We’ve just created a new blog that’s exclusively for parents - That Parent Place - here you’ll find parenting tips, advice, fun, and more from esteemed writer Sirena Van Schaik, who has written for Chicken Soup for the Child’s Soul and Southern Families Magazine among others.
Please stop by and say ‘hello’!  And also let us know […]

Parenting is the most difficult ‘job’ in the world. The process lasts longer than most modern careers. It requires a larger investment - in time and money - than just about any other activity. The complexity of choices is greater and the outcome more uncertain. Greater patience is needed and the roller coaster of emotions […]

A major part of good communication between parent and child is active listening. But, what is ACTIVE listening? It means not merely staring at the child while he or she talks, but actively taking in what is said and exploring its meaning.
The mechanics of active listening are simple, though a parent may need to remind […]

Adopting a child may be both a long train of practical and emotional nightmares and the fulfillment of a dream.
About 1% of all children in the U.S. were adopted. Thus, though the percentage may be small, the total number is considerable - in the millions. While, fortunately, many of the traditional stigmas have faded, adoption […]

All parents wish they could shelter their child from grief. No one wants a child, with limited experience and understanding, to have to suffer through the loss of a beloved dog or the death of a treasured parent or grandparent.
But real life does include the possibility of such things and children grow up healthiest when […]

Parents understandably want to do everything possible to protect their children from harm. Today, that often includes - some would say is first and foremost - teaching them to be wary of others. Parents will often instill a (healthy, they would argue) fear of others, along with providing practical tips on staying safe.
While the attitude […]

For children who have attended preschool, beginning school will involve less of a transition than for those who have not. But in either case, school is typically quite different from preschool. Added to that is the unfortunate fact that many public schools are often - whether through lack of funding, bureaucratic bungling, bad philosophy or […]

Few things in the life of a family are as traumatic as when it alters through divorce. Each individual involved is often confused, angry, feeling betrayed and uncertain about what comes next.
Making the transition even more difficult, there will be many practical changes that affect both parents and children. Living arrangements will alter, incomes may […]

Few subjects in parenting are as fundamental, or as important, as communication. Humans function so much by language, whether implicit or explicit, that learning how to communicate effectively affects virtually every other sphere of family relations.
But developing good strategies for good communication, based on sound ideas, is extremely complicated. Individuals differ so widely in age, […]

Few things have changed so radically in the last 100 years as the view of a father’s role in parenting.
Once, it was the Victorian view of ‘rarely-seen law-giver’. Then the Freudian influenced ‘not a terribly important factor’ became dominant. That was gradually replaced with the 1950s ‘wise breadwinner’. Then came the social revolution of the […]