“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, …
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 …
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 …
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 …
A lot of parents asked me, like, “What do you mean by safe space? Does your child feel safe sharing with you?” Most parents, we all want to say, “Of course they do. Of course my kids want to talk.” No, not everything. And one of the key things that you brought up several times is the element of being …
What are some of the things or kinds of rituals you guys do with your family? Some of the things that I still do that I got from my mom are that, like, I never grew up cuddling, but, like, on the weekends because my mom was so busy, I would lay in bed with my mom and I would …
I read an article about how a lot of teens today actually have less independence than previous generations had. Because now parents can, like, track on their phones. You know, you’ve got college kids where their parents are contacting the professors, their parents are finding roommates for them, their parents. There’s actually a Facebook group for parents at different colleges …
Exchanging expectations or trading them in for appreciation. I never understood what it meant until I started to realize all the times that I was angry, all the times that I was frustrated, and all the times that I felt like I didn’t have control over things. And I realized that there were so many expectations that I had from …
What is going on with teenagers nowadays? Like, especially with these teens, “Oh, sex is not a big deal. I’m curious about it.” I’m seeing it more after COVID. Like, once people are able to get out after being closed up for a year, they’re going out. But it’s so mind-blowing how much they want to experience it now. It’s …
This is how we do meditation with kids. We get a very quiet place just sitting. I let kids either sit or lie down. I love to do body scans with kids, which basically focus on one part of their body at a time. So we’ll start with the head. I’ll be like, “Close your eyes. Focus on your head. …