Parenting advice to curb irresponsibility, excuses and “blame games” and boost trustworthiness, accountability and kid responsibility Any of these sound familiar? “I forgot.” “Take care of this for me.” “It wasn’t my fault.” “I did some of it, but I left it on the bus.” “I don’t know where I put it.” They are statements [...]

How to use those shopping outings to teach kids money management, financial literacy and sticking to a budget while curbing kid bickering and begging. REALITY CHECK: A study by researchers at the University of Vienna, Austria found that the influence children wield over their parent’s purchase decisions in stores are grossly underestimated. In fact, twice [...]

Parenting advice on how to raise strong, confident daughters from the inside out  What parent doesn’t want their daughter to be a leader? After all, that top role—be it, debate captain, head cheerleader, newspaper editor, play director, student body president-is deemed the epitome of success. These are the girls who adults applaud and peers look [...]

Parenting advice to help kids buck negative temptations and stand up to peers REALITY CHECK: A survey of 991 kids ages nine to fourteen revealed 36 percent feel pressure from peers to smoke marijuana, 40 percent feel pressure to have sex, 36 percent feel pressure to shoplift, and four out of ten feel pressure to drink. CNN/Time [...]

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, [...]