..would be me! I am so excited to be able to share this very happy news. I have been named the 2011 Arminta Jacobson Parenting Education Professional of the Year by the Texas Association of Parent Educators (TAPE). The award was created in 2009 and given to Professor...

Take a look, there are now three videos on YouTube to give you a sense of what our program is about.  The shorter one is the question I submitted to 'Ask Obama' for his internet press conference January 27 (my question did not get picked, oh well) and the longer...

Here is the text, what I said in the longer Jan.27 YouTube . . . We are here tonight to prepare for MIT’s Charm School.  You may think that MIT and charm don’t quite fit in the same sentence, but as a long time employee I can tell you that some engineers and even some...

Well, actually, the title of the article was 'Why Chinese mothers are better' and in it the author, Amy Chua, described her very rigorous and apparently very successful parenting style.  My letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal begged to differ: Amy Chua's...

CIVICUS World Assembly included Parents Forum . . . that is, I was there. Saturday morning's plenary panel, moderated by Nuala McGovern of the BBC World Have Your Say, asked for contributions from the audience and I suggested:...

One of my delightful daughters-in-law sent a link to this article on the risks of too much media use, not by kids, but by parents! http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/garden/10childtech.html?pagewanted=1 Kids want and need good attention, for heaven's sake, and online...

Well, well, well, it sounded a little far out, but worth a try. This morning I went to an event at Tufts put on by the Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute -- there's a mouthful! -- co-sponsored by the Harvard Catalyst Community-Based Participatory...

'Babies' is in theaters now and I enjoyed seeing it. But it seemed odd that the movie showed so little parent-child interaction. Without much apparent help or support from their parents, four babies from different parts of the world -- Namibia, Mongolia, Japan and the...

The ‘desperate mom’ who contacted me two days ago did call back. I was able to pass along the telephone number of a wonderful social worker. But the key piece of the conversation with her was my describing my feelings, how I had experienced intense internal resistance...

Parenting isn't rocket science, and babies aren't learning rocket science anyway -- although some them may grow up to be theoretical physicists -- but maybe, just maybe what they learn is even more difficult than all of that. I think that ** the most important things...

This one-day meeting at the National Press Club had many encouraging presentations on the business community's recognition of the importance in investment in early care and education. Response to my raising the issue of parenting resources was favorable.  Time...

Oh my goodness, I cannot believe that I missed posting this last May.  This is a short version, just over three minutes, of a half-hour panel discussion we held at Cambridge Community Television for International Day of Families.  See it on YouTube:...

The Children's Society study, reported in the Family and Parenting Institute / FPI (UK) bulletin today, was tremendously encouraging to me, although quite troubling in its findings.  Basically it says that two children out of each grammar school classroom are unhappy...

Vicki Rideout, director of the Kaiser Family Foundation's Program for the Study of Media and Health (www.wff.org is the place to find all their reports), advises parents to 'stop and take a look at what's happening with your kids,' according to a Boston GLOBE article...

Mood swings are the order of the day: One minute I am excited and relieved to have the third edition of our handbook printed and in hand. The next minute I am caught in a wave of fear, doubt and insecurity.  But reading your favorable comments, dear readers ...wow......

The voice of reason, in comments on this report just released, comes from a father of three boys in Ashland, Pa.: "There has to be a balance," says Paul Caputo. I could not agree more!  While Vicky Rideout of Kaiser Foundation says that media use is "not inherently...

I guess that's why we go to church, to be lifted up:  One of the lessons today was on the gifts of the spirit and how each of us receives our own particular gifts. The message reassured me, because I've been thinking that I am not doing enough or maybe just not doing...

The disaster is geographically distant from me in Cambridge, Mass., and so enormous that it is very hard to grasp. But many Haitians live and work near us in Boston and are affected. How can we support them, as individuals and as parents? A booklist came to me from...

Yes, the usual: lose 20 pounds, exercise more ...and blog more often, to keep in touch with whomever may be reading my posts.  Whoooo are you? The third edition of Where the Heart Listens is at our printer and we are waiting for the final proof. Things always...

...imagine similar, even stronger effect on children's behavior and emotional development! This is from the Public Education Network Weekly NewsBlast today October 9, 2009 Emotional and behavioral development paves the way to achievement According to a new report from...

