Raising Happy and Successful Kids

Andre Agassi hated tennis? That’s the surprise in his new autobiography Open, but the surprise evaporates when you read why: Agassi didn’t choose to play tennis. He felt forced to play. His immigrant dad wanted his son to live the American dream, to have the life choices he’d not had himself,  Read More 

Yesterday while talking to parents at Echo Horizon school in Culver City, Ca. about Pressured Parents, Stressed-out Kids, I mentioned that I’d found giving my kids empathy difficult --- even though I know empathy helps you take a child’s point of view, which strengthens her feelings of autonomy. I guess  Read More 

Here's an excellent article on Pressured Parents, Stressed-out Kids: Grolnick to Discuss Pressure, Stress It's angled around an announcement of Wendy's next talk on our book, but the amazing feature of this article is that it seems  Read More 

After I spoke to a PTA group recently about Pressured Parents, Stressed-out Kids, a dad approached me. "You say to support kids' autonomy and not pressure them, but when I was a kid my parents took me to the theater twice a year -- even when I said 'Hey I wanna stay home and play  Read More 

The economic crisis is adding to the pressures on parents today. Getting together college money is even harder than before. That can ratchet up our worry about how our kids are doing in school, because it seems even more important for them to get good grades and perhaps a scholarship. And it seems all the more  Read More