Best Grandparenting

Drawing on interviews with parents who've survived the heartbreak of kids on drugs, combined with his own experience, Charles Rubin provides practical advice on how parents can help themselves and their families by first attending to their own needs. "Offers parents the means to attain a healthy balance in their lives despite their children's choices," ---Publishers Weekly Charles Rubin, a Clio Award-winning writer and producer, has been the subject of many television interviews on CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, and the BBC.

From the Folio Prize-shortlisted author of Plainsong , Eventide and Benediction , a stunning novel about finding happiness. Their brave adventures form the beating heart of Our Souls at Night , Kent Haruf's exquisite final novel. Haruf's story accumulates resonance through carefully chosen details; the novel is quiet but never complacent" New Yorker. Haruf's final novel is a beacon of hope; he is sorely missed" Financial Times. Now, now, this scenario was conceived by the late, great Kent Haruf— Our Souls at Night is no 50 Shades of Geriatric Grey . As this friendship deepens, it is tested by said busybodies and meddling family members, plot points that almost distract from what makes this novel such a fitting and sweet swan song. Our Souls at Night was inspired, in part, by Haruf’s own marriage and the intimate, late-night conversations he and his wife relished, just like Addie and Louis. And just like Addie and Louis, Haruf proved that you’re never too old to reinvent yourself, take risks, find love, and write a great novel. Haruf's fiction ratifies ordinary, nonflashy decency, but he also knows that even the most placid lives are more complicated than they appear from the outside. The novel is a plainspoken, vernacular farewell.” —Catherine Holmes, The Charleston Post and Courier “A marvelous addition to his oeuvre. But here, in a book about love and the aftermath of grief, in his final hours, he has produced his most intense expression of that yet. Packed into less than 200 pages are all the issues late life provokes.” —John Freeman, The Boston Globe “A fitting close to a storied career, a beautiful rumination on aging, accommodation, and our need to connect. Haruf’s story accumulates resonance through carefully chosen details; the novel is quiet but never complacent.” — The New Yorker. .a triumphant end to an inspiring literary career [and] a reminder of a loss on the American cultural landscape, as well as a parting gift from a master storyteller.” —William J. Cobb, The Dallas Morning News “A fine and poignant novel that demonstrates that our desire to love and to be loved does not dissolve with age. I recommend reading it straight through, then sitting in quiet reflection of beautiful literary art.” —Fred Ohles, The Lincoln Journal Star “Haruf is never sentimental, and the ending—multiple twists packed into the last twenty pages—is gritty, painful and utterly human. Like the friendly light shining from Addie's window, Haruf’s final novel is a beacon of hope; he is sorely missed.” —Francesca Wade, Financial Times. The cadence of this book is soft and gentle, filled with shy emotion, as tentative as a young person's first kiss—timeless in its beauty. a small, quiet gem, written in English so plain that it sparkles.” —Anne Susskind, The Sydney Morning Herald. [This] novel runs on the dogged insistence that simple elements carry depths, and readers will find much to be grateful for.” —Joan Silber, The New York Times Book Review “In a fitting and gorgeous end to a body of work that prizes resilience above all else, Haruf has bequeathed readers a map charting a future that is neither easy nor painless, but it’s also not something we have to bear alone.” — Esquire. such a tender, carefully polished work that it seems like a blessing we had no right to expect.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post “Haruf spent a life making art from our blind collisions, and Our Souls at Night is a fitting finish.” —John Reimringer, The Minneapolis Star Tribune “Haruf once again banishes doubts. This is a novel for just after sunset on a summer’s eve, when the sky is still light and there is much to see, if you are looking.” —Wingate Packard, The Seattle Times “A parting gift [and] a reminder of how profoundly we will miss Holt and its people, and Kent Haruf's extraordinary writing.” —Sandra Dallas, The Denver Post “Short, spare and moving... Our Souls at Night is already creating a stir.” —Jennifer Maloney, The Wall Street Journal.

