Because I am a mom and I work as a parenting writer, I get a lot of questions. I’ll start answering some of them here on the blog. Following are a couple of recent questions (and answers):
Question #1: My one year old only wants me to hold her. She screams whenever I leave the room (even when someone else is there with her) except for when I leave her with the babysitter. (This is a mom who works outside of the home.)
My answer: "That’s normal" (that’s part of my answer for almost every question!). She’s just going through her "attachment phase". When given a choice, she’s going to choose you. Don’t worry…she’ll grow out of it in a few months.
(My answer was confirmed by a May 2008 Parenting magazine article entitled "When only one parent will do" that you can read here.)
Question #2: How do you talk to young kids about death? (This was actually a question that came up because I didn’t attend a wake along with my husband, because I didn’t want to have the "death" talk with my inquisitive 4 year old. A mom friend asked me to let her know what I found out about "the talk" because she also has an inquisitive 4 year old.)
Answer: I didn’t have one, but the May 2008 issue of Cookie magazine had an article all about responding to five common questions that children ask about death. The article is entitled, "a loss for words". In the piece, common questions were directed towards bereavement specialists/authors Maria Trozzi and Dr. Donna Schuurman. I recommend reading the magazine article (page 90) (I couldn’t find a web link.) Overall, "The younger the kid, the simpler the answer" was the prevailing wisdom.