A common linguistic mistake has it that the Chinese word for “Crisis” is a combination of the characters for danger and opportunity. While this is not technically true, it has been so widely accepted that even native Chinese speakers have picked it up. I like...
This month’s blog was inspired by an (unsolicited) e-mail I received from one of our longtime leaders, Pat Lonergan, Teen Parenting Instructor at Nature Coast Technical High School in Florida. She wrote and I wrote back: Hi Doctor Popkin, I became an Active Parenting Trainer of Trainers...
Most children do not like rules any more than they like most green vegetables. Fortunately, by the time they become adults they have usually developed a taste for both. We come to understand the value of good rules and the importance of learning to play...
Letters. We get letters. "Recently some of my old classmates were chatting about the Free the Horses program that we went through when we were little," wrote Keith from Michigan. "I was thinking it would be fun to have a get-together with some of these old...
A message from Doc Pop We have all asked our kids, “What did you do in school today?” only to be told that age-old lie, “Nothing.” Of course, what they really mean is either “Nothing significant to me” or “Nothing that I want to talk to you...
A message from Doc Pop Welcome to fall! Just because we are innovators doesn’t mean that we don’t follow a good trend when we see one. Case in point: our fall catalog. It’s slimmer than our catalogs of the past—so much so that printers have nicknamed it...
For this post, I want to share one of my favorite weeks from my book Doc Pop’s 52 weeks of Active Parenting with you. Be on the lookout for more Doc Pop’s 52 Weeks posts to come, and if you like what you read, consider...
“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,...
