"I've come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my personal approach that creates the climate." --Haim G. Ginnot, Between Parent and Child

Classroom teachers have everything to do with stopping bullying. There. I said it. I often hesitate to make this assertion...

Siblings without rivalry are like thunder without lightening. The two just go together, although some storms are more damaging than others. One of the most common sources of family conflict has to do with sibling jealousies and all of the ways that envy rears its ugly head -- from physical...

How does a mother explain how her preschooler remembers every detail of an episode of The Backyardigans, but can't for the life of her "remember" where the puzzles go at clean-up time? What's really going on with a fourth grader who quotes verbatim the whispered conversations of faraway classmates, but...

Call it hostile cooperation. Recognize it as compliant defiance. Feel the sugarcoating on the hostility. Label it what you will, but know it when you see it -- passive aggressive behavior is a deliberate and masked way of expressing feelings of anger (Long, Long & Whitson, 2008). Passive aggression involves...

Turns out that while sticks and stones can break your bones, words, too, can really hurt. In honor of proving that out-of-date childhood adage incorrect, the week of January 21st-25th has been set aside as No Name Calling Week. Schools all over the country will observe the occasion...

"Stay on task."

It is one the most frequently repeated messages of a classroom teacher. As both a parent and a child and adolescent therapist, I feel precisely the opposite way. Some of the most valuable conversations I ever have with kids come when they stray from the task...

Tina was asked by her mother to lead her two younger siblings to the bathroom in a crowded restaurant. As the oldest child in her family, the 10-year-old was accustomed to helping out with her little sisters, though she sometimes resented the extra responsibility. Initially, Tina waited for her sisters...

A few weeks ago, I had the terrific fortune of getting to present some of the bullying prevention work that I do to a group of children at a local bookstore. As if interacting with smiling, exuberant young people was not gift enough, a reporter also attended the event a...

From time to time in my conversations on the subject of girl bullying, a polite, yet skeptical person will ask me if I think that all of the recent media attention paid to bullying has caused professionals to cite incidents of bullying where perhaps only rudeness exists. I answer quite...

What is the "right" age for youngsters to begin texting and using social media? As the Mom of two elementary school-aged daughters and an educator on girl bullying, I field this question from parents all of the time. Truly, there is great debate on the subject among professionals,...

Bullying among school-aged children is widely regarded as an epidemic problem in the United States. If there was a one-size-fits-all solution to the problem, it would have been suggested and implemented long ago. You wouldn't be thinking about it and I wouldn't be writing about it. Getting a...

As sure as kids will go back to school each Fall in the U.S., bullying will be encountered in the classroom each school year. In these early days of August and September classes, would-be bullies are getting a feel for who they think might be an easy mark...

Until this moment, I have only shared this embarrassing factoid with my husband, but as I am sitting here, reflecting on the nervous anticipation that parents feel before sending their kids to school for the first time, it seems only fair to share with fellow Moms my anxiety-fueled wardrobe malfunction...

You've spent the summer calmly reassuring your nervous kindergartener-to-be about the approaching school year. Together, you attended orientation and shopped for back-to-school clothing. Your child is ready to see what this "elementary-school thing" is all about, but what about you? As a parent, what can you expect from your child's...

My daughters like to talk. Call it a girl thing, say it's because I chattered endlessly to them when they were babies or maybe they just have a lot to say. It's when they are not talking that I know something is up. The summer before my oldest daughter began...

As Olympic fever energizes little athletes and big dreamers across the world, parents everywhere are remembering why they sign up for their "second shift" job of shuttling kids to their various games, practices, matches and events each afternoon (and evening!). Why are so many parents willing to dedicate multiple hours...

Not long ago, my 7-year-old daughter was playing a game on one of her favorite child-friendly websites when all of a sudden, the computer froze up. She tried practicing patience, assuming the squirrels who power our older machine were running slowly. She attempted a system re-start -- my stand-by method...

Some days, I wish I were more of a perfectionist. I see the splotch of paint on my bedroom ceiling and think, "Oh, I should have touched that up... nine years ago when I first painted the room." I notice the slightly askew picture frames on our family room wall...

As a mom, I am always on the lookout for teachable moments. I'm sure my kids will moan and groan in their teenage years about how "everything with Mom has to be a 'thing,'" but I can't help myself;...

Not long ago, my daughter, her best friend and I had a full day's worth of activity and adventure, enjoying carnival games at a local festival, eating bags of salty popcorn, running through icy cold fountains when the day's heat became too intense and following it all up with a...