Parenting strategies to help kids  solve their problems, be self-reliant, bounce back from failure and not use us as their managers, arbiters and palm pilots A mom was running late as she drove her two sons to school. “Can we pleeeease go back?” her six-year-old pleaded. “I forgot my stamps for show-and-tell.” Any other day, [...]

Parenting advice to help kids learn to do household chores, boost responsibility muscles, and lend a hand without bickering Years ago I learned a parenting secret from my girlfriend that I’ll never forget. Cindy and I were busy chatting away when she glanced at the clock and suddenly announced to: “Chore time!” to her kids. [...]

Parenting advice I shared with Matt Lauer this morning on the TODAY show: ways to help reduce kid’s back to school jitters, minimize anxieties and ease those transitions so they can focus on the real subject: learning! Heading back to school is exciting for most kids but can be a bit traumatic for others. It’s [...]

Parenting advice for before, during, and after your teen’s move from home After all the test-taking, application filling, essay editing, campus touring, and acceptance-waiting, the big event is almost here: dropping your teen off at college. You’d think that would be the easy part, but move-in day on college campuses is actually a high anxiety, [...]

Why we must lower our flaps and parent for self-reliance Of course we love our kids. Of course we don’t want our kids to fail. And of course we always want them to be successful. But always doing, picking up, jumping in, solving, rescuing, or mending fences for our kids sure won’t help them learn [...]