Do you feel that your family is not what it used to be, or what it has the potential to be? Do you worry that the parenting decisions you're making today may be scarring your child for life? Do you sometimes feel you are in a tug-of-war with the world over who will shape your child's values and beliefs? With Family First: Your Step-by-Step Plan for Creating a Phenomenal Family, Dr. Phil offers a new classic on family life—and gives parents real answers and a plan for being the most positive and effective parents possible. Starting right now, you can begin to make realistic choices and take day-to-day actions that can make your family phenomenal. You must decide that you will lead your family with strength and love and that peace and joy are not just for the people next door or on TV. They're for your family. In Family First, Dr. Phil gives it to parents straight: even in this fast-paced world your family should be the center of your life and your child's life. Parenting is the most important and noble act you will ever undertake, yet American families are threatened like never before from the inside as well as the outside—many of us fight too much, don't get involved enough in our children's lives, or get bogged down in life's daily struggles instead of keeping our eye on the big picture of our family's well-being. Dr. Phil has been working with families for over twenty-five years to help them repair the fissures that have fractured their home lives. In Family First, he provides a proven action plan to help parents determine the strengths and weaknesses of their parenting style. His seven tools for purposeful parenting cover the most important elements for any parent: parenting for success—for the purpose of raising cooperative, caring, and competent children. Exercises, scripts, assessments, solutions for specific problems, and precise directions for implementing the steps you need to take are all included in this landmark work. Dr. Phil shows parents how to make changes now—how to put a stop to your children's tantrums; talk to them about peer pressure or self-esteem; instill values like integrity, honesty, and respect for other people; and bring order back to your house. If you want your child to have a happy, fulfilled life, you must open your eyes to the crucial role you play in his or her development. Most importantly, Dr. Phil's new book offers you and your family hope—for a phenomenal home life now, and a productive, fulfilling future for your children. As Dr. Phil says, you are not just raising children, you are also raising adults, and everything you do today impacts what kind of adult your child will become. You are building the future.

Deloris Jordan knows a thing or two about being a mom. She is the mother of five high-achieving children -- Ronald, Deloris, Larry, Michael, and Roslyn -- a sought-after national speaker on the family, and the volunteer president of the Michael Jordan Foundation. Her galvanizing message on encouraging responsibility and a passion for excellence has inspired parents across the country. Being the mother of basketball's greatest player has given Deloris Jordan a platform, but it's her experience bringing up an accomplished family in a challenging environment, along with her deep commitment to church and community, that gave her the expertise she passes on in this invaluable handbook for parents of children of all ages. Using warm anecdotes and never-before-told family stories, Jordan paints a realistic and uplifting portrait of the potential power of parents. She explores the universal goals that parents set for their children -- self-discipline, responsibility, perseverance, moral values, and the desire to achieve -- and explains the practical tools and strategies theJordan family uses to realize those goals. And through personal examples and wise, plainspoken insight, Deloris Jordan challenges, guides, and encourages parents who long to do everything they can to help their children learn, grow, prosper, and succeed.

This book is a blend of social history and family history covering the years 1800-1950. It is structured around the relationships which fascinate those interested in finding out more about their ancestors, fathers, mothers, babies, children, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and the elderly, friends and neighbours. The book will examine how readers might find out more specifically about how their own ancestors functioned in these relationships – when and in what circumstances did my ancestor become a father? What records can tell us more about his role as a father? Each chapter starts with a guide on how to interpret the most common and direct of family history sources (photographs, BMD certificates and censuses). The book then goes on to examine each relationship in its changing historical contexts – how, for example, did the role of a father differ in the Victorian period from earlier periods? What similarities and differences were there in behaviour and roles between fathers of different social classes? How did fatherhood change in the context of the two world wars?

Never get involved with your patients That's no problem for by-the-book police department psychologist Kira McGinnis. She has enough on her plate taking care of her five-year-old daughter and her troubled teenage brother. And now she has the difficult—and disarming—Detective Jake Donovan as a patient. Can she ever get him to drop the tough-guy act and open up? Jake says he'll do anything to get back to active duty. But he doesn't seem to be trying very hard. He has good reason not to trust shrinks, and he doesn't want this one to know what he's thinking or feeling. The thing is, he'd really like to get to know Kira better—outside the job. But that's impossible, since he is her job….

When migrants reach their new home, we often interpret their settlement and integration as an individual process driven largely by the labour market. But family plays a crucial role. Putting Family First is the fruit of a four-year academic–community partnership to investigate the experience of immigrant families settling in Greater Toronto. Contributors explore the integration trajectory of immigrant families, from newcomers’ initial reception to their deep involvement in and attachment to their receiving society. Chapters examine the interrelated themes of the policy environment, children and youth, gender, labour markets and work, and community supports, making insightful connections between concepts such as neoliberalism, resilience, and social capital. Putting Family First applies rigorous academic research to solve practical problems, illustrating how the family context can be mobilized to facilitate the successful integration of newcomers and offering important guidance to practitioners and policy makers in Canada and beyond.

The founders of a lauded family advocacy organization present a guide for reclaiming family life, even in the most hectic households. In the past twenty years, children's free time has declined by twelve hours a week, time spent on structured sports activities has doubled, family dinners are down by a third, and the number of families taking vacations together has decreased by 28 percent. When William J. Doherty and Barbara Z. Carlson observed this trend in their own families and community, they took action and founded Family Life First, an organization committed to helping parents reclaim family time. Doherty and Carlson offer realistic ways to regain valuable family connections and embark on more balanced, meaningful relationships at home. Drawing on their years of hands-on experience, they share tips for time-crunched parents on how to: --get everyone to sit down for family meals --make bedtime a meaningful end to the day --plan family outings and vacations --make time for your marriage More than just a time-management manual, this book delves into the issues that lie at the heart of all family-related choices, revealing innovative ways to address scheduling conflicts, competitiveness, and the many other situations that cause daily angst. Offering a new perspective on a fraying institution, Putting Family First restores a sense of fulfillment, fun, and security to the family once again.

First published in 1994, Putting the Family First is a study of better-off couples that clarifies the relationship between individualism and family values. Partners’ cultural practices focus on "making something of themselves", being "supportive" of each other, and spending "quality time" with children. But their economic strategies are directed towards competition for positional goods, especially higher education and good jobs for their offspring. The authors argue that, although these strategies are rational for individual families, they are collectively wasteful and mutually frustrating, and construct a narrow and exclusive version of citizenship. Such private morality depletes civic culture, and is socially costly. This revealing study provides a valuable text for students, with considerable appeal for courses in sociology, social policy, gender and cultural studies. It will be of broader interest to others connected to avoid the unravelling of our social fabric.