In Vienna on Monday November 23rd I gave a talk on 'Parenting education and support, keys to family well-being' at a meeting of the Vienna Committee of NGOs on the Family.  It was well received - yeah! - and will be included in the next quarterly edition of Families...

Well, the saying "you can't win 'em all" is true, as the Parents Forum entry did not make the list of finalists in the Rethinking Mental Health: Improving Community Well-being competition which just ended. Certainly the experience of being invited to enter,...

Tom Matlack, creator of the Good Men Project, has this to say about our entry in Changemakers: I certainly applaud the work of Parents Forum, for kids, moms and specially dads. I am particularly sensitive to this issue as a formerly divorced dad facing spending time...

Deep breaths! The competition now enters the next phase.  Entries, including ours, are complete. I know because they told me: Congratulations! You have successfully entered the “Rethinking Mental Health: Improving Community Wellbeing” collaborative competition....

Parents Forum will be on the panel!  The NGO Committee on Mental Health invites you to a briefing and panel discussion for “Mental Health in Primary Care: Enhancing Treatment & Promoting Mental Health” Thursday, 8 October 2009 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm at the Church...

Amanda Frye, who was our very capable work-study administrative assistant when she was an MIT undergrad, just posted a comment to our Changemakers entry.  She spent several years in Teach For America. Thank you, Amanda!   I was involved with...

It's official:  5:19, right now, is the Equinox.  The leaves are turning.  School has begun.  Last night I make a 'cameo appearance' on behalf of Parents Forum at board member William Sharp's class for divorcing parents which he holds at Boston...

Our entry in this Ashoka competition funded by Robert Wood Johnson  http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/node/54679  has gotten over 250 'reads' putting us in the top ten out of 50 entries. Even if all you can do if take a quick look and send good...

So far, our entry in the Rethinking Mental Health: Improving Community Wellbeing has gotten over one hundred reads in less than a week.  Yeah! Posting a comment involves several steps, so please be patient and persistent when you go to the...

Yesterday I posted an entry for Parents Forum on Ashoka's competition Rethinking Mental Health: Improving Community Wellbeing. A wonderful topic because it is so broad.  Please take a look: http://www.changemakers.com, search for Parents Forum under that competition....

On Ask Your Lawmaker my question: "Will you add parenting education and support to the benefits covered under the Affordable Health Choices Act and, if so, what strategies do you propose to encourage parents to use such services and to pay parenting...

This wonderful endorsement of one of our 'tools of the trade' comes from a participant in Everett Mass.: " Thank you for allowing me to be a part of Parents Forum where I really did take personal stories with me that have, in turn, helped me to communicate more...

A good, but incomplete idea: The daily Exchange Every Day called for support for the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA)'s initiative to hold a White House Conference on Children and Youth in 2010.  My two cents ... This excellent initiative has the opportunity to...

Just now, by fax, I asked Sen. Kennedy and Sen. Enzi = = > > Will you add parenting education and support to the benefits covered in the Affordable Health Choices Act. My question also appears as the latest, or one of the latest questions on Ask Your Lawmaker...

Well, this is nice! Alexis Schroeder let me know that the excerpts from the February talk I did with her group has been updated with this info. Here's the page now:...

This morning I attended a very nice gathering at the Boston Harbor Hotel, with top quality snacks, including the above mentioned excellent source of anti-oxidants.  Solomon McCown was the convenor, CSR was the title and major players were there. Ann Fudge, former...

The title of the article, all science-speak, is 'Preliminary Investigation of Parent-Progeny Olfactory Recognition and Parental Investment' in the March issue of Human Nature.  As reported by Kevin Lewis in the Boston GLOBE Sunday (6-14-09), fathers who could...

Our former partner in Roxbury, Parents Management Inc., run by Hafeezah Bell, received a check intended for Parents Forum to support publication the third edition of our handbook Where the Heart Listens.  Hafeezah kindly called and I picked up the check....

 June 4th, almost here!  On our way to the Massachusetts Service Alliance Fair tomorrow bright and early. Will be happy to meet many of the 400-plus attendees expected.  Jena Murphy our public relations advisor will be there to help out.  Yeah!...