I learn a lot about what is most helpful for parents by examining the posts that get shared more widely than others. This year was very interesting, as five of the top most read and most shared posts that I wrote were all about techniques! In particular, posts with tips and tricks to help raise children under the age of five were scooped up and shared far more than others. In fact, one of my posts was shared over a quarter of a million times both from my website and Erica Ehm’s YummyMummyClub.ca!

These were my most read and shared posts of 2015:

5. There is actually a tie for this position. These two posts were shared 27,000 times each:

Parents, Stop Saying “OK,” OK? Throwing an “OK?” at the end of an instruction can actually be counterproductive to our good intentions to be thoughtful — to check for understanding. Asking “OK?” turns our request into a “yes/ no” question, which gives our child the right to say, “NO!” In this post, I explain why getting rid of “OK” improves cooperation.

12 Positive Discipline Strategies – That WORK I wrote this post because parents often ask me what “positive discipline?” The word discipline has origins in the Latin word disciplina, which means, “to teach.” Adapting this concept to raising children, I believe positive discipline means guiding, redirecting, and teaching our children in a way that opens them to be the best they can be. It’s like helping them grow the biggest set of wings possible.

4. A post with phrases to say when we’re really mad was shared 30,000 times.

15 Phrases to Use Instead of “You Make Me So Mad” When we are upset, it can be very hard to stay in our “front-brain” (the thoughtful, rational part) and respond to our children in a helpful way. I asked my parenting educator colleagues to contribute their best phrases, and they chimed in with some awesome ones!

3. The post I wrote about staying strong as a couple while raising young children was shared 52,400 times.

Staying Strong as a Couple While Parenting Little Ones I was starting to get concerned about the number of parents who shared with me that their marriage was in danger or on the verge of ending. There wasn’t definitive data on divorce rates to show how old the children were, but anecdotally, colleagues and I were guessing the number of families separating with young children was on the rise. In this post, I addressed the key issues parents report are most challenging, and offered suggestions to staying together through the early years.

2. Another phrases article, this one directed to parents of toddlers, was shared 70,000 times.

Stop Tantrums: 33 Phrases to Use With Toddlers  There is a way to deliver instructions to toddlers that increases cooperation. The trick is to aim those instructions towards their prefrontal cortex by avoiding things like: time-outs, threats, repeating, harsh language, “yes/ no” questions, and using language that gets them thinking. In this post, I share 33 examples of instructions that tend to get our toddlers on the right track.

*1. The most shared post by far this year was a phrases post addressed specifically to parents of children who are three and four-years-old. This post has been shared 154,000 times from Erica Ehm’s YummyMummyClub.ca and another 100,000 times from my website.

Tantrum Tamers: 32 Phrases to Use With Three and Four-Year-Olds Three and four-year-olds think and behave differently than one and two-year-olds. Although the toddler phrases would still be helpful for the older children, I felt it was important to explain how preschool children are different than toddlers. I wrote a post, which was actually one of my most shared posts of 2014 called Handling the “Fournado”(the original title suggested by parents was ‘how to manage the f-ing fours’ — which explains the intensity of this sometimes tricky time!) to explain this difference.

An extension of the “fournado” post, the 32 phrases one gives parents tools to help our often agitated and frustrated preschoolers manage their big emotions.

After seeing this post get shared so widely, I knew parents of children under five really needed easier access to helpful information. The success of the toddler and three and four-year-old phrases posts actually sparked the idea to create an app for that! Parents were telling me they wanted to tattoo the phrases onto their arms! I thought it would be amazing to create something so parents could have these phrases and more right with them when they need them most. If you are interested in learning more about my “Taming Tantrums App” (for iPhone & Android), I invite you to read this post.

I’d really like to hear from you. How can I serve you best in the year to come? What would you like me to write about? Can you please comment below or over on my Facebook page so I know how best to support you?

With sincere and best wishes for an amazing 2016, Andrea.