Advice

The Common Sense Guide to Pokémon Go, Kids and Safety

  It’s no secret that Pokémon Go is the most popular game since Candy Crush, Farmville or Angry Birds. Seems like everywhere you go someone is playing it. Here in New York City, it’s not as if the sidewalks weren’t crowded enough to begin with, people are already on their phones not paying attention to […]

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Video Game Industry Helps Parents with Gaming Choices

If you are like most parents you check—and trust—the video game ratings issued by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). We include those ratings on all of our video game reviews! Now the industry wants to help families make even more informed gaming decisions. The video game industry announced a new national public education campaign

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Too Many Toys?

Yeah, I know. A kid probably thinks there’s no such thing as “too many toys.” Parents, though, well that’s another matter. We often hear about moms who bemoan the fact that their kids have so much stuff that they can’t play with it all—and they end up tripping over the toys, or some version of that.

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Teaching Kids Gratitude and Charity in the Face of Adversity

On the heels of Thanksgiving, a time when we underscore the importance of gratitude and giving thanks, it was my kids who reminded me to be extra grateful this year. Our little family had quite the extraordinary year: the birth of the baby in January, my husband’s anaphylaxis episode in February, the baby suffering a

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The End of Civilization—No Really, I Mean it This Time

My good friend Lenore Skenazy over at Free Range Kids tipped me off to a story in the New York Times about an alarming new product—food pouches for kids. The basic idea seems to be that when the young ‘uns are hungry, you just strap on the feedbag. Or in this case, hand them an expensive pouch with some processed foodstuff that lets the little tikes suck out a meal, rather than eating. The inventor says this helps busy parents keep their kids fed without the fuss of having to prepare a meal. He also confuses Lenore’s concept of being “free range”—learning to be responsible for one’s life without a parent hovering over every second—with being so over-schedued that there’s never time to eat.

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Game Of Thrones—Toddler Edition

Call me old fashioned. Toilet training is a rite of passage. It is something children need to master before entering school. Toilet training can generally start around 22 months to 30 months, and typically boys are trained by 38 months and girls at a slight more precocious 36. Effective toilet training requires muscle control, awareness of body activity and the motor skills to get on the toilet. In talks with pediatricians, it’s evident that this can evolve naturally, as children grow up and are increasingly uncomfortable with a soiled diaper. That’s when parental guidance comes in, educating the child about the body, supporting his or her growing awareness and being gently reassuring in the inevitable accidents that happen along the way.

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