PETS!
They are better than family at times......

​As far back as I can recall in my life as a developmental psychologist, I have included pets as part of the family when I teach psychology courses.

Maybe it's because I have always had pets and loved them or maybe I always knew that pets were important members of the family psychologically.

Anyway I was very happy to see this research on pets:

This does not surprise any of us with pets.....and it fits with what we know about service dogs - especially service dogs for those with issues like PTSD such as ex-military personnel.

The researcher added that the children turned to their pets more than they did to their friends or family even though they knew that the pets did not understand what they were saying.

 Many of us, including myself, would not agree with the part about the pets not understanding - we think they do. Dogs and cats seem to know exactly what is going on with their humans.

Thoughts?  Comments?

In Vermont you get a lot of snow - a whole lot of snow!

Schools rarely close unless it's really bad - or really unexpected - or both!

For years, my son and I played April Fool tricks on each other - usually along the line of trying to get the other to look at some imaginary object or some event that was not actually happening.

On April 1 of his year in Vermont, there was a 2 foot snow storm and school was canceled. I knew he would not be happy if he got up and took a shower only to find out he could have slept in - so I woke him around 5:30 AM to tell him there was no school due to a snow storm.

His reply was along the lines of "ha ha I know it's April Fool and I am not falling for that." I suggested he look out the window but as that had been our usual "fool" he refused. He got up and was heading for a shower and I tried most seriously to again tell him there was no school.

I forget how I managed to convince him to look out a window - but he did. And what he said is not for public consumption.

It was such a funny experience I recall it every April 1 !!

Happy April Fool

P.S. This is an edited repost form years ago.
Neither of us lives in New England anymore

What's your favorite April Fool memory?
Let us know below in the comments...thanks

​

A study with infants, aged 6 to 12 months, showed that napping aided memory and learning.

They [the researchers] taught six- to 12-month-olds three new tasks involving playing with hand puppets. 

Half the babies slept within four hours of learning, while the rest either had no sleep or napped for fewer than 30 minutes.

The next day, the babies were encouraged to repeat what they had been taught.

The results, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed "sleeping like a baby" was vital for learning.

On average one-and-a-half tasks could be repeated after having a substantial nap.

Yet zero tasks could be repeated if there was little sleep time.

We need to be awake when learning, but it seems that a nap right after the learning aids memory. The researchers go on to say that reading to a child just before bedtime is good.  We know that sleep helps our brains make new cellular connections and to me, the new connections help learning and retention of that learning.

I recall from a college psych class lecture, that studying for an exam and then going directly to sleep was the best thing to do.  That was for adults - and no surprise that it works for babies as well.

Having just gone through new puppyhood, I will say, it seems to work for dogs as well....

I love that more and more research on learning, brains, sleep, and memory are appearing. All these findings may help us to develop to our fullest potentials all through our lifecycle

Share your thoughts and comments below - and Thank You!!

​A recent analysis of children with and without autism was conducted and found:

By looking at estimated pollution exposure during pregnancy, based on the mother's home address, the scientists concluded high levels of pollution were more common in children with autism.

The strongest link was with fine particulate matter - invisible specks of mineral dust, carbon and other chemicals - that enter the bloodstream and cause damage throughout the body.

We have parents and others not getting regular childhood vaccines due to an unfounded fear of their causing autism when the real culprit is our dirty toxic air.

The results do not surprise me as developmental psychologists have said for years that pregnant women need to avoid harmful substances....We have been teaching, writing, and advocating about better environments and care for pregnant women. And been doing this for decades....yet the vaccine people have a larger [and more gullible?] audience - and that's sad.

​Why do I say this? Vaccines have been available for decades and decades and and the increase in the rate of autism is more recent than the eras of vaccines. I'm not saying all vaccines are totally safe, nothing chemical we put in our body is really predictable as to how our body will deal with it

If vaccines were as bad as people want to say they are - the rate of autism should have been high way back like when I was a kid because we all got vaccinated.

But the increase in autism is more modern and it seems to correlate with the increase in air pollution, the increase in the way we fertilize and grow food and the way that we put chemicals in most everything that we eat.

I'm not going to go off onto a big rant here, but the thing is you really have to be careful what you put in your body when you're pregnant and that includes dirty air.

If you have the choice, breathe cleaner air. If you don't have the choice maybe wear a mask or limit the time spent in the dirty air.  The thing is we now know that there's a link between dirty air and autism so maybe we can start doing something about the dirty air?

I know this is a controversial topic and everyone has a point of view -  so if you want please give your thoughts and comments below but please keep it polite -
thank you

You can read more of my thoughts about child rearing in my Kindle book:
You Can Totally Screw Up As A Mom And Still Raise Great Kids:

3 tips for new parents to help you lessen guilt

Tip 1 – Stop chatting with everyone

Everyone has parenting advice – even people who have never had kids!

