This comprehensive first of its kind guidebook explores the unique challenges that thousands of families face every day raising their children in every city and state. Through extensive research and interviews, as well as years of experience working in the field, the authors cover gender variance from birth through college. What do you do when your toddler daughter's first sentence is that she's a boy? What will happen when your preschool son insists on wearing a dress to school? Is this ever just a phase? How can you explain this to your neighbors and family? How can parents advocate for their children in elementary schools? What are the current laws on the rights of transgender children? What do doctors specializing in gender variant children recommend? What do the therapists say? What advice do other families who have trans kids have? What about hormone blockers and surgery? What issues should your college-bound trans child be thinking about when selecting a school? How can I best raise my gender variant or transgender child with love and compassion, even when I barely understand the issues ahead of us? And what is gender, anyway? These questions and more are answered in this book offering a deeper understanding of gender variant and transgender children and teens.

This wise and funny book presents a revolutionary yet highly practical approach to childcare: leave them alone.
""The Idle Parent" came as a huge relief to the whole family. Suddenly, it was okay to leave the kids to sort it out among themselves. Suddenly, it was okay to be responsibly lazy. This is the most counterintuitive but most helpful and consoling child-raising manual I've yet read."-Alain de Botton, author of "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work" and "The Consolations of Philosophy"
"The most easy-to-follow-without-being-made-to-feel-inadequate parenting manifesto ever written . . . A godsend to parents."- "The Sunday Times"
"Add liberal doses of music, jovial company and deep woods to play in- all central to the idle, not to say Taoist, life-and you have a recipe for bright, happy people with need of neither television nor shrink. Who could ask for more?"- "The Evening Standard"
In "The Idle Parent," the author of "The Freedom Manifesto" and "How to Be Idle" applies his trademark left-of-center theories of idleness to what can be one of the thorniest aspects of adult life: parenting.
Many parents today spend a whole lot of time worrying and wondering- frantically "helicoptering" over their children with the hope that they might somehow keep (or make?) them flawless. But where is this approach to childcare getting us? According to Hodgkinson, in our quest to give our kids everything, we fail to give them the two things they need most: the space and time to grow up self-reliant, confident, happy, and free. In this smart and hilarious book, Hodgkinson urges parents to stop worrying and instead start nurturing the natural instincts toward creativity and independence that are found in every child. And the great irony: in doing so, we will find ourselves becoming happier and better parents.

Reveals the impossible choices and downright terror mixed-status families often face for their loved ones Living in a mixed-status immigrant family might mean that your grandmother could be deported at any moment, your son could be arrested at work, or your mother's deportation hearing is postponed-again. Such uncertainty and fear are the reality of life for mixed-status families-those that include both undocumented immigrants and US citizens. In Contested Americans, Cassaundra Rodriguez explores how members of mixed-status families experience and articulate belonging in the United States. The sixteen million people in the US who fall under this classification share the fear of a family member's possible deportation or the anxiety of leaving behind a child or elderly relative. Rodriguez highlights how different members of the same mixed-status families mediate undocumented statuses while maintaining the collective whole of a family. For many young adults, this may mean negotiating the sponsorship of their immigrant parents, and for the parents, planning for the emotional, physical, and financial well-being of their children in case of deportation. Contested Americans is a timely book, filled with vivid storytelling, that shows how immigration policies, racism, and privilege collide in the backdrop of the lives of millions of mixed-status families.

Unlike many parenting guides that try to eliminate competition, aggression, and violence entirely, "The Wonder of Boys" boldly offers guidelines for channeling boys' energy, but without accepting antisocial behavior as an inevitable accompaniment. Therapist Michael Gurian explains what a boy really needs--a primary and an extended family, a relationship with mother, father, and mentors, as well as intense support from school and community.

Being a parent is probably the most important job many of us will ever have. We recognize that it is not enough to simply raise a child who does what he or she is told or gets good grades. In this book, clinical psychologist Dr. Edward Christophersen and his colleague, child psychologist Dr. Susan Mortweet, show parents how to raise their child to become the adult we'd all like to be-one who is happy and compassionate, confident but not aggressive, and able to make and keep friends. They point out that from babyhood on through the school years, children learn these qualities by observing and interacting with their parents. In clearly written, easy-to-follow chapters, parents are shown how to model and reward positive behaviors and avoid the need for ineffective, punitive discipline. Two key areas are covered in the book: building one's own skills as a parent, and then building one's child's competencies. Scores of practical examples show parents how to teach their children what is important in life, how to communicate clearly, and how to effectively discipline their child. Special parenting topics such as managing a child's behavior in public, monitoring TV, toys, and games, and handling fallout from divorce are also discussed. Readers then learn how to build their child's basic skills by teaching him or her how to quickly get over upsets and how to play independently. The authors also dispense wise advice on the all-too-common problems associated with bedtime and sleeping, toilet training, aggression, and tantrums. This book is a great resource that parents will find reassuring, comprehensive, and thought-provoking.

It's not like she's the only woman to ever have a baby. At thirty-five. On her own. But Anne Lamott makes it all fresh in her now-classic account of how she and her son and numerous friends and neighbors and some strangers survived and thrived in that all important first year. From finding out that her baby is a boy (and getting used to the idea) to finding out that her best friend and greatest supporter Pam will die of cancer (and not getting used to that idea), with a generous amount of wit and faith (but very little piousness), Lamott narrates the great and small events that make up a woman's life.

Overnutrition? Undernutrition? Cutting through current anxiety and hype, Small Bites answers key questions about child nutrition and eating by exploring their biological and sociocultural determinants. Are children naturally picky eaters? How can school meals help to address food insecurity and malnutrition? How has the industrial food system commodified children's food and shaped children's bodies? Tina Moffat investigates the feeding of children in school and at home around the world, revealing the influence of varied cultural approaches to childhood and food. This important work sets a course for food policy, schools, communities, and caregivers to improve children's food and nutrition.

The first multi-media parenting book that that gives readers a new way to take a collaborative stance with children, improving their cognitive, emotional and social skills. Written for real parents with anxious, angry and over-the-top kids, Bloom is a brain-based approach to parenting all children. Stop second-guessing the way you handle misbehaviors, and learn why they occur in the first place. Come to understand the developmental origins of behaviors and take a fresh look at how you can address them with skill-building techniques that produce real and lasting change. Taking its lead from neuroscience and best practices in early childhood mental health, Bloom offers parents, teachers and care providers the words, thoughts and actions to raise calm, confident children, while reducing the need for consequences and punishment. The first book of its kind, Bloom provides pages full of printable mantras you can carry with you, hang on your fridge or use in your classroom to raise emotionally competent kids. Bloom allows you to take a collaborative stance with your children, improving their cognitive, emotional and social skills. Bloom offers a new approach to human relationships that will change the way you perceive, think and feel about parenting, love, work and life. Bloom changes everything. If it works wonders with anxious, angry and over-the-top kids, imagine what it can do for your child. BONUS: Each chapter has a QR code that links to bonus videos so you can hear directly from the authors about each topic. Lynne Kenney, PsyD, mother of two, is a "mom social media expert," Harvard-trained pediatric psychologist, and author of The Family Coach Method. Wendy Young, LMSW, BCD, mother of three, is an award-winning therapist and an early childhood mental health consultant.