The psychology of many 21st century books for children has changed in the 30+ years since my children were born. Does this make for easier child-rearing? Why can’t parents be more direct with their kids–you’re not behaving well, rather than using what passes for politically correct phrases that don’t convey to the child the severity of the behavior.

This is an interesting article on the state of some children’s books from the New Yorker Magazine:

http://tinyurl.com/ylxmr7q

Dale McGowan is there for us freethinking parents. He has two books on the topic of raising children in nonreligious households: Parenting Beyond Belief, the “first comprehensive book for nonreligious parents”, which includes a collection of essays by Julia Sweeney, Richard Dawkins, Penn Jillette and others, and Raising Freethinkers, which is a practical guide to parenting beyond belief, which includes activities and resources for the actual hands-on aspects of the subject.  He also has a blog, The Meming of Life, which gives freethinking parents continuous support, with short articles and funny anecdotes.

In addition to these resources, » Continue reading “Parenting Beyond Belief Channel on YouTube”

Lenore Skenazy talks about Free Range Kids on NPR.

Her statistics about how much crime has decreased are very reassuring.  It’s amazing, though, how much my stomach tightens when she talks about letting her son ride the subway alone!  Definitely true that it seems strange these days to let kids roam around on their own, even though I remember riding my bike all over town by myself.

In my first ever post on here, I wrote about learning to worry less, or at least worry about the right things.  Sounds like this book is a must read.

You are, of course, interested in teaching your kids about evolution. But how? They don’t cover it in schools much lately. You can’t find any toys that are based on it in toy stores. And when was the last time you saw a children’s book about it? So what is a good, rational parent to do??

Why, it’s simple! Go to » Continue reading “Charlies Playhouse: Blog, Toy Store, Resource”

I’ve just finished reading a book to amuse and enlighten any science-minded parent: Parenting for Primates by Harriet J. Smith. The author — a primatologist-turned-psychologist — compares parenting techniques across the entire primate order to give human parents some ideas about what works and why.

Naturally this should invite a little skepticism: it’s not clear how relevant the parenting techniques of other species are for humans. Even closely-related species can have very different life strategies. Still, it’s fun to compare and see what we can learn.

Humans stand out from the primate pack in a lot of familiar ways: extensive tool use and language, less inclined to live in trees, and adaptability and success to the point of covering practically the entire land surface of the Earth. Smith points out another big difference that I hadn’t noticed as a difference before: human fathers typically provide resources (food, clothing, shelter) for their offspring. Other primate fathers — if they are involved in the lives of their young at all — tend to provide protection (from rival males who would kill the unweaned babies to send the mother back into estrus), and often assist the mother in carrying and socializing the young, but leave the babies and their mothers to feed themselves. » Continue reading “Parenting for Primates”