The Blog
Our best advice when it’s tough with kids:breathe, laugh, dance, sing, hug, call a friend. Be gentle with yourself, you’re not done growing up yet. This won’t last and you are not alone.
Dealing with a difficult child? Start with yourself
This past weekend Jason, and I hiked up Dog Mountain in the Columbia River Gorge on the Oregon-Washington border. We started the hike at 6am. It was dark. With my headlamp, I could only see the part of the trail directly in front of me and the outlines of the trees...
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When Empathy Does Not Work
A mom of an 8-year-old asked us this... “I don't know what the deal is lately, but I feel like I'm dealing with a teenager. When I try to help her with calming, or offer validation/empathy or suggestions for strategies when she's feeling those big feelings, it may...
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How to stop yelling at your kids
No parent wants to yell at their kids. Yet, we yell when we get to the end of our rope, we feel like we have no more choices, and we see our child as the enemy. But how do we stop yelling at our kids? Last week, we were honored to talk with Dr. Laura Markham about...
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When your kids don’t appreciate you
I was talking to another mom recently, who said that she doesn’t think her kids really appreciate her. I’ve been thinking a lot about her (and all of us) in the past couple days... This mom does a bunch of things for her kids… cooking, cleaning, and caring for them....
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Helping Kids Play Well Together
Last on the blog, we talked about what you can do to help kids reconnect after a blow-up… without forcing them to apologize to each other. You got 6-steps and mini-scripts for how to calm everyone down, help kids understand each other’s...
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Making Kids Apologize
After your kids fight, you want them to reconcile and say, “I’m sorry”. But what if they don’t want to apologize. What do you do? Do you make your kids say, “I’m sorry”? What if they don’t actually feel sorry? Do you wait until they are ready to apologize to each...
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Raising Resilient Kids
Do you ever find yourself thinking, “There’s so much I want for my kids… to be happy, do well in school, have friends, be resilient. But where do I start? What are the most important things to focus on?” When kids are struggling (with bedtime, homework, playing with...
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When a Child Says “No” with Dr. Dan Siegel
Did you know that there are 2 basic states our brain could be in? And I’m not talking about Montana or New Jersey! One state is “fight or flight”; the other is “open, connected, and resilient”. We talked to Dr. Daniel Siegel about these 2 different brain states....
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Staying Calm Under Pressure
The following guest post is from our friend, Michelle Gale. She is a Happily Family Conference speaker, and she is letting us get an insider’s peek into her new book. Here is an excerpt from “Mindful Parenting In A Messy World – Living With Presence And Parenting With...
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