Parenting in the 21st century presents a new set of challenges that require new solutions.
Like their parents before them, today’s parents have to help their children navigate school, friends, crushes, extracurricular activities, and sexuality. But they also face a bewildering new world, driven by ever-evolving technology and media, that frequently thwarts their efforts to raise physically, emotionally, and sexually healthy children.
With understanding and clarity, parenting educator Debra Haffner author of the award-winning From Diapers to Dating and Beyond the Big Talk) draws on extensive research to debunk the myths, validate the concerns, and address parents’ questions.
She provides concrete examples, practical advice, and enlightening anecdotes, and explains what parents can do to get it right today. “The good news is that even in the most challenging circumstances, good parenting seems to make a difference,” writes Haffner. “The choices we make can greatly increase our chances of raising a child who becomes a happy, productive adult.”
Debra W. Haffner has been a parenting educator for more than twenty-five years and works with hundreds of parent groups around the country. She speaks regularly about parenting issues, is a contributor to The Huffington Post, has written for WebMD, iVillage, and DrSpock.com, and has been featured on Oprah, The View, Today, and in Time, Newsweek, USA Today, and U.S. News & World Report. She holds a master's in public health from Yale University School of Medicine and a master of divinity from Union Theological Seminary. Currently the director of the Religious Institute, she is also an ordained minister with the Unitarian Church in Westport, Connecticut. She and her husband are the parents of two children, a young adult daughter and a teenage son.