Archives For parenting

How do you balance baby and marriage?

July 27, 2009 — Leave a comment

Link: How do you balance baby and marriage?

When partners become parents, their immediate focus is no longer on themselves or each other, but on the urgent needs of their baby. This puts their own relationship on the back burner, acknowledged Doug Larzelier, a registered counselor at Spokane’s Heart to Heart Counseling and Coaching. During pregnancy and childbirth, many women also experience changes in their brains that promote bonding and attachment. “The mom just falls in love with the baby – bonding occurs and the priorities change,” said Asbell. “Because that bond is so strong and powerful, the husband sometimes becomes incidental.” (full article)

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Longitudinal Study: Family Arguments – kids caught in the crossfire

April 29, 2009 — Leave a comment

Link: Longitudinal Study: Family Arguments – kids caught in the crossfire

There is new evidence that family arguing leaves a long-lasting imprint on children, diminishing their future happiness and ability to prosper in the world – even when the anger is verbal, not physical. The evidence comes from a landmark study that began more than 31 years ago in Quincy kindergartens, and continues with little fanfare today. The Simmons Longitudinal Study has followed more than 300 one-time kindergartners into adulthood, tracking them along the way, recording their childhood experiences, and matching that history against who they are in middle age. It is the nation’s longest running study of what determines good or bad mental health from childhood. Participants remain anonymous to everyone except each other and the researchers, who continue to observe how lives unfold – and every few years release a study on the lessons therein.

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Marriage & Family Stimulus – Listen up Dads.

April 27, 2009 — Leave a comment

Link: Marriage & Family Stimulus – Listen up Dads.

Financial pressures wreak havoc on even the best of marriages. Divorce rates hover around 50% and money issues are among the top causes, so we’re facing a tsunami of marital crises in this country. We have been enjoying years of prosperity and this is the first time in a long time many of us have had to do without. // Feeling like you can no longer provide at the same level is hard. But what keeps me moving forward is understanding that it’s not about me, it’s about my wife and children. Seeing the situation from their eyes helped me get my priorities right. As husbands and fathers, you have to ask yourselves, “What kind of man do I want my children to see through their eyes now?” // You also have to remember that when your kids greet you as you walk through the door at the end of a day of work, they don’t care about your title or paycheck. They love you because you are you.

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April 7, 2009 — Leave a comment

trend: women having babies later in life increasing

The National Center for Health Statistics reports that the percentage of women giving birth for the first time at age 35 or older has increased eight-fold since 1970 (Article link)

Related: My Clock Was Already Ticking

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Missing the woman I fell in love with?

April 7, 2009 — Leave a comment

Link: Missing the woman I fell in love with?

(Parenting.com) — My wife and I share a home and a bed. We kiss goodbye in the morning and hello in the evening with such ritualistic regularity that if one of them somehow gets missed, I worry it means bad luck. We have a marriage in which we tell each other things, without large, dramatic fights, a marriage that in our affection and respect for each other seems awfully good in comparison to those of most of our friends. But somehow in the past ten years or so since our first daughter was born, in the mad swirl of breastfeeding and colic, of Pull-Ups and wipes, dinners and playdates, car repairs and sweeping, versions of each other that we used to take for granted — versions of our relationship — have gone missing.

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70% of churches have no parenting/marriage-enrichment programs

March 17, 2009 — Leave a comment

Link: 70% of churches have no parenting/marriage-enrichment programs

While the median size of Episcopal Church congregations and overall membership has declined in recent years, that pattern matches trends in most mainline Protestant denominations and points to larger patterns in U.S. culture, according to analyses of recent data. // The statistical view of the Episcopal Church comes from two reports by Kirk Hadaway, program officer for congregational research in the Episcopal Church’s Evangelism and Congregational Life Center. // 71 percent do not offer activities for young single adults and 70 percent do not offer parenting or marriage-enrichment programs. Should churches offer parenting or marriage-enrichment programs?

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A Battle to Save a Marriage

March 4, 2009 — Leave a comment

Link: A Battle to Save a Marriage

“Good Morning America” follows Kathryn and Heath, a couple married for 12 years,  through the counselling sessions. The couple have found themselves at a crossroads in their marriage that very well could lead to a divorce. —very intense video.

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March 3, 2009 — Leave a comment

Married, With ADHD

Couples who have a child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are nearly twice as likely to divorce or separate as couples who do not have children with the psychiatric disorder, according to a definitive new study that is the first to explicitly explore the question. -Washington Post

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Couples: What changes when you have a child with a disability?

February 2, 2009 — Leave a comment

Link: Couples: What changes when you have a child with a disability?

No matter the situation, caring for a person with a disability adds stress to even the most picture perfect of marriages. Great chat about marriage and  the unique rewards and challenges that parenting an individual with a disability brings to a relationship.

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Fatherhood video set to storm the world

January 21, 2009 — Leave a comment

Link: Fatherhood video set to storm the world

The DVDs also are designed for couples to watch together. ”The truth is, women have no idea what guys are actually thinking, which is a huge gap and a huge worry for a lot of women,” said Troy Jones who spent $10,000 making a DVD about fatherhood. A national distribution deal early on with the Big W chain was a key part of success in Australia and Mr Jones is negotiating a similar arrangement with giant retail chains Walmart and Babies “R” Us in the U.S.

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