Dad Hacks: What Fathers Everywhere Can do to Make Life a Little Easier with the Kids

on June 14, 2017 at 12:00 PM /

Have you noticed that there seems to be a day to recognize everything? I believe that the more recently invented "holidays" serve to devalue actual days of significance, such as Mother's Day, Labor Day and Father's Day. I've spent some time conversing with fellow fathers to glean a few trade secrets that can help to make being a dad a bit easier. I'd like to introduce a special feature called “Dad Hacks”. Being a parent can be tough when so much is going on in life. If you need a bit of help strategizing or some advice about tackling life’s hurdles,...

Boredom: How a Lack of Anything to do Isn’t a Bad Thing for Your Kids

By Dr. Wendy Rice

on May 31, 2017 at 7:54 PM /

Consider the following story as it relates to this week's piece. My oldest son Christopher is absolutely ecstatic that there’s only a week left in the school year before summer break. For months he’s been counting down the days when he can just take it easy and relax. I suggested to him that maybe he should consider attending summer camp like he has over the past few years. He immediately shrugged it off and said he never really liked it and that the only reason he attended was because I thought it was a good idea for him. This made me...

Terror Close to Home: How to Help Your Child Cope with Frightening Events

By Dr. Wendy Rice

on May 24, 2017 at 8:06 PM /

Consider the following story as it relates to this week's piece. My daughter Chelsea has been distraught all day over the incident that happened at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. Although we’re far away from where it happened, she’s been devastated to learn that something so horrifying can happen during such a fun event. It got me thinking, if something like this were to hit closer to home, how would I help my kids deal with it? Is there anything I can do to help them overcome such a horrible ordeal if one were to ever happen? Like many people...

Learning to Build and Maintain Healthy Adult Mother/Daughter Relationships

By Dr. Wendy Rice

on May 11, 2017 at 1:46 PM /

Consider the following story as it relates to this week's piece. When you think about your relationship with your mother, does it make you smile and feel good inside or do you get a knot in your stomach and start to clench your fists? To the moms, when you think of your daughter, do you feel proud and grateful or do you get angry and think about how your daughter never listens to your advice and generally makes the wrong decisions? Relationships with our mothers can be quite tricky and complex, and we all handle them in different ways. Some daughters have...

The Benefits Your Child Can Have by Playing Board Games

By Dr. Wendy Rice

on March 15, 2017 at 2:48 PM /

Last week, I decided to get a head start on my spring cleaning and found some old board and card games my siblings and I used to play back in the day. The discovery instantly put a smile on my face, but I couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy at the fact that my children haven’t been exposed to classics such as Sorry!, Clue and Uno. It seems like today’s kids would rather spend their downtime playing video games or on their phones, but is there really no going back to board games? Do they even have anything to...

A Close Look at what Self-Efficacy is and what You Can do to Strengthen Your Child’s

By Dr. Wendy Rice

on March 8, 2017 at 9:16 PM /

Every parent wants for his or her child to grow up with healthy self-esteem. However, is liking oneself and feeling like a worthwhile person enough? When we look a bit further, we see that feeling and actually being both capable and competent may be even more important. Self-efficacy is a concept that was developed by psychologist Albert Bandura in the 1970s. It’s described by Julia Lythcott-Haims as, “…having the belief in your abilities to complete a task, reach goals, and manage a situation. It means believing in your abilities – not in your parent’s abilities to help you do those things...

Parenting 101: Is there a Manual to Help Our Kids Become Well-Developed and Socially Responsible Adults?

By Dr. Wendy Rice

on March 1, 2017 at 9:11 PM /

At some point, many parents have wanted a manual or instructions to help raise their children. Is it your goal to help your children become resilient and socially responsible adults? If so, a set of instructions would sure make the job much easier, wouldn’t it? If you’ve ever tried finding a book on being a better parent, the amount of choices was likely overwhelming. In this piece, we’ll be going over a few factors that go into being a great parent. Rice Psychology Group wants all parents to succeed in bringing up their children. If you’re unsure of how to go about...

A Month of Mentorship: Doing What You Can for Youth in January and Beyond

By Dr. Wendy Rice

on January 4, 2017 at 9:00 PM /

I decided to make a change in my New Year’s resolution for 2017. Most of my friends and family make similar resolutions, liking hitting the gym or saving more money, but I wanted to take it a step further by making a change that can help someone else. I was reading online the other day that January is “National Mentoring Month”. Although I like to think that my life is going pretty smoothly, I know that there are other people out there, many of them kids, who don’t have as good a life as I do. So I thought, “Maybe...

Screening Our Kids: Going About Limiting Too Much Exposure to Media

By Dr. Wendy Rice

on November 2, 2016 at 9:13 PM /

My two kids, Derek and Samantha, are 7 and 14 years old, respectively. I’ve noticed recently that Derek is spending more time in front of the TV watching his favorite shows while Samantha often gets lost in her phone on Facebook or Twitter. To me, it’s not much of a problem, but I’ve read recently that overexposure to media isn’t great for young ages. I’ve spoken to my husband about it and he agrees that we should come up with a plan on limiting their intake of TV and phone use, and instead encourage them to spend more time doing...

Bullying: A Look at Both Sides of the Issue

By Dr. Wendy Rice

on October 26, 2016 at 6:55 PM /

Over the past few months, I’ve noticed my daughter Ashley acting differently. At first she would come home from school and would completely avoid talking about her day. Then it progressed to her rushing up to her room and not coming out until suppertime. When I ask her about her behavior, she immediately changes the subject and brushes off anything having to do with school. Just last week, however, I noticed she had some bruises on her arm and asked her about it. She got defensive and said nothing was wrong. I immediately spoke to her teacher about it and...