by Francesca Cappucci Fordyce. Parents, single or not, might consider co-sharing, i.e. families helping each other out. Co-sharing works in principle like the adage "it takes a village to raise a child" giving single mothers more time...

When I was little, my mom and I used to have a lot of fun turning old ideas around and changing the meaning into something we enjoyed more. When we heard someone say, "I'm going to kill two birds with one stone," we changed it to "I'm going to feed two birds with one seed!

Every generation of parents dreams, works, and saves so that their children experience greater personal prosperity than they. Until the last few years, the steady advances in purchasing power of the average American has made this dream attainable by most. Nevertheless, financial instruction continues to be neglected in school systems and in most families. Perhaps for the first time in American history, better money attitudes and management skills will be required curriculum for the next generation.

Birth can be scary, and it can also be glorious. Fear of the unknown causes anxiety in many expectant parents. Empowering yourself with information, knowledge, and the support of experienced people can turn fear into joyful anticipation. It can mean the difference between being a passive recipient of health care services and becoming an active participant in the experience of welcoming your child into the world.

How your young children spend their time out of your care will have an enormous impact on how well they perform, both socially and academically, in the future. The following are a few suggestions about choosing daycare and how to ensure your child is getting the most from a childcare situation.

A child will learn ethical philosophy by observing how you treat others around you. Severity is sometimes necessary, mercy is sometimes necessary, and mildness is sometimes necessary. Use your head. Think things out before overreacting to situations. Do not moralize with the child. Speak of actions and behaviors in terms of real consequences.

When parents have a baby, they unwittingly have to deal with their own brittle past. At every new stage, memories sneak up. A parent recalls what happened when they were that age. Just as we cope with unfulfilled expectations, the most effective way to avoid recalling childhood memories is to keep moving. There is a syndrome of "running parents", always on the go. The neurosis of running becomes a family affliction, parents insist that their children remain busy as well.

The most important decision faced by a modern household with children is how to harmonize the time and energy invested in satisfying financial needs, career ambitions, parental responsibilities, sexual urges, and intellectual and recreational cravings...

Each of us as parents must identify the values we have intentionally taught and displayed to our children. But, we must also ask ourselves another question: What values have we as a society taught our children? Every morning when we pick up our newspapers we see more and more of the consequences of this "education". We know that our kids are in deep trouble because of what we as a society have done.

Parents of teenagers, take heart! There is affection after adolescence. Even friendship. For those of you who’d like to deep-freeze your teen till twenty-one — you’re not alone. It’s a toss-up whether puberty is tougher on the kids or the parents...

Positive role models are critical to a child's development. Girls need adults in their lives who model assertiveness, strength, caring, and responsiveness. We need to empower them to make decisions and solve problems within the safety net of our love and guidance. Girls need to see us working to continually improve our ability to communicate our needs, hopes, and concerns so that we nurture others but don't lose ourselves.

Everyday language has two contradictory opinions about relationships. On the one hand it says that 'birds of a feather flock together?, but then there is also the following expression: ?opposites attract?. So which of these two elemental theories should we believe?

Whenever we feel that we must transform ourselves or when we discover that our growth has stagnated and our relationship has stopped developing, then it's helpful to take to heart the advice of the hermetic science of Alchemy. Alchemists were aware of the secret of every higher development in the constant interplay of dissolving and binding.

When we are alone we might feel tormented by the emptiness of our existence. We are saddened by life's loneliness, and are driven by an emotional hunger. We feel unreal. We suspect that something is missing from life, and we believe that our hunger will be satisfied by inviting another person into our life, so we enter into a relationship.

People often ask psychologists if they can read what people are thinking just by observing their body language and, in particular, whether they can tell if someone is lying. The inner conflict that takes place when we lie prompts a series of subtle but perceivable twitches, micro gestures, and facial movements that flash across the face in under a second. We notice these gestures, though we are often not consciously aware...

The idea that people are who and what they say they are is a necessary assumption. It's what some have referred to as the truth bias that operates in society -- an implicit assumption that unless we're shown some reason to believe otherwise, we generally believe we're being told the truth.

My suggestion is that marriage should happen after the honeymoon, never before it. As far as I know, ninety-nine percent of marriages are finished by the time the honeymoon is finished. But then you are caught, then you have no way to escape.

by John Taylor Gatto. For a while I think we need to make community service a required part of schooling. Besides the experience in acting unselfishly that it will teach, it is the quickest way to give young children real responsibility in the mainstream of life.

by Susan Winston.

Twenty-four of us sat nervously on unforgiving wooden benches. It was a day of mixed emotions. We all knew that behind our own personal happiness was a deeply disturbing practice here in China, a quiet genocide that yearly claims the lives of thousands of female babies and children. This was the day my husband, Jim, and I were to adopt our daughter, Nikki Kate Winston.

I was sexually abused - for 8 years. By my brother. There it is, out in in the open for everyone to know. No lies, no stories, just the truth and me. I am tired of secrets and hush hushes behind the door. It happens, and no one wants to talk to about it.

It is time for us to rethink our beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors about the use we make of our sexual energies. How and with whom we use these energies are among the most important decisions we shall ever make in life. The consequences are immediate for the entire gamut of life lived...

At what point do you say, "I'm leaving -- he's been beating me for years and it isn't going to stop"? When do you stop believing a lie? You stop when you learn the truth. And you learn the truth by no longer believing a lie. When we stop believing the lie that our abuser will change after years of hitting us, we are left with the truth. Why should he change? Is there a need? Hasn't he promised after every beating that it will never happen again?

There are many challenges to relationship; some of them come from outside of us and some come from within. Meeting these challenges takes commitment, time, and effort. But a good relationship is well worth it.