I need advice on a family issue. My wife’s father is at the end of a long illness. He is in hospice in NJ and she is there now. He will likely pass in the next few days. We are trying to decide if I should fly the kids from CA to NJ for the [...]

There are lots of ways to teach kids to express gratitude. If your family is like mine, we spend most of November preparing for Thanksgiving, with the guests and the cleaning and the cooking. Then the day arrives and we search for a way to help our kids understand the meaning. This year, try this [...]

It’s Food Drive time at school! The next time your child comes home asking for a donation for anything (books, clothes, canned goods, money)? Don’t say yes right away! Here’s why.

Dr. G, with the back to school season in full swing, Rice Krispies wants to know your suggestions for making mornings simple and stress free for the entire family? Kellogg’s Rice Krispies (state not provided) Well, RK, thanks for asking! I’ve written and created video about things we can do the night before to make [...]

 I’m starting a new series today! Starting this week I’m going to have a weekly (ish) VIDEO series on very quick ways to make our lives easier as parents and reinforce the 3 R’s in our kids.  This first tip is about building Responsibility – by teaching our kids to prep for their morning the [...]

I am really pleased to be over on The Slop Swap today, a great blog about saving. I’m writing about teaching kids to save money, and I hope you’ll stop by!

I was invited to post “anything my heart desired” today over at the blog of a woman I’ve long admired. Nicole, at By Word of Mouth Musings is gracious, funny and real, classy and smart. So I wrote about what my heart desires – good kids who know their own value. And I wrote about [...]

Valentines Day can be lovely, but it can also be filled with angst and social pressure for kids in elementary school!  Come on over to Huffington Post where I’m stirring up Valentines Day trouble!

Today I am thrilled to be back over at A Mother World, answering a parent’s question about how to handle holiday parties and visits. These can be a battleground or a struggle for kids. With a little advanced planning, it doesn’t have to be that way! I hope you’ll jump over and see how!

My teenager cannot seem to survive without her cell phone, not even for the 30 minutes we spend as a family eating dinner. It is driving me crazy. And when I say anything, she is full of drama. “You don’t understand, I HAVE to answer!” They say family dinner together is one of the most [...]

This week I am featured on Little One Books talking about how to get your little ones involved on Thanksgiving and enjoy the day to the fullest!  I hope you will hop over and join me there.

This week I have been lucky enough to be asked back on A Mother World, an online magazine for parents based in Canada. If you missed it a few weeks ago, I wrote about why kids can be so well-behaved at school, and then have such trouble with their behavior at home. This week’s question [...]

I love Halloween. The decorations, the costumes, the neighborhood-ness of tromping around and talking to people we usually mostly just wave at all leave me with a great warm feeling. Which is really a feat, since most Halloweens where we live are so cold you throw a coat on over the costume, unless you are [...]

Tonight is the beginning of the end.   Yom Kippur starts at sundown.  Despite that fact that our Jewish new year began last week, Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) marks the end of our intense period of reconciliation for everything done and undone in the past year. Our focus in this ten days is on [...]

Dear Dr. G, My 9-year-old still sleeps with his stuffed bunny.  He recently mentioned that he got teased about it (lord knows how it came up at school), and he said that he wanted to stop sleeping with bunny.  We told him we would help him break the bunny habit if HE wanted to do [...]

Spending time with our kids is good parenting. I mean, spending quality time with our kids, that is the best thing we can do for our families, right? But what if it isn’t? What if the best thing we can do for our family is to leave our kids with a reliable sitter so we [...]

Is it OK to use a DVD player in the car for long drives? Miriam, from NYC, NY A: Yes.   I was going to leave it at that, but here is the rationale in case you are wondering. First argument in favor: Remember the car trips of yesteryear?  The bonding, license plate games, mom [...]

I have a 9 year old son, who is a great kid, smart, responsible, good with his younger brothers. Up until recently he has been very affectionate – he liked to give hugs and would kiss us goodbye. Just recently he has started to pull away and it’s kind of concerning. I don’t think he’s [...]

Hi Dr. G.  I am reading your website and have found a lot of your advice to be useful.  I am curious, though, what is the parenting philosophy you believe in, and why do you think it works? Dan, in northeastern PA A:  Thanks for asking.  My parenting philosophy is pretty straight-forward. It is anything [...]

As far as eating goes, she’s willing to at least try different foods before claiming she doesn’t like them. Her food staples are primarily breakfast foods: cereal, pancakes, French toast, croissants, eggs, cheese, potatoes, etc. And of course, chicken nuggets and fries. What frustrates us the most is when she was younger she would eat [...]