Hi Jennifer, I’m struggling to deal with a particular behaviour that my five and a half year old, Chandra, has been displaying. For the last three months or so, when she gets upset about something, she says she doesn’t like herself and starts to smack her head. This is very upsetting to me and even [...]

Children from different home languages are the fastest growing segment of the preschool population right now across the United States. Chances are most English-speaking children will meet children who speak other languages in their neighborhoods, schools and childcare. We can all benefit from fostering attitudes of tolerance and friendship.

We all know how uncomfortable tantrums in a grocery line-up can feel! Read “”Whale Done Parenting”: What Parents Can Learn from Sea World Trainers” by Liz Hoffman of chicagoparent.com and learn what we can learn from sea mammals!

My daughter Gabi has been at school for 5 months now. I finally got around to asking her homeroom teacher whether I could share on mychildfeels.com her wonderful introductory letter she gave students on the first day of class. This is truly a letter worth sharing.

We’ve all been there and often don’t know how we arrived. But one thing is certain, no parent enjoys being in a power struggle with their child. What brings us to this point?

Parenting is not a one way street. Two separate personalities interact to hopefully produce a loving parent-child relationship. Becoming a good parent is as much about us as it is about our kids.

In this wonderful blog post entitled “Permission to Feel,” Coach Nancy points out that parents sometimes curb positive emotions like excitement as well as the more painful ones. All humans have feelings, she says, and by not allowing them to be felt we become unable to process them in healthy ways.

All of us have anxiety – it is an important emotion.

We need it to survive, stay safe and make good choices. Some of us are hardwired to be more anxious than others. As a therapist, I feel that more and more children are struggling with anxiety for many reasons and many parents struggle with how to help their kids cope.

The Huntsville Times published an article on November 1, 2009 called, “Better Parenting Can Save The World,” by Judi Light Hopson, Emma H. Hopson, R.N., and Ted Hagen Ph.D. This article, short and sweet, says it all. I wanted to reinforce the message. Marsha Jacobson is author of “Boom… Boom… Boom…: A Story to Raise [...]

Hi Jennifer,

I’ve always felt my daughter was maybe gifted somehow. She is 8 years old and extremely hard on herself. I think she is a perfectionist and gets very upset if she doesn’t do something perfect the first time. She then shuts down and won’t redo something. I am hoping this website might help me respond to these outbursts. She also has difficulty handling conflict with her peers. Her father (who doesn’t live with her) doesn’t think these are things to worry about but I do.

- Julie

I can’t help but notice the hype around the movie, “Where the Wild Things Are”. My daughter is seeing it twice in the upcoming couple of weeks. Once with her school and then again at a friend’s birthday party. Why are children and adults drawn to this story?