Welcoming a newborn into the home and raising him or her to adulthood can be a daunting challenge for the most prepared parent.
Now there’s a Nova Scotia-produced book to help moms and dads navigate their way through the joys and challenges of raising healthy, happy children.
“Raising a child from birth is a joyful and rewarding experience, but it can also be challenging. This book is there to help parents by providing tips on things like attachment with parents, feeding, injury prevention and caring for the child,” public health services acting director Darla MacPherson said.
“These books will help all new moms, dads and families to raise their child in a healthy way.”
The booklets are available free of charge to every new mom and dad, with Loving Care: Birth to Six Months being the first of the series that takes a different approach from previous publications by presenting the information in a quick and easy manner.
The first in the series of booklets was launched provincially on June 10 and by the Cumberland Public Health Services last week.

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Edwina Jarvis ought to be having the time of her life. Single, aged 33, and with a high-flying job as client manger for a software company, one would expect her to be living life to the full.

Instead, she has found herself catapulted into a nightmare of worry and distress. Her beloved father, Raymond, 75, suffers from Alzheimer's disease. But Edwina has found herself not simply grieving for the vibrant, charismatic father she's lost, she's also battling a system weighted against him and other vulnerable people with dementia.

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More than half of parents shun their nearest school to send children almost two miles to lessons every day, according to official figures.
Pupils from middle-class families are more likely to commute long distances as parents go to extreme lengths to find the best secondary schools.

The exodus means the state education system is more "segregated" than when Labour first came to power as deprived children are concentrated in a small number of schools, said a Government report.

The best schools - including grammar and faith schools - are less likely to reflect their local communities than comprehensives, said the study by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
And despite Government opposition to grammar schools, more English schoolchildren now attend selective state schools than 1997.

The conclusions will raise fresh concerns that Britain has become more divided along class lines over the last 10 years.

This week, Gordon Brown insisted Margaret Thatcher was to blame for Britain's low rates of social mobility - saying she had created a lost generation by "denying many children the chance to progress".

But a separate survey published today by the Sutton Trust, an education charity, suggested the country was more divided than ever.

Three-quarters of adults said the gap between rich and poor was too wide - while 69 per cent insisted children had less chance of climbing the social ladder than a generation ago.

Dr Lee Elliot Major, the charity's director of research, said: "Opportunities in this country remain heavily determined by parental background. A wide range of research places Britain at or near the bottom of the league table of mobility, particularly in terms of the link between children's educational achievement and parental income. These findings suggest unease among the public about life opportunities in modern Britain."

Data published by the Government yesterday underlined how the chances of getting into the best state schools in England remain inexplicably linked to social class.

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Q: My husband and I have two kids and have been together seven years. It has gotten to the point that I am disgusted by my husband's father and stepmother. Every couple of months they come up with outlandish excuses for not watching my kids or having the kids over.

Ordinarily, I wouldn't have a problem with this, but the stepmom's daughter has two kids, in the same age range, who are always welcome to their house. They practically live there.

Recently we asked if they could watch the kids for our anniversary, and they lied about going out of town. This is just the icing on the cake.

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Parents who succumb to fits of road rage are also more likely to blow a fuse at their children's sporting events, according to U.S. research.

University of Maryland researcher Jay Goldstein said these type-A individuals were more prone to erupt in anger in many situations - from being cut off in traffic to an unfavorable referee call - because their ego takes it personally.

"Taking things personally is a strong trigger for anger," Goldstein told Reuters.

"And people who are ego-driven often perceive something as being directed towards themselves or their children, so they react accordingly."

Reports of so-called "sideline rage" are often in the media, most recently when a lacrosse league in Winnipeg, Manitoba, this month temporarily barred spectators from games following a string of complaints about abusive parents.

Loud, interfering parents have prompted several youth sporting teams in North America to implement "Silent Saturdays", which bars cheering or yelling during games.

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Parents in deprived communities will be given £200 grants to take lessons to learn how to improve the well-being of their children.
Gordon Brown will unveil the £13m Child Development scheme as part of what he calls "the great test of our time - to build a fairer, more prosperous and upwardly mobile Britain".

Based on schemes in the US, the money will target the most hard-to-reach parents who currently do not take up services offered by children's centres.

Speaking to the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust in London today, the Prime Minister will say the project forms part of his ambition "to see a Britain that is upwardly mobile once again".

Mr Brown will say that post-war gains in social mobility stalled in the 1970s and 1980s, leaving a "lost generation" of "Thatcher's children" who were unable to progress and improve their lot in life.
"The highest priority for us now as a country is that - building on our improved educational performance - we make the right decisions to accelerate social mobility in the years ahead," Mr Brown will say.

The impact of globalisation will create "new opportunities for a new wave of social mobility" in which there need be "no ceiling on your ability to rise if you make the effort".

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The earthly remains of Donald Donie, a U.S. Army veteran, husband and father who served his country during the Korean War, are interred at Brighton Hills Cemetery. His grave is marked by a simple marble headstone that bears his name, rank, dates of birth and death and, until a week or so ago, a couple of words written in permanent ink.

The words, "Thanks Dad," were a message from his son, David Donie, of Marion Township. "It was just a spontaneous thing," Donie said. "I wrote it one day in October, when I was visiting dad's grave."

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Senator Barack Obama has called on black American men to accept their responsibilities as fathers and to stop "acting like boys instead of men".

In a Father's Day speech at a black church in his home city of Chicago, the Democratic presidential nominee listed the disadvantages faced by single parent families in the community, and urged men to realise that their responsibility as a father does not end at conception.

"If we are honest with ourselves, we'll admit that too many fathers are missing. You and I know how true this is in the African-American community," said the father of two.

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America has designated the third Sunday in June as the day to celebrate all things dad--at least that's what is supposed to happen.

"Of course, the kids forget and have to be reminded, oh, by the way, today is Father's Day," said John Gross, a proud parent of three.

"Dad takes care of mom, the boys take care of mom, and it's dad's turn once in a while," said Kevin Bardwell.  He said dads like him deserve a little more.

But is Dad's Day as high on the priority list as Mom's Day?

"I'd say that it's pretty equal, although Mother's Day seems to be a bigger day than Fathers Day," said Larry Edwards, manager of Target in Tyler.

A National Retail Federation study reports consumers spent $140 on Mom this past Mother's Day on average more than $15 billion this year.  Only $94 bucks are expected to be spent on Dad this year.  That number is down $4 from a year ago--$9.6 billion for the year.

Norma Gross, a mother of three kids under age 9, said the number is fair.

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Her home used to be spotless, but now Mom has trouble doing the most basic housekeeping tasks. Dad is increasingly absent minded, even forgetting to pay his utility bills. Is it time to find help caring for your aging parent or elderly spouse? 

Whether it is triggered by a crisis -- such as a serious fall -- or a slow decline in health, the search for elder care can be stressful and confusing. How do you know your family member needs help and where do you turn to find assisted living, home care or services for Alzheimer's patients?

Some of the warning signs that an aging parent of spouse may need help can seem minor and others may be more alarming signals. Changes adult children or spouses should look for include:

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