Do I stare at their left eye? Forehead? Lips? The pimple on their chin?

You can't tell from body language whether a couple will break up.

People with similar texting habits were happier together, even when discussing conflict.

A specific wrinkle near the eye tells people you're being genuine.

We’ve all been there: staring at a poorly punctuated, emoji-filled text and trying to make sense of it, while a mental keening over the death of proper communication starts up in the background. (Or maybe it’s just us.) As it 

Every parent wants one of those perfectly behaved, polite children with impeccable table manners, no propensity for whiny voices, an inability to tantrum, and an adult’s capacity for emotional regulation. In that make-believe world, disciplining children occurs through magical fairy 

Whenever anything would go wrong in the early days of our foundation for children with special needs, Paula (our volunteer teacher-trainer, life-coach and best friend) would say, “Never mind! Worse things happen at sea.” Difficult times require clarity of thought, 

As my older daughter makes her way toward the 10 and 12 years, I think more about parenting a tween. I can sense the inevitable drift happening. She loves to borrow her mom’s phone to text her friends. She has 

When I first took up my job as a school administrator about 17 years ago, the parent body seemed very much like my own parents’ generation: Once they identified a good school and secured admission, their job was done; by 

It was a rainy afternoon. Tristan and I had been walking down the sidewalk when he dropped his ball and it rolled into the street. He lunged after it – right into oncoming traffic, had I not grabbed onto him. 

Shilpi is an absolutely impossible child. If she doesn’t like the food she is served, she hurls it against the wall. Bath time is a daily screaming match, and no one is allowed to brush her teeth. To avoid tantrums 

In my 10 years of practicing speech therapy, I have interacted with hundreds, if not thousands of parents. All of them are different: some are concerned; some are confused; some feel helpless; some feel frustrated. At the same time, they 

What’s in a word? Plenty, when some get tossed around with more frequency than others. Words – our framework of meaning – are every child’s first open windows to the world. Watching my kids and their friends grow up, my 

It was a rainy autumn, when Tristan potty trained. Autistic kids can have trouble learning to listen to their bodies, and it had been a veritable cha-cha-cha that had frustrated us all – a few steps forward, setbacks and then 

All parents want great things for their children — intelligence, confidence, success, happiness. When our children exhibit these things, we praise them, so kids know they are valued. Praising children is also used to show them how much we love and 

Have you ever wondered what it means to be cisgender? Or what LGBTQ stands for? Or how many types of sexuality there are? Or if there’s a list of genders somewhere that will help you understand what your kid is 

First World Problems is a funny advice column for India’s first world population. Write to Judy (confidentially!) at contact@theswaddle.com if you’ve broken a nail, felt a little blue, yellow or green lately, or had a strange encounter of the any-numbered kind.   PROBLEM: Thrice in office 

My son’s day is a rainbow of emotions I struggle to understand. He has the biggest smiles, the loudest peals of laughter; the sound of a bell can prompt hysterical giggles. I can’t even remember the last time I giggled