NEWSLETTER archive

Welcome to March’s Parenting Made Easy Newsletter  “The child supplies the power but the parents have to do the steering.”   ~Benjamin Spock     Hello and I hope you are having a great week and enjoyed your Mother’s Day pampering ladies. It’s been an interesting month as I ‘ve struggled to sort out all the preverbal hiccups that I seem to have with my new technology. I love embracing social networking and am born to blog – and am totally like Julie in the film “Julie and Julia”, and love being part of the Twitter Community and I have finally sorted out my Facebook profile and fan page as I seemed to have been phished, hacked or attacked and couldn’t update or get into my Facebook for about 5 weeks ! It’s seems to have been sorted out now so why not head over and join me on those too and join the conversation by clicking on the links at the top of this newsletter.   And I’m now working on my RSS feeds and Forum next .... and making sure you don’t receive 5 newsletters if you have subscribed to my free ebooks or blogs. I wonder if trying to get things right ever really ends ?  I'd also like to apologise in advance if there are any little bits and pieces that aren't quite perfect and you have had a frustrating experience with downloading my articles, ebooks or resources.   I am delighted that Argos have approached me offering you, as exlusive readers of my newsletter, the fabulous opportunity to win a brand new Mamas & Papas Beat Buggy worth £74.99. So click here to enter the competition. And feel free to pass this newsletter on to all your friends so they can enter it too. The closing date will be 31st March 2010   Q & A sessions – Positive Parents On the Road  Also I have been really enjoying doing my hour Q & A sessions for schools and local parenting and nursery groups which is a perfect way for me to reach parents without everyone feeling overwhelmed. A big thank you to the WeLL Women’s Group who invited me to give a talk about ways to handle stress quickly and easily – we had a lot of fun and I think everyone went home full of new ideas and feeling more chilled ! Just give me a call if you would like me to come along and talk to your group – I’m only at the end of the phone 01342 833355   New parenting magazines I am delighted to have been published in the wonderful Mummo Magazine promoting and supporting The Million Mums Campaign for the White Ribbon Alliance to eradicate women dying in childbirth around the world. You can read my article on Emotional Freedom Technique or tapping by clicking here and also you can read my article on “Creating Your Own Destiny” in the fantastic Relax Kids new quarterly magazine that you can buy in shops now as well as download online CLICK HERE for that link. So grab a cup of coffee sit back and have a little “me” time !   The Secret to Well- Behaved Kids Workshop I have a workshop this Saturday 20th at The Bell Inn Godstone called “The Secret to Well- Behaved Kids”  so if you’d like to join us on Saturday and get ahead start before your kids turn out like the kids on Jo Frost’s “Extreme Parenting” programme I’d love to meet you !!!! It’s a fun day, no finger pointing, judging or critising – we are all a work in progress   and I enjoy empowering you with new strategies, techniques, practical ideas and simple solutions that help build up your confidence quickly and easily and get you out from the wood and enjoying the trees again and having more fun with your kids rather than just nagging them ! Give me a call on 01342 833355 to reserve your place now.   Here’s my Topic of the Month –Navigating through Divorce Positively Bringing up children is not an exact science and while there are common themes that we all encounter such as learning how to relate to our children, finding effective ways to discipline them or helping to build up our children’s  self esteem, there are other more specific and highly emotional issues that have a greater impact on family life, such as getting divorced , that can have very damaging effects on children for the rest of their lives, if handled badly. Let’s look at helping you develop your confidence and skills while going through these more challenging experiences. Click here to read more.     For less than the price of a haircut, buy my exclusive Handling Divorce Positively CD bursting with my ideas to help you handle this traumatic time in your life more easily. Just listen to it in your car, office or simply pop it on your ipod and start to feel more in control of your life, knowing that you have some simple steps to help you move forward  with confidence. click here.   And here is a wonderful article from my great friend and Ireland’s leading NLP Trainer Karen Molan of Skills Quest Company - click here. Karen and I work together training teachers in NLP and met on Paul McKenna’s Train the Trainers Course way back in 2006 and if you’d like to discover more about her trainings go to www.skillsquestcompany.com   Follow me on Twitter Read my blog Join my Positive Parents Club  Register for  "The Secret to Well-Behaved Kids"  Workshop on Saturday 20th March:  Buy my books  Buy my Positive Parents Daily Workout CD   Until next time, learn, laugh and enjoy the adventure!         Sue Atkins P.S If you have found this newsletter helpful, please feel free to pass it on and tell all your friends

