Category

Families and Parenting

Is All (Electronic) Screen Time the Same?

By Families and Parenting, Health and Wellness

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children younger than 2 avoid digital media other than video chatting. Children ages 2 to 5 should not watch more than one hour of high-quality children’s programming per day. But is all screen time the same? Is screen time bad for children? Let’s look at the different types of screen time: Bad Screens??? 1. Traditional (sometimes violent) Video Games Parents have worried since the Coyote tried to drop a safe on the Roadrunner’s head in cartoons that watching violence can lead to violent behavior. The American Psychological Association (2015) stated “research has demonstrated an association between violent video game use and both increases in aggressive behavior, aggressive affect, aggressive cognitions and decreases in prosocial behavior, empathy, and moral engagement”. However, these studies do not consider whether the children are being parented by their parents who observe the child’s behaviours and teach them about the…

Read More

Putting the FUN back in DysFUNctional – Surviving the holidays with your extended family

By Families and Parenting

Dr. Steve Carter and Dr. Shirley Vandersteen, Registered Psychologists Let’s start with a disclaimer. There is nothing fun about a seriously dysfunctional family – one with violence, abuse, addictions, or other grave problems. Serious problems need serious help. We are going to talk about the normal, everyday issues that all families have to deal with. All families are dysfunctional to some extent. We love the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” because we can name at least one relative for each character in the show. Most of us have odd, difficult, unpredictable, attention-seeking, or downright mean spirited family members. Your family may have long-standing conflicts that seem to have no beginning and no end. People can’t quite remember how the fight started or why certain people can’t stand each other, but everyone sits on pins and needles just waiting for someone to take offence and the feud to begin. There…

Read More

On Being A Parent

By Families and Parenting

Being a parent is a lesson in love and in life. Too often we get caught up in the work and responsibility of parenting and don’t realize the benefits that come with the job. In raising children, we have the opportunity to become a better human being and to learn what is really important about life. While there is a lot of work, worry, and pain in raising children there are also times of great joy and deep satisfaction. If you allow your children to be your teachers, you grow up psychologically as you learn from them and with them. When another life depends on you, you realize that your life is not the only important thing. In assuming the tremendous responsibility of caring for a totally dependent human being, you must move past your own self-centred needs to consider the needs of your child. The demands of raising children…

Read More

Mothers and Teenage Sons

By Families and Parenting

Mothers often get along quite well with their teenage sons except when it comes to the area of personal responsibility. Sons frequently complain that their mothers nag them too much. Mothers and sons fight about household chores, curfews, schoolwork, and personal accountability. These conflicts can occur on a daily basis, and if not effectively dealt with, can form the core of the interaction between mothers and sons during adolescence. At the heart of this conflict is the issue of control. A boy resists what he perceives as his mother’s control. He strives for autonomy in order to feel like a man. In response, his mother escalates her attempts at gaining compliance from her son, which only causes further resistance. Mothers increase their efforts to parent their sons because they want their sons to become mature and independent young men. A boy’s behavior at home is often indicative of just the…

Read More

Mothers and Teenage Daughters

By Families and Parenting

Mothers and daughters often enjoy a close relationship in the early years before adolescence. Once a girl becomes twelve or thirteen, she may become moody, extremely critical of her mother, and withdraw from physical affection. If this is happening between you and your daughter, please don’t be too concerned. Your daughter is becoming a young woman and is going through great emotional, physical, social, and psychological changes. This is likely to be one of the hardest and most complicated times of her life. Now is the time when she needs you the most and yet, it is becoming increasingly difficult for her to be close to you. It’s easy to mishandle this stage of development as a parent. You have to keep your cool if you are going to be of any help to your daughter, and if you’re going to maintain the strong bond between you. Here are some…

Read More

Being the Executor of a Will

By Families and Parenting

Family members are often designated as the executor of a will. As the executor of a will, you have been given a challenging responsibility as well as a great honor. A loved one has entrusted you to carry out their last wishes and to disburse the contents of their estate. No matter how clearly the will is drawn up, this is usually not an easy or simple task. Emotions run high as family and friends come to terms with their grief, old conflicts rise to the surface, and ongoing clashes take center stage. When money is concerned, people are often at their worst instead of their best. Family relationships can be ruined as family and friends fight over the financial and personal assets of the deceased. Too much value is placed on money and personal possessions and people lose sight of what is truly important. As the executor of the…

Read More

20 Back to School Tips for Success

By Families and Parenting

The end of summer is a mix of disappointment and the excitement of starting a new year at school for many children. There are several things that a parent can do to assist their children in establishing a strong and positive start to the school year. Some ideas include: View the new school year as a new beginning, perhaps a time to have a slightly later  bedtime, an increase in allowance or other privileges. Establish new routines. Perhaps the best routine for elementary school age children, if you are not yet doing so, is to read to them each night when they are in bed, usually a chapter book one or two levels above what the child can read and also giving the child some extra time (10 or 15 minutes) before lights out if they have a book (at their reading level) to read to themselves (and yes, comics…

Read More