First Years: Created by Parents for Parents

If there's one thing most new parents wish they could have — aside from more sleep — it would be an owner's manual for their child. The television series FIRST YEARS will be the owner's manual every parent has longed for, providing a balance of research and hands-on experience that will help parents make solid, informed decisions. (See the pilot sampler video).

The first years of your child's life can feel especially overwhelming to new parents. The learning curve is steep, particularly in an age of high-pressure parenting. Suddenly being a "good enough" parent, as 1950s child psychologist D.W. Winnicott once described, doesn't seem good enough at all. Former Stanford psychiatrist Alvin Rosenfeld put his finger on this new mindset with his book, "Hyper-Parenting: Are You Hurting Your Child By Trying Too Hard?" Rosenfeld argues that today's moms and dads experience child-rearing almost as a competitive sport: You have to get it right, you (or your child) have to be the best--and the winner takes all (after completing a top-notch pre-school and graduating from Harvard, of course).

An Alternative Resource

Created by a parent for parents, FIRST YEARS offers an alternative resource for moms and dads who have become stressed out and anxious about their simple ability…to be parents! With a compassionate, non-judgmental, attitude, FIRST YEARS debunks the notion that you can't raise a smart, healthy child on your own—or that French lessons and physics for infants are de rigueur. Quite the opposite, FIRST YEARS delivers the main thing new parents need: well-researched information and guidance about developmental issues, advice from professionals and real-life advice from real parents who have been through it themselves.

Using a concise yet entertaining magazine-style format, FIRST YEARS provides a balanced look at complex issues facing first-time parents — whether that’s vaccinations, sleep issues, discipline and more. Each half-hour episode presents two feature segments that investigate key developmental and lifestyle issues. These two headliner discussions are separated by short, sometimes humorous commentaries from experts. The show ends with a brisk roundtable of real parents describing their own solutions to various problems. The format exposes parents to more than one side of the issues, without overwhelming them with details, and presents the issues in digestible segments appropriate for moms and dads who may well be jumping up to mind their children in the middle of the show.

Fun, informative and never judgmental, FIRST YEARS is the first show for parents that seeks to explore a wide range of child-rearing issues and help parents arrive at solutions that are best for them.