Featured Articles
Adventures in Post-Divorce Dating
As part of an article that I’m writing for eHarmony Parenting, I started to research dating for divorced parents. Interestingly, while there have been several studies on remarriage and step-parenting and the general effects of divorce on family- very few exist for dating while divorced.
“Where’s Your Common Sense?” Inside the Teen Brain
Why can’t she think before she acts? Why does he get so emotional so easily? How much freedom do I give her to decide how she spends her time? How do I give him the skills he needs for meaningful relationships?
Do questions like these ever run through your mind? If so, you might be interested in hearing about some cutting-edge science on the adolescent brain that helps shed some light on these questions.
What Kids Need Most
In a couple of weeks I’m participating in a panel discussion at a local high school. There, in front of a very large crowd, I will join four other experts discussing the dangers, the patterns (and the strategies to combat) teenage drug use. The panel discussion is titled “Drug Awareness and Prevention Seminar,” and the PTA is marketing it through a number of channels. Hundreds of anxious parents can be expected.
How Does Your Child Perceive You?
The truth is, whether our kids say it or not, they feel it. Children aspire to become what their parents are. And that’s precisely why it’s critical to be the kind of parents we want to be.
Common Discipline Mistakes Even the Best Parents Make: Part 2
Here are more discipline mistakes made by even the best-intending, most well-informed parents, along with practical suggestions that might come in handy the next time you find yourself in one of these situations.
More Recent Articles
Ask Hal - Kids and Advertising
You cannot fully protect them from the media onslaught because it is exactly that. Take heart though, for while you can’t fully protect or shelter them, you can equip them. You have the power to teach them to face and navigate the barrage of advertisements they are sure to see in their lives.
Take Me Out to the Ballgame
Some of my friends are under the mistaken impression that I never blow it when it comes to dealing with my kids. Those who are closest to me know better. Just because I work for a company called ScreamFree Living and I am married to a family therapist doesn’t mean that being calm comes second nature to me. In fact, if you look at the things I write, my best stuff commonly arises from the many parenting faux-pas that I commit.
The Paradox of Parenting
There is an inherent paradox to parenting, and it confuses us all. It goes something like this: Parents shape their kids, kids shape themselves. Our entire role as parents is to help our kids learn to help themselves. The paradox is that if I neglect them, then they actually become more dependent upon me. If I smother them, then they back away without getting all the skills they need (they just have to get away!).
