Do parents need to just shut up and stop complaining already? No one promised it would be all fun and games all the time. One mother to three grown children offers the insight of someone who's been there and has had the chance to look back and reflect. She seems to think a lot of our unhappiness could be solved by adjusting our expectations. So it's not the blissful life promised in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog; chances are the good aspects of parenthood outweigh the challenges, and maybe that's enough.
Moms can sit back and relax, because this time it's the dads who are on the hot seat. The latest research out of Vanderbilt University shows that kids who don't spend enough time with their fathers are more likely to be bullies. Maybe we need more Mr. Moms, because the same study showed that having a mom who worked long hours had little to no impact on bullying behaviors.
After years of being inundated with the Chinese Tiger Mom and her aggressive parenting style, it's possible to forget that sometimes the tremendous pressure to succeed can come from kids themselves. One father discusses his attempts to rein in his daughter's stress over academics and help her to look at life (and college) as an adventure. (What's that? Tiger Mom's been in the news for less than a month? Man, it feels like forever.)
New research shows that most research is wrong. Well, not exactly, but almost. With multiple healthcare studies being released daily, and often contradicting previous studies, it can be hard for parents to know what to believe. Is breast really best or is it just so-so? Will day care warp your little one's mind, or is it just fine? Since pediatricians are reading the same studies as parents, they're on the same merry-go-round. The author of a recent Newsweek article examining the issue recommends just following conventional wisdom.
One five-year-old in Florida recently brought a loaded handgun to class. He allegedly got it out of his stepfather's car on the way to school. Why the stepfather had a loaded gun in the car is mind-boggling enough to begin with, but how he didn't know the kid had taken the gun is just unreal. Maybe he was too busy texting while driving to notice.