Being The Best Mom (FM)

On my radio show I wanted to tap into two authors addressing issues for moms. The first is Suzanne Eller, a veteran youth worker, author, parenting and youth culture columnist who wrote the book "The Mom I want to Be." I thought this was such a great book because it unearths a topic that is not talked about very often -- how to be a good mother if you have had a painful past. And how to let that past go and not continue the cycle with your own family?

When I was working with kids in foster care I saw so many families that were caught up in the vicious cycle of abuse and didn't know how to change. It requires a lot to not make the same mistakes that were made to you while growing up because there weren't any positive role models to learn positive ways to parent. I loved Suzanne's book and I recommend it to anyone that is trying to do the best for their family and leave a dysfunctional past in the past!!

Then Brenda Nixon joins me. She is also an author, a speaker and parent educator. She has written articles for more than 100 publications and is a contributing author to 23 books and has published 4 of her own. Her most recent book is "The Birth to 5 Book -- Confident Childrearing Right from the Start." During this interview we talked a lot about a child's temperament and knowing who your child is to be able to parent in alignment rather than conflict. Brenda shares with me how temperament consists of specific traits that determine how your child responds to the world.

These are the nine categories that temperaments fall under:

1. Activity Level
2. Regularity
3. Approach/Withdrawal
4. Adaptability
5. Sensory Threshold
6. Quality of Mood
7. Persistence
8. Distractibility
9. Intensity of Reaction

Tap into the show and learn which categories your child falls into and how to relate to your child better and eliminate many of the battles that you may be running into.