A Child Psychologist’s Top 10 Wishes for Parents in 2012

Tolstoy famously wrote “Happy families are all alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Modern psychological science supports this wisdom in findings that extend back for decades and traverse the globe. My work has focused on trying to distill this research into 10 effective and time-efficient strategies that hectic parents can use to promote wellness, happiness and resilience in their children and themselves.

So, my wish for parents in 2012 is to practice these 10 strategies (each of which constitutes a chapter in my parenting book Working Parents, Thriving Families: 10 Strategies That Make a Difference). Here they are:
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Grandparent Books For Grandparents: Grandparent Names, Rights, Memory Books

Grandparent books for new grandparents or older, more-experienced grandma’s and grandpa’s, are books for and about grandparenting that every grandparent should read. Are you a new grandparent or a soon-to-be grandma or grandpa and need help choosing your new grandparent nickname?

Below you will find a list of grandparent books that deal with picking a grandparent name for yourself, books that discuss grandparent rights and visitation issues, as well as a great list of grandparent memory books that grandmother’s and grandfather’s can and need to create a long lasting history of memories for their children, grandchildren and ancestral genealogy records.

If you are a new grandma or grandpa and have ever said to yourself, “Don’t call me Grandma!”, you will love the first grandparent nickname book listed below. There are over 10,000 grandparent nicknames to choose from, nothing like the ridiculous grandparent names suggested online, that you’d surely be embarrassed and upset if your grandchild called you any of those names.
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Monster High Clothes For Kids – Inappropriate Kids Fashion Trends Sexualize Children

Everyone who has a child, whether an adult child or a young one, has experienced “bad fashion” for their kid’s age group at one point or another. Some of it I, personally, don’t think is too bad, but some of it DEFINITELY needs to go!

I read an article on Yahoo! News that had fashion trends for kids that they thought should go this year. It ranged from Baby Bikinis, to “sexy” Halloween costumes, to Monster High’s clothesline, to a couple other things. Overall, 2011 had some really bad fashion trends for kids that just need to go away. There’s currently a heated debate going on, about the appropriateness of baby’s in bikinis. A lot of people find them cute and adorable and feel that people “need to lighten up”. There are just as many people arguing the opposite, that it IS inappropriate for a baby to wear a bikini because of perverted people and sex offenders.
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Best Baby Names: Choosing Unusual Baby Names for Girls and Boys

Choosing baby names can be a tricky business. How long should the name be? Should he/she have a middle name? Should you name her/him after a sibling or grandparent? There are a lot of questions that come along with choosing a baby’s name, and having both parents agree to it!

I know when my sisters and I were born, my father wanted to name each of us 3 girls after some of his relatives – Martha, Rosa, and Teresa. It would’ve worked, if my mom hadn’t put her foot down and said “No” when my Dad suggested it. I know my oldest sister was named after family members on my mom’s side of the family, so however or whoever came up with the final ideas of baby names for each of us kids, each name was mutually agreed upon by my parents.
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How to Potty Train a Toddler

Whoever said that potty training a toddler is easy clearly didn’t have stubborn kids! I know there are tricks and things that people have discovered along the way, but potty training for the first time is definitely an interesting experience.

Since my daughter was getting close to her 2 year birthday, people had started asking if we had started potty training her, if we had a “potty chair” for her, and all those things. Of course we’ve had a potty for her for quite some time, but getting her to go to it willingly was another story!

I had hoped that she would be easy to potty train since she picks up on things faster than I do, sometimes, but this was the one thing that was conquering her instead of her conquering it.
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Too Old To Learn? Hogwash. You’re Never Too Old To Learn Something New

It never ceases to amaze me the number of times I’ve been told that erroneous quote, “I’m too old to learn”. It is utter nonsense for anyone to think, let alone actually say to themselves or outloud, that they’re too old to learn something new.

What’s even more odd is the age range of people who’ve been saying they’re too old to learn things, to educate themselves and grow or expand their knowledge once they’ve reached a certain age. Men and women (mostly women) saying they’re too old to learn new things when they’re only in their forties, fifties, sixties and so on. Hogwash. That ridiculous quote has got to be one of the biggest cop-out’s of all time. You’re never, ever too old to learn anything.
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