When my oldest daughter turned 9, her pediatrician said she could get her period within the year. I was blindsided: When I was growing up, girls expected to get their periods around the age of 13. I rushed out to buy a pack of menstrual pads to keep in her backpack, in case she gets her first period in school, and ordered The Care and Keeping of You, the iconic puberty book series that has sold 8 million copies since it debuted in 1998.
In my previous post, I explained why your Halloween candy rules keep backfiring. Control-based approaches create sneaking, obsession, and battles that leave nobody's needs met. Kids want autonomy and inclusion while parents want competence and ease - and traditional rules don't address either set of needs. So what works instead? A collaborative approach where you and your child create agreements together. This isn't about being permissive or letting kids eat unlimited candy. It's about involving them in finding solutions that work for your whole family.
Parenting is hard, period. And sometimes, parenting self-help books or forums can offer solutions that are just way too time-consuming or drastic to even entertain. When you are incredibly tired, burned out, stressed about the world, and worried about money, it can be hard to try a whole new parenting philosophy or lifestyle. Hell, it can be hard to get through the day.
But one of the simplest, most personal considerations is whether, and how, having a child will affect a person's quality of life. Here, psychologists studying well-being have encountered what's sometimes called the parenting paradox: parents report lower mood and more stress and depression in their daily lives than adults without children; yet parents also tend to report higher life satisfaction in general.
After wiping my tears on the drive home and adjusting to the quiet of my house, I was surprised by what lingered. Naturally, I missed my kids when they left for college, but I couldn't shake the feeling of helplessness. My two oldest children are now away at college, and my youngest is preparing to leave the nest in a year. Now, there's nothing for me to do. They no longer need me in the same way they once did.
I remember as a kid I was obsessed with Halloween candy. It was the one day of the year where I could get as much candy, eat as much candy as I could. I had a one-track mind. I didn't find joy with Halloween because of the costumes or hanging out with friends. I'd just get a pillowcase and fill it up with as much candy as I wanted.
Does an only child usually feel lonely? Does an only child lack social skills? Does an only child have more emotional problems? These three questions come up often from my patients, because although most Americans say they think two or more children is ideal, many are, or will be, raising an only child instead. 1 Sometimes it's because of fertility problems, or because they started their family later in life and are unlikely to have more than one child naturally.
She froze on the edge of yelling, then stopped herself. If it had been one of her child's friends, she realized, she wouldn't have been angry at all. "So instead of overreacting, I just said, 'It's OK. Let's clean it up together,' Canineu tells TODAY.com. 'That moment honestly changed everything for me and for her.' But, Canineu, adds, she still sets limits when it matters, enforcing chores, rules and respect.
1. Acorn Soup - this cooperation cooking game is sure to be to your *taste* if you're teaching your kids how to take turns. It also provides risk-free family fun because there's no winner (and thus, no frustrated kiddos at the end). To play, pick an ingredient card and place the correct number of each item inside the pot to make Squirrel's favorite meals. Dinner's served!
Travis, previously an Air Force flight surgeon, had matched into a military-sponsored orthopedic residency in Houston. With a 1-year-old and a newborn in a brand-new city, Erin paused her career as a labor and delivery nurse to support her husband's residency and get the family settled. Unpacking was the easy part. Making the unfamiliar feel like home was the real challenge.
Warsavsky, 35, tells TODAY.com she's experienced about 10 pregnancy losses over the years. When it came to trying to have a third child, she and her husband eventually turned to surrogacy, something they had considered for years. Their surrogate was pregnant "within six months of the day that I met her," Warsavsky says. But, it turned out to be ectopic - the fertilized egg implanted outside the uterus.
A-ha, the easiest fill-in question on a Friday ever. Are you just watching Game 6, which could be the final game of the "2025 Championship Season," or is there something more topically relevant also going on? Are you perhaps combining the two, somehow? (If you're towards the East Coast and have kiddos, the candy-gathering is probably done before the game starts;
My daughter's father has some diagnosed mental health issues (and some that are not and probably never will be diagnosed). In terms of behavior, this looks like mood swings, shopping sprees, a lot of very elaborate plans that don't come to fruition, periods of inertia, struggling with basic upkeep in the home, and anger (never directed at her). Dear Trying, Officially, we have 50/50 custody, although in reality, I do most of the parenting.
Earlier this year, I realized that dinnertime had gotten out of hand at my house. It seemed like each of my five family members spent half of our mealtime together complaining about each other's poor manners. My teens often didn't love that their younger siblings would interrupt during conversations or chew with their mouths open. Everyone made their feelings known.
As a child, the Columbine school shooting impacted my elementary school experience and beyond. My naivete about safety was instantly shattered. It was the first time I realized that danger could come into a classroom at any moment. Years passed, and I became a mom. As my daughter approached school age, school rules changed, active shooter drills became the norm, and every parent dreaded the emergency call that their child's school was on lockdown. I didn't want to live in that daily state of worry.
Being a parent is hard. No one wants to be that person with a screaming baby at dinner, and the last thing anyone wants to think about while their kid is crying is the death stares they're receiving from a crowd. But there are just some situations where you have no choice but to pack up the stroller. Hopefully, people will understand, but if you do end up bringing your baby to a restaurant, there are things you can do to help the staff out.
Growing adolescent differences are abrasive, wearing down dependence between parent and child. The parent must maintain caring communication and contact so they can feel connected as they grow apart. Change complaints in the parent-adolescent relationship are not a problem to stop but a reality to accept. The more parents know about what adolescent changes to expect, the less they are likely to become upset.
Between us, we have three children, ages 8, 6, and 2. We've done a lot of math with an accountant and determined that it would be best for the household finances if Kevin divorced me and married Monica (with a bunch of other paperwork filed to make sure we stick as a group when it comes to parental authority, medical proxies, power of attorney, etc.).
When our child was born, we went from fairly evenly split chores to me doing most of them. I had FMLA and my husband "Josh" didn't, daycare always called me instead of him, and then it became a habit. It left me miserable and cranky, at home and at work. This past summer, we sat down and talked it out. It wasn't fun, but we agreed to try to rebalance the work.
Of course, it's never acceptable to lie...unless you have children, in which case it is one thousand percent necessary to have a few "fibs" in your arsenal. These are just harmless parenting tricks that are necessary for survival. So redditor u/TopRun8728 asked, "What's the most unethical parenting hack you know?" Here's what people said (including a white lie my dad used often when I was a kid that I still remember to this day).
When children visit someone's house, it's a really good time to instill that they need to be polite and respect the rules of others. When you're at home it's totally different and you can expect to be much more relaxed, but when going to Grandma's, or a restaurant, or the grocery store, it's a great time to reel it in and practice our social skills.
1. A Hatch Baby sound machine if you already love the vibes of the Hatch Restore for your own adult human self and want to share the love with your new bebe. This brand-new baby-specific edition comes with a real-time sleep consultant chat, sleep guides for baby milestones, and magical lights and sounds to help build healthy bedtime routines.
No father or mother prays to have a rebellious child who talks back, disobeys instructions, or lives carelessly. Yet, many good children gradually become rebels, not because they were born bad, but because of avoidable mistakes made in parenting. Raising children is like building a house. If the foundation is faulty, no matter how beautiful the walls look, cracks will eventually appear. The truth is this: rebellion in children is not sudden, it is often a silent cry from wounds caused in the home.
