Archive for June, 2008

Losing a member of the family is very painful and upsetting to everyone. Death and dying are the incidents that almost everyone will come across at some or the other time in the life.

Coping with grief and loss associated with the death of a loved family member is a stressful event for all, especially children of the family.

Parents, on the other hand, find the incident to be a great loss for missing the loved one as well as for what to say or do to help their children cope with the incident.

How do children react to the death of a family member?

How do children react to and cope with death incident depends on several factors. Age of the child is the main factor to know how the child grieves for the death of a family member.

Children below six are usually unaware of the concept of death. Children of this age range consider death to be a temporary or reversible event where the person will eventually come back after some time.

Exam for students means a dreadful time to deal with. Exam time is very stressful for both parents and children [Child stress].

Stress in life is very helpful, as it inspires us to perform tasks and propels to achieve things enthusiastically.

However, too much stress is very damaging and it generally occurs when we lack confidence and worry that we are incapable of doing anything efficiently.

When exams are nearby, children often worry about their exams and buckle under some stress and pressure. Parents, on the other hand, also worry as much as their children do.

For them, it is something like experiencing their most horrible phase in life with full of stress. This stress leads to regular irritation, depression, fatigue, sleeplessness, headache, body pains, and lack of appetite.

The parental stress can also affect children, if parents undergo excessive stress because of their child’s exam. Loss of interest to study, memory lapse, lack of ability to concentrate for long periods and headache, mild fever, and stomachache are the result of parental stress in children.

The way mothers interact with their babies in the first year of life is strongly related to how children behave later on.

According to Benjamin Lahey and his team from the University of Chicago in the US, both a mother’s parenting style and an infant’s temperament reliably predict challenging behavior in later childhood.

The researchers looked at whether an infant’s temperament and his mother’s parenting skills during the first year of life might predict behavioral problems, in just over 1,800 children aged 4-13 years.

Measures of infant temperament included activity levels, how fearful, predictable and fussy the babies were, as well as whether they had a generally happy disposition.

The researchers looked at how much mothers stimulated their baby intellectually, how responsive they were to the child’s demands, and the use of spanking or physical restraint.

Child conduct problems in later childhood included cheating, telling lies, trouble getting on with teachers, being disobedient at home and/or at school, bullying and showing no remorse after misbehaving.

More information at News Medical

Going to school can be stressful for children if they come across problems at school [Tips to prepare your child for school]. The problems can be as simple as adjustment in the class to as complex as ragging or some kind of harassment.

As a parent, recognize your child’s school-related problems and take appropriate action accordingly. It is found from a survey that most of the problems suffered by millions of children arise because of being forced to go to school.

As the school related problems of children usually could not get resolved quickly, here are some simple strategies to help your child.

Good relation with teachers: Establishing and maintaining a good communication with the classroom teachers is very crucial to help your child in school. Maintaining a good relationship with the principal, teachers, counselors, and other school staff can help you in knowing your child’s progress at school and troublesome signs that relates to school.

Knowing each other is the key to maintain a good relation and appreciating their way of teaching is an encouraging way to begin the rapport. By doing so, it becomes much easier and comfortable for you to talk frankly over the school-related problems of your child.

It’s one of the best and most honorable questions a man can ask: How do I talk to my child about sex?

Fathers regularly have doubt that how they can get involved with sex education. They actually want to be that resource for their children, and they need to be; children want them to be.

But talking about sex isn’t always easy for parents. It takes courage, a little bit of homework, and lots of practice.

But giving your child honest, straightforward information about sexual health is the best and correct way to support them in having a healthy sexual life, including protecting them from unwanted pregnancies. Most kids are just as uncomfortable as parents are.

Parents need to do the following to create a supportive climate for their children to learn about sexuality. Here are 14 tips to talk with your kids about sex.

Read the rest of the story here to educate your kids about sex.

Cheating in children has become more problematic now than ever before. There is nothing new about cheating in children, but now it is becoming an epidemic.

Studies showed that cheating among schoolchildren has risen heavily during the last five decades.

