Parenting

Essential Reads Chosen by the editors

Girls and Math - Part 2 : Teacher's Anxiety

By Daniel R. Hawes on February 3, 2010 in Evolved Primate

A recent study looks at the link between teacher anxiety and the gender gap in mathematics... Read More

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Bullies Bully--and Kids Kid, Right?

By Leon F. Seltzer, Ph.D. on February 9, 2010 in Evolution of the Self

It's no coincidence that children everywhere tease one another. They can hardly help it. It's fun for them, a game. That's why I view the verb "kid" as deriving quite naturally from the noun form of the word. Kidding is simply what kids do. And what's the object of this well-nigh universal game? Well, that's easy enough to answer. . . . Read More
Being bullied: helping your adolescent not get pushed around.

By Carl Pickhardt, Ph.D. on February 9, 2010 in Surviving (Your Child's) Adolescence

The "poster child" behavior for the five kinds of social cruelty I describe in my recent book "Why Good Kids Act Cruel" (teasing, exclusion, bullying, rumoring, and ganging up) is bullying. (See 1/3 and 1/10/10 blogs on social cruelty.)
Read More
Super Bowl and Suicide

By Stanton Peele on February 8, 2010 in Addiction in Society

The most prominent and successful family lines in American sports are marred by suicide. Read More
When children lose a beloved relative

By Sarah E. Ludwig on February 8, 2010 in Outnumbered!

My kids' grandma is at the end of her battle with cancer. Here's what I've learned about helping them through their grief. Read More
Why Healthy Teenagers Die

By Judy Willis, M.D., M.Ed. on February 6, 2010 in Radical Teaching

Teenagers are three to four times more likely to die during those years than at any other point past infancy, until they become elderly. The causes of death are largely attributed to their higher risk-taking and accidents. What may appear to be bad judgment or selfishness may really be an inability of their incompletely formed brains to think before they act. Read More
Mothers With One Child Are Happiest

By Susan Newman, Ph.D. on February 5, 2010 in Singletons

Going from one child to two (or two to three or more) is a dilemma single parents and couples wrestle with, sometimes for years. Does knowing that mothers who have one child are happiest make the decision easier? Read More
A Family That Eats Together.....

By Randi Hutter Epstein, M.D. on February 5, 2010 in Birth, Babies, and Beyond

Could it be that Hollywood will help bring back the family dinner--that old fashioned notion that it may be a good thing to spend time as a family enjoying home--cooked cuisine. Read More
Why a 'Better' Body Won't Make You Happy...But the Journey to a Healthier One Might

By Dara Chadwick on February 5, 2010 in You'd Be So Pretty If...

One of the things I hear most often from moms -- and girls -- is something along these lines: "If I could just lose 20 pounds, everything would be great."

You recognize the sentiment, I'm sure. If we could just "fix" what we perceive to be broken, we'd finally be happy. Read More
Maybe its not all about friends: Parents, race, alcohol, and drug abuse

By Adi Jaffe on February 4, 2010 in All About Addiction

We all know that friends influence kids quite a bit, but it seems that different racial, or ethnically-based, norms can also affect the source of influence for children when it comes to alcohol and drug use. Read More
Girls and Math - Part 2 : Teacher's Anxiety

By Daniel R. Hawes on February 3, 2010 in Evolved Primate

A recent study looks at the link between teacher anxiety and the gender gap in mathematics... Read More
STARTING FRESH WITH OUR FATHERS

By Pamela Thomas on February 3, 2010 in Our Fathers, Ourselves

Coming to terms with father loss through the act of forgiveness. Read More
4 Quick Reactions to the MMR/Autism Study Retraction

By Jonathan Levy on February 2, 2010 in The Interactive World

CNN and everybody else is reporting that the 1998 study linking the MMR vaccine to autism published in the medical journal The Lancet has been retracted.
Four quick thoughts / reactions to the story: Read More
Mind the Gap: Who Falls Prey to the Math Gender Gap?

By Melissa Burkley, Ph.D. on February 2, 2010 in The Social Thinker

One personality characteristic plays a significant role in the math gender gap. Read More
Girls and Math - Part 1

By Daniel R. Hawes on February 2, 2010 in Evolved Primate

Because hearing "girls just don't do as well at math" makes me cringe... Read More
Adolescence and the matter with money.

By Carl Pickhardt, Ph.D. on February 2, 2010 in Surviving (Your Child's) Adolescence

Come adolescence, young people start to learn what their parents already know: that in life most people have to get by on less money than they ideally want and often on less than they actually need.
This is sobering realization at an age when worldly freedom to do, to go, and to have starts to matter and cost so much more. That's the power of money: it buys freedom of choice. Read More
Video games can teach positive lessons, too.

