What to Do When Kids Don't Listen : Parenting

Are you frustrated, overwhelmed, and ready to scream at your child? It’s exhausting when kids don’t listen. Enough with the terrible twos, effing fours, sassy sixes, and troubling tweens!

Here’s an idea, instead of yelling, be playful like Mary Poppins.

Kids love to play, so when you’re playful, you work with your children rather than against them.

“In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and—SNAP!—the job’s a game!” —Mary Poppins

You’ll quickly discover that toddlers, school-age children, and even strong-willed kids will cooperate.

Playfulness Helps Kids Listen

I was a stressed-out mom, but parenting became easier (and more fun!) when I used my parents’ playful technique.

What’s the secret?

Turn parenting challenges into a game. If it helped me, it can help you too.

For example, I had to put away the laundry, but my kids wanted attention and wouldn’t let me do this simple task. So what did I do?

I made it fun. I grabbed my son’s bathing suits and plopped them on their heads. Voila! Now putting away the clothes was exciting. Not only did my kids let me do this task, they even helped deliver the clothes.

The Results?

When you turn parenting into a game, you get great results:

♥ Your kids will listen

♥ You’ll make parenting more fun

♥ You’ll empower your children

♥ Your family will spend more quality time connecting

Learn this Playful Approach—Playfully

But how do you turn parenting into a game?

Since we learn best through examples, I wrote an entertaining book of quick-to-read, relatable stories showing playful ways to encourage cooperation.

Perfect for busy parents, Parenting—Let’s Make a Game of It is an Amazon #1 New Release in 7 parenting categories.

Need kids to cooperate? Spark your playfulness with chapter 1: Pumpkin, Pumpkin Drink
Want children to help with chores? Make it fun, like in chapter 5: Let’s-Keep-The-House-Neat-Unpacking Game
Children taking forever getting ready? Tackle this annoying issue with chapter 21: Avoiding the Morning Madness

Buy Now

Only $7.99 (Kindle) and $9.99 (paperback)

Look inside for a sneak peek.

Praises for the Book

Check out the glowing 5-star reviews on Amazon.

“A charming and helpful book for anyone struggling with their young children. Written in a whimsical tone, the book’s gentle wisdom unfolds until you discover your ability to loosen up, have fun, and enjoy your kids.” —Dr. Fred Luskin, author of “Forgive for Good” and director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Projects

“This book will help any family deal more effectively with their children. They will find it not only useful but fun as well.”
—Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins, co-author of “Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul”

“This delightful, whimsical book is a fun, easy-to-read treasure. It is playfully and powerfully presented for most anyone who has children in their lives.”
—Missy Brown, founder of Deep Play for Kids

Sparks Your Playfulness

Parenting—Let’s Make a Game of It inspires your own playful solutions as it did for these readers:

Shannon’s racing game made cleaning fun

Last night, I needed the kids to listen and help clean the house, fast… they wanted to see a quick episode on TV. But I really needed the house cleaned up before we had people over. So, here’s what I told them.

“Okay… here’s the deal… I’m going to call out 10 random clean-up tasks each… and 10 for me too. When we’ve each done 10, we’ll watch the show. As soon as you’ve done a task, come back quickly and I’ll give you another.”

The house, seriously, was tidied up in FIVE minutes.

Jody’s mystery game stopped a tantrum

My two-year-old granddaughter was sobbing when we couldn’t find her special yellow dress. While her mom and I frantically searched the house, she cried and screamed louder and louder.

We could see a meltdown ready to erupt. After a few minutes of this two-year-old catastrophe, I remembered your trick and clasped my hands and squealed, “We’re going to play a mystery game! Want to play with us?”

She immediately stopped crying and held my hand while I cheerfully said, “Is your yellow dress in this drawer? Let’s look! Nope, not in there. Where else could it be?” Pretty soon she was squealing with us as we went through the house and finally found it in the dryer.

You’re right, making parenting a game works! The game changed this dreaded event into something fun.

Ready to end power struggles and connect with your kids?

Parenting—Let’s Make a Game of It is only $7.99 (Kindle) and $9.99 (paperback).

This book shows how to put fun into parenting while getting kids to listen and cooperate.