As I wrote to National Parenting Education Network (npen.org) colleagues and friends, these events are so painful and fresh that there is little to do but shudder and cry. You can hear Dec.14 The Daily Wrap bit.ly/RurM6T with host Michael Castner: it includes a...

I am excited to be preparing to present at the 29th Annual Parent Conference and Family Engagement Institutes in Dallas, Texas, December 1-5, 2012. (I hope my passport is valid... I heard talk of secession, smile.) The Parents Forum session 'Coin of Empathy' will be...

On NPR's Talk of the Nation this afternoon, host Neal Conan discussed the challenges faced by parents who have disabilities No surprise that they, like parents who are not disabled, have difficulty finding support as parents. Some of the stories, from guests on the...

The Learning Brain is a fascinating and readable book, important for parents, educators and parenting educators, by Torkel Klingberg, just out. The author's blog: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-learning-brain I met and spoke with Klingberg at a conference in...

Last Thursday and Friday's trip to Pennsylvania with the NEU Massachusetts group www.northeastern.edu/epfp was quite an eye-opener. I expected to get an academic, historical view of Gettysburg www.nps.gov/gett/index.htm but with that – presented in a lively and...

With thanks to John D'Auria of Teachers21 who co-wrote this column, please see: http://b.globe.com/SChKtO A Note To Educators As School Begins: Parents and teachers are natural allies with common interests in promoting healthy development in children and young people....

Yes, my day in New York, Thursday, September 27, for a meeting of the NGO Family Committee at the U.N. was exciting! Since the General Assembly was in session, there were lots of delegates out and about – many recognizable by country flag pins on their lapels - and...

Today's 'Ask Amy' column by Amy Dickinson 'father is re-creating cycle of bad parenting' does not mention parenting education. Please! When are we as a society going to realize that parents' concerns are * not * signs of mental illness? I wrote a short note to AskAmy...

In celebration of August 1st Respect for Parents Day, we are launching a month-long poll of parents and parenting educators asking: What has been the biggest positive influence on your own parenting? All are welcome to respond, those with direct experience with...

Hello ...and a very Happy Fathers Day to all the Fathers in our families and communities... I had to write about this. The Sunday Globe Magazine June 17, 2012 cover story begins, "Studies show that most parents don’t want to hit their kids - and that some 90 percent...

The Activating Empathy winners are great group, for sure, and I am happy that Parents Forum was a finalist. But (boo-hoo) our entry Opening the Door to Parents http://bit.ly/wNn9bV did not win. And that's the way it is. Plenty to be glad about, though, not the least...

This is the greatest news! Of course there had to be a technical glitch at the start: some people who registered in order to vote for us were blocked or locked out, but now the technology gods are smiling. I ask, below, with every expectation that you will have no...

May 15 is here again and it is very heartening to remember that there are lots of good people around the world working to support families. I just spent an hour by telephone with National Parenting Education Network (NPEN - US) council members in a very rich...

In it to win it! A few weeks ago Lulit at Ashoka called to invite us to take part in this competition: an exciting opportunity to tell people how important parenting education is to young people’s success in school and life and - even better - to tell them how Parents...

You may have seen TIME Magazine's article declaring American kids to be brats. You probably saw - or heard about - the viral video of an American dad shooting his daughter's laptop in response to her Facebook rant about her parents and chores. Do we have a problem? I...

A study published in the Canadian Medical Journal, reported today (February 8, 2012) in the Boston Globe http://b.globe.com/zy0cDb includes these cautionary comments: “Spanking is a traumatic experience that can cause small losses in the brain’s gray matter,”...

Now this is nice . . . a letter saying Parents Forum works! My wife Susan and I have had the pleasure of knowing Eve Sullivan since the summer of 1998. My wife had met Eve and was introduced to Parents Forum.  Being young parents with children ages 5 and 3 at the time...

I am very happy about this news: Digital Book World Announces First-Ever QED Approved Ebooks NEW YORK – January 6, 2012 – Digital Book World today announced that 85 ebooks have been approved as QED-worthy. Among the awardees is Where the Heart Listens, by Eve...

With consumerist craziness in its ascendance at this time of year, it is a challenge to keep things simple. I remind myself that children, all of us, really, remember the good times we share more than we remember specific presents. When my kids were growing up I tried...

