Posts Tagged ‘Parenting’

It is not new or even shocking news that our young girls today are inundated with messages from media and society that can have a negative and lasting effect on their development and future. It sounds serious, and unfortunately it is. Consider this alarming information Dr. Jennifer L. Harstein PsyD shares in the introduction to her new book Princess Recovery: A How-to Guide to Raising Strong, Empowered Girls Who Can Create Their Own Happily Ever After :

“One recent study from the National Institute on Media and the Family showed that at age thirteen, 53 percent of American girls are “unhappy with their bodies.”

“According to Medical News Today, a December 2010 study showed that the number of eating disorders in children under the age of twelve has risen 119 percent over the past few years, and children as young as four are being treated in hospitals and outpatient treatment centers for these issues.”

Dr. Jen offers parents a way to regain control over the things that influence their children and raise strong daughters who can:

* pursue their passions with industry and intelligence;
* establish high but realistic expectations of themselves and their future;
* provide context for problematic influences - from the media to prissy peers; and
* build a mutual trust that will withstand adolescent growing pains.

Princess Recovery encourages parents to work with their daughters on building important skills, such as: questioning the media, dressing appropriately, finding her voice, and learning that conformity is not required.

The world will most likely not make it an easy battle with its padded bikini tops for children, but our daughters are smart and we can arm them to rise above the ditzy-diva trap.

Available on Amazon.com and Independent Booksellers

More Resources

Dr. Jen on “Combating Princess Syndrome”

“Do We Need a Princess Recover System?” by Soraya Chemaly at Huffington Post

Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture” by Peggy Orenstein

Fall is here. Family life trods along steadily to the pace of school, activities, and homework. If Mom is also inspired to learn this time of year, there are plenty of great choices just hitting the shelves:

Mom Energy: A Simple Plan to Live Fully Charged by Ashley Koff R.D. and Kathy Kaehler

Available at Amazon.com and Independent Booksellers

Welcome to Your Child’s Brain: How the Mind Grows from Conception to College by Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt

Available at Amazon.com and Indepedent Booksellers

When Parents Text: So Much Said…So Little Understood by Sophia Fraioli and Lauren Kaelin

Available at Amazon.com and Independent Booksellers

Playful Learning: Develop Your Child’s Sense of Joy and Wonder by Mariah Bruehl

Lifelong educator and mother of two, Mariah Bruehl shares with parents her best ideas and resources to make the home a place where children are inspired to discover and learn. Why not not just leave education in the hands of educational institutions? She introduces the book with these answers: A Rewarding Family Dynamic, Confident and Independent Children, Stronger Home School Connections, and A Return to Wonder.

Playful Learning is clear and inventive with helpful photographs, ingredients for success, and ways to establish playful learning spaces that might include a science lab, a reading nook, and a library.

We love the simplicity of projects like “Pebble Graphs,” “Alphabet Photography,” and “Mapping My House.” Other ways to inspire and engage the creative minds in your house are included in chapters:

- Nurturing Young Authors
- The Joy of Reading
- Mathematcians at Work
- Scientific Investigations
- Exploration of Art and Artists
- Growing Globally
- Raising the Citizens of Tomorrow

“My wish for the world is that families embrace every opportunity they have to learn , discover, process, discuss, and experience life’s big (and little) questions and challenges with their children.” - Mariah Bruehl

Mariah Bruehl was worked in the field of education for over a decade teaching, developing curricula, training teachers, and implementing programs. She is also a mother of two girls and the owner of Playful Learning in Sag Harbor New York.

Available at Amazon.com

Your child comes to you with a rather widespread and unsightly rash. You’ve consulted your sister, your neighbor, and the helpful UB online community, but you’re still not sure exactly how to best handle the outbreak. The authors of The Baby Book, which is widely regarded as the “baby bible,” have just published the newest must-have resource for parents and caregivers that can guide parents to help heal and protect their child.

The Portable Pediatrician: Everything You Need to Know About Your Child’s Health by William Sears, MD, Martha Sears, RN, Robert Sears, MD, James Sears, MD, and Peter Sears, MD is an encyclopedia of trusted and accessible information on every pediatric concern, illness, and emergency from birth through adolescence.

