Social Media Guru Jason Falls Talks about Parenting - YouTube

Social business marketing guru Jason Falls and talk about parenting.

Jason Falls, co-author of No Bullshit Social Media is one of the most in-demand speakers in the social media, public relations and marketing fields due to a simple truth: He delivers value. Known for his clever insights, sharp wit and the ever-present brutal honesty, Falls tackles audiences, not topics, engaging and sending all away with a sense they’ve learned something.

Perhaps at best in the role of social media educator, Falls has spoken nationally and internationally on a wide range of topics and to a variety of audiences. From corporate board rooms to standing-room-only conference halls, Falls caters each presentation to the audience make up, energy and comprehension level.

Falls also coordinates workshops on social media marketing for groups like American Marketing Association, Public Relations Society of America and International Association of Business Communicators chapters. Lisa Ross, president of the Central Virginia Chapter of the AMA had this to say after his Digital Marketing Summit in April of 2010:

“Jason developed content for a full-day seminar for our organization on Digital Marketing. He brought in other social and digital media experts to give the event added interest. Not only is Jason a brilliant speaker, he delivered a turnkey event that was profitable for our chapter and got rave reviews from the attendees.”

To book Jason for your event, or contact him about collaborating for more involved events for  your organization, send him a message on his booking page.

You can visit his website, www.jasonfalls.com
OR explore his resources at www.socialmediaexplorer.com

The secret to a longer life - Fatherhood?

Being a parent has many benefits, but could it actually prolong your life?

The complete answer is, Perhaps. According to researchers who spent 10 years studying more than 130,000 retired men age 50 and over, the number of cardiovascular-related deaths was 17 percent higher among the childless than among dads.

Here's what you should know:

What were these researchers studying?
Dr. Michael Eisenberg and his team at Stanford University set out to shed more light on the known connection between male infertility and health problems like testicular cancer, according to Britain's Daily Mail.

 So in 1996, Eisenberg began following 135,000 men over the age of 50 who were married or formerly married; some had children, others didn't. He then tracked heir death rates over the course of 10 years.

What did they discover?
"Childless men were more likely to die during the follow-up period than fathers," says Alice Park at TIME. But the most surprising finding?

"Most of the deaths were heart related." That was a shocker to researchers, who thought they'd find higher rates of cancer deaths.

Why would childless men be more susceptible to heart disease?
Researchers don't know how many of the men were childless by choice or because they were infertile, but infertility can be linked to heart disease.

"Infertile men tend to have abnormal testicular function," says Park, and the testes produce testosterone.

"Abnormal testosterone levels may cause HDL, or 'good' cholesterol, to drop." Perhaps, Eisenberg posits, "this impaired testicular function, which is [showing up] as infertility early in life, sets the stage for a higher risk of cardiovascular events later in life."

Is everyone sold on this theory?
No. "I lean toward another theory, myself," writes Bruce Goldman at Scope. "Having kids is just plain good for you."

Perhaps "the cumulative blessings accruing from taking care of kids [outweighs] the acute brain damage arising from those early sleepless nights," and makes dads healthier in the long run.

A father's love is one of the greatest influences on personality development

A father's love contributes as much -- and sometimes more -- to a child's development as does a mother's love. That is one of many findings in a new large-scale analysis of research about the power of parental rejection and acceptance in shaping our personalities as children and into adulthood.

"In our half-century of international research, we've not found any other class of experience that has as strong and consistent effect on personality and personality development as does the experience of rejection, especially by parents in childhood," says Ronald Rohner of the University of Connecticut, co-author of the new study in Personality and Social Psychology Review.

"Children and adults everywhere -- regardless of differences in race, culture, and gender -- tend to respond in exactly the same way when they perceived themselves to be rejected by their caregivers and other attachment figures."

Looking at 36 studies from around the world that together involved more than 10,000 participants, Rohner and co-author Abdul Khaleque found that in response to rejection by their parents, children tend to feel more anxious and insecure, as well as more hostile and aggressive toward others.

The pain of rejection -- especially when it occurs over a period of time in childhood -- tends to linger into adulthood, making it more difficult for adults who were rejected as children to form secure and trusting relationships with their intimate partners.

The studies are based on surveys of children and adults about their parents' degree of acceptance or rejection during their childhood, coupled with questions about their personality dispositions.

Moreover, Rohner says, emerging evidence from the past decade of research in psychology and neuroscience is revealing that the same parts of the brain are activated when people feel rejected as are activated when they experience physical pain.

"Unlike physical pain, however, people can psychologically re-live the emotional pain of rejection over and over for years," Rohner says.

