center, the mayor sends Theo’s childhood friend, police officer Denton Jones, to negotiate the terms. Denton’s efforts inexplicably make him a target for a corrupt city official, but a dishonest bureaucrat is the least of the city’s problems. Theo uncovers evidence of an international criminal organization facilitating human trafficking in the city. Repulsed by the crime, Theo enlists an unlikely coalition of clergy, law enforcement, and criminals to try to stop it.
If you want to find out what happens, and you know you do, pick up a copy of this rather brilliant read. Recently Coe took some time out of his very busy schedule to talk about his work, and what’s coming next.
Congratulations, your book ‘The Other Side of Good’ recently became a bestseller. What was that success like for you on both a professional and personal level?
The achievement was gratifying but also inspirational. To reach a bestselling level on Amazon validates the possibility and provides an incentive to work hard to make the experience happen more frequently.
There are many aspects to the writing process and for some people having fun is also part of the mix. What is the most fun or joyful part of writing for you?
I enjoy writing fiction for the exhilarating control it gives me over my characters and the situations they encounter between the front and back cover of a book. Real-life can be unfair, but fiction doesn’t have to be. I have the power to freely reward the good guys and punish the bad ones. If this sometimes doesn’t present life as it is, it at least provides a glimpse to how it could be.
You have had a very diverse work-life. You are a former United States Naval aviator and career businessman, both of which were very successful. Did either or both of those careers help you when you started writing?
Positive communications skills, whether they be in speaking or writing, are an important tool in just about any professional. I “started writing” well before beginning any careers and honed the tool through practice during them. Transitioning from executive correspondence to fiction was a shorter leap than if I had begun writing from scratch in retirement.
Theo Jackson and Denton Jones are both very intriguing in their own ways. What or who was the inspiration for these characters which take readers deep into the adventure you have created?They, like nearly all the characters in my stories, are amalgamations of diverse people I have met in life. Part of the enjoyment of writing fiction is dissecting the different personalities and characteristics of those you have known to create new characters you invent. Denton Jones came to The Other Side of Good from out of my first novel, Full Count. In that book, he had a supporting role as a colorful character on a college baseball team, and readers loved him. The history I created for Denton in Full Count, as a youth who grew up in the tenements of Cincinnati, established the necessary time and location for The Other Side of Good. It would be natural for someone associated with such an inner-city environment, like Denton, to have childhood friends who made more nefarious career choices, like Theo. I am sure your fans are dying to know. Can you tell us about the new book you are working on, and when readers can expect it to be released?While I was waiting for TOSOG to go through the publishing process, I started writing a novel tentatively titled, “Pedaling West.” It’s a COVID-19 era story about a young woman who loses her job and her fiancé all in the same week during the opening months of the pandemic. To “reset” her life, she decides to embark on a cross-country biking journey from Virginia Beach to Mendocino.She is unaware she has information relating to her former boss’s plan to embezzle awarded COVID relief funds that could incriminate him … which makes her a target. The story cycles between a drama involving the bad guys chasing her and a travelogue of an idyllic trip across America.
My wife and I took the same trip as the fictional biker in November … only in a nice car and staying in good hotels. We traveled on no interstates using only rural roads … and we had a blast. The trip changed the story, too. I hope to complete the story this summer.
To find out more about E. A. Coe and ‘The Other Side of Good’ head on over to Amazon.
Hello, Conscious Parent! Welcome to “Dear Katherine,” a monthly Q&A with real-life parents/caregivers. If you’d like to submit a question of your own, email me at katherine@consciousparentingrevolution.com.
Dear Katherine,
My 10-year-old daughter and I had a bit of an altercation. She and her sister were having an argument over a dress the younger one wanted to borrow. They took the fight into my work-from-home space.
To be honest, I was buried with deadlines and was about to hop on a call, so I immediately told my older daughter to let the younger one borrow the dress. She burst into tears and yelled that I didn’t take her feelings seriously.
Needless to say, I’m gutted. I don’t ever want my kids to feel dismissed. What do I do, Dear Katherine?
