Let’s connect. Follow Us.
We are on Instagram!
Dismiss Message
Communication
Five Ways to Set Boundaries With Kids and Teens
Without Yelling, Shaming, or Nagging
Parents and kids are spending a lot of time together right now. We typically share the role of creating structure and setting boundaries with extended family, educators, coaches, mentors, and other adults. During COVID, it’s more often an in-home job. This means that it is a lot easier to get stuck in negative ruts with… Read More →
Better Together: What Parents Learned From Kids About Resilience
Before the new year, I wrote a blog reminding parents that “collaborative resilience” is key during challenging times. In other words, it’s not only parents who help their kids be resilient. Kids can help parents be resilient too. It isn’t our kids job to make us feel better, but we should be open to the ways… Read More →
Building Family Resilience: Kids As Collaborators
As we head into winter with COVID cases spiking yet again, there is a lot of attention to building resilience to manage this difficult time. That makes it a good time to get clear on what resilience is, and what it isn’t. Too often we think of resilience as an individual trait that we either… Read More →
Talking Politics With Kids and Teens
Why Kids Need Us to Engage Them in the Election
During the last presidential election I had a child in kindergarten. It didn’t take long into the school year to understand that kids as young as five-years-old are already deeply invested in national politics. At drop off, kids would run up to me eagerly with all kinds of observations and questions typical of kindergarteners, ranging… Read More →
Kids, Parenting, and Apologizing
Why Pandemic Parenting Gives Us Lots of Practice and How to Do It Well
I was participating in a meeting last week with a group of parent educators when the facilitator posed these questions as “ice-breakers” before we got deeper into our agenda: What is something you have spent more time on during the pandemic? What has grounded you during this challenging time? Asking these kinds of questions is, of… Read More →
Talking to Kids About Fake News
“Nothing on the internet is real anyway,” my youngest announced emphatically to his older brother. “You don’t know what you are talking about,” my oldest retorted as he searched for evidence that some ducks do indeed sleep with only one eye open. He was clearly ready to launch into an evidence-based defense of his beloved… Read More →
Five Ways to Stay Connected to Kids During Stressful Times
This parent spoke for many others when she shared this recently. “I keep reading that kids need us to stay connected more than ever during this pandemic. But our family is stretched so thin. My partner is working in a grocery store, and I am working from home, teaching my kids, and parenting. I feel… Read More →
Motivation During a Pandemic
You don’t have to go far on the Internet these days to find tips for how to “stay productive” during the pandemic and ideas for how to maintain heavy work loads despite crumbling routines and high uncertainty. The reality on the ground though is that for many of us productivity and high motivation are as… Read More →
The Many Faces of Stress in Children and Teens
Last week I walked downstairs to find my two sons playing a game of chess. “How delightful!” I thought to myself. We had been practicing social distancing for a couple of weeks already, and everyone in our family was getting antsy. Seeing my kids getting along like this was like balm for my weary parenting… Read More →
Do Screen Time Rules Matter in a Pandemic? Try This Approach
I knew we had reached peak screen saturation in my home as I watched my youngest son log onto a Zoom call and then, realizing he wanted his brother included, walked over and sat next to him on the couch. My eldest was on Facetime and they quickly realized they were live streaming a live… Read More →