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What Happens When A Pediatrician Takes The Dog To The Vet

I am a pediatrician and I am a mom. But I never really understood what parents feel like when their kids get sick until I got a dog. It’s not that pediatricians don’t worry about our kids. We definitely do, but we worry about weird rare stuff you’ve never heard of. But we do have the ability to deal with the basics of our kids’ illnesses.

Why Your Child Won’t Let You Leave For A Second

Zach’s mom was at her wit’s end. Even after three months of trying, she could not leave Zach alone in the room with his father for even a moment without Zach crying. During the coronavirus pandemic, she’d been alone with Zach most of the time, and her husband’s demanding job kept him from spending much time with them. But he wanted to play with his fifteen-month-old son, and she wanted five minutes to herself. Due to Zach’s crying, his mom couldn’t even get that.

It is normal for kids to be attached to their mothers in the toddler years, but that attachment often comes with separation anxiety. Some kids are so attached, that they won’t even go to other trusted family members without their mothers in the room. This can happen under normal circumstances, but the problem seems more intense for families during the pandemic.

Why You Should Never Play Monopoly With Your Kids! (It Was Never Designed To Be Fun)

If I had known that Monopoly was never meant to be fun, I wouldn’t have made the disastrous decision to play it with my kids.

It was Labor Day, and we were looking for a way to spend time together as a family. “How about a board game,” my husband suggested. The boys headed to our game cabinet because we’d been having a lot of fun with board games lately.

But then we made a huge mistake! Maybe all those good family experiences made us overconfident, or maybe we just weren’t thinking. Whatever the reason, we decided to play Monopoly.

Feeling Sad During Hard Times Is Not Depression

If we weren’t sad right now, something would be wrong.

These are heavy times. As the coronavirus pandemic continues to sweep the globe and has reached unprecedented numbers in America, we are facing the reality that it’s not going anywhere soon. In pandemic life, with all the associated hardships it brings, many of us are feeling a bit down. But are we sad or are we depressed?

Postpartum Anxiety Starts For A Good Reason

New parents feel anxiety for a very good reason. They are suddenly responsible for the life of a fragile infant, so anxiety shows up to help parents pay attention. Anxiety is an adaptive response that provides inexperienced parents with the energy they need to come up a steep learning curve. Postpartum anxiety is valuable, but somehow it gets a bad name, and all too often is pathologized. In fact, researchers have increasingly called into question the way anxiety is labeled a mental disorder when it could be more properly understood as an adaptive response to adversity.

11 Ways to Help Kids with Special Needs or Autism Wear Masks

So many parents are worried that their child with special needs, sensory processing problems or autism will not wear a mask. A school principal shares her secrets.

Parents of kids with special needs are worried about their kids ability to keep masks on at school this year. Kids with sensory processing or autism can really struggle to tolerate something on their face. The good news is that there are ways to help them do it.

How To Help Kids Stay Connected During COVID-19

This COVID-19 thing is taking a long time. Not that we didn’t expect it to, but still. COVID-19 is a nasty virus and it’s going to continue to be a problem for us for quite some time. Many of us are worried about our kids and how they are doing as the days of isolation drag on. But there are things we can do, and some exciting new science to help.

Why This Pediatrician Stopped All Playdates.

The pandemic of novel coronavirus is here and I canceled all my kids’ playdates and sleepovers. They don’t like it, but they understand why.

Hey Parents! It’s Going to Be Okay.

The first time I spoke an editor at Psychology Today, and she offered me the chance to blog for them. I was really excited to start writing about what’s going on with parenting these days. How could we parent effectively with all the anxiety in our culture?

But then she said something that surprised me. “This is going to be great,” she said. “We need a pediatrician to be telling parents it’s going to be okay so they can stop worrying so much.”

What Is the ShouldStorm and Why Should You Care?

Parents face a culture of criticism and anxiety, and so do their kids.

Parents can’t avoid the culture of criticism that pushes perfectionistic parenting. They are told everything they do matters, and that one little mistake could mess up their child for life. Then, they are told that parents are too anxious these days. They are pelted with advice on how to worry less because anxious over-parenting is… messing up their children.