— Very Serious (But Very Busy) Parent
Dear Very Serious (But Very Busy) Parent,
I can certainly empathize with your predicament. As a working mom myself, I know what it’s like to feel too stressed and overwhelmed to give my kids undivided attention. You didn’t mean to come off as dismissive, and your gutted reaction shows that you are indeed a serious parent who wants to do right by your children.
It’s important to remember that parents, just like anyone else, are imperfect people living in an imperfect world. Still, it’s our duty to provide a safe and loving environment where our kids can be seen, heard, and supported.
5 Tips to Help Your Child Feel Seen, Heard, and Supported You know that you take your daughter’s feelings seriously despite being very busy. Here’s what you can do to show her just how much she matters to you:
1. Apologize.
Apologies are powerful catalysts for healing. Even though you didn’t mean to make your daughter feel ignored or neglected, let her know how sorry you are for hurting her feelings.
Then, ask her what exactly made her feel like you didn’t care. Did it seem like you were taking her sister’s side? Explain that you love them both equally and take both their feelings very seriously.
When everyone is feeling better, bring your two girls together and encourage them to resolve the dress issue. Can the younger one learn to respect the older one’s decision not to share that specific dress? Is there an alternative piece of clothing she can borrow?
Sharing is an important skill to learn, but let your children know it’s perfectly okay if there are some things they want to keep for themselves.
2. Stop what you’re doing and listen.
The next time your daughter demands your attention, step back and observe your reaction. Are you tapping your foot or looking at your phone? Did you even look up from your computer screen and make eye contact?
Give your kids at least a minute or two of your undivided attention when they need something. And if you’re just too busy at that particular moment, schedule a “Mommy and Me” time later in the day.
3. Acknowledge what she’s saying.
Problem-solving is certainly one of our most valuable skills as parents or caregivers, but don’t be so quick to find a solution that you dismiss what your child is trying to say.
Rather than placating children with toxic positivity (“Don’t be sad, cheer up!”), validate how they feel: “I can see that you’re feeling sad. Do you want to tell me why? Is there anything I can do to make it better?”
Raising self-assured children begins with teaching them that it’s important to acknowledge whatever emotion they’re feeling—so they can let it go when they’re ready.
4. Set reasonable boundaries.
As important as it is for children to acknowledge their feelings, it’s equally essential for them to learn that they have power over their emotions. Now is when they can learn that they don’t need to be overwhelmed by their emotions and can be with them rather than overwhelmed by them.
Your daughter may be angry at her sibling, but that doesn’t mean she can take it out on her—or anyone else for that matter. It’s never too early to teach children that negative feelings don’t have to translate to bad behavior.
5. Put yourself in your child’s shoes.
Let’s be honest: sometimes it’s hard to understand why a child could get so upset over being asked to shower, make their bed, or in your case, Very Serious (But Very Busy) Parent, lend her sister a dress.
But try to remember that kids have very little control over their everyday lives. The next time one of your daughters is upset, practice empathy to understand where she’s really coming from.
I hope this advice is helpful, Very Serious (But Very Busy) Parent. You’re juggling so much each and every day between work and parenting and everything else. Don’t be too hard on yourself.
A mom friend of mine sent me a picture this week. It showed her perched on the (closed!) pedestal on the toilet, resting her laptop on the toilet paper holder, while her daughter peeked over the side of the bath-tub doing her evening bathing routine. This is working mom life today. Juggling two jobs at once, but feeling like you’re doing neither one to the best of your ability. But even as the pandemic has passes, the mom’s guilt stays.
What can you do to help alleviate the guilt of having to balance your working responsibilities with those of being a good parent? Working mom guilt can paralyze us with stress and trigger our instincts of fight or flight – which, during the pandemic, are already heightened.
Ways You Can Ease Working Mom Guilt
The very first thing you can do is simply to breathe deeply. When you’re in the moment of heightened guilt, merely taking a few breaths can help put much-needed space between you and the situation.
Longer-term, you can seek to change your perspective on your guilt. Is it so bad for your child that they see mom working and having to prioritize her time? It sets an excellent example for your children and shows them that they can do or be anything they want to be, after all.
