For our inaugural issue, August 1st Respect for Parents Day, please tell us = = > > What Parents Forum means, or has meant, to you! SEND US A FEW WORDS …up to 100 words, if you like… by email to info@parentsforum.org. Include your name and tell us the city and...

We hope you will add a favorable comment to our June 5, 2020 Communications Initiative Network Policy and Practice Blog: “Pandemic makes parenting resources a critical need” https://bit.ly/30jBNLI To comment, click "Register Now” and wait for login details and...

We recognize the need for immediate responses to the cascade of tragedies we experienced this last week. But a longer-term, positive and preventive response is also essential if we are to transform our communities so that atrocities like those in Dayton and El Paso...

By Jamael Tito Brown, Mayor of Youngstown and Eve Sullivan, Founder of Parents Forum Everyone agrees that parents have enormous impact on their children’s lives, yet the preparation we receive for our responsibilities, usually limited to the early years, is often...

This week I enjoyed almost twice my lifetime allotment of fame! With deep gratitude to the many individuals who have helped Parents Forum over the past 25-plus years, I want to share the interview Susan Fleishman of Cambridge Community Television did with me. It is...

The just released movie by Lauren Greenfield, ‘Generation Wealth’ @genwealthmovie, is one all parents and parenting educators should see. At the beginning of the show, one can comfortably imagine that the problem is other people, but the filmmaker’s use of images of...

We didn’t make the short list ...sad face, but Parents Forum is recognized as an innovator in the Generation to Generation (Gen2Gen) campaign ...happy face! Gen2Gen offers an opportunity to spread the word and engage volunteers in parenting education and support at a...

The Week’s ‘health scare of the week’ describes research on the negative effects of helicopter parenting. Nicole Perry, the lead researcher on the project, described June 18, 2018, by the American Psychological Association, said,           “Our findings underscore the...

[ Note added, as I am posting on Memorial Day: On this solemn day let us all remember those who fight on our behalf and those whose deaths this day recalls. They allow us to enjoy a peaceful day. I gave this talk at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Mass., on Sunday,...

That’s the title of a book for children and parents, sent to me by the author Lee Aven, with a lovely, handwritten letter saying: = Dear Eve, = I share your interest in helping parents understand the skills of relationship through my own journey. I discovered that...

Princess Diana: “The biggest disease this world suffers …is people feeling unloved.” #okaytosay @parentsforum @parademagazine

Almost every day I read an article on children's issues that completely ignores parents. What is wrong with this picture? The Economist's otherwise terrific article "Poor children fall behind early in life. Better pre-school education could help" (June 25, 2016) did...

This quick word, with profound thanks to Sophia Luthuli in Soweto, South Africa, who nominated me, is to share a link: http://bit.ly/1TjMMKK The nomination for a Nelson Mandela - Graça Machel Award in the individual activist category is a great honor. It would be...

It seems that I was the 12,733,144-th person to listen online to this song by David Bowie, who is now, sadly, gone from us. I confess that I did not follow him ... something about being busy raising children, working and all that ... during his heyday. I have been...

Scott Sampson's How to Raise a Wild Child affirms what I have long felt but couldn't explain: All of us, especially kids, need to connect with nature in all sorts of ways, large and small. He lays out the arguments for connecting children with the natural world and...

Bartletts, or else my search technique, has failed me. The quote I am looking for is, "If the people lead, the leaders will follow," and it came to mind yesterday when Parents Forum board and friends gathered yesterday to mark Respect for Parents Day. I think we need...

that economic justice is a problem only for poor people? that gender equity, along with sexual assault and sex trafficking, are concerns only for women? that intimate partner violence can be resolved by helping only the victims? that racial equality is an issue only...

What's more important, treats or talk? Both are of course and I am a big fan of chatting. I hope to see some of the readers of this (very occasional) blog at Davis Square in Somerville (Mass.) this afternoon between 1pm and 3pm. The address is 250 Elm Street, near the...

Steven Pinker ... a quote I read on a Chipotle bag, of all places ... said, "We will never have a perfect world, but it is not romantic or naive to work toward a better one." I am in Tunis this week for the 50th anniversary conference of the International Federation...

