Doing My Child’s Homework

Dear Mr. Dad: When I sit down to help my daughter with her homework, I find myself getting impatient. I cave in to her whining about it being too hard and end up giving her the answers. The problems is that she’s gotten so used to my helping that she says she can’t complete an [...]

What To Do If Your Child Is Teased or Bullied

My son’s only seven, but he’s been coming home upset every day. He says a boy named Mark keeps teasing him. Now the rest of the kids won’t play with him because they are afraid Mark will start picking on them, too. He’s miserable and doesn’t want to go to school. What can I do [...]

The Truth About Family Dinners

Dr. Polly Dunnwww.ChildPsychMom.com Earlier this year I happened upon an article by a respected family psychologist and parenting expert.  In it, he provided lots of ideas on how parents could improve their family life, a number of which I completely agreed with.  But then I got to his recommendation about family dinners.  He suggested that [...]

Safety Concerns on Uploading Smartphone Photos of Your Children

Video Clip: Smartphone picture uploads can reveal the location of your children’s home, school, and play areas. What you need to know to keep your children safe. Source: NBC News, Kansas City

Bullies and Victims

There was a news story out of Florida yesterday about a man, James Jones, who stormed a bus of children and threatened the bullies who were terrorizing his daughter who has cerebral palsy.  Classmates had put an open condom on his daughter’s head, taunted her, and hurt her by twisting her ear.  This father is [...]

Q & A’s on Parenting Shy Children

First off, I’ve read that we never call our children “shy” so that they can hear. Why is this so important? Most shy children are terribly uncomfortable being under a microscope or in the spotlight.  They do not like having their pictures taken, being observed, or feeling categorically labeled.  If you call your child “shy”, [...]

Knowing Ourselves As Parents

I treat many highly sophisticated parents in my private practice.  Most have read more books than I and know all the right things to say.  They care and want to be good parents.  The same can likely be said for any parent reading this article.  Yet, parents and children get caught in daily power-struggles, conflicts, [...]