Many people enjoy annoying their kids. Previously we gave 5 great ways to annoy your kids as can be read here 5 Ways To Annoy Your Kids. Here are 5 more ways to annoy your kids.

• For those of you who have teenagers out there that like to slam doors. After they slam the door tell them they did it wrong and show them how to do it properly.
• Every time you want a can of soda or beer from the refrigerator, ask your son or daughter “Do I have a son, or don’t I have a son”. Of course if you have a daughter replace son with daughter.
• Become friends with your teenager on Facebook.
• Announce that you have to use the bathroom in front of their friends.
• When in the car, turn on your favorite radio station and sing…loudly

Do you have a fun way to annoy your kids? Post it below and we may feature it in our next round of ways to annoy your kids.

As parents we are faced with the question of how involved we should get with our kids dating lives. We must decide when it is appropriate for them to venture into this world and give the the guidance they need to be successful, responsible and respectful.

It is important that you are able to discuss dating and sexuality with your child and that they feel comfortable discussing it with you. It may be difficult for you especially when your child is of the opposite sex, however you should remember that you are the child’s parent and you are their best source of security and knowledge. It is always good to look around and as you and your adolescent view the romantic world, engage in discussion about it. If you see a couple kissing or holding hands, talk to your child and find out their reaction and thoughts are about it. Find out what your child believes a kiss or a hug means and if they are not quite on target, push them in the right direction.

Interpretation of events can play a big role in a young teenagers dating life. For example if they get a kiss on the cheek from a friend of the opposite sex, it may have meant to be compeltely not romantic, such as a thank you. It is important that you help your child understand the differences between these gestures so that they don’t get rejected or miss an opportunity.

If you are a single parent or even if you are married, leading by example is a great way to communicate with your child. Many times as parents, out words are taken by our kids in to their brain and flushed out before a thought is even produced. Kids do see examples however and tend to mimic them. It is important that you act respectful and loving towards your significant other. If your kids see you yelling at each other, they will see this as appropriate behavior and mimic that in their dating life.

When it comes to the issue of how old a child should be before dating, there is no written age as it is different for everyone. Kids start talking about going steady as early as 1st grade these days. You may not feel that your child is ready. As a parent you have that right to decide when it is appropriate and the conditions on which your child dates. The best way is to share your beliefs about dating and sexuality early so that your child understands and begins to share those beliefs.

All teens at one point or another will disagree with you. You must communicate that dating is an adult activity and that it is important that they show they can behave as an adult would, whether that means keeping up with school work, getting a job, being a safe driver or controlling emotions. Set out guidelines for them and when they reach those guidelines allow them to date.

As parents it is your right to decide how much independence to give your child. With each child it will be different and they will react differently to it. Just remember that your child is becoming an adult. When it comes down to their behavior, trust that you did a good job in raising them to this point and know that you have given them the knowledge to make the right decisions.

One thing that seems to be constant with children is trouble getting out of bed. We have our good days and our bad, but it always takes a little bit of help to get my son up and ready. Here are some fun and not so fun techniques I have used to help combat the early morning lethargy. These will probably not work on your teenagers, but they seem to work great on younger kids.

1. Talking in gibberish.Without fail every morning I get the “ugggh” or “rrrrrr” from my son when I tell him it’s time to get up. So I talk back to him the same way. I will put random sounds in place of words but still keep the inflection I would use as if I were talking in a normal sentence. I also use hand and body gestures to get my point across. My son usually finds this very funny as well as stimulating on a mental level. After a few minutes he is much more awake and aware.
2. Encourage Stretching I have found that if you give your child a fun activity to do right away they may just get up and do it. On some mornings I encourage my son to get up and stretch with me. First we touch our toes and then we reach for the ceiling. After that we loosen up a bit by shaking our arms and making circles with them. He finds this a great way to wake up and get moving.
3. Tickle Time Tickling always wakes my kid up, sometimes he likes it, sometimes he doesn’t. Either way it wakes him up and he is alert.
4. Start a conversation Start talking to your child and don’t give up until they answer. If you pay attention to your child at other times, you will know what peaks their interest. Bring up a topic that gets your child’s attention and see if you can get them engaged.
5. Pick them up This is an all else fails method. It’s not fun, it’s not pretty and they are not going to like you for it. But you are bigger than them. Pick them up out of bed. After a couple minutes of crying they will settle down and will be awake and ready to start the day.

