Manners are all about the Golden Rule: “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.” In other words, manners are about caring for others. Children tend to think they are at the center of the world. Teaching children manners helps them to develop empathy: to have real feelings for all those they […]
Parenting Education and Mentoring
Archive
Sex Education, Our Children, and Politics
Sex education, until recently, was sensibly handled. Today, alas, sex education has been politicized. Instead of thinking about what children are ready to hear, parents are told to confront children with confusing information. Planned Parenthood, for instance, is now disseminating sex education information to parents on how to discuss gender and sexual issues with preschoolers. […]
Whole30: Could this Diet be a Good Thing for Teens
Whole30 was something I’d never heard of until I was schmoozing with a girlfriend about my intention to pursue bariatric surgery (surgery to lose weight). I’d gained a ton of weight, due to age and the necessity of taking steroids for an autoimmune conditions. The numbers on the scale were inching toward 200. I hated […]
Blue Whale Challenge: Should We Be Concerned?
The Blue Whale Challenge. What is it? Is it real? To the first question, put simply, it’s a game where the curator, also known as a “whale,” gives a teen fifty tasks, one per day. At the end of the fifty tasks, the teen is told to commit suicide. Suicide is the only way to […]
Time to Chill Out About Candy!
This piece is a rebuttal to Should You Let Your Children Have Candy I’ve been a dietitian long enough to have lived through the low-fat craze, and now, much to my dismay, the era of sugar-phobia. Thanks to fear-mongering headlines that overstate what science actually knows, myriads of parents are freaking out over sugar—the key […]
Should You Let Your Children Have Candy?
You already know that candy causes tooth decay. You most likely know that eating more sugar has led to increasing rates of childhood obesity and diabetes. But did you know that eating lots of sugary foods can actually change your child’s perception of how food tastes?
Fidget Spinners: Help or Hindrance
Fidget spinners have been wildly popular since they burst on the scene in December 2016. Touted as a way to alleviate anxiety and the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism, spinners have also created not a little controversy. Teachers have had to ban them from the classroom, since the toys tend to […]