Parenting Press Time Line

1979

Parenting Press launches with Without Spanking or Spoiling: A Practical Approach to Toddler and Preschool Guidance, typed on a 60kB computer hand built by Fred Crary. (For you computer buffs, it was an IMSAI 8080 that used a cassette tape deck for storage.)

1982

• Publishes It’s MY Body . . . the success leads to several foreign language editions within a couple of years.

• Introduces the Children’s Problem Solving Series . . . teaches kids that they have choices in how they handle issues such as name-calling and sharing.

1984

• Publishes Kids Can Cooperate: A Practical Guide to Teaching Problem Solving.

• Parenting Press operations overflow the Crary home and into a neighboring house. Staff members and the Crary family run back and forth to use the copy machine and computer, and to confer.

1985

Spanish translations launch with Mi cuerpo es MÍO. Today the six-book Spanish library has 26,000 copies in print.

1987

Lying, bullying, cheating, and drinking are discussed in the Decision Is Yours Series for 7–11-year-olds, begun with Finders Keepers.

1989

A Horse’s Tale: Ten Adventures in One Hundred Years celebrates the Washington centennial with a 10-chapter story about children in each decade of the state’s history.

1990

In Pick Up Your Socks, Elizabeth Crary tells parents how to get kids to do chores. Meanwhile, Parenting Press moves to an office building—within jogging distance of the Crary home.

1992

On the Wings of a Butterfly introduces the topic of impending death, and I’m Mad, I’m Frustrated, and I’m Proud launch the Dealing with Feelings Series for 3–9-year-olds.

1993

Living with the Active Alert Child helps parents understand the overwhelmingly intense child.

1994

Oprah Winfrey and Elizabeth Crary discuss temper tantrums and STAR Parenting on “Oprah.”

1994

Elizabeth Crary introduces Love & Limits, the STAR Parenting child-guidance model that makes her a popular speaker in the U.S. and Japan.

1996

ParentingPress.com goes live. One popular feature is written by Shari Steelsmith, a former Parenting Press editor. If you're a faithful reader, you can see Steelsmith's children grow up through the weekly parenting tips she shares.

1998

A quarterly, Parenting Education Practitioners Talk (PEP Talk), offers parent educators step-by-step teaching plans, reviews of new books, and research reports and tips from other professionals.

2000

• Chicago-area author/illustrator Janan Cain finds autograph-seekers on her doorstep and children recognizing her in supermarkets after the publication of The Way I Feel.

• Parenting Press media kits go online, providing editors with ready-to-use excerpts from new books and feature stories about our authors.

2001

Parenting Press’s web site, with its guide to talking to kids about terrorism, is one of 15 online resources cited by the U.S. Department of Education for its value in addressing the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. (Ours was the only dot-com site listed.)

2003

Two new books, My Grandma Died: A Child’s Story about Grief and Loss and 25 Things to Do When Grandpa Passes Away, Mom and Dad Get Divorced, or the Dog Dies, help children understand death, loss, and the grieving process.

2004

Parenting Press's 25th anniversary!

To celebrate, the company launches a revised web site, complete with teacher resources, free downloadable brochures, an online edition of PEP Talk and an online catalog.

• The Fish Lips Face photo contest continues with the publication of the toddler board book edition of The Way I Feel.

• The new Parenting Press Book Fair offers quantity discounts and merchandise credits.

2005

• The Self-Calming Cards, created by Elizabeth Crary and Mits Katayama, are an innovative publication that makes it easy for children and adults to find coping strategies and techniques.

• Eileen Kennedy-Moore and Mits Katayama team up on the picture book, What About Me? 12 Ways to Get Your Parents’ Attention (Without Hitting Your Sister). They get attention, too—from awards program judges and from the media. In fact, the grandfatherly Katayama opens up the Tacoma News Tribune one morning to find a full-page feature on himself!

2007

Parenting Press introduces Qwik Books, concise guides that can be downloaded from the web site. The goal: to provide parents and caregivers with help whenever they need it, wherever they are.

2008

• Helen F. Neville creates Parenting Press’s first child development guide based on her 30 years as a pediatric advice nurse and parent educator. Is This a Phase? Child Development & Parent Strategies, Birth to 6 Years gets a rave review in Library Journal and gets Neville on NPR.

• Pam Hopkins and Jennifer Brown claim their share of publicity for What Angry Kids Need: Parenting Your Angry Child Without Going Mad.

2009

• The Way I Feel, now beloved by millions of children, parents, and professionals, comes out in Spanish.

• Our popular Mommy! I Have to Go Potty! (2nd ed.) is revised and expanded by Helen F. Neville, who adds chapters on special needs children and working with child-care providers.

2010

• Preventing SIDS and sexual abuse are covered in new Qwik Books.

2011

• Janan Cain teams up with Steve Metzger for another children’s picture book, The Way I Act. Like The Way I Feel and Así me siento yo, it’s immediately approved for classroom use by California, one of the states with centralized review of children’s books and texts.

• Elizabeth Crary uses decades of work with parents to create and introduce a new approach to parenting in her STAR Parenting Tales and Tools, which provides practical, realistic guidance for the years from toddlerhood to adolescence.