Many parents feel uncomfortable with the thought of having ‘the talk’ with their children, especially teenagers. But what many people don’t realise is how much of sexuality education has nothing to do with sex itself. In this book, Clinical Sexologist Anisa Varasteh teaches the foundations of a comprehensive sexuality education for children and teenagers and answers the most common questions young people have about sex and sexuality. Contrary to popular belief, talking about sex and sexuality does not make young people more prone to sexual experimentation. This book provides research-based evidence for how a comprehensive sexuality education is important for children’s safety, psychological and physical wellbeing. It identifies the barriers to having open conversations with children and teenagers, and outlines methods for how to overcome them. With a focus on skills, the book addresses the building blocks of sexuality education and how to develop an environment of mutual trust, it outlines key topics for discussion and the skills that children need to develop to make healthy decisions about their sexuality. Complete with practical support, including over 20 worksheets and a comprehensive list of tough questions from teenagers – and suggestions for how to address them – this book is an essential resource for parents, carers and educators who are responsible for the health, safety and development of children and teenagers.

Raising Sexually Pure Kids: Sexual Abstinence, Conservative Christians and American Politics analyzes pro-abstinence discourses issued by the conservative Christian community and the G.W. Bush administration, to underline that abstinence is not a peripheral matter, but is a cultural and political issue of great significance in US society, especially in the past decade. This book seeks to bring to light how pro-abstinence discourses coalesce most of the core agendas of conservative Christians - like creationism, parental rights or the culture war - and enabled them and the Bush administration, to on the one hand, preserve traditional hierarchies and on the other hand, maintain the sense of threat necessary to the protection of the status quo and to the enduring commitment of the conservative Christian constituency.

We live in a time when kids of all ages are bombarded with age-sensitive material wherever they turn; "sexting" and bullying are on the rise at an increasingly younger age, and teen moms are "celebrified." What is a concerned -- and embarrassed -- parent to do? With wit, wisdom, and savvy, Deborah Roffman translates her experiences gleaned from decades of teaching kids and parents, and as a mom, into strategies to help parents navigate this tricky terrain. Talk to Me First is for any parent who wants to become and remain the most credible and influential resource about sexuality in their children's lives.

"Many parents feel uncomfortable with the thought of having 'the talk' with their children, especially teenagers. But what many people don't realise is how much of sexuality education has nothing to do with sex itself. In this book, Clinical Sexologist Anisa Varasteh teaches the foundations of a comprehensive sexuality education for children and teenagers and answers the most common questions young people have about sex and sexuality. Contrary to popular belief, talking about sex and sexuality does not make young people more prone to sexual experimentation. This book provides research-based evidence for how a comprehensive sexuality education is important for children's safety, psychological and physical wellbeing. It identifies the barriers to having open conversations with children and teenagers, and outlines methods for how to overcome them. With a focus on skills, the book addresses the building blocks of sexuality education and how to develop an environment of mutual trust, it outlines key topics for discussion and the skills that children need to develop to make healthy decisions about their sexuality. Complete with practical support, including over 20 worksheets and a comprehensive list of tough questions from teenagers - and suggestions for how to address them - this book is an essential resource for parents, carers and educators who are responsible for the health, safety and development of children and teenagers"--

Intelligence That Comes from the Heart Every parent knows the importance of equipping children with the intellectual skills they need to succeed in school and life. But children also need to master their emotions. Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child is a guide to teaching children to understand and regulate their emotional world. And as acclaimed psychologist and researcher John Gottman shows, once they master this important life skill, emotionally intelligent children will enjoy increased self-confidence, greater physical health, better performance in school, and healthier social relationships. Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child will equip parents with a five-step "emotion coaching" process that teaches how to: * Be aware of a child's emotions * Recognize emotional expression as an opportunity for intimacy and teaching * Listen empathetically and validate a child's feelings * Label emotions in words a child can understand * Help a child come up with an appropriate way to solve a problem or deal with an upsetting issue or situation Written for parents of children of all ages, Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child will enrich the bonds between parent and child and contribute immeasurably to the development of a generation of emotionally healthy adults.

For parents who didn't grow up with smartphones but can't let go of them now, expert advice on raising kids in our constantly connected world Most kids get their first smartphone at the same time that they're experiencing major developmental changes. Making mistakes has always been a part of growing up, but how do parents help their kids navigate childhood and adolescence at a time when social media has the potential to magnify the consequences of those mistakes? Rather than spend all their time worrying about the worst-case scenario, readers get a bigger-picture understanding of their kids' digital landscape. Drawing on research and interviews with educators, psychologists, and kids themselves, Raising a Screen-Smart Kid offers practical advice on how parents can help their kids avoid the pitfalls and reap the benefits of the digital age by: using social media to enhance connection with friends and family, instead of following strangers and celebrities, which is a predictor of loneliness and depression finding online support and community for conditions such as depression and eating disorders, while avoiding potential triggers such as #Thinspiration Pinterest boards learning and developing life skills through technology--for example, by problem-solving in online games--while avoiding inappropriate content Written by a public health expert and the creator of the popular blog Rants from Mommyland, this book shows parents how to help their kids navigate friendships, bullying, dating, self-esteem, and more online.

