How to be a Happier Parent

How to be a Happier Parent
Author: KJ Dell'Antonia
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2020-06-02
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 0735210500

An encouraging guide to helping parents find more happiness in their day-to-day family life, from the former lead editor of the New York Times' Motherlode blog. In all the writing and reporting KJ Dell'Antonia has done on families over the years, one topic keeps coming up again and again: parents crave a greater sense of happiness in their daily lives. In this optimistic, solution-packed book, KJ asks: How can we change our family life so that it is full of the joy we'd always hoped for? Drawing from the latest research and interviews with families, KJ discovers that it's possible to do more by doing less, and make our family life a refuge and pleasure, rather than another stress point in a hectic day. She focuses on nine common problem spots that cause parents the most grief, explores why they are hard, and offers small, doable, sometimes surprising steps you can take to make them better. Whether it's getting everyone out the door on time in the morning or making sure chores and homework get done without another battle, How to Be a Happier Parent shows that having a family isn't just about raising great kids and churning them out at destination: success. It's about experiencing joy--real joy, the kind you look back on, look forward to, and live for--along the way.

Parenting Matters

Parenting Matters
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 525
Release: 2016-11-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0309388570

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

The Second Shift

The Second Shift
Author: Arlie Hochschild
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2012-01-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1101575514

An updated edition of a standard in its field that remains relevant more than thirty years after its original publication. Over thirty years ago, sociologist and University of California, Berkeley professor Arlie Hochschild set off a tidal wave of conversation and controversy with her bestselling book, The Second Shift. Hochschild's examination of life in dual-career housholds finds that, factoring in paid work, child care, and housework, working mothers put in one month of labor more than their spouses do every year. Updated for a workforce that is now half female, this edition cites a range of updated studies and statistics, with an afterword from Hochschild that addresses how far working mothers have come since the book's first publication, and how much farther we all still must go.

Release My Grip

Release My Grip
Author: Kami Gilmour
Publisher: Group Publishing (Company)
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017
Genre: Adult children
ISBN: 9781470748470

Saying goodbye to a child as they leave the nest and learn to fly ushers parents into an emotional time of grief, joy and nostalgia. Release My Grip, by popular blogger Kami Gilmour, offers inspiration and practical insight as she reveals the surprising truth she learned while knee-deep in this sacred season of parenthood. Often humorous and always honest and hope-filled, these stories have equipped and encouraged the hearts of millions on the popular SoulFeed blog. In this keepsake book, you'll discover how this time can be fertile ground for deepening your relationship with Jesus. You'll also gain the practical tools you need to help you pause, reflect, and capture the words on your heart during your own unique journey as a parent of a young adult fledgling--from high school graduation through the years that follow. With every chapter of Release My Grip, you'll find: - Compelling reflection questions that draw you into the peace of God's presence and promise, gently shifting your focus from the loss you feel to the richness and hope of a new season that's just beginning. - Relevant Scriptures to ponder--words that reveal God's heart, bringing relief and hope in the midst of wondering and worrying. - Practical challenges that help you adjust to the rhythm of life's "new normal" and maintain meaningful connection with your young adult child. - Journaling spaces that make it easy to capture your letting-go journey as it unfolds, making this book a treasured keepsake to reflect back upon.

The High-Conflict Couple

The High-Conflict Couple
Author: Alan Fruzzetti
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2006-12-03
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1608824268

You hear and read a lot about ways to improve your relationship. But if you've tried these without much success, you're not alone. Many highly reactive couples—pairs that are quick to argue, anger, and blame—need more than just the run-of-the-mill relationship advice to solve their problems in love. When destructive emotions are at the heart of problems in your relationship, no amount of effective communication or intimacy building will fix what ails it. If you're part of a "high-conflict" couple, you need to get control of your emotions first, to stop making things worse, and only then work on building a better relationship. The High-Conflict Couple adapts the powerful techniques of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) into skills you can use to tame out-of-control emotions that flare up in your relationship. Using mindfulness and distress tolerance techniques, you'll learn how to deescalate angry situations before they have a chance to explode into destructive fights. Other approaches will help you disclose your fears, longings, and other vulnerabilities to your partner and validate his or her experiences in return. You'll discover ways to manage problems with negotiation, not conflict, and to find true acceptance and closeness with the person you love the most. This book has been awarded The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Self-Help Seal of Merit — an award bestowed on outstanding self-help books that are consistent with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) principles and that incorporate scientifically tested strategies for overcoming mental health difficulties. Used alone or in conjunction with therapy, our books offer powerful tools readers can use to jump-start changes in their lives.

Engaged Fatherhood for Men, Families and Gender Equality

Engaged Fatherhood for Men, Families and Gender Equality
Author: Marc Grau Grau
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2022
Genre: Culture
ISBN: 3030756459

This aim of this open access book is to launch an international, cross-disciplinary conversation on fatherhood engagement. By integrating perspective from three sectors -- Health, Social Policy, and Work in Organizations -- the book offers a novel perspective on the benefits of engaged fatherhood for men, for families, and for gender equality. The chapters are crafted to engaged broad audiences, including policy makers and organizational leaders, healthcare practitioners and fellow scholars, as well as families and their loved ones.

