It used to be that parents were skeptical when it came to their kids using cell phones. The technology seemed too grown up for kids and teens, and the possibilities of them having instant secret communication with their friends sparked concerns about all kinds of trouble. Today, all that is…
Sex, drugs and alcohol — these are subjects you’ll want to talk about with your children before there is a problem. As a family, you can establish boundaries and consequences and come to a common understanding of what is acceptable. Sex: According to Advocates for Youth, statistics indicate that children…
Separation is a challenging time for many parents because it is an adjustment to a new way of life. There are both positive and negative factors to separation and the corresponding changes, but one of the issues that can arise is the differences that parents may have in the ways…
Everyone benefits from a good night’s sleep. Children also need to learn how to unwind at the end of the day with an uninterrupted period of restorative sleep. For some children, this comes easily. For others, it may mean a night of counting sheep and difficult morning rises. Break the…
Summer is a great time for children. School is out for most of them and it’s time to play. Running, climbing, building sand castles, swimming… Sweating, sunburns, complaining. It isn’t necessarily all that easy to keep the kids busy all summer long, especially on particularly hot days, the days when…
Watching a young girl hit, kick, and call her mother names I never imagined a 6 year old knew, engaged in an (ultimately successful) attempt to get dessert led to an enlightening luncheon conversation with a few friends last week. As parents ourselves, we had all dealt with incidents like…
It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. We’re talking about that heart-stopping moment when a child chokes on food. In an instant, you have a life-or-death situation on your hands. Perhaps the most frightening aspect is that choking is unpredictable and can stem from what seems like the most innocuous foods, everyday…
In order for us to get restful sleep, we need to be relaxed. In order to relax, a number of things have to happen. First of all, we need to feel safe and secure. Obviously, if there is tension in the house – abuse, parents rowing, problems with finances or…
As the parent of a teen, you may long for the days when you could hold your child on your lap and they were eager to talk, laugh, and play with you. Those days may be long gone, but you can still find ways to connect with your teen. Here…
Kids don’t come with an instruction manual, and there’s no such thing as a perfect parent. You can read as many books as possible, talk to all the moms on the playground and pay for weekly therapy sessions, and you still might feel like you don’t know what you are…