ABC Image Group LA(NEW YORK) — Mayim Bialik is best known for playing neurobiologist Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler on The Big Bang Theory, but it’s not just a role for her: like her character, she’s also a neuroscientist.
Bialik’s also an author, and the follow-up to her best-seller Girling Up: How to Be Strong, Smart and Spectacular is giving parents tips about the other gender. Bialik, the mom of two boys, spoke to Good Morning America about Boying Up: How to Be Brave, Bold and Brilliant.
The book, which contains chapters including, “How Boys’ Bodies Work” and “How Boys Love,” helps readers understand how to broach touchy subjects. Bialik warns parents not to wait too long: “If you don’t teach them, the Internet’s going to.”
“Parents know a lot of things, but we don’t know everything,” she adds.
Here are Bialik’s top-five parenting tips she shared with GMA:
1. Know when to laugh. Lots of negative behavior can be diffused by introducing a sense of humor.
2. Pick your battles. A lot of annoying things kids do eventually pass, no matter what you do or don’t do.
3. Do not hit your kids. Physical violence always hurts children and teens, even if they think they deserve it or if you think they do. And just because many adults say they were hit and they’re fine, science disagrees.
4. Don’t nag. Constantly riding your kids about food, clothes and manners makes them anxious. It makes adults anxious, too! Make modifications to encourage good behavior but resist the urge to constantly correct your kids.
5. Love them. Children and teens need affection, even if you can’t cuddle them the way you used to. Find ways to express adoration, appreciation and affection for your kids!
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