Girls need ample, loving demonstrations from adults close to them that they are appreciated and can be trusted to know what they need for themselves. They also need to be given plenty of opportunity to develop their talents. Girls who lack sufficient emotional support may feel neglected and unworthy of attention, and easily find themselves at greater risk of exploitation and abuse, even as adults. Raising Confident Girls provides parents and teachers with the best hands-on, practical advice available for nurturing girls in a changing and challenging social environment.

Raising emotionally healthy children is not just about what we need to do, but what we need to avoid doing. We all know that repressing our feelings can be damaging, and that emotional repression is an especially prevalent issue among males. From a very young age, boys are socialized to hide their emotions. Girls, on the other hand, are encouraged to learn a much broader range of emotional expression. The long-term repercussions of this imbalance are profound. Many of the problems we face, both as a society and as a species, are directly affected by how we raise our boys. We are all products of nature and nurture combined. The conscious and unconscious lessons we give our children often enhance and improve their human natures, but can sometimes degrade them, too. As we come to the end of thousands of years of patriarchy, we are being challenged to redefine masculinity. Our boys are lucky to be living in such a time, and luckier when they have adults in their lives who are aware of how their minds function and what they need. If we want to raise men who are strong, confident, and whole in the best sense of these words, then parents around the world urgently need a conversation about what we teach — and don’t teach — our boys.

Children inevitably turn to their parents for more than just food and security; equally important are assurance, recognition, and interpretation of life. A child develops best in an environment where creativity and discovery are unimpeded by the artificial restrictions of blind faith and dogmatic belief.Parenting without God is for parents, and future parents, who lack belief in a god and are seeking guidance on raising freethinkers and social-justice-aware children in a nation where public dialogue has been controlled by the Christian Right. Dan Arel, activist and critically acclaimed author, has penned a magnificently practical guide to help parents provide their children with the intellectual tools for standing up to attempts at religious proselytism, whether by teachers, coaches, friends, or other family members. Parenting without God is also for the parent activist who is trying to make the world a better place for all children by first educating their own children about racism, sexism, and all forms of discrimination that serve as barriers to the fundamentals of human dignity and democracy. It’s for parents who wish for their children to question everything and to learn how to reach their own conclusions based on verifiable evidence and reason. Above all, Arel makes the penetrating argument that parents should lead by example—both by speaking candidly about the importance of secularism and by living an openly and unabashedly secular life. Parenting without God is written with humility, compassion, and understanding. Dan Arel’s writing conveys the unmistakable impression of a loving father dedicated to redefining the role of parenthood so that it also includes the vitally important task of nurturing every child’s latent impulse for freedom and autonomy. This second edition has been expanded with new material from the author.

While advice abounds from a variety of sources before parents embark on their parenting journeys, the only parent preparation we actually receive comes from our family and peer stories. Yet most adults do not realize that in day-to-day challenges of guiding our children, something interesting happens. As we steer our children through life, we reopen our own childhood roads. Just when our child most needs us, we become needy ourselves: as adults and parents, we find that we have unresolved raising issues, basic needs that were not met in our childhoods. Our needs and memories echo and influence many of the parenting decisions we make, even though we’re unaware of those influences at times. Fortunately, children help parents reach their needs as much as their parents help them fulfill their own. Our child ends up guiding us, by connecting us to some earlier time in our life when we encountered distress. We dredge up a lesson, and we adapt by adhering to or changing the story that we tell ourselves about who we are. We re-negotiate the five basic needs that surface from our childhood memories as our youngsters pass through each of the developmental phases. The self-aware parent focuses on creative problem solving by focusing on one interaction at a time. It Takes a Child to Raise a Parent offers an exploration of how our own childhood memories and needs influence and shape our parenting decisions in our adult lives. Offering tips, stories from a variety of families, and step by step exercises, Janis Johnston helps parents better understand and grasp the tools necessary to face parenting challenges head on, and to explore new ways of understanding ourselves, our children, and our family interactions. Expectant parents and current parents interested in understanding their own personality development as well as the many moods of childhood and their own children, will find clear guidelines for understanding their roles in their children’s lives as well as concrete suggestions for how to navigate the choppy waters of raising children.