According to the Bowker Books in Print database (courtesy of the WSJ article “New Ways to Get Kids to Behave”), the number of parenting books published or distributed rose from 2,774 in 2007 to 3,520 in 2011. I’ll bet most… Continue Reading
Molly* is a difficult [in my more honest moments I think of her as nearly tyrannical] early adolescent, who makes her mother’s life a horror. She picks on Mom’s clothes, her hairstyle–the way she chews her toast in the morning.… Continue Reading
Charlotte* was a energetic, exciting, dominant woman. She chose Charlie,* her opposite. Charlie ate the same menu almost every day: 2 eggs, chicken salad for lunch, chicken or pasta for dinner. This drove Charlotte wild, and she let Charlie know… Continue Reading
I’m a bit of a softie for sibling roles in family dynamics, and although there are definite limits to the validity of utilizing birth order to explain behavioral and personality traits, some value yet remains. Older research asserted a variety… Continue Reading
13. It always gets that bad ‘unlucky’ rap, even in these progressive days and times. There’s just no escaping it. So it will be no surprise to parents, who thought they saw the backsides of their children when they sent… Continue Reading
A story of injustice mixed with justice hit the news yesterday. A Florida sheriff arrested 2 girls (ages 14 and 12) for cyberbullying. Their victim, 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick, jumped to her death from an abandoned concrete factory. The Facebook entry… Continue Reading
High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation. ~Jack Kinder So you’re ready to set boundaries with and just say no to your over-indulged adult child–and you haven’t the faintest idea where to begin. Well, you’ve come… Continue Reading
Penny* is in eighth grade, but quite childish. At school she uses a kleenex box to prop up the books on her desk, and it’s become something of an obsession. If someone–innocently–takes a piece of tissue, well, poor Penny crumbles.… Continue Reading
Sometimes all the setting of boundaries, the just-say-no-ing, and the financial tough love can’t keep your adult children afloat in the outside world, and it’s time to let them come and rest their battered and weary heads in your home, under your… Continue Reading
So I hear congratulations are in order. Your young-adult child has managed to pull a maneuver at once so suave, so foolhardy, so dangerous, so. . . .stupid, that he is in the running for winning our Stupid Young-Adult Child… Continue Reading
“Did you ever get the feeling there’s a wocket in your pocket?” Thus begins my youngest granddaughter’s favorite classic, named, appropriately, Wocket in My Pocket, by Dr. Seuss. You might think it’s just a silly book with goofy rhyming words… Continue Reading
Brian* always seemed a few steps behind everyone else socially, unsure when to laugh, when to put himself forward, when to retreat. His stutter contributed to his painful shyness. And from the get-go he had never managed to get his… Continue Reading
