Topics

Parenting

Surviving After A Loved One's Suicide: Part I

By Melissa Blake on November 16, 2009 in Disabled and Thriving

There are two months out of the year I'm not too keen on living through. One is March, obviously, since that is the month in which my father committed suicide, a month that still, almost seven years later, smells the same, looks the same and all-around feels the same as that cold day in 2003. The other month is November; well, actually, it's more like a single day. Read More

Talking Turkey without a Side of Too Many Questions

By Dana S. Dunn, Ph.D. on November 16, 2009 in Head of the Class

My goal in this blog is primarily to discuss teaching issues in psychology, but sometimes I will take a detour by using the space to comment on issues facing college faculty members and students. This installment deals with next week and the arrival of students home for our holiday of family togetherness. Read More

Ted Kennedy: An overlooked child

By Ellen Weber Libby, Ph.D. on November 16, 2009 in The Favorite Child

Overlooked children may not be the apple of their parents' eyes, but these kids can be driven to be valued. Ted Kennedy is an example of an overlooked child whose life was driven by his desire to make his father proud, to carry on the family legacy of excellence. Kennedy worked hard to keep up with his revered siblings, bringing this ethos to his life in the Senate. Our nation is better for that. Read More

Who is the Most Violent Person in Your Family?

By Susan Newman, Ph.D. on November 15, 2009 in Singletons

Last week twenty-year-old Jim told his mother that he has always been leery of his younger, but larger brother, Andrew. Jim's cautiousness around Andrew dates back to the time Andrew shoved him off a dump truck breaking both of Jim's wrists.   Read More

Divorce Doesn't Harm Children - Parents Fighting Harms Children

By Susan Pease Gadoua, L.C.S.W. on November 15, 2009 in Contemplating Divorce

Would you stay in a bad marriage "for the kids" if you knew it was harming them? Read More

How NOT to punish your adolescent.

By Carl E. Pickhardt, Ph.D. on November 15, 2009 in Surviving (Your Child's) Adolescence

Punishment is a corrective of last resort brought into play only after corrective communication has failed to right acting wrong. Read More

What Teachers Wish They Could Say To Parents

By Gina Barreca, Ph.D. on November 14, 2009 in Snow White Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Why do certain diminutive descendants of humankind get to act like little green monsters?

Actually, I shouldn't say that because it gives green monsters a bad name.

There are kids who hold court like Henry VIII--or, to be more precise, like Richard the Third.

These children will neither have fun nor be fun as they grow up. Their parents do them no favors by indulging them and regarding their selfish behavior as "independence" and their nastiness as "personality." Read More

Proms, Plays, & Yearbooks: Erasing queer lives from school

By Elizabeth J. Meyer, Ph.D. on November 13, 2009 in Gender and Schooling

Recent school controversies around the country demonstrate how parents, administrators, and other school officials are harming students and teaching homophobia and intolerance. In Mississippi the issue is a female student who wore a tuxedo instead of the “drape” designated for female students for her yearbook photo. Read More

Mothers and Daughters: The Body Image Trickle Down

By Dara Chadwick on November 13, 2009 in You'd Be So Pretty If...

Last week, I wrote about what's been happening in Australia, where several body image activists have been accused of being "too beautiful" to deliver a message of self-acceptance and body love to the "average" woman. I asked my readers if they'd still be willing to listen to my message of self-acceptance if I looked like a supermodel. Read More

TV time for Babies...

By Randi Hutter Epstein, M.D. on November 12, 2009 in Birth, Babies, and Beyond

What will it take to convince parents that playing a game with their young children is better than watching TV. Maybe a few complaints and a refund will do the trick.  Read More

A Note For Mothers

By Melissa Blake on November 12, 2009 in Disabled and Thriving

I hope you enjoyed yesterday's words from psychotherapist Mary Jo Rapini. Here's one more bit of wisdom she has to share, being a mom herself. Read More

Are We Destined To Turn Into Our Mothers?

By Melissa Blake on November 12, 2009 in Disabled and Thriving

When I was young, I used to tell my mother, with great gusto and frequency, that "we're the same person." I fully believed it then. I was in awe of her and wanted to be not just her walking, talking mini-me, but her. Not like her. Not sharing her interests. Her. Read More

Words of Wisdom Wednesday: A Few Words On The Mother-Daughter Bond

By Melissa Blake on November 11, 2009 in Disabled and Thriving

Author Mary Jo Rapini knows a thing or two about mothers and daughters. During the course of her decade-long career as a psychotherapist, she's confronted everything from body image issues to intimacy issues to parenting issues. Now, she's brought her expertise to the page with her book, ""Start Talking: A Girl's Guide for You and Your Mom About Health, Sex, or Whatever," by Bayou Press. Read More

The Strength My Mother Gave Me

By Melissa Blake on November 11, 2009 in Disabled and Thriving

Families in every neck of the woods pay homage to the matriarch of their family every May on that lovely Sunday we've come to know - and expect (at least my mother has) - as Mother's Day. Sons, daughters and even husbands shower the women in their lives with cards filled with words of love - and maybe even a Bath and Body Works gift card (my own mother's personal favorite gift). Read More

Benjamin Franklin Was Right, But....

By Ugo Uche on November 11, 2009 in Promoting Empathy With Your Teen

Benjamin Franklin's quote, "force sh#*es upon reason's back" was accurate, but incomplete. While in fact, force or the belief in force plays a primary role in the bottom line to any conflict, force leaves no room for peace. Read More

Some Lessons Taught by Informal Sports, Not by Formal Sports

By Peter Gray on November 11, 2009 in Freedom to Learn

Imagine an old-fashioned sandlot game of baseball. A bunch of kids of various ages show up at the vacant lot. They've come on foot or by bicycle. Someone brought a bat and ball (which may or may not be an actual baseball), and several came with fielders' gloves. They decide to play a game.  ... Read More

National Adoption Month: Bittersweet

By Meredith Resnick, L.C.S.W. on November 10, 2009 in Adoption Stories

This year's theme for National Adoption Month--which occurs in November--is "You don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent" (what a relief--right?).

Jokes aside, I should be happy about this special month to celebrate adoption. But I'm not, not totally anyway. Read More

PornStar Mom, SuperStar Stepmom...What About Dad?

By Wednesday Martin, Ph.D. on November 10, 2009 in Stepmonster

Why do I feel so sorry for a former porn-star and drug user who might lose custody of her five-year-old daughter? Too bad the custody "catfight" between Sandra Bullock and former porn star Janine Lundemulder is letting dad off the hook... Read More

Play cards, beat anorexia?

By Sheila Himmel on November 9, 2009 in You Must Be Hungry

Play cards, beat anorexia?

Of course not, but researchers at Stanford University are making progress with anorexia patients by having them perform tasks, including a card game, that have nothing to do with food, weight or body image.

Read More

Moral Adults: Moral Children

By Richard Weissbourd on November 9, 2009 in The Parents We Mean to Be

In the Brother's Grimm fairy tale, "The Old Grandfather and the Grandson," a young married couple has grown tired of the husband's father, who lives with them, and who has become increasingly feeble. They stop inviting him to the dinner table and begin feeding him small portions from a dishpan. Read More

Essential Reads: Editor's Picks

More Essential Reads

Parenting Blogs

Current Issue

Confessions of a Sociopath

She's successful and charming as well as ruthless and calculating.