MJ's mother is worried. "She's so shy. Whenever we get together with people, I mean even one or two people, she hangs behind me. I don’t know how to encourage her." MJ is four ...  Read more... »

Depression and related illnesses threaten to wreck the lives of many teens and their families. Suicide driven by these illnesses is one of the top killers of young people. How do teens ...  Read more... »

"I hate that school! I hate that teacher!" Nick has come home from school in a fierce temper. He drops his backpack on the kitchen floor and kicks it across the room. "She's not fair! ...  Read more... »

Children who survive traumatic events are at a higher risk of allergy and asthma, recent research suggests. Researchers in Leipzig, Germany have found that such events directly affect the immune system. Dr. Gunda Herberth and colleagues ...  Read more... »

When my grandfather's mother died in 1900 in rural Maine, it was his aunt who stepped in to raise him and his baby sister. When my friend Jill lost her mother in the 1950s, her ...  Read more... »

"Putting food by." That’s what my grandmother called it. As a girl, I spent lots of steamy summer days in an even steamier kitchen learning the art of canning. My grand-dad would bring in a ...  Read more... »

Food is getting more and more expensive. Gas is over $4 a gallon and airfares are out of sight. That family vacation you've been looking forward to all year seems to be getting further and ...  Read more... »

It’s a teddy bear picnic. There are cardboard bear tracks leading to the backyard. The table, the paper cups and plates, and the napkins are festooned with bears. There are teddy bears dressed in their ...  Read more... »

Americans seem more confused than ever about the role of fathers in children's lives. On the one hand, more and more fathers are absent for all or significant periods of time. According to the ...  Read more... »

Now here's a topic that's guaranteed to raise the ire of those who are committed to either position. I've enjoyed the impassioned debate, largely because I'm thrilled to see people on both sides who are ...  Read more... »

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon is, on the surface, a detective story. A detective story rather than another type of novel, because it is like ...  Read more... »

The longterm effects of childhood neglect are many and serious. Have you fallen in and out of love with people who can’t love you back? Do you believe that you are essentially unlovable? If you ...  Read more... »

It's a silent problem. While newspapers and TV news shows regularly highlight stories of child physical and sexual abuse, the companion problem, child neglect, hardly gets a mention. Neglect, unless accompanied by pictures of squalor ...  Read more... »

The things that children find funny tell us a great deal about their level of development and what is on their minds. There is a connection between the 2-year-old who bursts into a fit of ...  Read more... »

Maybe you've been together for a number of years and moving in together seems like the next logical step. Maybe it's a matter of saving money. After all, why pay rent at two places if ...  Read more... »