child development

Boys acting like girls. Girls acting like boys. Parents challenged by their tots.

A straight father has watched for the past six months as his son clung to dolls and modeled dresses.

The Village Voice explores the possibility reality of transgendered kids.

It's time for your child to start preschool or elementary school and you're worried about how the moment of separation will go. Will your child cry or fuss, not wanting to let go? What about you? What's the best way to handle the conflicting emotions connected to this important day?

There are things you can do to make this important transition easier for you and your kid.

Research tells us they turn out about the same as everyone else with at least one loving parent. And they're NOT more likely to be gay than other kids.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette explains:

Studies show that toddlers are sensitive to the emotional dynamics of the interactions around them.

University of Washington researchers have found that toddlers as young as 18 months engage in what they call “emotional eavesdropping” by listening and watching emotional reactions directed by one adult to another and then using this emotional information to shape their own behavior.

Mothering Magazine offers a fresh perspective on tantrums that makes parenting young children much simpler, if not easier.

You can safely and serenely allow your child to have the tantrum she is heading toward. That tantrum is necessary. It's healthy, and it's healing. All you need to add is your warm attention. The tantrum you permit her to have clears a jam in her mental and emotional system so she can think well again.

Saying "no" to your toddler is often necessary but it can be difficult for both of you. She doesn't like the word, and you don't like the results.

Parenting Magazine offers some pointers that may help.

First, replace "no" with "yes." Try saying "We sit on the couch" instead of "No standing on furniture!" Or "Yes, you can have a cookie — right after you eat your green beans." This helps toddlers understand the rules and may prevent a power struggle.

Specialists agree that very few children are completely potty trained when starting before the age of three; and kids trained before age two usually regress sometimes before the age of five. Many experts define complete potty training as the ability for child to go to bed in regular cloth underwear and wake up dry eight hours later.