The Bottom Line for Baby

The Bottom Line for Baby
Author: Tina Payne Bryson
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2020-09-01
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 0593129962

Apply the best science to all your parenting decisions with this essential A–Z guide for your biggest questions and concerns from the New York Times bestselling co-author of The Whole-Brain Child and No-Drama Discipline Every baby- and toddler-care decision sends parents scrambling to do the right thing, and often down into the rabbit hole of conflicting advice. Dr. Tina Payne Bryson has sifted through the reliable research (including about all those old wives’ tales) and will help you make a manageable molehill out of the mountain of information and answer more than sixty common concerns and dilemmas, including • Breast or bottle? Or breast and bottle? Will that cause nipple confusion? • What’s the latest recommendation for introducing solids in light of potential allergies? • Should I sign us up for music and early-language classes? • What’s the evidence for and against circumcision? • When is the right time to wean my baby off her pacifier? • How do I get this child to sleep through the night?! Dr. Bryson boils things down with authority, demystifying the issues in three distinct sections: an objective summary of the schools of thought on the topic, including commonly held pros and cons; a clear and concise primer on “What the Science Says”; and a Bottom Line conclusion. When the science doesn’t point clearly in one direction, she guides you to assess and apply the information in a way that’s consistent with your family’s principles and meets your child’s unique needs. Full of warmth, expert wisdom, and blessedly bite-sized explanations, The Bottom Line for Baby will help you prioritize what you really need to know and do during the first year of precious life.

You Are a F*cking Awesome Mom

You Are a F*cking Awesome Mom
Author: Leslie Anne Bruce
Publisher: Seal Press
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2019-09-10
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1580058914

A much-needed voice of encouragement for every woman who had a baby and lost her mind Sometimes, motherhood feels never-ending. A child is born, chaos ensues, and it seems like life will never return to normal. In You Are a F*cking Awesome Mom, award-winning journalist and Instagram star Leslie Anne Bruce acknowledges that, yes, motherhood is a total mind f*ck—but then she offers the self-empowerment lessons new mothers need to get through the psychic upheaval and emerge stronger than ever. After childbirth, a woman's body, her relationships, and her very sense of self are tested like never before. Bruce encourages readers to look past the sugarcoated truisms about the miracles of child-rearing in order to embrace the real joys of motherhood, spit-up stains and all. Loaded with unfettered support from a mom who has been through it all, You Are a F*cking Awesome Mom offers a lifeline of encouragement, inspiration, and community for the new mama who got a baby, lost her mind, and desperately wants to find herself again.

Motherwhelmed: Challenging Norms, Untangling Truths, and Restoring Our Worth to the World

Motherwhelmed: Challenging Norms, Untangling Truths, and Restoring Our Worth to the World
Author: Beth Berry
Publisher:
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2020-04-25
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 9781734671704

Today's mothers are struggling; though, it's not for the reasons most moms tend to think. We've been conditioned to believe our inadequacy is the reason we can't seem to "keep up" or enjoy mothering more, but nothing could be further from the truth. We aren't failing as mothers. We're mothering within a culture that is misleading and inadequately supporting us. Motherwhelmed is a deep, yet lighthearted exploration of the messy frontier of modern-day motherhood we're all struggling to navigate. With compassion, realness, and rich storytelling, Beth Berry: -Illuminates the mindsets and narratives keeping us feeling overwhelmed, disempowered, anxious, isolated, and riddled with self-doubt -Provides the perspectives and tools needed for mothers to rewrite their stories and reclaim a sense of wholeness -Shares from her 25 years as an idealistic, passionate, all-in mother of four daughters -Reminds us of our worthiness and reframes our importance This is not a book about parenting. It's a book about mothers, our greatness, and how important it is that we thrive. It's about untangling ourselves from the stories keeping us trapped and deconstructing those we've outgrown. It's about daring the lives we're here to live and, thereby, giving our children permission to do the same. Until we begin to organize our lives around not only our children's worthiness but also our own, mothers everywhere will continue to bear the brunt of cultural pain and dysfunction. This matters because we cannot be the changemakers we're meant to be while so heavily burdened.

Social Justice Parenting

Social Justice Parenting
Author: Dr. Traci Baxley
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2021-10-19
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 0063082381

“Social Justice Parenting offers guidance and grace for parents who want to teach their children how to create a fair and inclusive world.”—Diane Debrovner, deputy editor of Parents magazine “Replete with excellent examples and advice that can help parents raise children with a healthy self-image and regard for the welfare of others."—Jane E. Brody, New York Times An empowering, timely guide to raising anti-racist, compassionate, and socially conscious children, from a diversity and inclusion educator with more than thirty years of experience. As a global pandemic shuttered schools across the country in 2020, parents found themselves thrust into the role of teacher—in more ways than one. Not only did they take on remote school supervision, but after the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing Black Lives Matter protests, many also grappled with the responsibility to teach their kids about social justice—with few resources to guide them. Now, in Social Justice Parenting, Dr. Traci Baxley—a professor of education who has spent 30 years teaching diversity and inclusion—will offer the essential guidance and curriculum parents have been searching for. Dr. Baxley, a mother of five herself, suggests that parenting is a form of activism, and encourages parents to acknowledge their influence in developing compassionate, socially-conscious kids. Importantly, Dr. Baxley also guides parents to do the work of recognizing and reconciling their own biases. So often, she suggests, parents make choices based on what’s best for their children, versus what’s best for all children in their community. Dr. Baxley helps readers take inventory of their actions and beliefs, develop self-awareness and accountability, and become role models. Poised to become essential reading for all parents committed to social change, Social Justice Parenting will offer parents everywhere the opportunity to nurture a future generation of humane, compassionate individuals.