National Effective Parenting Plan

On behalf of the National Effective Parenting Initiative (NEPI), an advocacy organization that was established in 2006 (www.effectiveparentingusa.org), I was pleased to announce a plan to make the United States of America the premiere nation for educating parents to be as effective and successful as possible in raising children. The announcement can be seen at http://ciccparenting.org/NewsLetters/NEPIPLAN.htm. This is the Plan that I was interviewed about on CBS Radio News.

It involves a series of actions directed at encouraging the leadership in this country, our president and other elected officials, to become champtions of effective parenting and parenting education. The encouragement is intended to move them to engage in actions within their spheres of influence and control that will stimulate and honor parents for seeking out and obtaining the best possible parenting education. The Plan is based on the reality that this nation possesses the finest parenting education programs in the world but that the vast majority of parents have not used and/or heard about these programs. These programs have a proven track record in educating parents to be more sensitive and successful in promoting their children's growth and development, and making family life more peaceful and pleasant.

Our elected officials and our government can and should play a significant role in promoting effective parenting and creating the conditions in all communities where parents can obtain and receive the best possible parenting education. This is a democracy and we elect qualified neighbors to represent the interests of citizens and communities. These elected representatives certainly should be in the forefront of motivating parents to become the best mothers and fathers they can be, as well as ensuring that the educational resources to do the best job possible are available to every parent in every community. The Plan puts the focus on these leaders and suggests and provides vehicles for how they can be most helpful.

All other groups and individuals who are concerned about children -- our schools and their boards, our religious institutions and their leaders, our businesses and their executives -- should be equally involved and supportive. The future of our nation is in the hands of America's parents. We all have a stake in parents being able to raise the next generation in as fine a fashion as possible.

Jon and Kate: Life After Divorce

I was interviewed by Valerie Nome of OK! Magazine for a story on the impact of divorce on the many children of Jon and Kate Gosselin. The article appears in this week's issue of the magazine. My contribution was to draw attention to the need to be very sensitive in how Jon's relationship to the woman he is now spending time with is conveyed and discussed with the children. Their ability to make sense out of what role this "other woman" may be playing in their lives, and what she means about potentially replacing their mother, is, of course, influenced by where each of the children is in their own stage of development and in their ability to understand in general. Given how visable this family is, this will be an especially challenging task. From what else is conveyed in this rather sensitive piece of reporting, it sounds as if Jon and Kate are really doing the best for these children during this trying transition period by putting the children's feelings and needs first.

School District Mobilizes Support for Parenting Education

This week I accompanied Superintendent Robert Watanabe of the Bassett Unified School District to lunch with Donald Sachs, the Executive Director of the Industry Manufactors Council in their area. The purpose was to help the district gain business support for the effective parenting project we are conducting with them as part of the Uniting Los Angeles for Effective Parenting Project. Terrific meeting and Mr. Sachs offerred insider advice how to proceed with the business community and was very supportive of the helping parents be more effective. Great example of mobilizing an important sector of the community to be involved in and supportive of educating parents to promote their children's development.

Here's some exciting news!

CBS Radio News called this afternoon to set up an interview with me about the National Effective Parenting Plan. The interview will be aired on Parents’ Day this Sunday. I will post a link next week so you can listen.

Also click here to view a piece by Rose Ann Haven of WKRG, Channel 5 News on the work the Center for the Improvement of Child Caring (http://www.ciccparenting.org/) has been doing in Mobile, Alabama with a number of local churches.