A thorough list of topics are arranged alphabetically for quick reference and include:

* acne
* allergies
* autism
* bedwetting
* choking & cpr
* colic
* eating disorders
* lice
* obesity
* sleep problems
* speech delay

Other important information presented in The Portable Pediatrician:

* Choosing a pediatrician
* Getting the most out of every check-up
* The Four things all parents must do to keep their child healthy
* Treating at home vs. Time to call the doctor

This thorough guide is an invaluable resource for parents, grandparents, and other caregivers that comes from years of experience from trusted doctors.

Available at Amazon.com

We are officially one week into the fresh new year, and some of us have already broken a resolution or two. Even with the best of intentions, self-improvement can be a longer process than we anticipate or welcome. There’s no app for that. But the simple process of becoming more aware of ourselves can be invaluable to our lives.

If your goals for the year include improving your relationship with your child the new book, The Self-Aware Parent: Resolving Conflict and Building a Better Bond with Your Child can provide tools for building effective communication. Author Dr. Fran Walfish shares, “That is why understanding who you are, as a person and as a parent, is so important. Understanding yourself gives you choices, and when you choose to respond in a specific way, rather than respond automatically, situations more often than not resolve themselves favorably.”

The Self-Aware Parent draws on Dr. Falfish’s twenty years of clinical experience working with children and their parents and includes:

* how to recognize the strength and weaknesses of your parenting style and how it affects your child;
* the ways your style might clash with your child’s nature, and how to negotiate a common ground;
* the vital importance of establishing trust with a preteen to better prepare for turbulent teen years.

Chapters like “It’s About Your Child, Not You” include informative case studies and Dr. Fran’s top tips (“Get in the habit of considering the impact of your behavior on others. Think about it in the moment.”)

We look forward to another year of providing you interesting and current book choices for parenting and for your children.

Happy New Year.

We didn’t need a new reminder that social media sites and technologies can be dangerous in the lives of our children, but unfortunately got one this week with the tragic suicide of a Rutgers freshman in response to a webcam invasion of privacy. You might be feeling a bit edgy yourself watching your child chat, text, and browse the internet, wondering about her safety and well being.

In his book Girls on the Edge: The Four Factors Driving the New Crisis for Girls, Leonard Sax gives due attention to dangerous trends associated with young girls and their involvement in the “cyberbubble.” The book offers useful tips and tools for parents to help guide their daughters in becoming independent and confident women.

The “four factors” covered in this new book from the author of Boys Adrift are:

* Sexual Identity. Girls are trying to look and attract attention at a much younger age. This has the unintended consequence of disengaging them from their own emerging sexuality, often leading to a confused sexual identiy.

* The Cyberbubble. In this era texting, sexting, and Facebook, a girl can easily become stuck in a “cyberbubble”: hyper-connected with her peers, she becomes disconnected from herself.

* Obsessions. Some girls are anxious about grades or about sports. Others fixate on what they eat. And at least one in five American girls are now deliberately harming themselves. Without a strong sense of self, girls become vulnerable to obsessions.

* Environmental toxins. Endocrine disruptors are accelerating the onset of puberty in girls. But girls who begin puberty too early will be at increased risk of drug and alcohol abuse, anxiety, and depression as teenagers.

“Dr. Sax once again combines years of experience with compelling research and common sense to intelligently challenge the status quo of what it means to raise a healthy daughter. Girls on the Edge offers skills parents can incorporate to feel more competent with our girls and young women.” - Florence Hilliard, Director of the Gender Studies Project, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Available at Amazon.com

This past year has been about going back to basics on the parenting front. Instead of ramping it up, we’re dialing it down and learning about simplicity parenting and unspoiling a child. Part of this change in thinking is a backlash to helicopter parenting. Part of it is due to the state of the economy; many of us have less money for over-the-top toys, clothes and extracurricular classes for our kids. TIME magazine created quite the buzz in the blogosphere last November with its cover story “The Growing Backlash against Overparenting.”

But one of the books that started it all was one of our faves here at UrbanBaby: Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier and More Secure Kids. Well, now Simplicity Parenting is out in paperback.

