Gift monsters by Alison apRoberts

Help your child avoid turning into a gift monster

You can quit worrying about the Grinch. It's the kids who are more likely to turn into the Gimmes who steal the holiday spirit – or hold it hostage, anyway – by demanding everything on their wish lists as ransom. To read more...

In Raising Children, Less Is Often More

By STEPHANIE DUNNEWIND
THE SEATTLE TIMES 3/4/04

The best-intentioned parents might be raising spoiled kids. Too often, experts say, parents are spoiling kids not just with toys and gadgets, but by failing to set limits, not requiring chores, and smoothing all frustrations to keep kids happy.

"Parents think they overindulge out of kindness, but they're training kids to be helpless and irresponsible," said Connie Dawson, co-author of the new book "How Much Is Enough?: Everything You Need to Know to Steer Clear of Overindulgence and Raise Likeable, Responsible and Respectful Children." To read more...

We spend far too much on gifts for our children. As Christmas looms, we call for cuts in the RPI, the Ridiculous Price Index by Damian Whitworth

November 29, 2007

Something has to give. We are caught in an out-of-control inflationary spiral and we have only ourselves to blame. On this one, Gordon Brown may be innocent. If we are to retain any hopes of economic stability we need to arrest this rampant upward trend in consumption and prices. To read more...

Are you a helicopter parent? Get help!

When you’re showing up at your child’s college classes, it’s time to let go

By Stacy DeBroff

Left to my own devices, I am, at times, a helicopter mom. So I was more than a little relieved to read that Sue Shallenbarger of “The Wall Street Journal” is one, too. After all, if I did not speak with my son’s English teacher in fifth grade, would he have remained in the worst reading group of the class? And how about that scheduling snafu that left my 10th-grade daughter shut out of art class despite her passion for continuing her art studies? Suddenly the theme song of the movie “Ghost Busters” comes to mind: Who are they gonna call? Parent Busters! And so helicopter parents have liftoff. To Read More...

Study VI: Childhood Overindulgence and Life Goals

By participating in this 30 minute study, you will help us understand how childhood overindulgence relates to adult personality traits such as personal aspirations and attitudes about life. Participants will be informed of our research findings upon completion of this study through this newsletter and on the our research webpage. Click on this link to enter the study.

How do I simplify Christmas without looking like Scrooge to the children?

Discussion board found on Motheringdotcommune

In the past few years we went a bit overboard over Christmas. I always try to keep things simple but they have a tendency to spiral out of control. To Read More...

A Christmas Story
It's just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years or so. It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas---oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it- overspending... the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma---the gifts given in desperation because you couldn't think of anything else. Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. To Read More...

Thanks to Research Assistant Chelsae Armao who contributed by finding stories to include in this edition of the newsletter.

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This site was last updated 02/20/08