By Art Markman, Ph.D. on February 2, 2010 in Ulterior Motives

It is clear that video games can have both positive and negative influences on behavior. Read More
The future of direct-to-consumer genetics

By Jesse Reynolds

Two years ago, direct-to-consumer (or personal) genomics was the all the buzz. Read More
Two Rules To Help Foster A Healthy Sense Of Identity With Your Adopted Teen

By Ugo Uche on February 1, 2010 in Promoting Empathy With Your Teen

During the middle to the latter stages of adolescence, teenagers will typically go through a process of questioning and criticizing everything they have being taught and know, as they embark on the process of finding their sense of identity. For adopted teens this process can be two fold-... Read More
BEING THE FAVORITE CHILD ISN'T ALL GOOD!

By Ellen Weber Libby, Ph.D. on February 1, 2010 in The Favorite Child

Recently, Jay Thomas (Sirius/XM Radio) interviewed me about favorite children. During the interview, Thomas first spoke about his experiences as a child. He described his brother, who was quiet, bright, and hard working, as the favorite child. Thomas characterized himself as noisy, rambunctious, and confrontational. Though his brother was the favorite child, Thomas reveled that as an adult, he was more successful than his brother. He had a better job, achieved greater success, and made more money. Read More
How to Teach the Power of Slow to Our Kids

By Christine Louise Hohlbaum on February 1, 2010 in The Power of Slow

Overscheduling has become the new norm. Here are five ways to buck the trend in slow style. Read More

Parenting Blogs

A Family Affair
Parents, Children and Society
By Jay Belsky
About Fathers
Perspectives on fathers and their children
By Paul Raeburn
Adoption Stories
Yours. Mine. Ours.
By Meredith Resnick
Birth, Babies, and Beyond
Pregnancy, Birth, and Parenting: A medical writer and mother of four makes sense of the fads and teases fact from fiction.
By Randi Hutter Epstein, M.D.
Divorced With Children
How you and your children can thrive after divorce.
By Robert Emery, Ph.D.
Great Kids, Great Parents
Infant/Child Development and the Importance of Children's Feelings
By Paul C. Holinger, M.D.
Guide to Teen Girls
Helping mothers and daughters everywhere.
By Jennifer Austin Leigh
Guilt, Manipulation, and Other Helpful Tools
Observations and opinions from a woman who believes that the best way to raise good kids is to create a psychological hold over them from which they can never escape.
By Elizabeth Beckwith
Lifestyle Design
Adventures in Homeschooling
By Jenny Lind Schmitt
Liking the Child You Love
How to build a better relationship with your kids--even when they're driving you crazy.
By Dr. Jeffrey Bernstein
Mindful Motherhood
Practical tools for staying sane during pregnancy and your child's first year.
By Cassandra Vieten, Ph.D.
Mommy Mental Health
Understanding your moods and maintaining emotional health during and after your pregnancy.
By Shoshana Bennett, Ph.D.
My Empty Nest
It's not always empty.
By Madora Kibbe
Nation of Wimps
The high cost of invasive parenting.
By Hara Estroff Marano
New Rules for Stepfamilies
Finding the Missing Peace
By Dr Joshua Coleman
Nurturing Resilience
Raising children to be competent and caring.
By Michael Ungar, Ph.D.
Our Fathers, Ourselves
How the presence (or absence) of our fathers throughout or lives affects us emotionally, socially, sexually, physically, and intellectually.
By Pamela Thomas
Outnumbered!
Raising a larger than average family.
By Sarah E. Ludwig
Promoting Empathy With Your Teen
The most efficient way to address everyday issues with your teen.
By Ugo Uche, M.S., L.P.C.
Raising Grieving Children
How children can survive the death of a loved one.
By Phyllis R. Silverman, Ph.D.
Singletons
The world of only children
By Susan Newman
Stepmonster
Reaching to the core of the stepmother experience.
By Wednesday Martin, Ph.D.
Surviving (Your Child's) Adolescence
Welcome to the "hard half" of parenting: Here are some changes you can expect and some choices you should make.
By Carl Pickhardt Ph.D.
The Last Normal Child
Helping parents help kids navigate today's perilous path of childhood.
By Lawrence Diller
The Parents We Mean to Be
Raising moral, happy children without too much or too little parenting.
By Richard Weissbourd
You'd Be So Pretty If...
How to teach your daughter to love her body--even when you don't love your own.
By Dara Chadwick
Young Americans
American kids and their parents navigating the twenty-first century.
By David Anderegg

Parenting Basics

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Heartbreak and Home Runs: The Power of First Experiences

How early life experiences shape our character.