Coaching practices for How to Discuss with My Kids Returning to Dating
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Discuss with My Kids Returning to Dating, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- Every conversation with my kid about their behavior turns into me laying down the law and them digging in, and I want a way to actually talk it through together
- When I ask my kid about their day I get one-word answers, and I realize I only ever ask about homework and chores
- After a blow-up with my kid we both stay frozen and far apart, and I keep trying to talk it through, to get an apology, while the distance just drags on
- My partner and I have boiled our talking down to schedules and chores, and it hit me that the version of them in my head is years out of date
- After the baby, the move, the hard year, we just quietly stopped reaching for each other
Practices that may help
- Use Plan B: the three-step collaborative conversation
Empathize with the child’s concern, share yours, and invite them to solve it together.
Collaborative Problem Solving (Ross Greene) - Talk with your child about their day and interests
Genuine conversational interest builds vocabulary, trust, and the relationship buffer that makes limits land without conflict.
Triple P Parenting (Matthew Sanders) - Use play to re-establish connection after conflict or separation
Playful physical contact after a difficult moment re-welds the relationship faster than discussion.
Special Time (Lawrence Cohen — Playful Parenting) - Practice openness through regular self-disclosure
Share your thoughts, feelings, and daily experiences — not just problems.
Relationship Maintenance Behaviors - Rekindling after a drift: returning to aliveness
Recognize a drift in erotic connection as normal — and name it as the beginning of a renewal, not a failure.
Mating in Captivity: Sustaining Desire in Long-Term Relationships - Problem-solve together once the child is calm
After the emotional storm passes, invite the child to find a solution with you.
Emotion Coaching (John Gottman) - Engage in safe rough-and-tumble play
Wrestling, chasing, and physical silliness build the regulation capacity that calm activities cannot.
Special Time (Lawrence Cohen — Playful Parenting) - Follow the child’s lead completely during special time
Let the child decide what you do, how long you stay, and when you move on.
Special Time (Lawrence Cohen — Playful Parenting) - Schedule check-ins rather than relying on spontaneity
Spontaneous "we should talk" conversations are almost always initiated by a problem, not prevention.
The Relationship Check-In: A Structured Practice for Staying Connected - Use family meetings to solve problems together
When children help solve the problem, they own the solution — and solutions they own, they actually follow.
Positive Discipline (Jane Nelsen)
Related concerns
- Collaborative Parenting Solution
A collaborative solution that fails one of three tests — realistic, mutually satisfying, safe — will not hold.
Evaluate solutions for durability: realistic, mutually satisfying, safe
- Game For Better Teen Sibling Relationship
Playful physical contact after a difficult moment re-welds the relationship faster than discussion.
Use play to re-establish connection after conflict or separation
- How To Go About Regaining The Trust Of My Child
Empathize with the child’s concern, share yours, and invite them to solve it together.
Use Plan B: the three-step collaborative conversation
- Special Time Lawrence Cohen Playful Parenting After A Setback
Special time is a structured daily or near-daily practice of ten to twenty minutes of fully child-directed, uninterrupted one-on-one play, drawn from Lawrence Cohen's Playful Parenting framework. It fills the child’s attachment "cup," reduces bids for attention through misbehavior, and builds the relationship reserve that makes limits and teaching more effective. Clinical and observational evidence consistently supports child-directed play as a relationship and behavior intervention.
- Special Time Lawrence Cohen Playful Parenting During Conflict
Special time is a structured daily or near-daily practice of ten to twenty minutes of fully child-directed, uninterrupted one-on-one play, drawn from Lawrence Cohen's Playful Parenting framework. It fills the child’s attachment "cup," reduces bids for attention through misbehavior, and builds the relationship reserve that makes limits and teaching more effective. Clinical and observational evidence consistently supports child-directed play as a relationship and behavior intervention.
- 5 Yr Olds Toy Taken By A Another Kid
Dreikurs argued that misbehavior is always purposeful — the child is pursuing belonging or significance through a mistaken strategy.
Identify the mistaken goal behind the misbehavior
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