When you ask parents what they want for their kids, what's usually the most common reply? They want their children to be happy.

So looking at the science, what really works when it comes to raising happy kids?

Turns out there are just ten steps.

"My friend and I talked about this fact: Yes, we spend hours talking to our kids about WHY to say No, but we don’t tell them HOW to say no. When they are put on the spot – they don’t have hours to explain their decisions to their peers. They have a split second. And while our teens and ‘tweens want to make the right decisions, they often want to avoid awkwardness even more. In the absence of a plan, they’ll likely default to yes. Just like we so often do. Maybe they’re not saying yes because they want to rebel – maybe they really do say yes because they don’t know what else to say.

When choosing an approach to dealing with a child's misbehavior, it is important to pay attention to what feels right to you. Here are some popular child-rearing approaches.

Are you as worried as I am about the children of generation Z (born 1995 – 2012) and their ability to solve problems? With the increase in the number of helicopter parents (parents who “swoop” in to make everything all better) and a generation of highly sensitive kids, how well are our children going to be able to identify and solve their own problems? 

"It’s amazing how far our understanding of children has come in the last two decades since 1994, when Barbara Nicholson and Lysa Parker cofounded Attachment Parenting International (API). I was in middle school at that time, dutifully sitting in a desk all day and using rote memory to absorb classroom material as was expected. Two years later, my sister did the same. 

Writer and cultural thinker Roman Krznaric is on a mission to found the world’s first Empathy Museum, an experiential adventure space for stepping into other people’s shoes.

Everybody is suddenly talking about empathy. It’s on the lips of neuroscientists and business gurus, politicians and school teachers. The Dalai Lama has said that empathy is the key to cultivating compassion, while economist Richard Layard believes it’s the basis of creating a happier society.

So what exactly is empathy? 

I hear, from time to time, that Attachment Parenting is not the only way to form a secure attachment with your child.

“Attachment” is very literally the relationship style between parent and child, and “secure” or “insecure” describes the quality of that relationship style. Secure attachment develops out of an appropriate and sensitive responsiveness to a child by a consistent, loving caregiver. Consistency and sensitivity, especially in moments of distress, are key.

“'I just don’t think I would want a stranger in the room with me while I’m in labor.'

I have heard this, or similar sentiments expressed on a number of occasions after sharing with someone that I am a Labor Doula.  Let me tell you something:  I could not agree with you more!

While touch always involves awareness, it also sometimes involves emotion. For example, picking up a spoon triggers no real emotion, while feeling a gentle caress often does. Now, scientists in the Cell Press journal Neuron describe a system of slowly conducting nerves in the skin that respond to such gentle touch. Using a range of scientific techniques, investigators are beginning to characterize these nerves and to describe the fundamental role they play in our lives as a social species—from a nurturing touch to an infant to a reassuring pat on the back.

Good news for Dads: Harvard researchers say the key to being a better parent is – literally – all in your head. In a study in mice, Higgins Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Howard Hughes Investigator Catherine Dulac have pinpointed galanin neurons in the brain's medial preoptic area (MPOA), that appear to regulate parental behavior. If similar neurons are at work in humans, it could offer clues to the treatment of conditions like post-partum depression. The study is described in a May 15 paper published in Nature.

 If we want to produce curious, creative, caring, confident and competent lifelong learners who are also successful human beings, we must share with parents, family life professionals and future parents the converging evidence from fields such as neuroscience, psychology, anthropology and health sciences. This evidence shows that it is empathetic and responsive caregiving that facilitates the optimal physical, cognitive and psychosocial development of children.

It’s a week night and your 16-year-old is stressing over a test at school the next day. Your child then tells you that some friends are coming by to pick your child up because they are going to the library to study for this exam. You trust that your teen is being truthful and you watch the car drive away, headed to the town library. But what happens next is a parent’s nightmare. - See more at: http://www.thelongmeadownews.com/how-not-to-get-kids-to-hide-their-mista...

I remember the day my son lost first chair on the school marching band. He came home and declared that he hated the 
trumpet and he never wanted to play it again. When I asked him what happened, he did not want to talk about it. My 
initial parental impulse was to go down to the school, find out what happened and defend my son in whatever the 
incident was. 

Babies and young children make giant developmental leaps all of the time. Sometimes, it seems, even overnight they figure out how to recognize certain shapes or what the word "no" means no matter who says it. It turns out that making those leaps could be a nap away: New research finds that infants who nap are better able to apply lessons learned to new skills, while preschoolers are better able to retain learned knowledge after napping.

Whether advocating for universal preschool or more daycare subsidies, interest groups at both state and federal levels seem intent on pushing preschool-aged children out of the home and into institutional settings. Yet the research continues to raise red flags about the merits of maternal substitutes during early childhood. Indeed, a study by social-work professors at the University of South Carolina finds a robust correlation between negative social outcomes and child enrollment in all formal pre-K settings.

After decades on the decline, the number of "stay at home" moms in the U.S. has risen, with 29 percent of women with children under 18 saying they don't work outside the home, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center.