This Hurts Me More Than It Hurts You:
In Words and Pictures, Children Share How Spanking Hurts and What to Do Instead
by Nadine Block and Madeleine Gomez
"This book is a long time in coming. It should have been written 30 years ago. Can you believe parent/adults are still spanking, hitting, beating kids? And not just at home - at school, at the store and at houses of worship."  --Robin

Join Lysa Parker and Barbara Nicholson on the "Parenting for a Peaceful World" Tour with Robin Grille!  Lysa and Barbara open the "Heart to Heart" Parenting Conference featuring Robin Grille this December 6 and 7 in the historic, revolutionary village of Yorktown, Virginia.

[VIDEO] I bet the people this photographer approached thought he was bonkers. But I'm glad they played along, because it seems like it made their days a whole lot better. 

Honduras is now the 34th nation to ban spanking in the home. 

That comes as a surprise to many Americans! Most folks don't like the idea of a ban, even if they think spanking is wrong. The worry is that we might criminalize parents - which would be the exact opposite of what we are trying to do - SUPPORT PARENTS! If that were the case, then why have the most child-friendly countries including most of Europe (sans the two colonial powers England and France) successfully banned spanking to reduce violence against children?

A paper just published reports that there are: No Genetic Influence for Childhood Behavior Problems From DNA Analysis

This is pretty big.

Using a powerful approach called GCTA, King’s College London researchers Maciej Trzaskowski and colleagues found no evidence that genetics can explain differences in children’s behavioural and conduct difficulties.

Children who grow up in poor families may have smaller brains than their more well-off peers, says a new study. But good parenting may help overcome that disadvantage.

The MANA Stats registry is currently collecting more than 1,000 records per month, mostly from midwives who attend out of hospital births in the United States. The first set of records – representing more than 20,000 births – is currently available to researchers. According to Melissa Cheyney, “These datasets include some of the only U.S. data that exists regarding physiologic, low-intervention labor and birth — data that are becoming more and more rare due to the increase in 'routine' interventions in the hospital setting.”

The length of a pregnancy naturally varies between different women by as much as five weeks, scientists have discovered for the first time.

Although it has always been known that human pregnancies usually last between 37 and 42 weeks, the variation has previously been attributed to imperfect methods of estimating due dates.

Imagine if scientists discovered a toxic substance that increased the risks of cancer, diabetes and heart, lung and liver disease for millions of people. Something that also increased one’s risks for smoking, drug abuse, suicide, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, domestic violence and depression — and simultaneously reduced the chances of succeeding in school, performing well on a job and maintaining stable relationships? It would be comparable to hazards like lead paint, tobacco smoke and mercury.

Any child can experience abuse or neglect, and if these issues are not addressed, according to one expert, their health and well-being later in life will suffer.

Dr. Vincent Felitti shared his research Tuesday at the Child and Youth Behavioral Health Leadership Summit in Columbus. As author of a major study on adverse childhood experiences, Felitti said trauma can be caused by physical or emotional neglect, sexual abuse and exposure to alcoholism or depression. He said the short- and long-term outcomes of these exposures can mean a multitude of problems.

The vast majority of the nation’s most reputable hospitals are blocking infant formula manufacturers from marketing their formula products, according to Public Citizen and Ban the Bags research. Eliminating in-hospital formula promotion through the distribution of formula company-sponsored discharge bags has become a standard best practice among the highest ranked hospitals in U.S. News and World Report’s Best Hospitals list (“U.S. News”).