Lawrence Cohen PhD

For some dads, parenthood seems to come easily. They play, respond to children’s needs, understand children’s feelings, and trust themselves. The rest of us need to work at it a bit more. But that’s OK, we don’t have to all be naturals. This article, focusing on playfulness, is the first of a series about how to nurture the talents of fatherhood.    Playfulness is … [Read more...] about The Ten Talents of Parenting: Playfulness

Turning Worry into Trust A friend once told me about a new mom who called her pediatrician about 50 times during the first two weeks of her son's life. Finally the pediatrician called the mom into her office and said, "Listen, you have become a parent. You have opened yourself up to a lifetime of worry. You have to pace yourself." As a world-class worrier myself, born … [Read more...] about The Ten Talents of Parenting: Turning Worry into Trust

Reaching Our for Support Do you get enough support? No? I didn't think so! Most parents don't. We may refuse to admit to ourselves that we even need it, or we may know we need it, but are embarrassed to ask for it. We might not believe we deserve any help, or we might feel there's nobody out there willing or able to support us. Another obstacle to reaching out is … [Read more...] about The Ten Talents of Parenting: Reaching Out

Focusing on Relationship to Ease Power Struggles with Your Child When my daughter was just starting kindergarten, we had big battles over getting dressed. She would whine, "I can't get dressed by myself, you have to help me." I knew perfectly well she could get dressed on her own - she had been doing it for months - so I found this very aggravating. But guess who always wins … [Read more...] about The Ten Talents of Parenting: Connection

How to End the Blame Game Most parents struggle with feeling inadequate or incompetent. One key talent of parenthood is letting go of self-criticism and self-blame. How have you nurtured acceptance of yourself, acknowledgment that you've always done the best you could - even if you wanted to do better? A few years back, my friend Helen asked me if I would teach a class … [Read more...] about The Ten Talents of Parenting: Self-Acceptance