Parenting Is a Contact Sport

8 Ways to Stay Connected to Your Kids for Life.

by Joanne Stern, Ph.D.

5 Things Every Teen Wants Their Parent to Know

Have you ever thought of asking your teenager for advice?

"What?" You might reply. "Why would I do that? What could she possibly know about life that I don't know better?" Read More

How Do You Feel about Dropping Your Kids at Daycare?

Okay, so you don't spend every waking minute with your kids. Have you made peace with that or are you trailing a black cloud of guilt behind you? Maybe you compare yourself to your neighbor who gleefully spends afternoons baking cookies or doing craft projects with her children-and you're sure you'd tear your hair out if you did that more than once every six months. Read More

How to Make the Most of Fighting with Your Teen

You may be blinking and wondering how it happened that suddenly your happy home has become a verbal battle ground. Gone are the days of quiet acquiescence. It seems they've been replaced with debates, arguments and angry words. Read More

The Positive Sides of Parenting Tweens

Remember when your toddler screeched, "I no want it!" when she was first learning to express her independence? In between the tantrums and the trials you were most likely delighting in her burgeoning personality, her growing vocabulary and her adorable antics. You were tickled by her discoveries of her expanding world and laughed at her hilarious little behaviors. Read More

Avoiding Three Traps for Good Parent-Child Communication

Do you ever wonder what happened to the sweet child you once had—the one who talked with you about anything and everything? Where did he go? Did he morph into a sullen, closed down kid? Will he ever come back or is he gone forever? Read More

Teaching Your Kids That Silence Is Golden

Some days you just crave quiet. Your soul is yearning for calm and you're thirsty for an environment with no chaos, no upheaval and no loud noises.

But your kids are yelling!

How do you deal? By screaming at them to be quiet? I hope not, because your best strategy is to model the behavior you want from them. Read More

How to Stay Connected to Your Child When You're Away from Home

So you're going away and leaving your child at home. Are you worried that you'll lose your connection with your child; that somehow your absence will damage his growth and development; that your strong, positive relationship will diminish while you're gone? Read More

When a Crisis Occurs, Don't Panic!

Kids make mistakes and do stupid things. That's what kids do. As young children their brains aren't developed enough to be able to think abstractly and clearly about complicated or long range consequences. Read More

The Mother / Leader in You

If you're a working mom, it's time to recognize that what you do at home while parenting your kids is valuable outside your home as well as within your home. And if you're a stay at home mom, it's time to bolster your confidence by realizing that your parenting skills are also teaching you valuable leadership skills. Read More

Words That Hurt: Dealing with Sibling Rivalry

Kids will get into it with each other from time to time. There's probably no way to entirely eliminate siblings arguing with each other. Each child needs to learn to stand up for himself and to take care of himself, so you can let them battle it out-to a point. Read More

Teaching Your Kids to Be Honest

I'm sure you want your children to be honest-not to cheat, lie, sneak, cover up or steal. But what's the best strategy to teach them to be truthful?

Some parents might believe it's in a child's nature to lie and it's the parent's job to punish dishonesty to prevent it from taking over. Actually parents often set their kids up to lie. Read More

Parent or Friend: Do I Have to Choose?

You shouldn't be friends with your kids. What they need is a parent, not another friend. Right?

Wrong. That's a parenting myth that needs to be debunked. Read More

What Made You Laugh Today?

A mom recently told me that her favorite question to ask her kids when they come home from school is, "What made you laugh today?" I thought it was brilliant. First of all, it's a terrific, creative conversation starter. It sparks kids' imagination and takes the focus and pressure off their performance for that day. Read More

Plan B Parenting: When Perfect Plans and Little Peeps Plummet

A friend of mine recently flew with her six-year-old son Ryan across the country to visit her mom. Grandma had been looking forward to their visit for weeks. Ryan was excited to spend time with Grandma and his east coast cousins. And my friend was anticipating a long overdue visit with her family. Then the unexpected happened. Read More

