“Why?” Because I’m your father/mother and I said so! If you recognize that this age-old parenting retort is a poor answer to a good question, then you are tapping into one of the most important ways that humans can use their intelligence: to understand the...
The increasing number of mass shootings, often labeled “hate crimes", is profoundly disturbing to most adults. The impact on children and teens is probably much greater. Whether the shooting occurs far away or closer to home, it’s a parent’s job to act as a filter...
I’ve heard about attempts to reach millennial parents with electronic tools such as parenting apps. And apps can certainly be useful. But there is a limit, and let’s face it: There is a lot of casual parenting education out there. Too many people have children,...
by Michael Popkin Research from De Montfort University in the UK showed that parents who praised their children five times each day saw an improvement in the child’s behavior. A “Five Praises Campaign” was even launched to help parents learn to be mindful of the need...
by Michael Popkin On May 14, 2019, my wife, Melody, and I became grandparents of an 8½ pound baby boy. Our daughter, Megan, whom some of you may remember as the ten-year-old girl reciting the Ages and Stages poem in our earlier version of Active Parenting:...
by Michael Popkin, author of Active Parenting of Teens and Teens in Action Hearing a good review of the new movie Booksmart on my drive home the other day, I thought I’d check it out for myself and was not disappointed. The humor was clever sometimes and...
Courage is such an important character trait in today's complex world of choices that it forms the very foundation upon which a child constructs her personality. Here is a poem I wrote a while back exploring the struggle between Courage and Fear. (Click to download...
From the French word coeur, meaning heart, courage is at the forefront of all the qualities of character that we would hope to instill in our children, because it is the one upon which all others are built. This has been at the center of...
I was leading a workshop at the California Head Start conference last winter and did one of my favorite activities, “The Two-Hand Push.” We use it in all the Active Parenting programs, because it does such a great job of teaching what usually happens when...
