ArcaMax

Q: We sent our daughter a recent article of yours hoping it might cause her to rethink her approach to raising our grandson. It was not well-received and she is no longer speaking to us. The child, age 4, is quite ill-behaved. Our daughter makes one excuse after another for him: He was premature, he was hospitalized as a toddler and now has PTSD...Read more

It's funny, sort of, the things some parents want to believe. An example concerns children who've developed full-blown "eating disorders" by age 3.

"My child was exhibiting food intolerances as an infant!" a mother insisted to me after I had told an audience that picky eating was learned as opposed to some anomaly of the nerve endings in a ...Read more

Q: In a recent column, you identified toddlerhood as "the hump of parenting." As a grandmother who managed to raise five kids who were out of the house in their early 20s and are responsible citizens, I could not agree more. Two of them, however, did not get over the hump with their kids and now have spoiled, difficult children whom I sadly do ...Read more

Q: Our first child, a boy, just turned 2. Per your advice, he is toilet trained and eating whatever I serve. Before he was born, we determined that we were not going to raise a picky eater. Our problem isn't our son; it's my sister-in-law, who has three kids, the youngest of which is 4. She insists that my husband and I say "no" to our son way ...Read more

Q: In your column of last week, you referred to the "hump of toddlerhood." Can you please explain further?

A: In using the word "hump," I'm equating chronological toddlerhood – roughly, 18 to 36 months of age – with the idea that there is a point at which one surmounts the most difficult or stressful point of a challenge. Concerning the ...Read more

Q: My husband and I are not on the same page when it comes to our just-turned 4-year-old son. He thinks our son's behavior is a phase that he will outgrow. To me, his defiance and tantrums are alarming and need to be dealt with now to prevent them from getting worse. Most recently, he has started hitting and kicking us when he doesn't get his ...Read more

A mother in California seeks her pastor's opinion on allowing her 15-year-old son to have a smart phone. The boy claims that if he can't use social media, he will have no friends. Mom is skeptical concerning the claim and afraid of other Internet experiences the youngster might be drawn to if he has a smart phone.

The pastor tells Mom that her ...Read more

Q: My 13-year-old son's grades and overall respect for me and other adults – teachers, in particular – began going downhill last year (eighth grade), even before the shutdown. He began school this year with the same attitude, if not worse. In response, I have taken away most of his privileges, including his phone and video game. When we ...Read more

A grandmother in Arkansas says her adult children have great difficulty telling their children what to do. They turn instructions – more accurately, what they think are instructions – into questions and then wonder why their kids don't seem to appreciate their timidity.

Grandma's email made me think of a habit I have noticed among people a ...Read more

As just about everyone who has lived with a child for more than two years knows, the most potentially dangerous thing one can say to a toddler is "no." That single syllable strikes deep into the core of the reptilian portion of the toddler brain, arousing a reaction that dwarfs Godzilla's most destructive rampage.

"Should I simply ignore my 2-...Read more