A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Parents today struggle to set screen time guidelines. One big reason is a lack of role models. Grandma doesn't have any tried-and-true sayings about iPad time. This stuff is just too new. But many experts on kids and media are also parents themselves. So when I was interviewing dozens of them for my book The [...]
The tech giants are racing to get digital assistants into our homes - the Amazon Echo Dot currently has a 40% discount during Amazon Prime Day - but debate rages over whether they are suitable for children. There have certainly been teething problems. Toy giant Mattel abandoned its "AI babysitter", Aristotle, last year following privacy [...]
A recent study has found that positive parenting is related to certain characteristics of both the mother and the child; and when controlling for maternal factors, only child’s affection (e.g., infant sharing positive feelings and expressions with mother), and general cognitive abilities (e.g., basic problem solving, language abilities) are related to positive parenting. The study also found that girls received more positive [...]
Every couple of years a book or article arrives diagnosing parents with catastrophic spinelessness. The power pyramid has been inverted, they warn, and the children are in, and therefore out of, control. "Command. Don't ask. Don't negotiate," instructs Leonard Sax in his 2016 book "The Collapse of Parenting," in which he blames parents for a [...]
"Rani was a really beautiful soul who unfortunately just got caught up in some really bad situations." Those are the words of grieving mum Kerrie Stanley, and already you know how this story ends. It's a painful one. And familiar. As Rani entered her teenage years she became increasingly rebellious. She fell in with a [...]
No one wants to have – or to be around – demanding, selfish, spoiled children; those who throw tantrums or sulk when they're not given everything they want immediately. Paradoxically, the parents of such children encourage this demanding behaviour in the mistaken belief that if they give their children everything they can, their children will be [...]
It is normal for parents to argue, but the way these disagreements affect children varies greatly. What can parents and carers do to limit the harm caused by their rows? What happens at home really does affect children's long-term mental health and development. But it is not only the relationship between the parent and child [...]
Parents who endured “toxic stress” during childhood may be more likely to have kids with developmental delays and have a harder time coping with their children’s health issues, new research suggests. Adverse childhood experiences, commonly called ACEs, can include witnessing parents fight or go through a divorce, having a parent with a mental illness or [...]
The parents and carers I meet through my job as a child and adolescent psychiatrist often tell me about young people in their lives who are suffering from anxiety or low mood. I can sometimes hear an element of desperation or hopelessness in their voice, which may come from the fact they have no idea what [...]
Raising a mentally strong kid doesn’t mean he won’t cry when he’s sad or that he won’t fail sometimes. Mental strength won’t make your child immune to hardship – but it also won’t cause him to suppress his emotions. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Mental strength is what helps kids bounce back from setbacks. It [...]
