Even the best parents struggle with how to discipline a toddler. Follow these simple strategies to keep your 2- and 3-year-olds in line. As a 2-year-old, Nathaniel Lampros of Sandy, Utah, was fascinated with toy swords and loved to duel with Kenayde, his 4-year-old sister. But inevitably, he'd whack her in the head, she'd dissolve in tears, and Angela, their mother, would come running to see what had happened. She'd ask Nathaniel to apologize, as well as give Kenayde a hug and make her laugh to pacify hurt feelings. If he resisted, Angela would put her son in time-out. For many parents, doling out effective discipline is one of the toughest and most frustrating tasks of parenting, a seemingly never-ending test of wills between you and your child. Because just when your 2-year-old "gets" that they can't thump their baby brother in the head with a doll, they'll latch on to another bothersome behavior —and the process starts anew. How exactly does one "discipline" a toddler?


Dr. Laura Markham is the author of three best-selling books


Top names for moms and dads
Not every mother is into being called Mommy, and some fathers want a handle they don't have to share with every other dad on the block. When it comes to what children call their parents, one size definitely does not fit all. A BabyCenter survey of nearly 4, parents revealed that families — many of them a mix of moms, dads, stepparents, adoptive parents, and birth parents — use all kinds of creative variations on the usual names for parental figures.
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Want to be a great parent? Want to raise a happy, healthy, well-behaved kid? Want to live in a home where discipline becomes unnecessary? The secret is to create a closer connection with your child. We need to put our love into action every day for them to feel it. Mostly, it means making that connection with our child our highest priority. Love in action means paying thoughtful attention to what goes on between us, seeing things from the our child's point of view, and always remembering that this child who sometimes may drive us crazy is still that precious baby we welcomed into our arms with such hope.
Covert incest occurs when a parent or caregiver relies on a child for support that a romantic partner would typically give. In this article, we describe covert incest in more detail, provide examples of behavior that may indicate covert incest, and look at its impact on children and young people involved. According to the American Psychological Association , covert incest is a type of emotional abuse.