When the past affects our reactions as parents

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When the past affects our reactions as parents

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Sometimes, as we are challenged by our children's behavior. We find ourselves surprised by the intensity of the emotion that we bring to the situation. This can start even before the child is born during pregnancy and it can happen all the way through being a parent. And if we stop and think what is going on and why am I feeling so strongly about this? There are often times when we realize that this event is bringing us back to some powerful moment in our own early childhood or even infancy. And this is driving our reactions and maybe interfering with what we really like to do in this situation. This is called a "Ghost in the Nursery" and it is a term that some of invented along time ago. And when we become aware of the ghost in our nurseries, it allows us to be able to have more freedom to be the kind of parents we want to be. And there are also angles in our nurseries, and the angels, those are the strength that we got very early on that we can fall back on to be strong, and to be freed up to be the kind of parents we want to be. And Alisa Lieberman, claimed the term "The Angels in the Nursery" to balance our ghost.

Watch Video: When the past affects our reactions as parents by Joshua Sparrow, MD, ...

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Joshua Sparrow, MD

Child Psychiatrist & Author brazeltontouchpoints.org

A child psychiatrist, Dr. Sparrow’s care in the 1990s for children hospitalized for severe psychiatric disturbances, often associated with physical and sexual abuse, and for developmental delays aggravated by social and economic deprivation, prompted his interest in community-based prevention and health promotion. At the Brazelton Touchpoints Center, his work focuses on cultural adaptations of family support programs, organizational professional development, and aligning systems of care with community strengths and priorities, and has included collaborative consultation with the Harlem Children's Zone and American Indian Early Head Start Programs, among many others. He has lectured extensively nationally and internationally on related topics and has consulted on media programming for children and parents, including PBS’s Frontlines and Discovery Kids. Co-author with Dr. T. Berry Brazelton of 8 books and the weekly New York Times Syndicated column, “Families Today,” Dr. Sparrow has also served as a contributing editor to Scholastic Services’ Parent and Child magazine. In 2006, he revised with Dr. Brazelton Touchpoints: Birth to Three, 2nd Edition and in 2010, co-edited Nurturing Children and Families: Building on the Legacy of T. B. Brazelton, a textbook on the ongoing generativeness of Brazelton’s seminal research in a wide range of fields. Dr. Sparrow has authored numerous other scholarly works, teaches and lectures nationally and internationally, and is frequently called upon for his expertise by national and international media. Prior to attending medical school, Dr. Sparrow worked for several years as a preschool teacher and journalist in New York City.

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