In the same way toys and video games keep becoming more interactive and complex, the newest children’s literature is grabbing kids’ attention with challenging subjects and arresting visual style. Issues like cultural history and the responsibility of maturity are no longer considered too weighty for young readers, nor are illustrative layouts that reference everything from classical and modern painting to photography and comic books.
Archive for the 'parenting' Category
Kids’ Books Grow Up
December 1, 2002From Rugged Masculinity to Goo-Goo Fatherhood
January 15, 2001So, you’re a new father or father-to-be. Let’s take as a premise that you are ready and willing to be a father, or at least you think you are. You’ve resigned yourself to spending way less time out with the boys, putting in less time at the office (and gym and anywhere else you spend time regularly) and following sports with considerably less interest. You think you’ve prepared yourself, right? Before you cash that check, you’re going to need to address the three biggest lifestyle changes that a new father must deal with: forgetting traditional gender roles, losing your self-consciousness and relating to your baby.
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Managing Work with Fatherhood
January 10, 2001Most guys tend to think they will be able to handle being a new parent without too much stress or aggravation. It’s the wife that has to go through all of the discomfort of pregnancy and childbirth, right? But once the realities of being awakened every hour and a half by a crying baby, the endless visits from family and friends, the easy slippage into exhausted bickering with your partner and the very real and very intense anxiety about not doing anything terribly wrong to your newborn all set in, your tune will change. It’s going to take all the energy you can muster to maintain sanity in your home the first few days after your child is born. Then, in a moment of clarity, you will remember a detail that had completely slipped your mind: you have a job.
How To Survive Formula Feeding
January 1, 2001Breastfeeding is the most important thing you can do for your newborn. It should continue for a minimum of six months and is recommended by the AAP for at least one year. If the baby’s mother needs to work after the birth, she should pump during her free time and have at least 30 ounces of breastmilk, frozen and refrigerated, on hand at all times. If the mother chooses not to breastfeed, the child will be at greater risk for obesity, ear infection, lower IQ, allergies and eczema; the baby will love you less and may not potty train before the age of 14.
Does any of this sound familiar? If you’ve been to a prenatal breastfeeding class with the mother of your child, it may be a fresh wound in your psyche. Breastfeeding is no longer nature’s simple way of providing nourishment for your child — and it’s certainly not the optional choice it was for your parents. It’s now a science and a necessity for creating the uber-human that we, as young parents, so love to pressure ourselves to make of our children. We get it from Ob/Gyns, pregnancy literature, friends with babies and, especially, lactation consultants. If breastfeeding is effortless for your partner, the lactation consultant is a mentor; if not, you may be calling her a Nazi before you’re through.
