For many families, June is a mixed bag. The routines of the school year, and the rounds of year-end celebrations and rituals, suddenly give way to summer, which, with its promises of freedom and leisure, can create a new kind of stress. That stress is most keenly felt by working parents, parents on a budget,...

Most parents know that asking “How was your day?” is not likely to get their kids talking about their days in a meaningful way. The kind of information we really want—whether they learned something new, had trouble with a friend, triumphed or failed—is usually hard to get from a tired kid at the end of...

What do you do if your little one wakes during the night from a bad dream and refuses to go back to sleep? Or what if your little one refuses to go to sleep at bedtime because he has had bad dreams several nights in a row? And what if your child has been inconsolable...