Waldorf educator and consultant Kim John Payne teamed up with writer Lisa M. Ross to guide parents away from the four pillars of “too much”: too much stuff, too many choices, too much information, and too fast.The book presents a wealth of helpful ideas for reclaiming childhood and finding family harmony with chapters that cover four levels of simplification – environment, rhythm, schedules and Filtering Out the Adult World.

“As parents, we’re the architects of our family’s daily lives. You can see what a family holds dear from the pattern of their everyday lives.” Kim John Payne

A friendly reminder to slow down and simplify before the school year is in full swing and we’re knee deep in the holiday season.

Forget uber “sophisticated,” “intelligence-enhancing” (and expensive) electronic toys and preschool admissions consultants. Jan Faull has spent her career working with parents and believes that they should follow their sensitivities when it comes to their child’s learning. She asserts, “There seems to be an erroneous notion in the world that parents need to do something in order to make their kids smart, when in fact, children arrive with their own learning agenda.”

Her new book, Amazing Minds: The Science of Nurturing You Child’s Developing Mind with Games, Activities and More written with Jennifer McLean Oliver, is based on groundbreaking scientific research and serves to teach parents a bit more about development so that they can relax and have more fun with their babies and toddlers.

The book describes chronologically what babies are capable of (Self-Recognition) and then follows each with “The Research,” “The Interpretation,” and “What Should Parents Do?” Parents are given essential tools to recognize and encourage their child’s natural development in a user-friendly format.

You already possess everything you need to support your child - follow his lead.

The Idle Parent: Why Laid-back Parents Raise Happier and Healthier Kids by Tom Hodgkinson. You are hereby given permission to be idle, not lazy or irresponsible, but idle. Would you believe it’s a parenting book where the end goal also benefits you? Peace, happiness, grown-up time, help with housework, simpler days…

Tom Hodgkinson’s book, which was published in the UK last year, is now available in bookstores where parents can begin with the “Idle Parent Manifesto”:

“We reject the idea that parenting takes hard word. We pledge to leave our children alone. We reject the rampant consumerism that invades children’s lives from the moment they are born.” The Manifesto continues on with many more important if not revolutionary statements that might fill us with fear or sweet relief.

The Idle Parent joins rank with other books, movements, and parents today who are dedicated to finding a clear path out of the face paced, child-centric culture of over-parenting. Among the suggestions he provides to the fatigued and fed-up parent are:

* Get children involved in housework.
* Just say “no.”
* Gather with other parents and kids.
* Resist the demand to go to expensive theme parks and children’s shows.
* Do what makes you happy.

In his Chapter titled “The Myth of Toys” the author asserts, “And do children actually need toys? In The Jungle Book we see Mowgli happily playing with pebbles. The best games are those children play in groups without toys: that’s when you hear the laughter.” With Chapters like “Bring Back Child Labor,” “More Stuff from Wood and Junk, “ and “Good Books and Bad Books” Tom writes with experience and practicality. Tom is the Editor of the British Magazine The Idler.

Available at Amazon.com

Are we, as parents, completely misguided when it comes to, well, being parents? Are our assumptions leading our children astray?

According to NurtureShock, by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, “Many of modern society’s strategies for nurturing children are in fact backfiring – because key twists in the science have been overlooked.”

“Childhood obesity might be the result of not enough sleep. Moving the argument to another room might be the worst thing parents can do. Babyspeak DVD’s may stunt your child’s verbal development (since those eight wasted hours per week weren’t spent doing something productive). How about this one: children lie more often to permissive parents than they do to parents that set rules and guidelines.” - Hugh C. Howey

In her review, Alicia Van Hecke provides a good list of basic topics covered in the book, including “The Inverse Power of Praise” and “The Search for Intelligent Life in Kindergarten.”

During the fall of 2009 the authors wrote over 90 columns for Newsweek covering such topics as “Kids’ Food Allergies are Skyrocketing – Is the Spike Real?” and “Why Going to a Diverse School Doesn’t Lead to Diverse Friendships.”

Let’s Start the Discussion: It’s a dense book with meaty topics regarding parenting and education. We encourage UrbanBaby members to read this book over the course of the next few weeks and then come back to the UB boards to discuss in detail. We’ll announce a date for a guided board conversation. Will you read it?

A genuine eye-opener.