Saying goodbye at school can be hard for you and your child, but it doesn’t need to be. Children can get stressed or grief-stricken when parents are about to leave, but they’ll soon learn the drill! It’s delightful to see them eventually zoom onto the playground the second you step through the gate.

Humor is a great tool to use when a situation has become tense between you and your child but hasn’t yet fallen apart. Think about the times when you’ve harmoniously gotten through an activity; there is usually laughter and smiles all around. Use it wisely and sparingly and your child will fall under your spell the second you pull it out. The trick is to be ready to drop the attempt instantly if it’s not working, and replace it with kind, authoritative boundaries.

We’ve all had the experience of shopping with our three-year-old, and having them ask, demand, beg or rage to be given an item they’ve never seen before and won’t, with any luck, remember tomorrow. It can be exhausting and frustrating to explain time after time why we aren’t buying this one, and then again for the next one. In today’s overstimulated world our children often don’t know why they want something – they just want it and they want it now.