All kids of school age know about cheating. Cheating is an act of lying, copying, misleading, fraud, deception, deceit, or masquerade for gaining profit to oneself.

On a certain level, every child recognizes cheating to be a wrong act.

But, they do it for several reasons like: to become top of the class, achieve better percentage or grades, get into a high standard school, get out of trouble, or attempting it to know what it is like to cross the rules.

Cheating and its consequences:

Children often cheat without knowing its consequences. The consequences of cheating will be very hard for a child to understand and to deal with. Therefore, as a parent, it is very important for you to discuss about cheating and its consequences with your child before it becomes a problem. Here are some of the cheating consequences to inform your children:

• Cheating is a falsehood and it makes everyone misbelieve that you have more knowledge than you actually possess.

The role of grandparents in bringing up a child is very crucial. Every grandparent enjoys this role. They are the role models, family historians, advisers, as well as a guide for children.

Often, children feel their grandparents to be someone who plays with them, listen to them, and accept everything that they do without any explanation.

However, there come some situations where parenting differences and physical distance can create a gap between grandparents, parents, and grandchildren.

As a parent, minimize the gap by supporting and encouraging a close relationship among you, your parents, and your children. It provides benefits to everyone–grandparents, parents, and children–in several ways.

Developing a loving bond with older generation is more beneficial for children. Grandparents are great role models for all (you and your children) and influence more on children than on adults and makes your child learn the importance of bonding with family.

Being close to the grand parents can increase a sense of family value, family pride, and cultural heritage in young children. It also helps your child develop a sense of independence, patience and certain developmental and learning skills.

Injuries in the childhood are all part of rising up for an energetic and active child. Children often come across pediatric injuries right from an early age. In fact, so many kids cannot pass the day without an injury.

When it comes to parenting, every parent desires to protect his or her children from pediatric injuries. However, paying close attention and guarding children all the time is not always possible.

As a parent, understand what pediatric injuries are and how to prevent them.

Getting aware of the most common causes of pediatric injuries helps you decide what to look out for when an injury happens, to keep your child safe and protective. It also helps you determine what to teach your children as she/he get older.

Get aware of the most common pediatric injuries and prevention methods

Pediatric Injuries In The Home: Falls, choking, burns, and many other injuries of same sort are common pediatric injuries in and around the home. Falls are the most common pediatric injuries in and around the house. It is more common in babies who are little and unable to control the body movements. Falls can lead to bumps and bruises in children who play in or around the home.

Whether it is for two hours or an entire day, millions of tweens (children ages 11 to 13) will be left home alone this summer, despite their parents’ concerns that they may not have the knowledge and skills they need to stay safe at home.

Many parents worry that their at-home tweens do not know how to safely use kitchen appliances, where to go to stay safe during a severe storm, or that they should not give out personal information online or over the phone.

Yet, one in five parents polled say that they have left tweens home alone for an entire day.

“There is no magic age at which a child can be left home alone. It typically depends on a parent’s judgment about how mature that child is, and how ready they are to take on the responsibility of being home alone,” says Matthew M. Davis, M.D., M.A.P.P., director of the National Poll on Children’s Health.

“Regardless, when parents decide to leave their children home alone, there are several common at-home safety concerns they need to consider and address with kids ahead of time.”

For more information, visit: Medical News Today

Life is full of decisions! Every day we make hundreds of decisions and one decision is different from all others.

As decision-making is an art and is vital in almost all activities, everyone needs to learn how to make decisions effectively.

Making a decision for an activity is not a task you do from practice — it requires conscious thinking and knowledge.

Making a decision is scary, but very exciting for a teenager. So, allow your teen to take own decisions.

However, as a parent, help your child how to make right decisions. This is because the decisions he/she makes at this stage of life can change their life.

As an under construction building needs support of scaffolding until it becomes strong enough to stand on its own, a teenager also needs a type of scaffolding support from their parents until they become perfect in making decisions on their own.

How can you support your teenager in making good decisions?

Teens often choose options that are very simple and effortless. They never pay full attention on their thoughts and feelings regarding the problem and make the decision that gives only temporary results. So, as a parent, teach your child these decision-making strategies, which help to take right decision.