“Does Parenting Have to Be This Hard? What Can Babies Teach Us,” a live Zoom event on November 19 with Dr. J. Kevin Nugent
What: “Does Parenting Have to Be This Hard? What Can Babies Teach Us,” a free Discovery Museum 2024 Speaker Series event.
Who: Dr. J. Kevin Nugent, Founder and Director Emeritus of the Brazelton Institute in the Division of Developmental Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital
Overview: American parents are finding parenting much harder than they expected. And, it’s not just how they feel—parenting is more demanding than it used to be—such that Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, warns that many parents are now stressed to their breaking point.
Over 80% of parents use internet search engines to look for parenting advice, but less than 50% of them found the results to be trustworthy. Almost 70% of parents say they would use more positive parenting strategies if only they knew them.
So, where do we find these more positive parenting strategies that go beyond the prescriptive expert-driven “how to” approach of the internet? Our research suggests that the baby can teach us most of what we need to know as parents, since children influence the way their parents behave as much as parents influence their children. In fact, much of what looks like the effect of genes may really be the result of the way genes feed back on the environment.
When: Tuesday, November 19, 2024, 7:00 to 8:00pm EST
Where: Live, via Zoom webinar
How, and how much: Free with advance registration, which is required, at http://bit.ly/DMSpeakerSeries.
About the Speaker: J. Kevin Nugent was born and educated in Ireland and has worked at Boston Children’s Hospital since 1978. He is Founder and Director Emeritus of the Brazelton Institute and his research and teaching focusses on newborn behavior and early relationships. Dr. Nugent has authored or co-authored 10 books, has written 24 book chapters and over 100 scientific papers. He has been studying child development in different cultural settings across the world for over forty years. He has also written a best-selling book for parents, Your Baby is Speaking to You, published by Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt. He is Emeritus Professor of Child and Family Studies, the University of Massachusetts and has been a Lecturer at Harvard Medical School since 1981. He is on the Board of the Discovery Museum.
The Discovery Museum Speaker Series remains free thanks to the support of Enterprise Bank. Additional support is provided by Sutherland Realty Group/Keller Williams Realty Boston NW. Thank you!
About Discovery Museum
Discovery Museum is a hands-on museum for families that blends science, nature, and play. The museum and its Discovery Woods accessible outdoor nature playscape and giant treehouse blend the best of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) learning on a beautiful 4.5-acre campus abutting 180 acres of conservation land in Acton, MA, about 20 miles west of Boston. Originally founded in 1982 and expanded to two museums in 1987, the museum reopened in a single, 16,000sf accessible building after a complete renovation and expansion in early 2018. Hands-on, open-ended exhibits developed by professional educators inspire curiosity and exploration, providing a fun and engaging experience for children and adults to discover their world together. Serving families and schools from towns throughout the region, the museum is devoted to informal education that enhances classroom learning. Discovery Museum is committed to accessibility and is a proud recipient of the Massachusetts Commonwealth Award, the only winner in the Access category, and a LEAD® Community Asset Award from The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
In 2024 Discovery Museum was awarded a National Medal for Museum Service from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the nation’s highest honor awarded to museums that make “significant and exceptional contributions to their communities.”
Discovery Museum is a community-supported non-profit organization.
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