You start getting this mostly-unsolicited advice when you are pregnant because unless you never look pregnant, you are a target for child rearing advice.

t’s part of the human psyche to offer advice to pregnant women – and it’s been done since way back when.

Here’s the way it usually goes:

h, you’re pregnant. That’s great. I know a good pediatrician – her name is…or there are such good new toys for newborns – you can get them at… or have you heard about the new music to play while you are pregnant – it will make your child a genius – and by the way – do you know if you’re having a girl or a boy?

You almost can’t avoid this onslaught of advice – so best to be polite and say “thank you” – but do not engage in the conversation.

[This onslaught continues if you have a baby or toddler with you so practice now.]

If you engage – you are caught for a long chat about babies!

Tip 2 stop reading every book or magazine you find on parenting

Google “books on parenting advice” and you will find 1000’s of sites! You cannot read them all – even in several lifetimes. Don’t even try.

Tip 3 trust yourself

Stop and ask yourself who will be raising your baby? The people with advice?  The books?

• Who will responsible for making the moment-to-moment decisions?
• Who will feed?
• Who will diaper?
• Who will play with?

That baby is YOURS!

You the parent[s] have to trust yourself at some point and you can start right now.

Comments? Thoughts?

In the USA there are many parents who have gotten into a behavior that I call “competitive parenting.”

This competing has been around for a while – but now seems to have gotten worse – and it has spread into many more areas of a child’s development. 

Even into areas over which a parent has little control!

We hear of parents signing up their not-yet-born children for the “best” nursery schools so as to ensure future entrance to colleges such as Harvard or Yale.

What a burden on that child! What if that child does not want to go to those schools – or heaven forbid – does not want to go to college at all? Or is not accepted?

We have parents pressuring children to get “good” grades as early as nursery school and kindergarten. I knew of a child who got ulcers in the 1st grade because she “only” got an A- or B+ on some assignments and her parents were making her study more so as to raise that to a solid A [no minus marks or B’s allowed in that family.]

Somehow making sure your child is seen as better than and faster than “those other children” either makes you seem like a better parent or proves your child is genius [and of course that will reflect back on you the genius parent.]

Please stop it!

Kids have enough to do just to develop…they don’t need added pressure from parents trying to prove something to the world.

Next – competition around weaning and toilet training…..

Thoughts? Comments? Thank you.

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Please be patient – I'm still setting up the process of getting you the chapter

From way back when I was in graduate school until today I have advocated for good prenatal maternal health as it does help reduce premature births!

Being born prematurely is, in itself, the cause of many developmental problems through life.

But some politicians and other policy makers have always said:  Nope – no care for pregnant women – not on our dime!!  Which is an odd stance since prenatal care is less expensive than a newborn's intensive care. 

I will keep advocating for better health and better nutrition for everyone for the rest of my life – because I care about human development! 

And because these many many years later – we still have statistics like this:

The world's developed countries have seen their average rate of premature births double to 6 percent since 1995, despite efforts to reduce the phenomenon…

And the United States? Were we think we have superior health care? We rank 130th out of the 184 countries in the study!

What starts labor is still an unknown. What we do know is that keeping a fetus inside for the duration or a normal pregnancy – about 40 weeks is the best for the baby. 

As this study says:

The ultimate solution — keeping every baby in the womb for 40 weeks – is a challenge. Improving maternal health by treating high blood pressure and infections would help, as would changing obstetrical practices so labor is not induced early for non-medical reasons.

"We still don't know a lot about how to prevent preterm birth," Howson said. "We need vigorous, targeted research into its causes."

 

Thoughts? Comments? Thank you!

I've written a lot about obesity and why it is detrimental to your children.  [Some of these posts are listed below in the area for related posts.]

Here, I’m suggesting a few ways you can start better eating habits in your own family – starting with things you can control:

• your own kitchen
• your own food
• your own children

Keep healthy, more natural, food around the house. If there is no candy, no soda, and no sugar-laden cereal – the kids will not be eating it.

Get daily exercise – play with your kids – toss balls, chase each other, run around the house, apartment, yard or street, take walks together [especially easy if you have a dog.]

Limit the amount of time in front of the TV and have a rule of NO FOOD while watching TV. This is for the adults too – we tend to munch mindlessly when we watch TV.

Drink more water. Many times we think we are hungry but we are really in need of hydration from water. Skip the sodas completely – they don’t count as hydration! And they have not-so-good stuff in them [read the label] and they do not-so-good stuff to our bodies.

Cook with your kids. Cook up a storm with your kids one day a week and freezing the foods makes it very easy to have good, healthy and fast meals all week. Microwaves are good defrosters – but if you do not have one, take out the frozen meals in the morning and they will defrost by dinnertime.

Yes there may be more of a mess – but your kids will have had fun, be eating healthier foods – and you know what? have them help clean up the mess…that’s part of cooking too.

There is more info and more suggestions in my ebook: It's Not Always Baby Fat