When it comes to the impact of a father's love versus that of a mother, results from more than 500 studies suggest that while children and adults often experience more or less the same level of acceptance or rejection from each parent, the influence of one parent's rejection -- oftentimes the father's -- can be much greater than the other's.

A 13-nation team of psychologists working on the International Father Acceptance Rejection Project has developed at least one explanation for this difference: that children and young adults are likely to pay more attention to whichever parent they perceive to have higher interpersonal power or prestige.

So if a child perceives her father as having higher prestige, he may be more influential in her life than the child's mother. Work is ongoing to better understand this potential relationship.

One important take-home message from all this research, Rohner says, is that fatherly love is critical to a person's development.

The importance of a father's love should help motivate many men to become more involved in nurturing child care. Additionally, he says, widespread recognition of the influence of fathers on their children's personality development should help reduce the incidence of "mother blaming" common in schools and clinical setting.

"The great emphasis on mothers and mothering in America has led to an inappropriate tendency to blame mothers for children's behaviour problems and maladjustment when, in fact, fathers are often more implicated than mothers in the development of problems such as these."

Related Link: FathersNet

Childhood Obesity: Dads more likely than moms to impact

A father’s use of restaurants and his perceptions of family meals carry more weight, so to speak, than mothers’, according to a Texas AgriLife Research study, published recently in The Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.

“Dads who think that dinner time is a special family time certainly do not see a fast-food restaurant as an appropriate place for that special family time, so this means that his kids are spending less time in those places."

"Dads who have no trouble eating food in a fast-food restaurant are going to be more likely to have kids who do so,” said Dr. Alex McIntosh, AgriLife Research sociologist.

Childhood obesity study points to father’s role

New research indicates that father’s are more likely than mother’s to have an impact on childhood obesity. A study by Texas AgriLife Research showed that lenient fathers allow their children more trips to fast-food restaurants which have been linked to obesity in children. (Texas AgriLife Research photo by Kathleen Phillips)

The study began as a 15-month look at parents’ use of time and how that impacted meal choices. It aimed at the difference between fast-food and full-service restaurants because numerous studies have shown a correlation between fast-food consumption and weight gain.

Of particular interest for the research, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was parental choice of restaurants as a connection to childhood obesity, McIntosh said.

Almost as an afterthought, the researchers decided to ask children in these families also to record what they ate and whether it was at home or out. If a meal was eaten out, the name of the restaurant was not required.

“It never occurred to me that we would have data on them eating out and where they were eating out. But the kids — if they said they ate out, they always wrote down where they ate by the name of the restaurant,” McIntosh said. “So it was just a matter of tracking down information about the restaurant to find out if they were full-service or more like a fast-food place.”

Read more of this article here

Fathers suffering from postpartum depression.

Fathers suffering from postpartum depression. It’s a topic not usually discussed publicly, but doctors are saying the problem is more widespread than you would think.

The birth of a child is supposed to be a happy time for a new father but suddenly a screaming baby, sleepless nights and coming second in your wife's affections, makes him feel confused, helpless and out of control.

It changes their role in life and affects their sense of themselves.

“I think new fathers have indeed suffered depression for a long time, but that the equality of gender in our society now makes it a little easier to speak about,” said Dr. Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist.

There are even Web sites dedicated to the topic, which address the symptoms, treatments and support groups.

“In my own practice, I have treated many men with postpartum depression who see the birth of their children as heralding major changes in their lives, including higher levels of responsibility and commitment, which can provoke anxiety,” Ablow wrote. “Others fear that they will lose the affection of their wives as attention is (appropriately) diverted from them to their children.”

History of Depression
Men who have a history of depression are at an increased risk of developing postpartum depression, as are men whose partners are also depressed.

Like most cases of depression, symptoms include low mood, tearfulness, decreased energy, low self-esteem, impaired sleep and/or appetite and thoughts of suicide, Ablow said.

While postpartum depression in fathers usually occurs within four weeks of the baby’s delivery, Ablow said he has seen some cases develop after the three-month mark.

If you suspect your baby's father is suffering from postpartum depression, be supportive, Ablow advised. Remind him that his feelings are only temporary and they won’t last forever. Urge him to go to counseling, as psychotherapy is often an effective means of treatment.

Psychotherapy
“Psychotherapy is very effective in treating postpartum depression in men because the issues are so often tied to their own suboptimal experiences with their dads and their misgivings about marriage and commitment,” Ablow said. “Medications, including SSRIs, can also be very helpful.”

Women should try to include the new dads into the new ritual of mother-child bonding. He may feel withdrawn from the child, and encouraging him to spend time with the new baby may be helpful. Also, scheduling some time for romance — maybe a “date night” — can’t hurt either