Like Huck’s raft, the experience of American childhood has been both adventurous and terrifying. For more than three centuries, adults have agonized over raising children while children have followed their own paths to development and expression. Now, Steven Mintz gives us the first comprehensive history of American childhood encompassing both the child’s and the adult’s tumultuous early years of life. Underscoring diversity through time and across regions, Mintz traces the transformation of children from the sinful creatures perceived by Puritans to the productive workers of nineteenth-century farms and factories, from the cosseted cherubs of the Victorian era to the confident consumers of our own. He explores their role in revolutionary upheaval, westward expansion, industrial growth, wartime mobilization, and the modern welfare state. Revealing the harsh realities of children’s lives through history—the rigors of physical labor, the fear of chronic ailments, the heartbreak of premature death—he also acknowledges the freedom children once possessed to discover their world as well as themselves. Whether at work or play, at home or school, the transition from childhood to adulthood has required generations of Americans to tackle tremendously difficult challenges. Today, adults impose ever-increasing demands on the young for self-discipline, cognitive development, and academic achievement, even as the influence of the mass media and consumer culture has grown. With a nod to the past, Mintz revisits an alternative to the goal-driven realities of contemporary childhood. An odyssey of psychological self-discovery and growth, this book suggests a vision of childhood that embraces risk and freedom—like the daring adventure on Huck’s raft.

All kids occasionally space out, get sidetracked, run out of time, or explode in frustration--but some do it much more often than others. With over 425,000 in print, this encouraging, bestselling parent guide is now in a revised and updated second edition. The authors explain the crucial brain-based skills that 4- to 12-year-olds need to get organized, stay focused, and control their impulses and emotions. Handy questionnaires help parents home in on their own child's executive strengths and weaknesses. Armed with a better understanding of their "smart but scattered" kid, readers can use proven strategies to boost skills that are lacking, fix everyday routines that don't work, and reduce everyone's stress. Including new research, new and updated vignettes, and "A Good Place to Start" suggestions for each skill, the second edition features a new chapter on technology and a greatly expanded school chapter. Readers can download and print a wealth of practical tools. See also the authors' Smart but Scattered Teens, Smart but Scattered--and Stalled (with a focus on emerging adults), and The Smart but Scattered Guide to Success (with a focus on adults).

A revised and updated edition of the classic, inspiring guide to raising calm and secure kids in a frenetic world, featuring a new chapter to address the modern parent’s concerns over setting limits and coping with social media “Brilliant, wise, informative, innovative, entertaining, and urgently needed . . . a godsend for all who love children, and for children themselves.”—Edward Hallowell, M.D., author of The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness Today’s busier, faster society is waging an undeclared war on childhood. With too much stuff, too many choices, and too little time, children can become anxious, have trouble with friends and school, or even be diagnosed with behavioral problems. Internationally renowned family consultant Kim John Payne helps parents reclaim for their children the space and freedom that all kids need for their attention to deepen and their individuality to flourish. Accessible and thoughtful, Simplicity Parenting offers inspiration, ideas, and a blueprint for change: • Streamline your home environment. Reduce the amount of toys, books, and clutter—as well as the lights, sounds, and general sensory overload. • Establish rhythms and rituals. Discover ways to ease daily tensions, create battle-free mealtimes and bedtimes, and tell if your child is overwhelmed. • Schedule a break in the schedule. Establish intervals of calm and connection in your child’s daily torrent of constant doing. • Scale back on media and parental involvement. Manage your children’s “screen time” to limit the endless deluge of information and stimulation. • Cultivate a values-centric family culture instead of a child-centric culture. Model your authority, not your authoritarianism. A manifesto for protecting the grace of childhood, Simplicity Parenting is an eloquent guide to bringing new rhythms to bear on the lifelong art of raising children.