For a long time, we weren’t able to separate ourselves for even a few hours. Some of us are still not able to drop the kids off at childcare or school. Have you noticed how much clingier to you they were since they have you around 24/7?
Ordinarily, you can rest assured that despite your child’s tears at seeing you go (and possibly your own), you’re letting your child grow and form their thoughts and feelings and make personal friendships – without always looking to you for affirmation. You can relieve yourself of the guilt of letting them be in the care of someone else while you work.
However, in conversations with your child’s carers, how have you felt when it was someone else who was there for them when they cried? What about when you weren’t there for a milestone? Did you feel guilt and sadness that someone else spends more waking hours with your child, and might know them better than you?
There is a loneliness that settles into your heart as you learn how to juggle this new normal. I know you question if you are good enough—good enough at work, good enough as a mom, good enough as a spouse because I’ve thought and felt and carried all of these emotions too.
Letting go of the guilt comes with acceptance. Accepting that this is what is, and not hanging on to what SHOULD be.
This is especially true now, where we have not only had to juggle the roles of parent and employee, but also become our child’s teacher and playmate. How much guilt do you feel when you switch on the television or hand them a tablet to entertain themselves and ask them to be quiet while you try to conduct a meeting on zoom?
Knowing that it’s ok to be ‘good enough’ but not perfect, will give you more peace than trying to do everything correctly. You are not going to be the perfect mother. You are not going to be the ideal employee. And that’s ok. You are good enough, and that’s all you have to be.
It’s essential to establish your boundaries with your workplace. Your boss knows you’re a mom, and when you clock out promptly, it’s not your lack of ambition or slacking off. It’s merely that you have other responsibilities that you have to balance. They should hopefully be understanding of that. You’re not a bad employee because you’re a mom, any more than you’re a bad mom for working.
If you hate your job, but you do it to be able to pay the bills, then you are providing the means to create a childhood with a safe place to sleep and good things to eat.
When you have a job you love, and you do it because you are passionate about your cause, you are creating a childhood where little girls grow up to achieve their dreams and little boys see their moms and sisters and aunts and future daughters as equals.
Who Do You Surround Yourself With?
Think about who you surround yourself with? Do they support you, or mom-shame you? You’ll feel much lighter if you surround yourself with other moms and people who support you, and not those who tell you what you “should” be doing.
Don’t Follow The Rules
If you can stop following other people’s rules, you’ll achieve a step in relieving yourself of working mom guilt. Forget the rules. When you feel working mom guilt, ask yourself, “What’s the worst that can happen if I break the rules?” Your answer can bring you back to your reality.
It’s not only when you’re suffering mom guilt that you need to limit your own screen time, but it will help you to limit your distractions. When you do have time with your child, try to give them your attention for the short time you’re with them. This can be very challenging when you’ve already been pulled in every direction at work all day. But freeing yourself from other people’s perfectly curated lives, and being present for your child will give you far more peace of mind. And the ability to be a present and conscious parent.
Do It At Your Own Pace
Take one day at a time. Don’t keep looking to the future weekends or vacations. Just focus on getting through today. After all – eight hours is far more manageable than five days.
Think about how working makes you feel? Do you feel like a more well-rounded and grounded person for going to work? Your child will benefit more from a good role model, and happy mommy, than from one who feels bored or unfulfilled. That’s not to say mommies who stay home ARE bored and unfulfilled, but if you are someone who enjoys going to work, that won’t change when you also have a family.
Don’t Judge Yourself
We are all our harshest critics. Especially when working motherhood is such a significant part of our identity. Have you ever forgotten something at your child’s school? A PJ day or pot luck? Or felt guilty that other parents put together a perfect Valentine’s gift bag for the entire class, while your offering lacked the same detail and imagination?
To stop beating yourself up, reserve self-judgment. Think about the bigger picture. Will any of those moments of guilt affect your child’s performance in school? We all forget things, and no one is perfect, and you can release yourself from the self-judgment.
It is ok to make mistakes and to help yourself you can learn from them.
