kids

What’s Up with Boredom?

In my office I have encountered clients who report “boredom” as an almost unbearable state.  My young clients find they are “bored” at school, doing chores, having to even engage in conversations.  It is a painful state they feel they need to escape from which often leads to distracted behavior in class, conflicts at home… Read more »

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Overcoming Two of Parenting’s Greatest Challenges

By Dr. Lisa Firestone and Joyce Catlett   Raising children can be one of the most challenging jobs in life; it certainly is one of the most important. Renowned British pediatrician/ psychoanalyst, Donald Winnicott once told a group of parents:  “You are engaged in founding the mental health of the next generation.” Although, as parents,… Read more »

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Top 8 Ways to Protect Your Kids Online and Improve Communication in the Family

As a middle school teacher, I constantly have parents come to me and ask if I would be willing to impose a rule for my class that students cannot use social networking sites like  twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, or any of those types of social networks at home, because they don’t want to be the bad… Read more »

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6 Things Kids Need From Adults to Feel Valued

Kids are a rather interesting group! They perceive the world entirely differently than adults do and their expectations far outweigh the typical adult’s. Their understanding of themselves in this big world makes them susceptible to a host of emotions, some good and some bad. Because children have not fully developed their persona, skills, and self-esteem,… Read more »

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Helping Parents Distinguish Love from Emotional Hunger

The image on TIME magazine’s May cover, in which a standing woman breastfeeds her 4-year-old son as he stands on a stool beside her staring directly into the camera, has caused quite a stir. Comments have ranged from rolled eyes to accusations of abuse. The subject of the TIME article is Attachment Parenting, a style… Read more »

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Tips for Helping Kids Handle Their Emotions

Author and humorist Erma Bombeck once wrote, “When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice, safe playpen. When they’re finished, I climb out.” As parents, we all have moments when we would like to hide away, avoid confrontation, and wait for the quiet that follows the storm. Parenting is an incredible challenge,… Read more »

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How To Bully Proof Your Children by Building Their Resilience

The heartwrenching stories and startling statistics coming out about bullying are commanding a justified level of concern in parents. With new data revealing that more kids are affected by bullying and cyber-bullying than we ever imagined and that both bullies and victims are at higher risk for suicide, our eyes are opening to the fact that… Read more »

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Identifying Your Child’s Attachment Style

In the following interview, Dr. Dan Siegel talks about the different types of attachment styles that individuals develop during childhood as a result of the relationship they had with their parents. Embracing the freedom to see parents as they really are literally liberates the adolescent to find his or her own way in life. The… Read more »

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Identifying Your Child’s Attachment Style

In the following interview, Dr. Dan Siegel talks about the different types of attachment styles that individuals develop during childhood as a result of the relationship they had with their parents. Embracing the freedom to see parents as they really are literally liberates the adolescent to find his or her own way in life. The clips… Read more »

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What You Need to Know About Disciplining Your Child

From sitting them in corners to sending to their rooms, from saying to “say sorry” to giving a time out, the methods are all different but the question is the same: What is really the best way to discipline a child? Disciplining our children is one of parenting’s least appealing tasks. Unless you intended to… Read more »

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