As a parent, you are the best role model of gremlin-taming for your children. How you practice the method yourself will make all the difference in successfully introducing it to your children. Here are a few tips to help you along:

1. Before introducing gremlin-taming to your child, notice your own gremlin. Name it, draw it, put it on a leash and take it for a walk. Get to know your gremlin and the intimate conversations he/she/it wants to have with you. Notice your own habits of how you have been responding to these conversations up to this point.

2. Read Taming Your Gremlin by Rick Carson. Re-read it, again and again. Do the exercises in it and really give yourself some time to sink into your experiences as you go through them. Consider listening to one of his tape series such as Taming Your Gremlin: The Art of Graceful Change. You will undoubtedly pick up ideas you may have bypassed when read the book.

3. Share with your kids some moments when you catch your gremlin in the act. You might feel a little vulnerable doing this but you will also be creating a safe environment for your child to do the same thing. I can't say it too often: the more you model gremlin-taming for your kids, the more they will learn it. We teach our kids to talk by talking, how to have good manners by having them ourselves, how to practice gremlin-taming by being gremlin-tamers in our own lives.

4. Catching, taming, noticing!. these are some of the gentle actions involved in gremlin-taming. Don't encourage killing, hurting, or anything harsh. Gremlin taming is a gentle process, not a torture chamber. Kids naturally want to be the victors. Show them how victorious they can be without inflicting pain. Invite them to think of creative things to do with their gremlin using humor and playfulness. The learning will translate into dealing with difficult peer issues down the road.

For more Gremlin Taming Tips from Jane, register for one of her teleclasses, work with her in private lessons or book her for a speaking engagement.