Please share some of your techniques for all ages. If you have older kids please share your ideas with us so that we can include them in an article about older kids.

Children are very aware of their behaviors and the resulting consequences of those behaviors. This awareness does not, however, deter them from testing our limits as parents. After our child is born we as parents cannot wait for them to grow up and start gaining independence.  The first year we can’t wait for them to walk, the second we can’t wait for them to talk and so on.  As soon as we find joy in seeing our children walk and talk, we quickly find out these skills can be used for no good.

Between the ages of 1 and 5 our children start really becoming individuals. They take on personalities and learn that they are people just like their parents. They find they have needs and wants. In many cases those wants may not be what is best for them, or you as a parent. Children learn a great deal from reinforcement and discipline. If they do something good, we reinforce them through praise, or perhaps a treat. If they misbehave we do something negative, perhaps a time out or taking something away such as a toy. These methods can be very effective. The one stipulation to the effectiveness is consistency.

Counting to 3 is a tradition that goes back as far as time itself. For many of us, when we want our children to do something or stop doing something, the first word that comes to mind is “ONE”. So we say it: “ONE”. The first few times you do this, your child will probably just wonder what you are blabbing about, or if they are a little older, they will wonder “Why is my mom or dad counting, when I am clearly doing something they do not want me to do?” Ok, so no response from the child. “TWO” we say with a little more anger and authority in our voice. The child now does one of two things, they either comply with your request or they continue to defy you. Who knows they may even start counting with you.

This is the point where the effectiveness of the three count comes into play. As parents the next words out of our mouth determine whether this technique will work. So what is the next word?

“TH…..Two and a half!”  There it is; the point at which the child has shown that they are the authority figure and not you. Deep down you just want to give them another chance to behave or maybe you do not want to go through the hassle of the punishment. “Two and a Half” only shows your lack of sincerity. We need to give our children credit for the intelligent beings that they are. When they realize that a three count is just a tactic they will exploit it for every fraction available between 2 and 3, and there are a lot of them, an infinite amount actually.

“Three!” Ok you have decided enough is enough and the child is going to be disciplined. You discipline your child and move on with your day hoping that they have learned their lesson. They probably won’t completely learn it, but if you stayed course and did not add any fraction lessons, the number 2 will become a word that means “I’m serious, you need to behave or else”. If you decided to prolong the count, most likely all your child will learn is that they now have a way to push your limits and your limits seem to expand like a rubber band. The limit is there, but who doesn’t like to pull that rubber band back as far as possible?

My three year old had an accident earlier this week, he wet the bed. He has been potty trained for 9 months now and this is a very rare occasion. I didn’t say much to him about it. I just got him up, cleaned him up and changed his clothes. Kids do have accidents every now and then, especially at 3 years old. The next day however, he went to the bathroom again in bed, this time letting go the big number 2. When I got him up, he told me he did it, to which I replied in a very stern voice that it was completely unacceptable to keep going to the bathroom in bed. I didn’t yell but I told him with great authority in my voice. He could definitley sense my disappointment as he began to cry in a sad way as opposed to an obnoxious way.

We cleaned up and got him dressed. Afterwards I sat him on his bed and asked why he went in his pants, to which he replied “I don’t know”. I proceeded to explain to him in a very calming voice that it is very important for big boys to use the potty when they need to go to the bathroom. I explained to him that if he feels he needs to go in the middle of the night that it is ok to wake either me or his mother up, or even go by himself to the bathroom. Then I used the big brother routine on him. I explained that it is very important that when his little brother comes in Feburary he is going to have to help us and set a good example for him. When his little brother is old enough he is going to have to help teach him how to use the potty. I told my son that I needed his help and the more we practice the right way now, the better we will be when we have to help his little brother. We ended the conversation with a hug and a high-five.

