April 23, 2008MLive-Grand Rapids Press put Maranda in the spotlight with her new “Where You Live” show. This show encourages us to be creative and effective as we guide our children toward becoming responsible and happy adults. The show airs at 7 p.m. Friday on WXSP-TV (Channel 15), Saturday: 7 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. on […]
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November 26, 2007The Associated Press/Grand Rapids Press shows the abuse risk in cohabitation, including the abusive-boyfriend syndrome and the risk to children in nontraditional family structures.
David Crary writes (excerpt):
Among the findings:
*Children living in households with unrelated adults are nearly 50 times as likely to die of inflicted injuries as children living with two biological parents, according to […]
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September 15, 2007The Edmonton Sun documents how cohabitation and living together are poor substitutes for marriage, especially when children are involved.
Licia Corbella writes (excerpt):
Couples have common-law relationships for a myriad of reasons — most of them terribly unromantic — and include convenience, being incapable of true commitment, waiting for someone better to come along or because […]
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September 3, 2007The New York Times peels back divorce proceedings to reveal the pain felt by the parents of the parties.
Mireya Navarro writes (excerpt):
And when children divorce, their parents’ lives are often dramatically changed, an impact that is receiving increasing attention in books, Internet forums and in the courts, where some grandparents find themselves when custodial battles […]
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August 15, 2007USA Today examines “extended adolescence,” the risks being taken by 20-somethings, and the growing up that comes with careers and marriage.
Sharon Jayson writes (excerpt):
Recent statistics back this up: 56% of births among women ages 20-24 were to unwed mothers, according to preliminary 2005 data from the National Center for Health Statistics; for ages 25-29, it […]
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February 15, 2007CNN/Parenting.com highlight 8 ways to focus on the positive and become a happier mom.
Robert Barnett writes (excerpt):
“Happiness is more than just that smiley feeling,” says Karen Reivich, Ph.D., a research associate in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. “It’s also feeling a connection to something larger than yourself. When people are in […]
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December 29, 2006The New York Times shows us the “Three Ages of Woman: first Mary-Kate, then Britney, then Courtney.”
Lawrence Downes writes (excerpt):
What surprised me, though, was how completely parents of even younger girls seem to have gotten in step with society’s march toward eroticized adolescence — either willingly or through abject surrender. And if parents give up, […]
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December 4, 2006It used to be that kids were seen, but not heard. Now it seems that they are seen, heard, and sometimes in control. Sure there are still “old school” parents and teachers wielding their power over the children like a Bobby Knight can silence his players and force eye contact with tactics of verbal abuse […]
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November 21, 2006The BBC reveals Tony Blair’s plan to bring in “Super-nannies” to try to improve parenting in high anti-social areas of England.
The BBC notes (excerpt):
[Child psychologists] will advise new parents - of children of all ages - and intervene when children get into trouble.
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[Mr Blair] has rejected accusations a “nanny state” was interfering with […]
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October 5, 2006Newsweek recently published (September 25, 2006) an article titled “Fighting over the Kids”. This was an article describing the phenomenon of battered women loosing custody of their children due to batterers using the parental alienation defense. Domestic Violence advocates and some Family Court Councils purport that parental alientation is “junk science” and is a “cancer in […]
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April 30, 2006I have been providing Parenting Coordination (PC) since 1995. I learned of this service at the Association of Family Conciliation Courts (AFCC) Annual Conference in 1994. PC is a service often provided by Psychologists for co-parents in post-divorce situations. Parenting Coordinators provide 3 roles: educators, mediators, and arbitrators to help co-parents resolve conflicts related to […]
Posted in Mediation/ADR, Families/Children 1 Comment »
March 26, 2006Cox News Service explains how spoiled children need loving limits and consequences, not therapy.
Gregory Ramey lists the signs of a spoiled child (excerpt):
– Rarely shows appreciation or says “thank you.”
– Doesn’t seem satisfied with whatever she gets.
– Asks frequently for things and gets upset if she doesn’t immediately get them.
– Doesn’t have any family responsibilities.
– […]
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January 15, 2006Ben Stein’s column in the New York Times notes the impact of the smallest gestures of love (excerpt):
Now, I thought, the distance from Earth to the nearest of those stars is trillions of miles. Having been put on her father’s shoulders added an incalculably small fraction to Olivia’s closeness to the stars. But it made […]
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September 15, 2005I recently viewed a brilliant movie on racism. Crash presented the many faces of racism through the lens of a kaleidoscope exposing the nuances and variegations. It highlighted the “To Kill A Mockingbird? type of racism. In one scene a white male police officer sexually harassed a female black citizen while her black […]
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July 28, 2005The ABA Family Law Section newsletter features a portion of “Parenting After Divorce” (Impact Publishers, 2000), by Philip M. Stahl, Ph.D (excerpt):
There are many things that parents argue about that aren’t so important. Some of this is related to different parenting philosophies and some of it is related to the difficulty of sharing your child. […]
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June 25, 2005The BBC shows how things have changed, according to a survey by Country Life magazine (excerpt):
Editor Clive Aslet said: “The only point of parents’ races, in those days, was to embarrass the parents.
“Nowadays, some parents have a highly competitive attitude to life and are neurotic about their children succeeding at everything they attempt. It is […]
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May 5, 2005USA Today interviews mom-celebrities and celebrity-moms about that delicate balance.
Donna Freydkin writes (excerpt):
Jenny McCarthy
***
“He is my No. 1 priority. I turn down everything that will take me away from him for too long. I have turned down quite a few things. The thing with me being a mom is, that title should be played out. […]
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March 16, 2005The New York Times reports on the problem of moving our kids from teens to adults and the need to do something by 7th grade, but not too much.
Eric Nagourney writes (excerpt):
Children with the most distant [parent] relationships [in 7th grade] were most likely to use drugs, steal, vandalize property and have sex [in high […]
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February 15, 2005The Detroit News spotlights Oakland County’s efforts to help parents help their children cope with divorce. Jennifer Chambers’ article includes a sidebar with these tips from the SMILE Program (Start Making It Livable for Everyone):
Parents should tell children about the divorce together if possible.
Children need to know, sometimes over and over, how they will […]
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January 15, 2005The New York Times tells us what a teenager really learned on the long drives to therapy.
Michael Parker writes (excerpt):
I don’t remember a thing about my psychiatrist except that he asked me questions, and as usual, my answers didn’t really match the things I felt. My father and I never spoke, to my knowledge, of […]
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