Because sometimes being a parent means doing what’s hard.
Posted in guest posts, parenting research on Jan 9th, 2012
A slightly belated Happy New Year, everyone! As the next month or two progress, I’ll be hard at work preparing for the publication of MEAN MOMS RULE, WHY DOING THE HARD STUFF NOW CREATES GOOD KIDS LATER. I’m so excited about the possibilities for this fresh, new year, and I hope you are, too. [...]
Posted in family life, parenting research, play, summer on Jul 21st, 2011
Last summer, we met our friends Sally and Mike and their kids in a nearby harbor town to let the kids play on a playground, walk around a bit, and get some dinner. Typical late-weekend-afternoon-in-the-summer stuff here on Long Island’s bucolic North Shore. I’d been to this town many times before, but not with my [...]
Posted in discipline, family life, parenting, parenting research, Uncategorized on Jul 15th, 2010
Okay, here we go again, with another flurry of conversation swirling around the topic of parents, children, and happiness. Specifically: Does becoming a parent increase or decrease happiness? Do kids make you happy? Are parents happier than non-parents? And my personal favorite: Why do we all work so hard at this parenting stuff without it [...]
Posted in family life, parenting, parenting research on Jun 23rd, 2010
Here’s a case where being a Mean Mom works in your favor: When you have a big family. It’s obvious, right? You can’t coddle and hover over 14 kids; no one’s arms are that big. Even with four or five kids helicoptering and over-parenting is a stretch. (And four or five is, by today’s standards [...]
Posted in parenting, parenting research on Mar 16th, 2010
Just read this today: researchers in Japan, at Gunma University, took a look at twentysomethings, scanning their brains and having them answer questions about how they were parented. Turns out, those newly minted adults who grew up under the helicoptering arms of overprotective parents (they responded “yes” to statements such as: “did not want me [...]
