By a child-care authority and mother of an only child, this useful, knowledgeable book provides sound advice on creating an enriching environment that's stimulating and enjoyable for only children and their parents alike.

All children need guidance, yet some are definitely more resistant to parental direction and advice than others. Parenting a child whose personality may be described as "difficult" or "controlling" can leave you conflicted and frustrated. How do you nurture your child, get him to listen, and know who's in charge? It can be done. The Everything Parent's Guide to the Strong-Willed Child helps you work around stubborn and argumentative behavior. You'll learn how to encourage your child to compromise and communicate with you, rather than make unreasonable demands and/or shut down altogether. By learning what makes your child strong-willed, the effects of such behavior, and how to manage it, you can help your child achieve a more tempered disposition and teach him the lifelong rewards of a positive attitude. Psychologist Carl E. Pickhardt shows you how to: Regain control of your family Reap the benefits of healthy communication Discipline to teach, not to punish Resolve conflict between you and your child effectively Overcome willfulness in older children The Everything Parent's Guide to the Strong-Willed Child is your all-inclusive guide to regaining, and maintaining, a healthy and happy family.

A funny, thought-provoking, and myth-busting account what it means to be—or be the parent of—an only child. Journalist Lauren Sandler is an only child and the mother of one. After investigating what so-called “singletons” are really like, she learned a lot about herself—and our cultural assumptions about parenting. In One and Only, Sandler combines “fierce reporting, tender storytelling, and clear-eyed cultural analysis” to reveal the unique ways that singletons thrive, and why so many of their families are happier (Susan Cain, author of Quiet). Between the recession, the stresses of modern life, and the ecological dangers ahead, there are increasing pressures on parents to think seriously about singletons. Sandler examines these ideas, including what the rise of the single-child family means for our economies, our environment, and our freedom. At the end, Sandler demonstrates that having just one may be the secret to happiness in the modern age.

Only doesn’t mean lonely. Families come in all shapes and sizes, and even a family with one child is complete and whole. But every family is unique, and raising an only child can seem daunting. As a therapist, the mother of an only child, and an only child herself, Rebecca Greene is an expert in the variety of issues that surround raising an only child, and she knows that parenting an only child is a complex endeavor, no matter how you came to be one and done. This comprehensive guidebook will explore the reasons why a family might have one child, discuss the benefits of having an only child, debunk the stigmas of only children, and provide tips and strategies for creating a happy home environment and building a strong community for your only child. It covers what to do when your only child is lonely, how to develop new family traditions, how to plan meaningful trips for your family, how to choose the ideal neighborhood, and more! Packed with research, first-hand accounts, and tried-and-true methods and advice, One & Done: The Guide to Raising a Happy and Thriving Only Child is the ultimate resource for raising a happy and thriving only child.

This book provides a multidisciplinary analysis of the potential conflict between a government’s duty to protect children and a parent(s)’ right to raise children in a manner they see fit. Using philosophical, bioethical, and legal analysis, the author engages with key scholars in pediatric decision-making and individual and religious rights theory. Going beyond the parent-child dyad, the author is deeply concerned both with the inteests of the broader society and with the appropriate limits of government interference in the private sphere. The text offers a balance of individual and population interests, maximizing liberty but safeguarding against harm. Bioethics and law professors will therefore be able to use this text for both a foundational overview as well as specific, subject-level analysis. Clinicians such as pediatricians and gynecologists, as well as policy-makers can use this text to achieve balance between these often competing claims. The book is written by a physician with practical and theoretical knowledge of the subject, and deep sympathy for the parental and family perspectives. As such, the book proposes a new way of evaluating parental and state interventions in children's’ healthcare: a refreshing approach and a useful addition to the literature.

Gain a better understanding of parent-child boundaries and the mechanisms for their dissolution The breakdown of appropriate generational boundaries between parent and child can threaten the child’s psychological development. Implications of Parent-Child Boundary Dissolution for Developmental Psychopathology: Who Is the Parent and Who Is the Child? explores this covert and oftentimes ignored form of emotional abuse, discussing in detail the various ways it can manifest. This revealing text comprehensively examines how the burden of meeting the emotional needs of the parent interferes with the child’s healthy development. The boundary dissolution patterns of role reversal, enmeshment, psychological control, and triangulation are closely examined with an eye toward providing appropriate strategies for dealing with the problem. Implications of Parent-Child Boundary Dissolution for Developmental Psychopathology is separated into four sections to focus extensively on every aspect of the problem. The first section discusses definitions, concepts, and methodological concerns of the phenomena, including a consideration of the child’s developmental responses to boundary dissolution. The second section explores the empirical research concerning boundary dissolution within the family system, and includes intriguing information on the actual mechanism that passes the pattern of role reversal on to the following generation. The next section closely examines boundary violations within high-risk families, with a focus on those undergoing divorce. The final section concentrates on cultural contexts of boundary dissolution and includes a look at the perception of familial responsibility and its effects on Bosnian youths. This one-of-a-kind resource is extensively referenced, and provides a solid foundation to inspire a new generation of theory, research, and clinical work. Implications of Parent-Child Boundary Dissolution for Developmental Psychopathology examines: a multidimensional model of boundary dissolutionwith supporting research a comprehensive review of published literature in the areas of attachment theory, developmental capacities of the infant, child-rearing practices, and parental beliefs the theoretical background supporting the construct of boundary dissolution the boundary disturbance patterns of enmeshment and control the relationships between interparental conflict, parental responses to children’s emotions, and representations of role reversal and vulnerability in children’s family drawings the ’spill over’ effect of marital conflict role reversal in high-risk families children’s rejection of one parent over another in custody disputes post-war adjustment of Bosnian adolescents psychological control in individualist and collectivist groups representations of parents and children in twentieth century American novels Implications of Parent-Child Boundary Dissolution for Developmental Psychopathology is crucial reading for researchers and clinicians who deal with families and psychopathology and is of particular interest to graduate students in clinical child psychology, child and family studies, social work, and developmental psychology.

What is it like to be an isolated old widow, living alone on the bare old-age pension? In the 1960s, the question had become a standard refrain. Originally published in 1966, this was the first full-length study by a sociologist of isolation in old age. Although the majority of old people were in no sense a problem group at the time, a substantial minority of the elderly were ‘alone’ in one or more ways. About 1.3 million people aged sixty-five and over in Britain lived alone; a large number admitted to feeling lonely, at least sometime. About a million were actually socially isolated in terms of low level and frequency of social contact. Mr Tunstall also uses a fourth category of aloneness – namely anomie (as developed by Durkheim, Merton, and Srole). This report uses careful and statistical analysis of the four types of aloneness and of specially affected groups such as the single, the recently widowed, and the housebound. But it also includes details of interviews with ten highly individual old people from suburban Harrow, booming Northampton, industrial revolution Oldham, and rural South Norfolk. The book contains a discussion of the problem of personality in isolation, and a commentary on the inadequacies of social theory about old age. Finally, the concluding chapter suggests a wide variety of policy measures which might help to alleviate social isolation in old age.

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