The Lovetopus Blog
Parenting in Practice
Real scripts for the hard moments.
This is the do-something-tonight shelf: word-for-word phrases, two-minute rituals, and small moves you can run at bedtime, at drop-off, or mid-tantrum. Every article here pairs with one real problem from our catalog — the same plain-words list the books are built from — so the advice always knows exactly which hard moment it’s for. Evidence-informed, tested against the way real evenings actually go.
Your Second Job Title: Emotion Coach (What Gottman Actually Found)In the 1990s John Gottman found that parents who treat a child’s big feeling as a moment for connection — not a fire to put out — are linked to kids who tend to handle themselves measurably better. Three decades of follow-up work turned that into teachable steps: the five steps, the common misread (“coaching” ≠ “no limits”), and one drill for this week.Coming soon A Tantrum Isn’t Malice: The Anatomy of a MeltdownYour four-year-old isn’t manipulating you — mid-meltdown, the thinking part of their brain has briefly left the building. What’s actually happening in there, and the emotion-coaching sequence for the moment itself: name it, allow the feeling, limit the behavior.Coming soon