“When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice, safe playpen. When they’re finished, I climb out!” ~ Erma Bombeck Welcome to February's  New Improved Parenting Made Easy Newsletter. It's been a busy month as I have been on BBC Breakfast discussing playground problems in schools and on BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine show talking about how parents decide which schools to send their children to. I love the variety of my work as I have also been coaching an exhausted Mum on strategies for getting her 2 year old to stay in bed at night and have been writing the content for my upcoming Parenting Made Easy Toddler Membership Club. Never a dull moment, particularly as my son is learning to drive and my great friend Tom was over from South Africa to celebrate his 50th birthday! My websites have been having a makeover recently to fine-tune them and make them easier to navigate, and so has my newsletter, as you can see! Feel free to follow the links on the right to explore my free downloads, from free e-courses to diaries about fussy eaters to bullying. Or you could print off and pop on your fridge my new Positive Parents Posters to inspire you to be the best parent you can be! This month's theme is "The Secret to Well Behaved Kids" Are you struggling to bring up well-behaved kids? Are you constantly exhausted and worn out trying to get your kids to do as they are told? Are you battling with poor behaviour? Do you find yourself regularly shouting all the time and feeling guilty about it afterwards? And how often do you wake up like Mary Poppins but go to bed as Cruella de Vil? Sound familiar? To read the full article click here To complement this month's special theme I am running my very popular Secret to Well Behaved Kids Workshop on Saturday 20th March, and if you book before this Sunday, 21st February, you will be able to take full advantage of the early bird discount, or perhaps you would like to bring along a friend or partner for half-price - click here for details. If you're not able to come along for what promises to be a fun and informative day, you can always invest in my Secret to Well Behaved Kids CD, available to download in MP3 or PDF digital format now! It has long been a dream of mine to have my CD's and Toolkits available digitally, so that no matter where you live in the world, or what time it is, you can find some instant solutions to whatever problem, challenge or worry you are going through. As its the month of romance, roses and relationships here's my article "Keeping the Glow With Your Partner", one of a series I wrote to complement  a workship I am planning for later this year - let me know if you find it helpful, it might just be the nudge I need to press on and make it happen! To read the full series of articles go to the blog archive. I'd love to hear your thoughts on my new look website and newsletter and to hear how you find the Positive Parents Club. I plan to open up the Forum soon, but as my husband likes to say "Its a marathon not a sprint!" and we have a number of projects in front of us. Please email me  with your comments, suggestions and ideas. Here's a new feature to the newsletter - I'm calling it "Ask Sue", where parents have submitted questions before the monthly Ask the Parent Coach phone-ins on the first Monday of each month. Here's one from February's call: How can I prevent intense sibling rivalry between my two daughters of almost 4 and almost 8. They constantly pick on each other and fight. This is at its worse just when they return home from school. I don't want to have to keep separating them!    To hear the reply to this and other questions, click here, although this is only available up to 1st of March.   To take advantage of this unique and exclusive free opportunity to ask me personally any question, from toddler to teen, all you have to do is click here     Explore my Positive Parents Club and join up if you haven't done so already; it's completely free at the moment, so get your free e-course "Top Tips for Trusting Your Teenagers" or "Seven Key Skills for Raising Happy, Confident, Well Balanced Children" when you sign up - it has a wealth of resources to help you bring up happy, confident and well-balanced kids; and do keep an eye out for my daily blogs, or follow me on Twitter by clicking here.   Until next time,   Learn, laugh and enjoy the adventure!         Sue Atkins   P.S If you have found this newsletter helpful, please feel free to pass it on and tell all your friends

