From the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood:

"If we don’t act now, Google could singlehandedly demolish long-standing rules that protect children from harmful commercialism.

I thought I kept my car clean and tidy...until my husband walked in the door, waved a diaper in the air and said, "Hey, look what I found in the trunk!" It was quite a surprise -- with our kids being 10 and 7 years old, the diaper era is long gone for us.

Mother of 2, Effie Morchi shares on API's blog, APtly Said, the joy -- and sadness -- in watching our children grow and knowing that one day, they will leave home for life on their own.

Our couple relationship is extremely important, and it’s important to not neglect it. Mothers especially can easily become consumed with caring for the children to the exclusion of themselves and their partners — we’ve been there — and it’s not healthy for anyone. A strong AP support network will make it easier to share caregiving, if needed, so you can focus on your relationship.

If you’re a parent, you’ve likely heard about the cry it out method to get your baby to sleep. Well-meaning family or friends may suggest letting your baby cry himself to sleep, so he can “learn to be independent.” Or perhaps they may suggest cry it out because they say, “it works.” 

However, parenting techniques like cry it out, which originated in 1913 (and potentially earlier), aren’t always best. And when we know better, we do better.

In an age when the formula for success seems infinitely regressive—when having a good career means going to a good college, which requires acing your way through a top high school, middle school and even preschool -- the onus is on the parent to push, push, push. We want our children to get a foot in the door before they even know how to tie the shoe that’s on it. But should we encourage our children through tender praise, or do we embrace the “tiger mom” strategy of punishment and criticism?

It was getting close to time to leave the park, so I told my 5-year-old son he could do one last loop around the trail on his bike. We’d talked before going to the park about how he was allowed to ride along one loop of the trail, where he was constantly visible to me from where I was at the playground with my two younger children, but not on the other loop that was farther away and partly out of my view. Still, as he came around the back part of the first loop, he decided to veer in the other direction and take the second loop.

Parenting can be a daunting and intimidating experience. As one of life's major transitions, it is a time when each parent moves from being fully responsible for his- or herself to a place where you are suddenly blessed with an infant who is completely dependent upon you. Often once we feel we finally have a grasp on the daily activities of caring for our firstborn, some of us find that we are suddenly preparing for a second child. Fear, terror, joy and pure bliss may be part of the feelings we have as we imagine what the household will look like with 2 or more children running around.

Men often face pressure to measure up as alpha males, to "wolf up" as it were. Alpha male connotes the man who at every moment demonstrates that he''s in total control in the home, and who away from home can become snarling and aggressive. This alpha male stereotype comes from a misunderstanding of the real thing. In fact, the male wolf is an exemplary male role model. By observing wolves in free-living packs in Yellowstone National Park, I've seen that the leadership of the ranking male is not forced, not domineering and not aggressive to those on his team.

We are finishing up reading the book titled Parenting Without Power Struggles by Susan Stiffelman. So far we’ve read about how to get your kids to cooperate, how to help kids avoid depression and anxiety and genuinely be happy, being present and mindful. We'll finish out reading about empowering kids and being an example to your kids.

I will admit it. I'm a bit of a control freak. Actually, I need a lot of control, because I am a "Type-A," "Judgement," "Gold color" or whatever those personality tests use to describe me. I need people to do things when I ask them to do it, and I feel frustrated when they don't listen to me. It's often hard for me to remember that my partner and children are not trying to drive me crazy when they don't listen to what I ask of them, that it's simply that my needs are just not on their radar for that moment.

No matter how gently we tell a child not to hurt another, he cannot hear us. He can only hear that he is "not all right" with us and therefore not worthy of love. Feeling rejected, the child is then likely to lash out even more at his sibling, seeing her as the cause of losing parental love. Our disapproval reaffirms his worst fear that he has lost his place in our heart, and he has no control over his inner drive to act as he does.

Authoritarian parenting can lead to depression and somatization in young Mexican American and Dominican American children, according to new research from The University of Texas at Austin’s School of Social Work.

The importance of a secure parent-child attachment is not a new revelation: This is what sets the foundation for all future relationships a child will have in his or her life. But there is also something to be said for security between siblings. A connected relationship between brothers and sisters also provides a foundational context: It is an opportunity to develop the groundwork for peer relationships in a child's life.

with additional distresses that few parents are prepared for, or even aware of. An adopted child comes to the family with latent memories of grief, a fear of attachment and emotional memories of inarticulate loss.

Adoption counselor Robert Allan Hafertz explains on The Attached Family how Attachment Parenting is exactly what adopted children need in order to learn how to form attachments.

Attachment Parenting makes me an involved parent, a loving parent, and well... an attached parent, but certainly not a perfect one.

Mother of 2, Jillian Amodio tells about her experience with guilt and postpartum anxiety and what she's learned since about perfection and parenting.

This just released app is meant to be a comprehensive evidence based resource for people to use during the childbearing year and is free to anyone who downloads it.  In addition to sharing customized information about their pregnancies, the app also provides tips and information for labor and birth and then continues to support families after birth as they feed and care for their new baby.

Breastfeeding is a highly accessible, low-cost public health measure. This meta-analysis that included studies not featured in previous meta-analyses on the subject indicates that promoting breastfeeding for 6 months or more may help lower childhood leukemia incidence, in addition to its other health benefits for children and mothers.