Siblings Sharing Parents Experience Lifelong Effects

Did you get along with your siblings when you were a child? What’s your relationship with them like now that all of you are adults? Researchers have discovered that brothers and sisters who share parents can have a very different experience from each other. What they found can help parents of today make their kid’s relationship with their siblings into a more positive experience. An article at Medical Daily was written by Chris Weller. In it, he points out that each kid that has to share his or her parents with their siblings has a different experience – even though … Continue reading

Handling Sibling Jealousy

Bringing home a new baby is a joy for the parents. For siblings this new arrival may not be cause for tears of joy but tears of frustration. During this time siblings can feel replaced, left out, and alone. Despite the parents best efforts to make their older child feel loved the child may be jealous of all the time spent with the new baby. Many times feelings of jealously come later on after the novelty of the new baby wears off for the sibling. A delayed feeling of jealously is not uncommon as the baby grows to even a … Continue reading

Baby Blues or Postpartum Depression

After giving birth a woman goes through a myriad of emotions. The drop in hormones at such a rapid rate after giving birth can trigger feelings of depression. It is not uncommon for a woman to go through many emotional changes as she encounters the changes in her life a baby brings. Some women feel unattractive, some are still experiencing pain or had difficult births, and some may have relationship problems which can contribute to feelings of depression. For many these feelings subside yet others experience a more serious depression called postpartum depression. What are the differences? Baby Blues The … Continue reading

Comforting a Friend Who Had a Miscarriage

A miscarriage is a traumatic event both physically and emotionally. It is also one of those situations where you may not know what to say or worse say the wrong thing because you thought you knew what to say. While I have never experienced a miscarriage I have known several women who have. I never knew what to say to comfort them. I remember a time when I found out I was pregnant just after a friend had a miscarriage. It was an awkward situation for both of us. What I learned is that just because a situation is awkward … Continue reading

Children’s Books on Diversity and Feelings

My last blog and the one before that highlighted books showing diverse families such as adoptive, interracial, stepparent, single parent, multigenerational. This blog will spotlight books that: * look at diversity of abilities and disabilities as well as looks *help kids deal with diverse feelings I’ve recommended before—but can’t recommend highly enough—the Sesame Street book We’re Different, We’re the Same. Using Sesame’s Street’s trademark mixture of all kinds of people, animals, and friendly monsters, as well as kids’ favorite character Elmo as cameraman (camera-monster?), the book shows pictures of all different types of noses, eyes, skin color, body size and … Continue reading