What The Painted Turtle offers for sick children

July 25, 2009

A friend’s child suffers with Crohn’s disease and it has been hard for him being ten, eleven and twelve and having to struggle with his condition—the discomfort, the doctors and the embarrassing and frequent trips to the bathroom. But he recently returned from a summer camp experience that proved transformative.  Some readers may be familiar […]

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When we fear our children (biological, adopted or psychological)

July 24, 2009

With the film Orphan opening today, some factions have raised an uproar about an adoption horror story threatening to scare potential parents away from adopting (http://tiny.cc/lecl8).  I don’t think this is going to happen any more than Fatal Attraction managed to put the kibosh on married men seducing women (disturbed or otherwise) and later wishing they hadn’t […]

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Pregnant women need to know that they are beautiful

July 23, 2009

 Pregnant women are beautiful.  In talking to my wife about things she wished she might have known when she was pregnant, she mentioned that during her pregnancy she could not believe (despite my continually, and sincerely, telling her) that she was beautiful—she just felt fat and unattractive.  So, if you’re pregnant, trust that you are […]

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I can see those red tail-lights heading for Spain

July 22, 2009

I was having dinner with friends whose fourteen-year-old daughter had just come back from Italy with her grandparents, where they stayed in an elder-hostel.  She was just delighted to have been able to make new friends with other grandchildren and, in contrast to her life in LA, be free to walk anywhere alone in Venice […]

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Welcome to the New Age

July 21, 2009

Monopoly, the board game, always ends badly (at least for the group).  If we realize that we are the group, that old-school game that became a hit in the last “Great” Depression may reveal itself as a teacher of compassion and enlightened Self-interest in our current economic conditions. The economy is in the crapper and […]

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What might J.K. Rowling be offering in the way of parenting advice?

July 20, 2009

My favorite line in the new Harry Potter movie comes when Dumbledore, having just teleported himself and Harry to the scene of a wrecked house in some remote village supposes that Harry is wondering what’s going on, to which Harry replies that after six years he’s learned to “just go with it.” The zeitgeist (or […]

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Letting Go in the service of our children

July 19, 2009

Sometimes we hold onto things.  We stay entangled in our pain and in relationships that seem to afflict us.  Sometimes those relationships fill our homes with strife and our children keep wishing that we wouldn’t quarrel; sometimes those relationships exist in our heads, between us and those who have hurt us in the past—and this […]

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Can parenting make us better golfers (or vice versa)?

July 18, 2009

Like parenting, golf is a humbling endeavor and a difficult game to master.  Most golfers who have a bad attitude about the game (cursing, throwing clubs) have their expectations way ahead of their abilities; this is probably equally true of parents who may expect to be expert at it, and then get angry and frustrated […]

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What is an IEP and how do I get one?

July 17, 2009

Having worked with a wide array of special needs kids, as a psychologist I am aware that many parents are fairly in the dark about their child’s governmentally sanctioned promise to be educated and supported in accordance with their special need. An “I.E.P.” is an acronym for an Individualized Education Plan, and a parent can, […]

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Are we over-protecting our kids?

July 16, 2009

Recent piece by Judith Warner (http://tiny.cc/v1BC4) used the example of a mom, a professor, getting in trouble with the law for leaving her twelve-year-old and another twelve-year-old in charge of three younger kids ages eight, seven and three.  This mom told the older kids to keep watch on the younger kids, keep the three-year-old in […]

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