This, however, is not a tale of suffering. Filled with recipes and how-tos for everything from catching and skinning a rabbit to preparing homemade skin and hair beautifiers, apple cream pie, and the world’s best head cheese (start by scrubbing the head of the pig until it is pink and clean), Little Heathens portrays a world of hardship and hard work tempered by simple rewards. There was the unsurpassed flavor of tender new dandelion greens harvested as soon as the snow melted; the taste of crystal clear marble-sized balls of honey robbed from a bumblebee nest; the sweet smell from the body of a lamb sleeping on sun-warmed grass; and the magical quality of oat shocking under the light of a full harvest moon. Kalish's memoir of her Iowa childhood, set against the backdrop of the Depression, captures a vanished way of traditional living and a specific moment in American history in a story both illuminating and memorable. Kalish lived with her siblings, mother and grandparents-seven in all-both in a town home and, in warmer weather, out on a farm.

An honest and groundbreaking guide to understanding the complicated emotions that develop between stepmothers and children. The author of Stepmonster and the instant #1 New York Times bestseller Primates of Park Avenue, she has appeared as a step/parenting expert on CNN, NPR, BBC, Today, and GMA and has written for the New York Times and Psychology Today.

An indispensable survival manual for guys entering the trenches of fatherhood, Be Prepared is loaded with one-of-a-kind insights, MacGyver-esque tips and tricks, and no-nonsense advice for mastering the first year as a dad. The basics (childproofing, bathing, feeding, entertaining) intermix with nifty sidebars (homemade bath toys, foods to never give your baby, exercises for dads) in easy-to-peruse chapters organized according to the age of the offspring up to age 1. (A hunger cry, for example, is "a pattern of low-pitched, rhythmic moans, growing more and more insistent," whereas a boredom pattern is "a low-volume whimper which stops and starts irregularly."). Along with the conventional chapters on baby-proofing your house and taking a baby's temperature are more obscure—and amusing—topics, such as how to videotape your baby and how to conduct a "Mirror Puppet Sing Along" to sooth a crying baby while driving (the technique requires two mirrors, a hand-puppet and an indifference to looking silly).

During the years Joan Anderson was a loving wife and supportive mother, she had slowly and unconsciously replaced her own dreams with the needs of her family. With her sons grown, however, she realized that the family no longer centered on the home she provided, and her relationship with her husband had become stagnant. Through vivid and meticulous observations about the natural world, Anderson makes clear her strong affinity for the ocean, with its changing tides, subtle colors and burgeoning life. She swam with seals, ran a marathon, worked in a fish market, and earned extra income clammingAactivities that gave her the opportunity to shed her image as family nurturer and allowed her to grow as an independent woman. This is a good choice for discussion and a companion piece to Anne Morrow Lindbergh's classic Gift from the Sea.AJoyce Sparrow, St. Petersburg P.L., FL. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Regina’s Calcaterra memoir, Etched in Sand , is an inspiring and triumphant coming-of-age story of tenacity and hope. In this story of perseverance in the face of adversity, Regina Calcaterra recounts her childhood in foster care and on the streets—and how she and her savvy crew of homeless siblings managed to survive years of homelessness, abandonment, and abuse. Regina Calcaterra's emotionally powerful memoir reveals how she endured a series of foster homes and intermittent homelessness in the shadow of the Hamptons, and how she rose above her past while fighting to keep her brother and three sisters together.