The beginning of my horoscope today – which ends 'Start small' – is much more inspirational: 'Travel, connect with old friends and... consider offering a service that is in dire need in your community.' January looks right in line with this advice. In a week's time I...

We want parents to raise compassionate children . . . http://nyti.ms/1m00bbn . . . right The parenting education and support that social services presently offer does not seem to do enough to help enough parents accomplish this goal. I suggest we consider more peer...

Yes, there were over 4000 other representatives of nonprofits at the UN in New York last week for the Department of Public Information (DPI) NGO conference, but parenting education was represented. I was there on behalf of the International Federation for Parenting...

Before I tell you about the conference, I have to say a few words about the experience of this, my first trip to the Gulf Region. What I'm glad I brought: crackers (to have as snack instead of ordering room service), headphones (for the gym), masking tape (to make a...

Seriously, I should post more often. Tomorrow (Thursday March 27, 2014) there is a meeting of the UN NGO Committee on the Family in New York, at 12:30 in the Church Center. The topic is "Military Parents and the Family: An Exploration of Paths to Strengthen the...

Last evening, back from a movie, I was sitting at the kitchen table enjoying a cup of tea. When the phone rang I thought it might be one of my sons, but it was another mother's child. The young lady, calling from Georgia (the state, not the country), said someone had...

Good news twice! The New Yorker Dec.16 included my comments on the sad story (in the Dec.2 issue of the magazine) by Rachel Aviv who wrote about an immigrant mother losing custody of her son over a six-year period, starting when the boy was three. The Cambridge...

The first slice of bad news in this sandwich is a report in the Boston GLOBE magazine on Monday headlined "Rate of children getting mental health care rises". Lara Salah reported research (from JAMA Psychiatry Nov.27) showing that "the rate at which children and...

That is the phrase I sometimes found myself using when people asked me about my kids, especially when they were teenagers, and it is what I hope I am doing now! Two months of home renovations consumed my summer and some tasks remain, painting, wallpaper still to go...

This counts as a base hit for the parenting education team, I think! I got a letter in the Boston Globe Ideas section today June 23, 2013 Ideas section, p. K6 OpinionExtra / Sunday Forum.  The link: http://b.globe.com/123GOTv  and the text: In discussing the problem...

Oprah Winfrey, in her address to Harvard University graduates, as the Boston Globe reported a couple of weeks ago, called for each of them to develop their moral-emotional GPS. An excellent metaphor! I like the phrase 'global positioning system' because it references...

Once I recovered from my disappointment at reading the title, wishing I had used it first . . . smile . . . I very much enjoyed reading this new book and recommend it wholeheartedly. The take-away I find most compelling is that no one country's parenting practices are...

My sister wrote to me yesterday, mentioning a recent talk in Yellow Springs, Ohio, our hometown, by Lowell Monke. A quick search took me to Monke's article in a 2007 issue of Orion, an environmental magazine. I'll give you the link in a minute, but first: Monke...

Thanks to the organizers of this second annual conference of SAM - the Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Alliance for Massachusetts - I have been involved in the planning process. And if the preparatory meetings are any indication, the conference will be an important...

This is all quite strange. The Boston Marathon bombings, four days ago, and now the city where I live, Cambridge, Mass. - - revealed as home to the perpetrators, one now dead and the other on the run - - locked down. All I know is that we are all in this together. We...

If you agree that parenting education should be on the agenda in discussions of education, health care and workforce development, please read and sign our petition bit.ly/XGkgUf . The February 25 USA Today published six letters responding to President Obama's proposal...

This has possibilities! A message from the United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service mentions U.N. efforts to set development priorities for the year 2015 and beyond. You can make your voice heard on the issues here: http://www.myworld2015.org My choices were:...

This message from half way around the world came in response to our recent call for universal parenting education and makes me so happy!   "I read your article and I find it important.... I am a single parent of three... and find it difficult to cope.... I...

The most important responsibility any of us will ever have, raising children, and we receive next to no training? What's wrong with this picture? Part of the problem is the unfortunate stigma that keeps people who need help, even people who genuinely want help, from...

A touching interview with a parent at Sandy Hook, the father of triplets, 8 years old, reported by John Christoffersen and Pat Eaton-Robb for the Associated Press, ran today in the Boston Globe,. Asked about the re-opening of classes, the father admitted 'I'm nervous...