Getting organized will help, and your phone is your friend. Set reminders, and use apps or planners that will remind you of everyone’s schedules.
Would you be a better mom if you only had one full-time job, and not two? It’s easy to think that perhaps stay-at-home moms are happier because they are not trying to do it all.
Mom Christy Lilley admits she’s asked herself that question many times. She says that she agrees that their lives would be less stressful and more manageable if she wasn’t working. “Things would be calmer, our weekends and nights would be less hectic,” she says.
However, she adds that she doesn’t think that she would be happier and that maybe it’s easy to believe that the grass is always greener.
We can accept working mom guilt isn’t going to go away completely. But you can work towards alleviating that guilt and see the positives of being a working mom.
Love and Blessings,
Katherine
PS. Check out my newest appearance on PedsDocTalk discussing why being mindful as a parent is important for your child’s success. Click here to listen and don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel!
I pride myself on being a continual student of life. I am always looking to learn more about what I do not know. I also know that if I am going to continue to do my work in the area of diversity, equity, and inclusion, I can never become too arrogant to think I have it all figured out. Enter the word BIPOC, which is a word I am afraid to admit I just learned about in 2020. I first thought it meant “BIsexual People of Color.” From what I have learned about this term, I have come to believe that this term is problematic for several reasons and organizations especially should stop using the term immediately.
According to the New York Times, the term first started appearing in social media circles in 2013. The term started to gain more prominence in 2020 in the wake of protests over the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others. Since then, the term has sprung up everywhere. Organizations such as the BIPOC project are centered on a mission to “build authentic and lasting solidarity among Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), in order to undo Native invisibility, anti-Blackness, dismantle white supremacy and advance racial justice.” They also state that they use the term BIPOC to “highlight the unique relationship to whiteness that Indigenous and Black (African Americans) people have, which shapes the experiences of and relationship to white supremacy for all people of color within a U.S. context.” While I respect their mission and the sentiments of others who identify with this word, this term should no longer be adopted into our lexicon for the following four reasons.
The term “BIPOC” is like a double negative (or double-positive if you prefer).
If Black people are “people of color” and our indigenous or Native American people are “people of color” than the term itself is repetitive.
Black & Indigenous people don’t have that much in common.
While the term BIPOC exists to express solidarity, it groups together a group of people whose histories could not be more different. The experience of Native Americans is like no other and is an extremely understudied aspect of American history. Native American history is often told from the perspective of the people who arrived on boats as opposed to from the perspective of people who were on the soil whereas black people were brought to this country through the transatlantic slave trade.
Both black people and Native Americans have experienced great oppression but their stories are also complicated by the fact that some Native Americans were also owners of enslaved Africans. Then of course, we can talk about the African American soldiers known as the Buffalo Soldiers who killed Native Americans in the 1800s. So what do these two groups really have in common? Queue reason #3 to stop using BIPOC—whiteness.
Uniting around whiteness is not the way to go.
Black people and Native Americans have experienced severe forms of oppression at the hands of white colonizers and enslavers. Native Americans were also enslaved by colonizers. There are indeed countless examples of Native Americans and black people working towards unity, demonstrated in the 20th century by the fight for equality and civil rights and black & brown empowerment movements. The point here is that historically, most of the times that Native American and black solidarity has been demonstrated has been in response to white oppression. Is this reason enough to combine these groups in such a generic fashion? We cannot build movements based off of opposition to another group because real solidarity does not fully exist if it can only exist with a common enemy.
Why do white people just get to be white?
I have seen so many terms used to describe non-white people throughout American history from Negro, colored, and Hispanic, to Indian, people of color, and LatinX. Now we have BIPOC. Throughout all of this, white people just still get to be called white. Not only is this annoying because, last time I checked, white is a color too, but also because the more terms we come up with, the more white people are viewed as being the original people and everyone else is colored into that white narrative of originality. Putting white people basically at the center of creation is not historically accurate. I have written more extensively about the broader problems the term “people of color” creates and why we should not use it so I will not revisit that here. I will just say that the more time we spend coming up with new terms to describe nonwhite groups, the more we actually strengthen the narrative of white Eurocentric dominance in America.