For over 20 years, On Becoming Babywise has been the de facto newborn parenting manual for naturally synchronizing your baby’s feeding time, waketime and nighttime sleep cycles, so the whole family can sleep through the night. Practical discussions then focus on broad and niche topics including feeding philosophies, baby sleep problems, baby scheduling challenges, nap routines, sleep training multiples, baby sleeping props, Colic and Reflux and many other dimensions which impact breast feeding schedules, bottle feeding tips and baby sleep training. 1) Taking care of baby and mom. 2) A timeline of what to expect and when. 3) Baby Sleep Training Problems and Solutions. 4) Monitoring Your Baby’s Growth. 5) Healthy Baby Growth Charts. My residents report a positive difference in the confidence of new mothers who work with this plan compared to those who do not. They consistently produce babies who are healthy, content, and who sleep through the night at an early age. "Since being introduced to the principles of Babywise, I have been convinced of its effectiveness in establishing sleep patterns and in decreasing the frequency of problems associated with infant feeding." This is the current and completely revised & updated version of On Becoming Babywise (the 5th edition, February 2012). It has a new chapter, several important revisions, the latest in medical updates, and is 19% longer than the former version. In becoming one of America's leading infant management guides, On Becoming Babywise has continued to improve its methods and practices throughout its 30 years and this latest version is the result of all the best over the last three decades. The Babywise method continues to gain global recognition for its common-sense approach to parenting a newborn. and co-author Gary Ezzo which helps parents successfully and naturally synchronize their baby's feeding time, waketime and nighttime cycles. Rather, our larger objective is to help prepare minds for the incredible task of raising a child. Your baby will not care if his head rests on designer sheets or beside Disney characters, nor is your success tied to his wardrobe or bedroom accessories, but rather to the beliefs and convictions that will eventually shape your parenting experience. It is our opinion that the achievements of healthy growth, contented babies, good naps, and playful wake times, as well as the gift of nighttime sleep, are too valuable to be left to chance. We realize there are a number of parenting theories being marketed today, most of which come gift-wrapped with unrealistic promises and unnecessary burdens. Spend time with relatives and friends who follow the Attachment Parenting style of infant care. The Appendices section in On Becoming Babywise contains charts, worksheets, and additional information relating to infant care. And while 70% of our mothers are still breast-feeding after six months, the national average encourage to follow demand feeding without any guidelines is only 20%. The authors demonstrate how order and stability are mutual allies of every newborn's metabolism and how parents can take advantage of these biological propensities. In particular, we note how an infant's body responds to the influences of parental routine or the lack thereof. Examine carefully the alternative theories and approaches, and specifically observe the end results. The best evaluation of any parenting philosophy, including Babywise, is not found in the reasoning or the logic of the hypothesis. " As family physicians and a husband-wife team, we are often asked questions related to parenting and the general care of children.

James McBride, journalist, musician, and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, The Color Of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother . "Mommy," a fiercely protective woman with "dark eyes full of pep and fire," herded her brood to Manhattan's free cultural events, sent them off on buses to the best (and mainly Jewish) schools, demanded good grades, and commanded respect. The Color of Water touches readers of all colors as a vivid portrait of growing up, a haunting meditation on race and identity, and a lyrical valentine to a mother from her son. Order this book ... and please don't be put off by its pallid subtitle, A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother , which doesn't begin to do justice to the utterly unique and moving story contained within. Jordan, born Rachel Shilsky, a Polish Jew, immigrated to America soon after birth; as an adult she moved to New York City, leaving her family and faith behind in Virginia. Her grim upbringing in an abusive environment is left behind when she moves to Harlem, marries a black man, converts to Christianity, and cofounds a Baptist congregation with her husband.

Brooke Nolan is a battered child who makes an anonymous phone call about the escalating brutality in her home. When social services jeopardize her safety condemning her to keep her father’s secret, it’s a glass of spilled milk at the dinner table that forces her to speak about the cruelty she’s been hiding. When jury members and a love interest congregate to inspire her to fight, she risks losing the support of family and comes to the realization that some people simply do not want to be saved. Several colleges and high schools have incorporated the novel into their lesson plans and I've received tons of feedback from my voracious fans- I knew I needed to come out with a more polished and professional edition that was appropriate for the education system, my fans, and in general. Randis, author of bestselling novel Spilled Milk and thePillbillies series, started journaling at the age of six and had shortstories and poetry published by the time she was thirteen.She is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University and a certifiedexpert in the field of domestic violence. Randis engages audiences on a local and national level to raise awareness about child abuse, serving as a frequent commentator to media outlets.