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Thank you Mike. I really appreciate that. I just sent you an email to [email protected].

I'm her parent. I claim ownership of all of it, and I'm trying to improve my parenting skills. What have I said to lead you to believe I'm not claiming ownership of this situation? Why would I even be on here asking advice if I didn't think the problem was my parenting? Of course I think me and my wife not being together has an effect on her, but as previously stated, that was not my choice. Also mentioned previously, I'm going through a learning process and I have not covered everything. I have not specifically talked to her about being unable to help her while taking dinner out of the oven, that was just to illustrate the kind of situations that will come up when finding yourself caring for a young child alone all of a sudden.

I'm her parent. I claim ownership of all of it, and I'm trying to improve my parenting skills. What have I said to lead you to believe I'm not claiming ownership of this situation? Why would I even be on here asking advice if I didn't think the problem was my parenting? Of course I think me and my wife not being together has an effect on her, but as previously stated, that was not my choice. Also mentioned previously, I'm going through a learning process and I have not covered everything. I have not specifically talked to her about being unable to help her while taking dinner out of the oven, that was just to illustrate the kind of situations that will come up when finding yourself caring for a young child alone all of a sudden.

Yes, I try to prepare for these things, but it's a learning process and I have much still to cover.

No, I'm not. However, the mother has checked out quite bit and is not really onboard with the concept of peaceful parenting. I was not aware of the concept when I became a father, but intuitively was close to many of the principles. I'm the primary caregiver since we separated.

I'm a single parent (not by choice). There are many situations when I can't just drop what I'm doing, like standing in the kitchen with oven mittens on taking our dinner out of the oven, or having to take a work call, and I tend to her as soon as I'm done. So yes, I do go with her after a few minutes.

Thank you all for the feedback. The TV was just an example. The more general question was for strategies when prior agreement has not taken place for whatever reason, when an unforeseen situation arises, and a child will ignore what you are telling them or asking of them.

I didn't completely dictate the amount of time, but you are probably right that she might not have been on board 100%, so point taken there. Thank you. Another type of situation where I struggle with this is when something just comes up, so not much room for negotiation. This would be when she wants to do something that require supervision, but I'm not able to do it at the very moment. I'll explain that I can help her in a few minutes, but she will go ahead and gather the things she wants to use. I'll explain why I can't do it right now and reiterate that I can help her in just a moment, but she will sometimes just ignore that and go about her business starting the activity. This stuff scares me, because all though it's usually not dangerous things situations, I think to myself, what if there would be a dangerous situations where she would not listen to me.

I would very much appreciate some ideas on how to deal with situations when my child simply won’t reason or negotiate in any way. She is 5 years old. I really want to avoid situations where I have to take something away from my child. For example, I’m trying to keep her TV watching to a minimum so she has a set amount of screen time. I talk to her about this and explain as well as I can why I believe this is important. Sometimes she will start watching TV later on, after her she has already used up her screen time. I’ll ask her to turn the TV off, explain why, remind her of agreements we have, etc, but she just won’t do it. I don’t want to have to unplug the TV and put it in the closet, take the remotes out of her hands, threaten with other things being taken away like treats or things like that. What strategies can I use to deal with these kinds of situations where she doesn’t seem to care one bit when I tell her she can’t do something (and explain why)?

Thank you Audrey. Nice to see someone else from Upstate on here. I see you are from Rochester. I used to live there for several years before moving out further east, close to Syracuse.

Hello Cheryl, and thank you!

Hello! I'm a male in my early forties. Father of one. Single and I'm realizing I need some people in my life that are interested in the pursuit of truth based on reason and evidence I discovered Stephan through a youtube video on gun control and started listening to the pod cast after that. The show has had a big impact on how I reason and how I perceive behaviour occurring around me and in society in general. Other interests are spending time in the outdoors, shooting sports, building/making things.