It can be hard to know what chores to give your teen. It can be even harder to get your teen to do the chores you assign. Performing household chores teach young people responsibility and can help your child learn to be a good citizen. It’s also part of growing up. Someday, your teen will either be living on their own or with a roommate, friend, or partner. The skills they’ll acquire through doing chores will serve them throughout their adult lives....
Your baby wakes up from a nap covered in pink welts. Besides a little extra fussiness, your baby seems fine, but the welts are everywhere and they alarm you. Within an hour, some of the welts disappear, and then reappear on other parts of your little one’s body. Are these hives? Something else serious? Is your baby in danger? What is causing these? Should you take your baby to the doctor?...
Bipolar mania, or simply mania, is a phase of bipolar disorder. It is characterized by sustained periods of abnormally elevated or irritable mood, intense energy, racing thoughts, and other extreme and exaggerated behaviors. A manic episode may be interspersed within periods of depression during which an individual could experience symptoms such as fatigue, sadness, and hopelessness. The signs and features of bipolar mania can vary from person to person and can last anywhere from a few days to several weeks....
Under most circumstances, having self-confidence is a good thing. Confident people tend to be more successful in a wide variety of domains. It is this strong sense of confidence and self-esteem that allows people to go out in the world and reach for their goals. Overview In his book Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control, psychologist Albert Bandura explained that it is confidence, more than any other quality, that contributes to positive outcomes when pursuing goals....
Parents often have to spend a lot of time figuring out how much to feed their children, whether it is a toddler who doesn’t seem to be eating enough or an older child who is already overweight and is eating too much. Understanding the normal portion sizes, which depend on your child’s age, can help to make sure your child is getting the right amount to eat. Remember that your goal isn’t to fill up your child’s plate and then make them eat everything on it until it is clean....
Queer folks approach parenting with a great deal of inventiveness. We write the rules as we go, and the wonderful result is the creativity we display in constructing our families. There’s so much variety, including in the names our kids call us. There are many ways to celebrate Mother’s Day when both parents identify as some variation of “mom.” Approaches to the day, however, tend to fall into one of two categories: giving mom a break or celebrating together as a family....
Whether your child tunes you out when you tell them to pick up their toys or keeps banging on the table when you tell them to stop, getting your child to listen can feel like an uphill battle sometimes. You’re often competing against TV, video games, and lots of other distractions to capture your child’s attention. Of course, electronics aren’t the only reason kids don’t follow directions. They also tend to have selective hearing....
A delta wave is a type of high amplitude brain wave found in humans that is associated with deep sleep. Delta waves have a frequency from one to three hertz (Hz) and are measured using an electroencephalogram (EEG). These brain waves are thought to emerge from the thalamus and are generally associated with slow-wave sleep (which begins during the third stage of sleep.) This period of time during which delta waves occur is often known as deep sleep....
Sibling rivalry isn’t always outgrown in childhood, however; in some cases, it only intensifies as time passes. While people often think of sibling rivalry as a childhood phenomenon, adult sibling rivalry is a common phenomenon in which adult siblings struggle to get along, argue, or are even estranged from one another. If you feel strained in your relationship with your family because your parents favor another sibling or another sibling’s family, you may be surprised to find that you’re not alone....
Because identical twins share the same genetics, you may wonder whether they have identical fingerprints. If you’re writing a mystery novel or trying to solve a television whodunit by proposing there is an evil twin at work, you may have to find a different solution. Identical twins do not have identical fingerprints, even though their identical genes give them very similar patterns. The fetus begins developing fingerprint patterns in the early weeks of pregnancy....
An influential task force now recommends all children ages 8 and up receive screenings for anxiety. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released these new guidelines on October 11, 2022. This task force is an independent panel of health experts authorized by Congress to provide evidence-based recommendations about preventative health services. The task force continues to recommend that children 12 and up be screened for depression. Key Takeaways As of October 11, 2022, the U....
Lithium is a mood stabilizer that can be helpful with bipolar disorder and other conditions but is well known for causing side effects and toxicity. That said, properly monitored, lithium can be safe as well as effective in controlling moods. What do you need to know to use lithium safely? Lithium was the first mood stabilizer medication used for bipolar disorder, having been originally proposed for the treatment of the inflammatory condition gout....
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is type of neurodivergence according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Autism represents differences in how the brain is wired and how it functions. While many autistic people are disabled, others do not consider themselves disabled. Autism does not indicate deficits in comparison to people who are considered neurotypical. Instead, it means that a person may need varying levels of support and accommodation to thrive....
Ask any person about their birth story, and chances are one of the first things they’ll tell you is how long they were in labor—and boy, can it vary. There are those who were in labor for days, and others who were in labor for only a few hours. Super-fast labor sounds like a dream, right? Well, maybe not. What Is Precipitous Labor? Precipitous labor, also called rapid labor, is defined as giving birth after less than three hours of regular contractions....
If you’re into fitness walking or you stand a lot throughout the day, you need a reliable walking shoe to help prevent foot fatigue, soreness, and painful issues such as plantar fasciitis, bunions, or blisters. “To decrease pain, minimize the discomfort, and slow down the deterioration of the fat pad on the bottom of your feet, it is important to wear walking shoes that are supportive and cushioned,” Jackie Sutera, DPM, a podiatrist at City Podiatry in New York City, says....
Until recently, the decision to homeschool typically involved just the needs of parents and their children. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, many parents made the decision to homeschool based on health and safety, rather than educational, social, or religious needs. Some continued to teach their children from home rather than send them back to in-person school. Regardless of their particular reasons, many parents want to know what type of financial impact to expect and how they should prepare and budget for the school year ahead....
Dealing with a narcissist, whether a romantic partner, roommate, or family member, can be challenging. Learning all you can about narcissistic traits and understanding some of the ways to deal with them can help you feel better able to cope. This article discusses what narcissism is, what it’s like to deal with someone who shows frequent narcissistic behaviors, how their behavior might affect you, and what you can do to care for your own emotional well-being....
Breast pumps are essential for those times you need to be separated from your baby and want to continue feeding them your milk. They can also be super helpful if you are experiencing a drop in milk supply, engorgement, or a plugged duct. As such, whether you intend to pump on a regular basis, or only occasionally, most breastfeeding parents will want to have a pump available to them. But when you start to consider all the pumps on the market, it can be quite overwhelming!...
When 2020 began, we did not stuff our bags and pockets with extra masks, and whether a person spent time in large groups was no one else’s business. Over two years later, the world has dramatically and permanently shifted. Key Takeaways A recent study found that women tend to find men more attractive when wearing a mask. Between wearing cloth and medical masks, the latter had higher rates of attractiveness. This data echoes previous studies conducted during the pandemic....
Contractions are a normal part of pregnancy that occur closer to the baby’s due date, with some women experiencing them earlier than 37 weeks. Labor or uterine contractions happen when the muscles in your uterus tighten up and then relax. While the uterus is contracting, you may feel your abdomen harden and then soften when the uterus relaxes. Uterine contractions cause the cervix to thin and dilate or open for childbirth....
