Do You Really Say “Yes”?

My sisters and I had my mom pegged, and we never grew tired of teasing her about it. When we asked my mom for something and she said, “We’ll see”, it always seemed to lead to a “no”. “Maybe” usually turned out to mean “yes”. So we would whine and beg, “Just say maybe, pleeeeeze!”  Now that I’m a mom and have learned that parenting is an endless list of really hard decisions that can make...

Uniquely Me – 6 Ways To Help Our Children Know (And Love) Themselves

I spend a lot of time in my head, and one of my favorite ponderings is nature vs. nurture.  How much does parenting matter?  We toil and we fret.  We read the latest round of confusing, conflicting studies and opinions.  We stimulate, teach, parent the way we were parented because it worked just fine, or do the radical opposite because it didn’t.  We hover, free-range, stress and (according to the New York...

A Creative Alternative To Baby TV Time

The last thing you’re going to catch me doing is provoking parental guilt. So, I’m going to assume you’ve heard all about the hazards of TV for infants and toddlers: potential language delays, obesity, ADHD, and aggression are all things we’d like to prevent in our children if we can. But it doesn’t surprise me that parents ignore the research (and the American Academy of Pediatrics advisory) and turn on...

The Fascination With Babies (A Traveler’s Perspective)

On my way to LAX to take my daughter to camp and spend some one-on-one time with her, I was excited, but also uneasy and unsettled. I felt like I was ditching school, neglecting homework. There was also a twinge of something even more anxiety provoking I couldn’t quite place, as if I’d left the stove on.  All because I’d made the last minute decision to leave my laptop at home.  My husband had gently nudged...

A Lesson From Babies…It’s Okay To Struggle

Last week’s parent/toddler class was all about feeling ‘stuck’.  The previous week, 21 month old Audrey had wedged herself between the bars of the wooden climbing structure and looked at me with a worried expression. “Are you stuck?” I asked. I moved close and — without touching her — talked her through pulling her legs out from between the bars and reaching to the bar below so that she could...

Problems With Attachment Parenting – Note From A Mum

I recently received this email from a mother in Australia, and she kindly allowed me to share it with you. Hi Janet, I am just wondering if you have any advice on how I can get my 8 month old baby to play independently.  I have been following the Dr. Sears Attachment Parenting philosophy pretty rigidly since James was born and to my dismay, he is now super clingy, whiny, wakes up every 2 hours at night to nurse,...

Protecting Our Baby When It’s Easier Not To (Guest Post by Miven Trageser)

From time to time I have the pleasure of sharing the perspectives of other parents, educators, and early childhood professionals familiar with the work of infant expert Magda Gerber.  This post is by Miven Trageser, M.A., a Marriage and Family Therapy Intern in private practice in Beverly Hills, CA.  Miven specializes in parenting, mother-infant attachment therapy, play therapy with small children, and couples...

Just Tell Me You Understand – The Secret To Nurturing Self-Confident Babies

From the moment they are born, babies struggle to communicate physical and emotional needs. First they cry, and then they learn by our example to smile, coo, babble, eventually extend their arms to us, shake their heads, point, gesture, and finally speak words and phrases. Imagine the challenge it is for our babies to make us understand!  Common sense tells us that the more actively we acknowledge our child’s...