Taking the Perspective of Your Kids: An Interview with Ellen Galinsky

Let's say your child comes home from school downcast, frustrated and grumpy. How you talk with him about his unhappiness can make a big difference in his life-not only in the kind of relationship you will have with him, but also in the kind of relationships he will develop with others. Read More

4 New Year's Resolutions for Working Moms

You know what I like about the New Year? It's a natural time to start afresh and anew with positive things we want for our lives. As a working mom, you don't need one more item on your to-do list. But if you're thinking about making some changes or doing things a bit differently next year, making a New Year's resolution might be just right for you. Read More

A Family Psychotherapist's Guide to Gift Giving

Need a last minute holiday present for your kids? Why not give them a gift that will nourish your relationships with your children and create fun for the whole family? Read More

Women Who Rise to the Top

Do you ever wonder how career women at the "O" level of jobs in the US (CEO, CFO, CIO or CTO) reach success and still manage significant home and family responsibilities? Have they cloned themselves? Have they found a way to create more hours in a day or more days in a week? Or have they just done what most of us can do: maximize the leadership traits we already have within us? Read More

Creating Everyday Rituals That Are Meanigful for Your Family

If you asked your kids what they like best about your family, what would they say? Maybe, they like the activities you do together as a family-the things you do regularly-so they can look forward to them coming again and again. Perhaps, it's the seemingly insignificant family traditions you've thought up that make them swell with pride and feel like an insider in something pretty important. Read More

6 Tips for Overworked Working Mothers

If you're like most working moms, you've probably wished for a wife, or a magical nanny who would cheerfully and efficiently tidy up the house, fold the laundry, settle the disputes among the kids, organize the play dates, do the grocery shopping, get the household bills in order and put dinner on the table. Read More

Have You Hugged Your Husband Today?

When you hug your husband, it's not only a boost for the two of you; it's also good for your kids. When they see you happy-and happy with each other-it makes their world.

In fact, why not make hugs the norm for everyone in your family? Read More

Dealing with a Trashy Dressing Daughter

Before you react too quickly when your daughter starts dressing trashy, it's a good idea to get inside her head prior to jumping inside her closet. Read More

Working Mothers' Lives: Q & A with Historian Stephanie Coontz

Ask almost any question you can think of about family life- from two centuries ago to the present-and Stephanie Coontz will be able to answer thoughtfully and accurately. She's a fountain of information and expertise about American families, including marriage, feminism, parenting and working women. Read More

Creating Your Family Business Plan

If you don't have a vision of where you're going and a plan on how to get there, you're likely to get swept away by the winds of life. You'll flop this way and that, not ever really knowing if you're off course and going in the wrong direction. Suddenly you may realize that you don't have money for that special family trip and everyone is disappointed. Read More

Does Motherhood Make You Stupid?

"I feel my brain cells slowly dying every day." Read More

Daddy on Board

Dads are definitely getting more involved with their children. According to my friend and colleague, Dottie Lamm, MSW, they're helping with childcare and household tasks because they want to be present for those special moments, and they want to contribute more time, focus and energy to their families. Read More

What to Do When You Feel Like You Birthed a Monster?

You would probably assert that you love your kids more than life itself-that you'd throw yourself in front of a train for them, Yet, if you could bring yourself to be fully honest on this deeply personal topic, you might also admit that there are times when you just don't like them very much. Read More

The Unique Contribution of Dads

More and more dads are becoming deeply involved with the hands-on parenting of their kids. That'sterrific because, Dads, you make a very unique contribution to your children that their moms can't make. Dads across America have told me how wonderful it feels to be a part of those very special moments with their kids and how satisfying it is when they share something very personal and intimate. Read More

The Perfectionism Trap

Perfectionism is a trap because we simply can't measure up to our own expectations of doing it all. And when we don't, we feel guilt. On some level, this guilt is a connecting point for all women because we all feel it. In small doses guilt makes us human. But when we feel an overdose of it, it wears us down, catches us in a cycle of negative thinking and damages our health. Read More

Balancing Your Work and Your Kids' Needs

So you've finally been able to reconfigure your job to enable you to work from home. You may have thought it would automatically give you more flexibility and more time to spend with your daughters. Read More