“This parenting book actually made me a better parent.”—Lydia Kiesling, The New York Times From #1 New York Times bestselling authors, the ultimate “parenting bible” (The Boston Globe)—a timeless, beloved book on how to effectively communicate with your child. This bestselling classic by internationally acclaimed experts on communication between parents and children includes fresh insights and suggestions, as well as the author’s time-tested methods to solve common problems and build foundations for lasting relationships, including innovative ways to: · Cope with your child’s negative feelings, such as frustration, anger, and disappointment · Express your strong feelings without being hurtful · Engage your child’s willing cooperation · Set firm limits and maintain goodwill · Use alternatives to punishment that promote self-discipline · Understand the difference between helpful and unhelpful praise · Resolve family conflicts peacefully Enthusiastically praised by parents and professionals around the world, Faber and Mazlish’s down-to-earth, respectful approach makes relationships with children of all ages less stressful and more rewarding.

Sequel to A child called It, detailing the author's experiences in foster care after his removal from his abusive home.

National Indie Excellence Awards, first prize in the Parenting and Family category Arguing that adolescence is an unnecessary period of life that people are better off without, this groundbreaking study shows that teen confusion and hardships are caused by outmoded systems that were designed to destroy the continuum between childhood and adulthood. Documenting how teens are isolated from adults and are forced to look to their media-dominated peers for knowledge, this discussion contends that by infantilizing young people, society does irrevocable harm to their development and well-being. Instead, parents, teachers, employers, and others must rediscover the adults in young people by giving them authority and responsibility as soon as they exhibit readiness. Teens are highly capable--in some ways more than adults--and this landmark discussion offers paths for reaching and enhancing the competence in America's youth.

Explores the extent to which our childhood experiences shape the way we parent, drawing on new findings in neurobiology and attachment research and explaining how interpersonal relationships directly impact the development of the brain. Offers parents a step-by-step approach to forming a deeper understanding of their own life stories.

Stormie Omartian's bestselling The Power of a Praying series (more than 28 million copies sold) is rereleased with fresh new covers and new material to reach a still-growing market of readers eager to discover the power of prayer for their lives. This beautiful padded hardcover edition of The Power of a Praying Parent (2 million copies sold) will surely find a new home in the lives of Stormie Omartian's worldwide audience. After decades of raising her son and daughter alongside her husband, Michael, Stormie looks back at the trials and joys of parenting and the power found in praying for her children. In these easy-to-read chapters, she shares from personal experience how you can pray for your kids' safety character development school experiences marriage and so much more Stormie's now grown-up children, Christopher and Amanda, reflect on the way their praying parents raised them--and what a difference it made. Perfect for new moms and dads as well as those a little further along in the journey, The Power of a Praying Parent is a must-have for anyone caring for a child.

Offers guidelines to parents of children with developmental challenges

As a mother, you love your kids and you’d do anything for them—but chances are you’ve probably wondered, “What in the world was I thinking?” The Motherhood Diaries is full of humorous and enlightening stories from mothers who have wondered the same thing. As the working mother of three children, ReShonda Tate Billingsley knows motherhood isn’t a perfect science. She openly shares stories with her thousands of followers on social media about her children: thirteen-year-old Mya, the diva whose Instagram post—and subsequent punishment—went viral; ten-year-old Morgan, who has a serious case of middle-child syndrome and a knack for giving her teachers a few of her mother’s favorite things; and finally, Myles, a witty and precocious five-year-old who, as his grandmother says, “has been here before.” It was while chronicling her journey that she discovered she wasn’t the only mother who longed for the days when she could use the restroom in peace, who sometimes sat in the driveway because she didn’t want to go in the house, and who sometimes wondered, is this what I signed up for? Hence, The Motherhood Diaries was born. Through humorous and enlightening dialogue and narrative, ReShonda chronicles her own journey, as well as reveals candid imperfections of a mother trying to balance it all. With humorous and heartwarming stories from other mothers also trying to “get it right,” The Motherhood Diaries shares candid and honest conversations about the good, the bad and the downright disastrous path of mothering in the New Millennium.