Since then we have not had anymore accidents and in the morning he points out that he did not go potty in bed and he is trying to make me proud of him. He tells me how he has to be a big brother and teach his new little brother how to use the potty.

We use this technique a lot on our son. The first thing we will do is tear him down by talking sternly, even sometimes raising our voice. We as parents feel it is important to make sure that the child knows he did something wrong, and the best way to do that is to let him know you are very disappointed and make him/her feel uncomfortable. After a couple minutes we talk about the situation and what he did wrong. We then tell him how to improve the behavior and set up some kind of expectation for him. We make sure that expectation makes him feel important. We also makes sure to know that when he meets that expectation we will be very proud parents. In subsequent situations when he meets that expectation, we make sure to praise him like there is no tomorrow, telling him what a great job he does.

In our minds we really appreciate how well behaved our child is. With any luck it has something to do with our parenting. I think deep down he is just a good kid. I look forward to seeing if our parenting techniques work well on our second child.

When I was a kid, school projects came around at least once every month or so; especially in the later elementary years. I remember in 6th grade having to do at least 4 or 5 large projects. These always excited me because I got to show off my stuff…..or I should say our stuff. During my younger years my mother was very involved with my education. When it came to projects I think she may have enjoyed them more than I did. When it was project time, we went all out. In sixth grade we had a couple projects about ancient Egypt. My mom helped me build a mummy and sarcophagus out of paper mache. I still have it and am impressed by it even today. The mummy looked so real, despite being a miniture size of about 6 inches. I had an art project  that involved making a pinata. With my mom’s help, or should I say with my help, my mom built a large steam boat that impressed everyone.

So where is the value in this. From what I described, it seems like my mom did a lot of the work and I just kind of sat by and helped her here and there. This is to a large extent true, but in reality I was learning a great deal. It was usually my mom who planned it out and together we executed with her taking on the more difficult tasks. I always paid attention to what she was doing and pitched in when ever possible. To this day I still remember the techniques my mom used and look forward to implementing them in projects with the help of my children. So despite not doing it on my own, I did learn a lot, but that wasn’t best outcome of these “assisted” projects.

When I would take these projects to school I had a sense of pride. I always knew that my projects would be looked upon with great admiration. I got great feedback and praise for the extra effort. I really enjoyed that. It felt good for others to recognize the hard work I put in. Over time I expected it of myself. I came to understand what I needed to do to earn that admiration and respect and began to give school everything I had. Throughout high school my mom helped me occasionally but a great deal of my school work had to be done by alone due to the complexity of it. The value of quality work instilled in me those earlier years drove me to succeed and provide the best effort possible. I ended up graduating in the top 2.5% of my high school class and finished 2 college degrees  summa cum laude and I definitely didn’t have my mom’s help in college.

It’s everyone’s personal choice as parents as to the amount of help to give their children in school. From my experience, help in the early years can be extrememly beneficial in putting your child in the mindset to succeed. Those that never succeed and always fail don’t understand success and are comfortable with mediocrity. Those who are taught to excell keep it with them for a life time. I encourage everyone to get very involved with their children’s education and help them with those projects. Don’t do the projects for them, but make sure they succeed at an early age so that they can succeed on their own later in life.

My parents were absolute geniuses when it came to annoying me. To this day some of the things they have done still haunt me to this day. Now that I am a father I look forward to passing along that tradition with my own kids. In order to help dads everywhere do the same here are 5 great ways to annoy your kids:

• When next to your child at the dinner table and they ask you to pass them something, make sure to pass it to them in the opposite direction; that is pass it to the person on the other side of you and have them pass it all the way around. (This works well with large dinner parties)
• Talk in Rhyme
• After tucking your child in at night, sing their not so favorite song to them every night.
• If you have older teens, Inform restaurant staff that it is their birthday multiple times over the course of the year.
• Speaking of birthdays..When giving a small gift, wrap the gift in a small box and put the gift into a larger box and wrap that one. Repeat until you have enough boxes inside boxes to sufficiently annoy your child.