This is so exciting, stepping out on the world stage. Doctors and other health care professionals around the globe read The Lancet! Take a look: Visit http://www.thelancet.com and search for 'parenting resources' There you will see the letter I wrote with four...

http://nyti.ms/uij2qL and I ask, how about improving parenting resources? High on my Thanksgiving gratitude list has been the increasing attention paid to parenting. Response to Friedman's column was huge: online comments were cut off at 242. So I wrote a letter. How...

And this! As a representative of the International Federation for Parenting Education, I attended a panel discussion on “Stop violence against children through positive parenting” on the occasion of the Universal Children’s Day, co-organized by the Permanent Mission...

We need some rules for ourselves, too, as parents, and it seems that one should be: 'Turn off the TV when children are in the room with you'.  What children need from us, what anyone wants, really, more than anything, is good attention, not divided attention.   Of...

First, more singing! Today’s Boston Globe ‘Music class lifts teen from life of silence’ story October 26, 2011 http://b.globe.com/taZvSJ (the link requires a subscription to read the whole article) describes the transformation of a young man into a musical ‘superstar’...

Happy news! Matthew Martin at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) let me know that an interview he did with me in August, launched today: http://hvrd.me/r7R6vt . It is currently on the main page of the HGSE website, available through the Harvard iTunes U...

This morning I had a very interesting conversation with one of my sons and he granted me the above mentioned ‘permission to speak’ about our discussion. We spoke about a perception we share that  men - fathers - do not feel they have permission to speak about their...

The Boston Globe op ed piece today 9-30-11 is 'serious need for free play' by Carlo Rotella, director of American studies at Boston College, and I love it! The gist: "…free play is essential to a child’s development - not only to mental health, but to the acquisition...

The Economist’s review of Christian Smith’s book Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood prompts this post. The reviewer writes that the book deserves consideration from parents, I guess so! Read on ... The review ends with these words: “In the guise,...

This wonderful article just came across my screen and I want to share it with you: http://www.handinhandparenting.org/news/196/64/Scrapes-Cuts-and-Dustups-Helping-Your-Child-Heal -or- http://bit.ly/rrAjGw It begins... "Every child bumps around and gets...

Respect for Parents Day is here and, just our luck, the eagerly anticipated resolution of the debt ceiling crisis gets top billing. For the record, here is Marilyn Dalrymple's proclamation, which I will ask her to rename International Respect for Parents Day: --...

This from the Exchange Every Day newsnote . . . which I always find inspiring. . . a quote from Lilian Katz, the speaker at their recent conference: "The good life for our own children only be secured if it is also secured for all other people's children." But we need...

The following message from 'across the pond' just popped up in my inbox and I post it here, as I am happy to help spread the word of this effort. As parents of a disabled four-year-old we found many sources of help through hearsay and purely by chance. We have...

A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed for Fox Business News on 'how to handle bad college roommates' but I like for the discussion take a positive tack: how can you help your high school graduate son or daughter prepare for a successful first semester. The...

In the last week or so I have done several radio interviews on the topic of keeping kids safe in the summer time. The concerns parents have brought up - and reports from a pediatrician and beach patrol director who were on one of the shows with me - are beyond scary!...

Jim Buchanan, host of 'Talk of the Town' on WICC in Bridgeport CT, will interview me this coming Monday just after 4pm. Looks as if you can listen live at the station website: www.wicc600.com . His question is how parents can discuss, with their kids, the global...

The National Parenting Education Network chair, Betty Cook, shared some great news this morning: Katy Smith, just named Minnesota Teacher of the Year, is a parenting educator in the statewide public school Early Childhood Family Education program. This is the first...

In honor of International Day of Families (IDF) May 15th, we are happy to announce upcoming release of Where the Heart Listens: a handbook for parents and their allies (third edition) in audio and ebook formats. You can read sample chapters here under 'Where the Heart...

Interesting! Madame Liu Yandong, State Councilor of the People’s Republic of China and the highest-ranking woman in the Chinese government, paid a visit to MIT, where I work, Wednesday, April 13 (2011). I attended her talk, given as part of the China Forum, and was...

This is apparently breaking news, but parents know it, for heaven's sake. Now we can quote scientific research showing that 'teaching too much can stifle exploration.'  A Boston Globe article 3-28-2011 by Carolyn Y. Johnson... http://j.mp/gKSSvK tells...

The most amazing happy news . . .  Where the Heart Listens: a handbook for parents and their allies in a global society - the Parents Forum handbook - has won the Parent Tested Parent Approved PTPA Seal of Approval! Look here: http://www.ptpamedia.com/homepage and see...