Every year in November, child health and welfare advocates organize resources and spend the month raising awareness about childhood safety. Most of the information shared during Child Safety Protection Month is directed toward infants, toddlers, and school age children. Safety experts offer helpful tips and advice about things like crib safety, kitchen safety, and bathroom safety. Meaning, really, all the things you worry about when you’re the parent of a

This is the third article in our series on adoption and teens for National Adoption Awareness Month. You don’t have to read the first two articles in the series to benefit from the information in this one, but it helps. Our first article, November is Adoption Awareness Month – A Focus on Teens presents the latest figures on the prevalence of adoption in the U.S. Our second article, Adoption Awareness

This is the second article in our series on adoption and teens for National Adoption Awareness Month. You don’t have to read the first article in the series to benefit from the information in this one, but it helps: November is Adoption Awareness Month – A Focus on Teens presents the latest figures on the prevalence of adoption in the U.S. The short version: close to 31% of families in

Adolescence is a challenging time for any teenager. Puberty launches their bodies and brains into a radical series of changes during the transition from youth to adulthood. Powerful hormones course through their bodies as the part of their brain responsible for rational decision-making and impulse control – the prefrontal cortex – develops the capacity to manage the intense drive to seek out new experiences, feel new sensations, and take risks

So. Your super-mature, mom-and-dad-I’m-almost-an-adult- stop-treating-me-like-a-child! teenager wants to go trick or treating this year, and you’re skeptical. With good reason. But before you dismiss the idea out of hand, consider this: under all that independence, under all that “differentiation” – a.k.a. the developmental process of defining their own identity aside from you – your teen might still want to be a kid. Even though that’s the last thing they’ll ever

Here’s a practical question for parents: Should you let your teen go trick-or-treating this year? For most people in the U.S. the debate is open. It depends on the teen, what they plan to do, and who they’re planning to do it with. In some towns, however, the question has been asked and answered: in several towns in Virginia, trick or treating for anyone over the age of twelve is

So, Mr. and Ms. Teenager. You think you’re too old for Halloween? Think all that fun Halloween stuff is for little kids? Think again. No one is too old to have fun on Halloween. But maybe you’re totally over trick-or-treating. Fair enough: that’s your choice. Before you write it off entirely, however, we want you to try something: chaperone younger siblings or maybe help neighborhood parents by chaperoning their young

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) identifies nicotine as one of the most addictive substances on earth. For some people with tobacco use disorder, kicking the habit is every bit as challenging as quitting heroin. However, for new mothers – as hard as it may be – quitting is one of the best things you can do for your newborn. We’ve known for years that when new mothers smoke