How should I talk to my elementary-grade child about Santa Claus? She’s been asking a lot of questions about him. I am ready to tell her the truth, but I’m hesitant because I don’t want her to think that we’ve been “lying” to her all these years.
Parenting
What’s your perspective on the safety and advisability of child immunization? Several of our friends, who are also new parents, have very strong feelings against vaccinating children. I want to do what’s best for our baby. Can you give me some guidance in this area?
Can you suggest some disciplinary methods that might be effective in dealing with a fussy baby? My child cries a great deal of the time, and I’m finding it difficult to get anything else done. What can I do to change this behavior?
How can we prepare our child for the arrival of a new baby? I’ve heard some horror stories about this type of situation, and I’d like to avoid trouble if possible. What can my spouse and I do to ease the transition for him?
How can we encourage our child to cooperate and follow his preschool teacher’s instructions? He becomes defiant when there’s a change in the schedule or when the teacher asks him to switch activities. He wants to do things his own way and on his own time. How do we break him of this?
Do you have any advice for disciplining and training strong-willed teenagers? I hear a lot about dealing with strong-willed toddlers, but if you think it’s tough managing a defiant two-year-old, imagine what it’s like when the kid is seventeen and six feet tall! I need help.
What we do about a 14-year-old boy who ends up destroying something every time we require him to do a chore around the house? When asked to unload the dishwasher, he cracked a set of expensive glasses. When assigned to clear the driveway, he broke the snow shovel. We already know that he dislikes work …
How can we make our grown child’s move back home a smooth and easy transition? Just as we were looking forward to the freedom of an “empty nest,” our daughter decided that she needs to come back and “get her life together” before “moving on to the next step.” The problem is that we don’t …
Is it my place to get involved if I’m convinced that the physical environment in my son’s house has become unsafe and unhealthful for my grandchild? I love my son and daughter-in-law, but I’m worried about their ten-month-old daughter’s health. The house is piled with trash, the floors are filthy, there’s month-old pizza stuck to …
How can I parent my child most effectively when our family has been divided by divorce? I’m a single mother of a four-year-old son. He goes to stay with his father, who left me when I was pregnant with him, every other weekend. When he comes home, he cries for his dad. This really hurts …
How can I help my adolescent son deal with his anger? It’s easy to tell that he is very angry about something, but I have a sense that he’s trying desperately to squash his feelings and keep a lid on his emotions. Try as I might, I can’t get him to talk about it. What …
How do I prevent my teenagers from using marijuana now that it’s been decriminalized? My state recently passed a measure decriminalizing the possession and recreational use of pot. Needless to say, this is all very disturbing for me. As a parent who is fighting hard to keep my children on the straight and narrow, I …
How can I know if my daughter is anorexic or bulimic? She’s lost a great deal of weight over the past few months, and she’s become extremely thin. What should I do if I find out she has a serious eating disorder?
Should I insist on being in the exam room when my child visits a doctor? Recently I took my 14-year-old daughter to our family doctor for a check-up and was told by the office staff that I would need to stay out. To be honest, my husband and I are concerned about messages my daughter …
When should my husband and I stop showering with our toddler-age children and changing clothes in front of them? Can you give us some guidelines for modesty in the home?
How do we deal with an unhappy and contrary pubescent boy? Our ten-year-old son has just hit puberty, and it seems to have drastically altered his personality. He went from a generally happy little boy who laughed all the time to a miserable pre-teen who is always fighting with someone – my wife and me, his …
Why are so many teens making bad sexual choices? This worries me because I have teenage kids of my own and I’m anxious to help them avoid serious mistakes in this area. Can you help me get a better handle on teenage attitudes about sex?
Should I allow my teenage son to continue his involvement with the role-playing game “Dungeons and Dragons?” I don’t know a great deal about it, but I do know that it’s beginning to eat up more and more of his time, and that concerns me. Am I worrying too much?
Should we force our 18-year-old son to worship with us? He’s a Christian but recently decided to stop going to church. Since he lives in our home and we still support him, we think he should follow the rules we establish. But we don’t want to drive him away from the Lord.
Is it wrong to tell children what they should believe about God? Isn’t that a form of “indoctrination?” I’m thinking it’s better to allow kids to make up their own minds.