Parenting

• What’s the point of trying? How to Turn Pessimistic Kids Into Optimistic Thinkers

  Kids with pessimistic attitudes are among the most frustrating breeds. They give up easily, believe anything they do won’t make a difference, and assume they won’t succeed. Sadly, they rarely see the good, wonderful things of life. They dwell instead on the negative, bad parts, and often find only the inadequacies in themselves: “I’m so dumb, why study?” “Nobody’s going to like me, why bother?” Beware: the trend is increasing: a child today is ten times more likely to be seriously depressed compared to a child born in the first third of this century. So what’s a parent to do?

• Yelling At Kids Teaches!

  I do not think that yelling indelibly scars kids unduly nor does them irreparable psychological damage; but it certainly does not help them to learn productive ways of interacting with the world. I guess that you could say that I am opposed to yelling at kids for the same reason that I am opposed to punishment; it does not work in any way that it is even close to the way that it is intended.

• Nightmares

  For most adults, occasional nightmares are a normal part of life. But that doesn’t stop parents from feeling helpless when their children wake up screaming in the middle of the night. And the more frequently those nightmares happen, the more parents worry.

• What Mom Can Do for Dad

  When kids come along, a mom and dad have to work harder than ever. Naturally, they each get stressed and depleted. And that means they need more from each than ever!

• Successful Summer Tips for Your Teen

  Looking for something productive for your teens to do this summer? Consider the following ideas…

• Fight Nice: Relationship Tips For Parents Of Young Children

  The heat of the moment is when we say things that can really damage intimacy. Here are some tips for staying calm, even amid the chaos that often defines life with young children.

• What You Need to Know about Your Parents

  The key to handling your parents is understanding them. Sometimes, especially when they are annoying you, the very idea of that is repellent. You don’t want to understand their motives; you want to grumble about them, shrug your shoulders helplessly about how impossible they are, assure yourself that they’re crazy.

• Getting More Help From Your Partner

  Some couples are equal partners in the work of making a family. But that’s the exception, since many studies have found that the average mother is on-task, working away at one thing or another, about twenty hours a week MORE than her partner is, whether or not she is drawing a paycheck. And if she has no partner, in most cases just about all of the work of raising children falls to her alone.