Parenting Made Easy – December Welcome to December’s Parenting Made Easy Newsletter and what an exciting month it’s been ! ..................................................................................................................................................................  I’ve been to Number 10 Downing Street, published my new book called “Pocket Parenting Made Easy – TODDLERS” and got my own regular radio slot as “Ask the Parent Coach” on City Talk Radio Liverpool every Thursday at 3.30 pm !   Downing Tweet  Well, I think one of the best things I’ve ever had to say in a taxi was “Take me to Number 10 Downing Street please!” What an honour and a real privilege to be invited inside such a historic and place of real power and influence. I was like a child in a toy shop as I walked up the famous stairway to the Christmas Tweet Party for fellow Twitterers so I just took my time and touched all the famous prints and photos of past Prime Ministers from William Gladstone, Benjamin Disraeli to Harold Wilson, Ted Heath, Tony Blair to the amazing portrait of Margaret Thatcher that just made me stop and gaze in wonder outside the loo! Whilst my work has nothing to do with Party politics it was great to be invited to the Downing Tweet Christmas Party in support of the Million Mums Campaign and to meet up with all the fellow Twitter people that I follow or who follow me as PositiveParents! Wonderful people with passion, vision and commitment in all their various industries. It was a moment my Dad and Mum would have been proud of. It was great to chat with a couple of celebrities from Richard Bacon to Beverley Knight who was awesome when she sung live and to meet Jayne Twiddle from Confident Ladies  and Jo Ream from Mummo whose Mum actually comes down to Purley to shop in Lucindas where I bought my new dress as I was terrified someone would have on the same frock if I bought it in M & S ! To read more click here Here are the photos from the great evening at Number 10   Christmas Stress  I was sitting in Costa Coffee yesterday  in Bluewater and I heard a group of women moaning about how stressful Christmas is with all the present buying, food shopping, wrapping and writing all the Christmas cards. And it got me pondering …… Why do some women take the role of martyr?....... to read more click here   Also here are some practical tips for Christmas Shopping With Toddlers - Top Tips click here to read more   Around the Table Games  I really love sitting down at the table and eating with my family and here is a great conversation starter game that takes you away from “Eat your greens, don’t talk with your mouth full and hold your fork properly!”   And with Christmas just around the corner - what a great little stocking filler to get the ball moving around the turkey and tinsel table ! So here is Beth Daniels story about how they came about. Click here to discover all about these great conversational games Bedwetting Finally Sorted And as we approach the new year how about finally mastering the bedwetting problem that your child has quickly and easily by using these wonderful techniques that my friend Alicia Eaton has written about in her excellent book “Stop Bedwetting in 7 Days”  BLOGS As you know I’m a prolific writer and I blog every day with ideas, inspiration and information and my archive blogs can be found by joining my FREE Positive Parents Club where you have total access to everything I write about. So click here to join This month’s blogs have included: Handling Conflict with teens Feeling GUILTY about TIME with the kids To internet safety As well as my usual mix of inspiration, ideas and information, so why not click on the RSS orange icon and have them land easily into you inbox every day or to make sure you receive them easily every day click here City Talk Radio I have been delighted to have become City Talk Radio’s regular “Ask the Parent Coach” every Thursday afternoon at 3.30pm and to hear my podcasts just pop over and join my free Positive Parents Club where you will have limitless access to this exclusive resource for Club Members Every First Monday of the Month – Ask the Parent Coach ( …. That’s ME !!) Or perhaps you would like to join me on each MONDAY OF THE MONTH on my own “Ask the Parent Coach” sessions from 8pm – 8.30 pm in my Positive Parents Club exclusively for my Positive Parents Club Members – and it’s quick, simple and free to join so click on here to ask me your question or just to listen in to get down to earth, practical advice from me personally . The next Ask the Parent Coach is on Monday January 4th 2010 click here to register Internet Safety With the Government bringing out a welcomed Campaign called “Zip it, Block it, Flag it .” Here’s a super little book that would be a great fun stocking filler about Internet safety   Learn, laugh and enjoy the adventure and next month’s newsletter will be all about New Year…… New You ! So feel free to pass on my newsletter to all your friends Until next time have a great Christmas