1. Why Forecasting Emotions Can Help Kids Handle Them

When we hit a rocky spot, it is certainly tempting as parents to hope that tomorrow will be a better day. Thankfully, we are often right! Sometimes all it takes is a good night’s sleep to increase our kids’ capacity to handle what comes their way. Other times, though, they fall into emotional patterns that are more predictable. When this happens, it turns out that conventional wisdom – that fantasizing about success will bring it into being – is not born out by the research. Keep Reading…

2. Why We Shouldn’t Skip Over Grief and Grieving

Some are looking towards this year with a renewed sense of hope. For others though, the dropping case numbers aren’t likely to make things snap back to “normal.” Instead, in the wake of each variant wave lies a sea of immense loss and overwhelming grief. While there aren’t clear or linear stages to grief, we do have some clues about how to support children and families who have experienced loss. Among the most important is to simply acknowledge it. Read tips…

3. How Involved Should We Be In Kids’ Tech Lives? A New Study Sheds Some Light

A group of researchers recently studied technology use in nearly 4,000 teens and parents and there is some comforting news in the data. A large subgroup of teens in this study (about two thirds of them) were doing really well, meaning that they had better health outcomes and higher wellbeing indicators. What did these teens have in common when it came to their parents’ involvement in their media use?   Keep reading…

4. Attention and the Brain: Why It Is So Hard to Filter Out Digital Distractions

We tend to think of attention as something we are either “doing or not doing.” In other words, we are either paying attention or daydreaming. Working or clicking around online. It turns out though that our brain is equipped with two different attention systems that help us attend to the data we receive from the world around us. Keep reading…

5. Why Befriending Emotions Works Better Than Battling Them

Our feelings, whether they are comfortable or not, serve a function and can give us important information about our lives and our wellbeing. So instead of engaging in battle with our feelings, we might try befriending them instead. And teaching our kids to do the same. Let’s start with these three steps. Keep reading…