We all want to protect our children from disappointment and ensure they have the best possible opportunities in life, but lawnmower parents take these natural desires to extremes. Unlike helicopter parents, who closely monitor their children’s lives and offer sometimes excessive support, lawnmower parents proactively intervene in their children’s affairs. They may take drastic measures to achieve success ...
Being your child’s best friend may seem like a hallmark of successful parenting, but the reality of this dynamic is far from optimal. Children and adults have vastly different needs, capabilities, and preferences, so they can’t function as peers. By default, kids need the adults in their lives to provide a sense of security, which requires a certain ...
Raising an adolescent can make you feel like you have a stranger in your home: Your previously polite, obedient child starts to roll her eyes, make sarcastic remarks, and argue at the slightest provocation. Her moods change quickly, and she sometimes shuts you out without explaining why. With all of these changes, you may feel like your bond with your ...
Though many things change when our children cross the threshold into adolescence, our desire to protect them remains the same. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing—teens still need our support and guidance, after all—but you’ll need to be prepared to let go of some of the control you’re used to. Taking measured risks and confronting ...
Sometimes classroom behavior problems signal giftedness. Brad and Karen were at their wits end. Their grade school children once again ...
The last two years have been a period of prolonged stress and isolation for many people, leading to an increase ...
As children grow older, their behaviours change dramatically. While a hysterical tantrum over something minor is completely normal at two ...
Adolescence is a period of intense growth. The parents of young teens often feel like their child has changed overnight, becoming moody, withdrawn, and difficult to reach. Newly altered behaviour and speech patterns can make it seem like your teen is suddenly speaking a foreign language—leading to frequent disagreements and misunderstandings. The first step to interacting with your teen ...
The motivations of adolescents sometimes appear completely irrational to adult eyes. What your teen says she wants and what she actually does may be so distant from one another as to seem contradictory. Your teen might sincerely want to join a sports team or excel in music, for example, then refuse to practice. She might dream of getting into a ...
The behaviour of teenagers is notoriously baffling. One moment, our adolescents appear to be mature, rational people—true “young adults.” The next moment, they’re taking foolish, inexplicable risks or having dramatic emotional meltdowns. In the past, these vacillations were written off as being the product of out of control hormones. However, modern research has shown that the roots of ...
Politics has always been a controversial topic, but rarely has our political climate been as divisive as it is right now. Not only has society become more politically polarized over the last two decades, but the way we express our views has also changed. Political discussion has largely moved away from policy and instead become an issue of morality, with ...
