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.
Alloparenting: Cultivating Strong Connections and Support Systems for Children
As a parent sometimes just getting your kids out the door, can feel like a marathon! If you’re lucky enough to have a partner to help, it’s not a guarantee that things will be easier. And you probably juggle multiple roles and handle high levels of stress. If you’re...
When Your Child’s Friends Are a Bad Influence
A mom wrote to me and shared… “My 7-year-old daughter is easily influenced by her peers. If her friends are doing well that's great. She follows directions and cooperates, but if her friends do something bad, she follows them and gets into trouble. Generally speaking,...
How To Talk To Kids About Social Media And Mental Health
I heard a mom say, “When I go into my 9-year-old daughter’s room in the afternoon and I see her in bed under the covers on her tablet, I feel worried and I don’t want her to miss out on playing with her friends.” We’ve read the news headlines. We know that screens...
3 Steps For Fighting Siblings
We received a question from a family whose son and daughter have gotten along well for years… but now they don’t. The daughter (12 years old) wants to hang out with her friends and is being “mean” to her brother, and the son (9 years old) is responding by being...
Bring Balance to Parenting: Connect with Your Kids and Reclaim the Joy Again
When people ask me, “How do you do it all?” I feel proud and a little smug, but I probably shouldn’t… Let’s be clear. All the rushing, being on our screens, and productivity have a dark side especially if you are a parent… Rushing all the time means that we are...
Parents: How to Calm Down (In the Moment)
One time when our kids were younger they got into a fight about something, I was so maxed out that I locked myself in the bathroom to take a few breaths. I had to escape because I didn’t have a reliable plan for how to soothe myself in high-stress moments. When you’re...
How to be happy, regardless of your child’s behavior
Real quick. I’ve been realizing that it’s a trap to think, “I’ll be happy when my child does X” or “I’ll stop worrying if my child stops doing Y” or “I’ll feel accomplished as a parent when my child accomplishes Z”. Yet, we have these kinds of thoughts about our kids...
Why Play is Important to Adult Humans
This morning I watched a little bird from my bedroom window. The bird was all by itself, sitting in the hundred-year-old oak tree in our backyard. As I watched it, it taught me something really important about being a parent–and being a human–that is backed by...
Parents! Flooded with Feelings? Do this!
Have you ever lost it with your child, but then afterward thought, “Wow, where did THAT come from?” This has certainly happened to me… I’m trucking along in my day and then (wham!) something happens with a family member and a sleeping dragon gets woken up from inside...