Category Archives: Early childhood

Dual-Income Parents: The Exhausted American Middle

By Morra | Published: March 4, 2010
I posted this on BlogHer.com this week. Back in the mythic 50s and 60s, housewives like Betty Friedan and Betty Draper were very bored. The Feminine Mystique opens with this description of an average housewife’s day: “Many women no longer left their homes, except to shop, chauffeur their children or attend a social engagement with their husbands.” Contrast [...]
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Preventing Aggression in Children

By Ellen Galinsky | Published: February 24, 2010
Since the days when my children were little, child development researchers have made great headway in understanding the genetic, biological and family triggers of aggression. There have also been new and much more sophisticated studies on how to prevent aggression or reduce it, if it has already flared up in children. A new study by Colleen [...]
Also posted in Child Development, Families, Mind in the Making, Minds in the making | 1 Comment

Updates on the Science of Children’s Development: A New Study by Annie Bernier, Stephanie Carlson, and Natasha Whipple on How Parents Can Help Young Children Gain Life Skills

By Ellen Galinsky | Published: February 17, 2010
Cross-posted from the Huffington Post: I have spent the past eight years reading child development research, interviewing leading scientists, and we have even filmed these scientists as they conduct their studies. I have been driven by the question: what can we learn from studies of child development that will help our children thrive now and in the [...]
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Listen to the “What Kids Really Think About Their Working Parents” Podcast

By Morra | Published: February 10, 2010
Great discussion with Ellen Galinsky, Lisa Belkin, and Dr. Joshua Coleman: click here for the podcast. (Note: the Talkshoe service doesn’t like Firefox, for some reason. If the link doesn’t work, try another browser. Sorry). Lisa Belkin blogged about the show here. For highlights, check out the live Twitter feed on Fem2pt0, with good quotes, including: # [...]
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What Do Kids Really Think About Their Working Parents? Tune in Wed. 1pm to Learn

By Morra | Published: February 8, 2010
This Wednesday, February 10, 1 PM EST, join us on Talkshoe.com, as Ellen Galinsky, president of Families and Work Institute and author of Ask the Children and Mind in the Making, moderates a discussion with Lisa Belkin, New York Times writer and author of the Motherlode blog on nytimes.com, and clinical psychologist Joshua Coleman, author [...]
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Don’t Seal Your Child’s Fate Based on a Kindergarten Test!

By Ellen Galinsky | Published: February 2, 2010
Cross posted from the Huffington Post: If you haven’t read New York Magazine’s January 31, 2010 article on “The Junior Meritocracy,” read it right now. New York has done a stupendous job of summarizing the best research arguing that children’s fate should NOT be sealed by a test they take for Kindergarten admission at age four. [...]
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Homemade Playdough and other snow-day projects

By Morra | Published: January 18, 2010
Here in Boston it’s a snowy, cold day and we’re inside. On a day like today you need an activity that engages kids and the grown-ups. A project to stick with for a little while, no pun intended. A friend suggested the toddler and I make homemade play-dough today. So I asked for recipes on [...]
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What Makes the Perfect Mother?

By FWInews | Published: December 18, 2009
Every week a new study comes out giving parents, especially women, new fodder to judge their ability as mothers.  From the London Times: “Now, a new cause for alarm: a report from the think-tank Demos that says “tough love” breeds smart children. After tracking the fate of 9,000 families, the authors claim that children of [...]
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What does it mean to provide for your family?

By Morra | Published: November 19, 2009
Two stories, on the flip side of parenting, each moving and sad and familiar to all too many: 21-year old Alexis Hutchinson is the parent of a 10 month old boy. She is a single parent. She is a cook in the Army, and she had orders to deploy to Afghanistan on Nov. 5, but she [...]
Also posted in Eldercare, Families | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Job Sharing: Two moms, one car, great flexibility

By Morra | Published: October 26, 2009
In 2008, 2008, Families and Work Institute found that of 1,100 companies surveyed nationwide, 31 percent offered job sharing. If you’re thinking about job sharing, getting the details right seems to be a big part of the battle. A few weeks ago we wrote about two magazine sales’ executives job sharing scheme. This weekend,  the St. [...]
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