Your child is growing up – learning to read, write and use a computer! However, she needs your guidance to learn how to balance fun with responsibility. You want to broaden her horizons now, but it’s always a question of how much. How much computer, how much T.V., how many after-school classes, how much time spent on homework, how many hours with friends, how much telephone time, how many chores? Find out how other parents help their children organize their time and activities. Share your strategies for gaining your child’s cooperation. Is there a way to get your child to put her schoolbag away without constant reminders? Can you get through a parenting day without yelling, nagging or lecturing? How do you get the kids into bed now and what time is the right time for each age? At what age can you let your child go to a sleep-over party? Or the mall?

The issues get trickier. What do you do when the teacher complains about your child’s behaviour problems in the classroom? What kind of discipline works best? How do you carry out reward and incentive programs in the home? Kids this age have to learn how to make their own social arrangements, take care of their own bodies and be responsible for school assignments but they still need a lot of help from parents in all of these areas. It can be challenging to find the way to bring out the best in each child.

Home-life is interesting with the school-age child. Relationships with parents and siblings are more complicated now. Mealtime and bedtime can be mayhem. It seems kids don’t ever like real food and never want to go to bed. They want to wear what you don’t want them to wear and eat what you don’t want them to eat. How do you keep the tension down and the harmony up? Now you must deal with your child’s emerging personality as you discover that she is indeed fearful or perhaps moody or maybe intensely dramatic and demanding. Maybe you’re trying to figure out if her behaviour is normal or requires professional attention. What do you do if her personality conflicts with your own? Couples rarely agree on parenting strategies (or anything else); how are your parenting issues affecting your marriage? Where do the grandparents fit in to all this?

Talk about it all with other parents. They have ideas, information and solutions to share. Tap into the wisdom out there and become part of it!