At the end of the day, I do not have the right to challenge how any one individual chooses to identify with a culture or identity. I am speaking to the challenges that exist on a collective level when we continually create new terms for people who ultimately do not have that much in common, as we have done with the term “people of color.” I argue for us to be intellectually energetic enough to treat each group with the respect they deserve in the same way we do white people. Both white people and Native Americans owned slaves but no one has come up with the term WIPOC to express solidarity. Let us tell the story of Native Americans, black people, and all cultural or racial groups with the individual respect they deserve. This is crucial in your commitment to creating communities where everyone is celebrated and not tolerated. Let’s GO!
Hello, Conscious Parent! Welcome to “Dear Katherine,” a monthly Q&A with real-life parents/caregivers. If you’d like to submit a question of your own, email me at katherine@consciousparentingrevolution.com.
Dear Katherine,
I’m a mother of two sweet boys, a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old.
Recently, my husband and I have noticed more fighting in our household. We were quick to attribute it to our older son, but after talking to him, we discovered it was actually the other way around. My toddler keeps pressing his older brother’s buttons and won’t leave him alone! What should I do? How do I explain space and boundaries to two kids under 7?
– Trying to Create Space
Dear Trying to Create Space,
I couldn’t help but smile at your letter. We often attribute sibling misbehavior to the older child, failing to consider all the mischief younger ones are capable of!
The truth about your toddler is that he’s not yet at the developmental stage where he can fully understand social interaction. Because he doesn’t have a fully formed frontal cortex, it’s still quite difficult for him to distinguish which behaviors are upsetting.
That explains why jumping all over his older brother or pulling his hair is so much fun!
Still, it’s never too early to teach your children to respect each other’s boundaries. Here are some tips you might find helpful:
Create a “space bubble.” Sit your two boys down and explain that it’s normal for them to want time to themselves. Ask them to identify these moments (e.g. “I like to be alone when I’m building my LEGO set or taking a bath”) and reassure them that alone time is perfectly okay.
Then, make a game out of creating a “space bubble.” Whenever each of them wants time alone, they can announce “I’m going to the space bubble” or wear something silly on their head to signify what they’re doing. If your toddler isn’t having it, tell him he can spend time with Mommy or Daddy while his brother’s in the space bubble.
Teach them to respect each other’s belongings. It’s common for young siblings to fight over toys and other belongings, but you can help them become better at sharing. Teach your boys to ask permission when they want to play with each other’s toys, books, or crayons. When your toddler suddenly grabs his brother’s coloring book, explain that he can either wait his turn or ask to borrow it. Encourage sharing on both sides.
Also realize not sharing is OKAY. There are things all of us worry about getting broken or soiled or damaged. We protect ourselves from loss and disappointment when we know what not to share. Honoring those boundaries is part of being respectful, too.
Find better ways to connect. What do toddlers crave most? Attention. If your 3-year-old keeps poking his brother in the rib or making faces at him, he probably just wants to connect with him. Show your little one that there are better ways to get someone’s attention, like touching them (gently!) on the arm, calling their name, or asking them if they want to play.
Take the opportunity to discuss that people can only truly say yes to you when they know it is okay to say no to you, too. This rule applies to humans of any age and may provide an opportunity for a conversation about handling disappointment.
Model effective communication. Your 3-year-old may still stumble over his words, but everyone else in the family should model effective communication to set a good example. Prompt your toddler to name how he feels (e.g. “Are you crying because you’re hungry/sad/angry/tired?”) and ask for what he wants (e.g. “I want to borrow your bike or build a LEGO set with you.”)
The phrase “would you be willing” is especially powerful because it conveys that what is being asked is actually a request and not a demand (e.g., “Would you be willing to share your LEGOs with me? Would you be willing to let me ride your bike”) Good communication allows for empathy and understanding.
Trying to Create Space, raising two kids at different developmental stages certainly isn’t easy.
But it’s never too early to start teaching the importance of respect, personal space, boundaries, and communication!
