Sigh, See, and Start Parenting Mindfully.
Based on the level of disgust your teenagers express about everything you do as their parent, you might think they simply hate what you do. But that’s only part of it. There are several reasons teenagers suddenly become severely embarrassed by their parents around age 13. One of the key reasons for teenage embarrassment is both surprising and reassuring to their parents.
Continue reading “The Real Reason Teenagers Find Parents Embarrassing May Surprise You”One of the most powerful myths in parenting started in the 1990s and has been dominant ever since. This myth starts with the truth: that when children form a secure attachment to their parents they have better mental health as adults. But then it goes to far by telling parents to attune to their children’s emotions all the time. Only by staying in sync with their children at all times can parents guarantee their kids’ will turn out okay, says the myth. New research I covered for Forbes finds that this is simply not true. Instead, more parental attunement happens when something is not working in the relationship. Higher parent-child synchrony may reflect interaction problems between parent and child.
Continue reading “Secure Attachment: How Often Should Parents Attune To Kids’ Emotions?”Today is International Long Covid Awareness Day, which is why I wrote the article “Long Covid is a disabling disease, and it’s not rare” for Psychology Today. There are millions of people like me, living with the shattering symptoms of Long Covid. Many have been sick and disabled for almost four years now. For me, it’s been over two years since Long Covid stole my career as a pediatric doctor from me.
Continue reading “I am Sick and Tired of Living with Long COVID”As parents, we love our kids and we try so hard to be the best parents we can. We know that the people historically raised kids, often with physical punishment or shaming words, was not good for them. So we look for good, expert parenting advice we can use to give our kids what they need.
Continue reading “Should Parents Take Expert Advice or Follow Their Instincts?”
Who has not felt dread before work or school? Our kids feel it before school, and as adults, we can relate because we may feel it before work.
Continue reading “How to Help Kids with the Sunday Scaries and School Dread”
“I know the day will come when he won’t talk to me anymore.” Parents say this to me in my pediatric office all the time. There is an idea that one day teenagers, particularly boys, won’t want to talk with their parents anymore. But that is simply not true.
Parents can create a family culture of communication so that kids will keep wanting to talk with them as they get older. And that’s not only great news, it’s essential. Because when things get tough for our kids, it’s important that they know they can come to us.
Continue reading “How Parents Can Keep Kids Talking To Them”When our children are afraid, parents will do whatever they can to help them feel better. If children struggle with fear in an ongoing way, it can create a problem for the whole family. Parents want to both comfort their child and make sure that they gain the skills to manage in the world. But how?
The popular movie Dune holds a surprising answer: the content of the famous Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear. The litany may be fiction, but it’s packed with solid psychological advice. If parents use Dune, they can engage their child’s imagination and teach them how to overcome fear.
Continue reading “Parents Can Use The Movie Dune To Help Kids With Fear”Most parents believe that setting their kids up for a successful life means sending them to a good school. If their student attains academic achievement then they are on their way to a happy life, or so we believe. Then in 2019 the National Academy of Sciences designated kids at high-achieving U.S. high schools as an ‘ at-risk ‘ group for mental health problems.
Now, new research suggests the problem with high-achievement cultures is an international one and is particularly intense around math. The study, published in Frontiers in Psychology, identifies “a complex process in which national culture promoting high math achievement drives down interest in math schoolwork.” And the problem is worse for girls than for boys.
Continue reading “Why High Achievement Cultures Can Kill Kids’ Love Of Learning”More than anything, parents want to do their best for their kids. But every parent I know lives in the pressures of the ShouldStorm, which bombards them with shoulds. Always telling them what they should and should not be doing to maximize their child’s development.
Now, new research from the University of Chicago has shed light on a sinister way the ShouldStorm actually drives parents to undermine their child’s development, all while thinking they are helping. It all comes down to what parents are told is good for kids.
Continue reading “Research Shows These Parenting Beliefs Help Kids Most”Simon’s mom stepped into the hallway so he could talk with me alone. I asked him the usual pediatrician checkup questions. But when we got to the questions about alcohol or smoking, Simon shared that he had been vaping for more than a year.
Simon told me he was scared. At 13 years old he had developed chest pain and a cough he and his friends called vape cough. That was because they vaped too, and they also had the painful cough.
Unfortunately, research shows that it’s tough to get kids to quit vaping, due to how addictive it is. So the key for parents is to try to keep their kids off vape and juul in the first place. New research, which I recently covered for Forbes, has found that what parents and pediatricians have been doing isn’t working.
But the good news is that the research also shows what DOES work. When parents make their kids feel supported and help them set positive goals for their futures, kids are much less likely to vape. In this post, we’ll look at how to actually do that.
Continue reading “Practical Parenting Ideas to Keep Your Child From Vaping”
