What are the things that we, as parents, are hiding from? The overwork, the judgment, and so many other things. We were all of it. We overdrink, overeat, overdo it, overplease, and overcompensate for all of the stuff that we didn’t want to talk about. All of the trauma, all of the darkness, all of the things that, if we …
Pushing vs. Guiding
As parents, we have to have a good awareness of what factors are playing into our kids. Like, what pressure is there at school? What critical elements are also happening at school? Are those things showing up in the home at all? So as a parent, we have to be really cautious about what you’re pushing your child towards and …
Bench to Brilliance
If you’re points ahead, what a great time to give those kids that have been sitting on the bench the opportunity. Get them in there because you’re so far ahead that you know you get to win. Give them a chance to be a part of that win. Now, you not only told your other players that they wanted to …
From Body to Mind: Teaching Kids to Manage Anxiety
Physiology first, think about your physiology when we go into anxiety. Think about what your body’s feeling at that moment. How are you breathing? How are your shoulders? And then, what are you focused on? What are your thought processes? What are you telling yourself? And let’s just change it. If your shoulders are up, put them down, walk, and …
Empowering Kids: Finding Authentic Goals and Overcoming Fear of Disappointment
There comes a sense, mostly with kids, “Am I going to disappoint someone?” What if I don’t reach the outcome of that goal if I don’t succeed in that goal? And then, if I disappoint someone, I’m not going to be enough for my parents. I know a lot of the families I work with; they’re like, “No, my kids …
The Power of Pen and Paper: Strengthening Parent-Child Bonds
One of my favorite suggestions to give to parents if your kid doesn’t have much self-regulation is that one really good starting point is to use a parent-child journal that you write back and forth to each other. What does that do? It gives you a kind of framework, a structure, to build communication with your child. And so you …
Adulting
“Adulting.” We never heard that word when we were kids. What is adulting, right? We just grow up, and we have to do our own thing. And as my children are doing that now, we’ve seen them haven’t had jobs or whatever, and now it’s so different from us. We could go to a job and sell ourselves. Right now, …
Embracing Awkward Silences: Navigating Teenage Interpersonal Skills
Teenagers lack interpersonal skills, but can you blame them? It’s what they prefer to text, versus even facetiming, so they’re not getting, they’re not calling, they’re not doing in-person hangout sessions, or whenever they are, they’re on their phones. So they definitely are not getting the interpersonal skill development that they need, kind of like the connection and the belonging …
Empowering Kids: Finding Authentic Goals and Overcoming Fear of Disappointment
There comes a sense, mostly with kids, “Am I going to disappoint someone?” “What if I don’t reach the outcome of that goal if I don’t succeed in that goal? And then, if I disappoint someone, I’m not going to be enough for my parents.” I know a lot of the families I work with; they’re like, “No, my kids …
From Screens to Dreams: Empowering Teens’ Inner Drive
Where do we help these kids to really go into that internal drive and start recognizing it? So first and foremost, we have to get them off their devices and spend less time on phones, scrolling mindlessly, and watching videos that aren’t really adding any value to their lives. Because in my experience, especially more recently, phones, silly videos, and …