by John McCormick, Our Guest of the Month [aka PTVN's Storyteller in Residence]

In this series, I hope I’ve convinced you that storytelling is fun and beneficial for kids of any age, whether they’re toddlers, adolescents, teenagers, or grown-ups.

If you’re interested in creating a storytelling tradition in your family, I leave you with two further words of advice:
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Some tough issues came up with Our Blog Community, so Parent Network called upon Dr. Laura Markham for support.

If you’re getting divorced, you’ll be heartened to know that the research shows kids can cope with a divorce and come out ok.  But often they don’t.  In fact, many children whose parents make the decision to divorce are emotionally wounded in a way that lingers throughout their lives.
Children whose parents are divorced:

• Don’t do as well academically and are less likely to go to college, partly because they don’t have a parent to pay for it.
• Are 25% more likely to abuse drugs by age 14.
• Are twice as likely to get divorced themselves.

The good news is that we know what the risk factors are that leave kids scarred.  The bad news is that avoiding these risks takes enormous maturity on the part of both parents. 
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In honor of 11-11-11, we’ve gathered 11 pearls of parenting wisdom every parent should know:

1)    No matter what kind of ____[you fill in blank]_____ is going down, repeat:  It’s all going to be OK.

2)    No matter how well you prepare, how much you research and how ready you think you are, your children will come up with something you never expected.  Just wing it.

3)    If your house is on fire and it’s a choice between grabbing your jewelry, your Blackberry or your child’s pre-school handprint
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Watch a three part series where six year old Jade and her parents attend a “Playshop” where they learn about Original Play™ from Fred Donaldson, a world-famous specialist in the use of play as an alternative to aggression, violence and abuse.
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NATIONAL SURVEY FINDS TODAY’S ‘NEW DAD’ CARING, COMMITTED AND CONFLICTED ABOUT FINDING WORK-LIFE FIT

Boston College Center for Work & Family Released Expansive Study for Father’s Day 2011

CHESTNUT HILL, MA (June 15, 2011) – Today’s dads want to share equally in the duties of raising their children, but most acknowledge that they are not yet doing that, according to a new survey of nearly 1,000 fathers by the Boston College Center for Work & Family.
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