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The Myth of Balance: How This Mom Created More Time With Her Kids Some days, I feel like I do a pretty good job of balancing my career, my family, and myself. Other days, it feels like I'm falling desperately behind and failing on all three counts.	Why I’m OK If My Son Never Says “I Love You” My 9-year-old son has never said "I love you." I honestly never gave it a second thought until I realized I was being told "I love you" multiple times daily by my 5-year-old daughter.
How We Can Make Sense of Child Behavior: An interview with Barbara Probst We want to celebrate our child's unique traits, but sometimes their differences can be worrying.	I Can Help Protect Our Planet By Raising My Children to Care Absolutely the greatest contribution I can make toward Earth's stewardship is to raise children who care. It's not enough to say we care for the planet: We must live it and model it to our children, and I've learned that this is best done... read more
I Am Raising Children Who Will Someday Feed Themselves: How I Am Getting My Preschoolers Involved In Mealtime Now I breastfed both of my babies. Once we got the hang of things, it was easy. Then I introduced solid foods. I decided that presenting healthy options wasn't enough. I wanted to get them involved in the food they eat.	An Ever-Changing Village: Why Parent Support is Crucial for Military Families One of the many reasons parents find their way to Nurturings is that they're seeking a community and Nurturings can connect them to local parenting groups.
Want To Raise A Creative Child? First, Believe You Are Creative! Then Open Up 15 Minutes Of Your Day We tend to believe that only a few people are genuinely creative, that they are born knowing they are creative and that they go through life with that creative spark undimmed.	Seek Progress Over Perfection with Ourselves and in Parenting Perfectionism is probably the biggest creativity block I run across. When we speak of perfection, we actually are reaching for an unattainable goal, because as human beings, we aren't perfect.
Growing Up Different is OK! What Autism Has Taught This Mom About Raising Her Daughter One of the hardest challenges with raising a special needs child is trying to keep people, including us as her parents, from attmepting to force her into being a "typical" child. Jackie is different.	Are You A "Problem Parent"? Happy, confident, caring children grow up in an atmosphere of flexibility and trust, supported by respectful and realistic parents who do not see challenging behaviors as indications that there is a problem with their children.

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Journal Studies

Linking Maternal Warmth and Responsiveness to Children's Self-Regulation von Suchodoletz, A., Trommsdorff, G., & Heikamp, T. (2011). Linking Maternal Warmth and Responsiveness to Children's Self-regulation. Social Development, 20(3), 486-503. While maternal warmth was predictive of better behavior regulation in the child overall, maternal responsiveness to child distress was specifically related to the child’s internalization of rules of conduct.	The Relation of Harsh and Permissive Discipline with Child Disruptive Behaviors: Does Child Gender Make a Difference in an At-Risk Sample? Parent, J., Forehand, R., Merchant, M. J., Edwards, M. C., Conners-Burrow, N. A., Long, N., & Jones, D. J. (2011). The Relation of Harsh and Permissive Discipline with Child Disruptive Behaviors: Does Child Gender Make a Difference in an At-Risk Sample?. Journal of Family Violence, 26(7), 527-533. Permissive parenting intensified boys’ behavioral problems, and harsh discipline was related to child behavioral problems regardless of gender, but parent education lessened child behavioral problems, particularly for girls.
Inhibitory Control and Harsh Discipline as Predictors of Externalizing Problems in Young Children: A Comparative Study of US, Chinese, and Japanese Preschoolers Olson, S. L., Tardif, T. Z., Miller, A., Felt, B., Grabell, A. S., Kessler, D., ... & Hirabayashi, H. (2011). Inhibitory Control and Harsh Discipline as Predictors of Externalizing Problems in Young Children: A Comparative Study of US, Chinese, and Japanese Preschoolers. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 39(8), 1163-1175. Harsh discipline contributed to child behavior problems.	Parenting and Trajectories of Children's Maladaptive Behaviors: A 12-year Prospective Community Study Luyckx, K., Tildesley, E. A., Soenens, B., Andrews, J. A., Hampson, S. E., Peterson, M., & Duriez, B. (2011). Parenting and trajectories of children's maladaptive behaviors: A 12-year prospective community study. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 40(3), 468-478. Authoritative parenting—high on positive parenting and monitoring but low on inconsistent discipline—had the best long-term outcomes of all parenting styles.
Early Attachment Organization Moderates the Parent-Child Mutually Coercive Pathway to Children's Antisocial Conduct Kochanska, G., Barry, R. A., Stellern, S. A., & O’Bleness, J. J. (2009). Early attachment organization moderates the parent-child mutually coercive pathway to children’s antisocial conduct. Child Development, 80(4), 1288-1300. Insecurely attached children showed more resentful opposition toward their mothers than did those with secure attachments.	Double Jeopardy: Poorer Social-Emotional Outcomes for Children in the NICHD SECCYD Experiencing Home and Child-Care Environments That Confer Risk Watamura, S. E., Phillips, D. A., Morrissey, T. W., McCartney, K., & Bub, K. (2011). Double Jeopardy: Poorer Social-Emotional Outcomes for Children in the NICHD SECCYD Experiencing Home and Child-Care Environments That Confer Risk. Child Development, 82(1), 48-65. Regardless of the quality of non-parental child care, children from low-quality home environments had more behavioral problems and children from high-quality homes had fewer behavioral problems.
Differential Susceptibility to Parenting and Quality Child Care Pluess, M., & Belsky, J. (2010). Differential susceptibility to parenting and quality child care. Developmental Psychology, 46(2), 379-390. High-quality parenting was predictive of greater academic and social skills for all children, but particularly children with a difficult temperament. In addition, high-quality non-parental child care predicted fewer behavioral problems in children with difficult temperaments.	When a Parent Goes to War: Effects of Parental Deployment on Very Young Children and Implications for Intervention Paris, R., DeVoe, E. R., Ross, A. M., & Acker, M. L. (2010). When a parent goes to war: Effects of parental deployment on very young children and implications for intervention. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 80(4), 610-618. Post-deployment programs that address parenting would be helpful, especially for families with children from birth through age 5, as this age group is particularly vulnerable to changes in attachment patterns.
Early Mother-Child Separation, Parenting, and Child Well-Being in Early Head Start Families Howard, K., Martin, A., Berlin, L. J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2011). Early mother-child separation, parenting, and child well-being in Early Head Start families.Attachment & Human Development,13(1), 5-26. While it is well known that traumatic or extended separations negatively impact child development, even week-long separations that occur within the first two years of life have lasting consequences on child behavior.	Cross Cultural Differences in Toddler and Infant Sleep Mindell, J. A., Sadeh, A., Wiegand, B., How, T. H., & Goh, D. Y. (2010). Cross-cultural differences in infant and toddler sleep. Sleep Medicine, 11(3), 274-280. Child sleep problems are based more on culturally-influenced parental perceptions than actual biological reasons, and nighttime sleep issues tended to be perceived more problematic than daytime naps.

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