Pressured Parents, Stressed-Out Kids: Dealing with Competition While Raising a Successful Child: An Evening with Dr. Wendy Grolnick

• It begins harmlessly. Parents chatting on the playground compare their babies' first milestones: "Has Erin started talking? Addy’s already using five-word sentences!” Inevitably, Erin’s mom and dad feel anxious. Later, as report cards, standardized tests, tryouts, playoffs, auditions and social cliques fill their child's world, parents' anxiety intensifies. The older kids get, the more competition they face, whether in sports, academics or the arts.  Hovering in the background is the race for admission to a top-tier college. In their book, Pressured Parents, Stressed-Out Kids: Dealing with Competition While Raising a Successful Child Dr. Grolnick and Kathy Seal illuminate and provide an accessible guide to channeling competitive anxiety into positive parenting.  This evening, Dr. Grolnick will discuss her findings and offer practical ways to avoid the burn-out (in both parents and children) that afflicts so many in our highly competitive society, while raising children who thrive and excel. Wendy S. Grolnick, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Clark University, is one of the nation’s leading parenting researchers. She has conducted pioneering studies on the role parents play in children’s motivation and achievement. Dr. Grolnick has been interviewed on NPR and is frequently quoted in Parents magazine, Family Circle, and Newsday, among other journals. She is the author of The Psychology of Parental Control in addition to many scholarly articles.

This event, presented by Lexington Community Education, is Wednesday, September 14th from 7:00-8:30pm at the Lexington Depot.  To register for this event please contact Lexington Community Education at 781 862 8043.  The cost is $10 and pre-registration is strongly recommended.  Full details available at www.lexingtoncommunityed.org