Parenting

Articles:

• Fostering Empathy in Children
• The Seven Tasks of Adolescence: Take 1 - Parting with Childhood
• The Seven Tasks of Adolescence: Task 2 - Joining a New Tribe
• The Seven Tasks of Adolescence: Task 3 - Harnessing Emotions
• The Seven Tasks of Adolescence: Task 4 - Contending with Adult Authority
• The Seven Tasks of Adolescence: Task 5 - Planning for the Future
  

• Practicing mindfulness can help relieve anxiety among children, youth and adults. Posted on June 29, 2016 by Karen Pace, Michigan State University Extension
• Trauma-proofing your kids.  Eight steps that build resilience in the face of trauma, pain and stress.  Posted on November 2, 2015 by Karen Pace, Michigan State University Extension
• Can mindfulness practices strengthen your parenting skills?  Posted on February 27, 2015 by Karen Pace, Michigan State University Extension
• Mindfulness in adolescence .  Posted on February 2, 2015 by Karen Pace, Michigan State University Extension
• Shame is often at the heart of bullying  Posted on September 17, 2012 by Karen L. Pace, Michigan State University Extension

Books:

• Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool, by Emily Oster. There is always an abundance of often-conflicting advice hurled at new parents from doctors, family, friends, and strangers on the internet. There’s a rule—or three—for everything. But the benefits of these choices can be overstated, and the trade-offs can be profound. How do you make your own best decision? Armed with real data, economist Emily Oster finds that the conventional wisdom doesn’t always hold up. She debunks myths around breastfeeding, sleep training, potty training, language acquisition, and many other topics. She also shows parents how to think through freighted questions like if and how to go back to work, how to think about toddler discipline, and how to have a relationship and parent at the same time. Economics is the science of decision-making, and Cribsheet is a thinking parent’s guide to the chaos and frequent misinformation of the early years.
  
  
• Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood, by Lisa Damour, PhD.  In her New York Times best seller, Dr. Damour draws on decades of experience and the latest research to reveal the seven distinct—and absolutely normal—developmental transitions that turn girls into grown-ups, including Parting with Childhood, Contending with Adult Authority, Entering the Romantic World, and Caring for Herself. Providing realistic scenarios and welcome advice on how to engage daughters in smart, constructive ways, Untangled gives parents a broad framework for understanding their daughters while addressing their most common questions.
• Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys, by Dan Kindlon, PhD, and Michael Thompson, PhD.  Kindlon and Thompson make a compelling case that emotional literacy is the most valuable gift we can offer our sons, urging parents to recognize the price boys pay when we hold them to an impossible standard of manhood. They identify the social and emotional challenges that boys encounter in school and show how parents can help boys cultivate emotional awareness and empathy--giving them the vital connections and support they need to navigate the social pressures of youth.
• Parenting without Power Struggles: Raising Joyful, Resilient Kids While Staying Cool, Calm, and Connected, by Susan Stiffelman, PhD. While most parenting programs are designed to coerce kids to change, Parenting Without Power Struggles does something innovative, showing you how to come alongside your children to awaken their natural instincts to cooperate, rather than at them with threats or bribes, which inevitably fuels their resistance. By staying calm and being the confident “Captain of the ship” your child needs, you will learn how to parent from a place of strong, durable connection, and you’ll be better able to help your kids navigate the challenging moments of growing up. 
  
• How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success, by Julie Lythcott-Haims.  In How to Raise an Adult, Julie Lythcott-Haims draws on research, on conversations with admissions officers, educators, and employers, and on her own insights as a mother and as a student dean to highlight the ways in which overparenting harms children, their stressed-out parents, and society at large. While empathizing with the parental hopes and, especially, fears that lead to overhelping, Lythcott-Haims offers practical alternative strategies that underline the importance of allowing children to make their own mistakes and develop the resilience, resourcefulness, and inner determination necessary for success.
• The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist's Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults, by Dr. Frances Jensen, with Amy Ellis Nutt.  Dr. Jensen gathers what we’ve discovered about adolescent brain function, wiring, and capacity and explains the science in the contexts of everyday learning and multitasking, stress and memory, sleep, addiction, and decision-making.  In this groundbreaking yet accessible book, these findings also yield practical suggestions that will help adults and teenagers negotiate the mysterious world of adolescent development.
• How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk, by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish.  This is often considered “the ultimate parenting bible” by many, a timeless, beloved book on how to effectively communicate with your child.  This bestselling classic includes fresh insights and suggestions as well as the author’s time-tested methods to solve common problems and build foundations for lasting relationships, including innovative ways to cope with your child's negative feelings, express your strong feelings without being hurtful, engage your child's willing cooperation, and resolve family conflicts peacefully.