If I asked you how you would describe your child, what would you tell me?  Would you use words like quiet, shy, very social, smart, easy, challenging, anxious or disorganized?  How we think about our child and the words that we use to describe them have more importance than most parents are aware of.

The words that we use to describe our children — how we think about them and what we tell them — become the filter through...

Are you concerned about the emotional health of your kids?  This week my daughter shared that over 100 students have been hospitalized at her high school for mental health this year.  That’s just one school.  I can’t even fathom what that means on a nationwide basis.

Hearing about this mental health crisis with our kids, have you ever wondered if there is anything that you can do to help raise your kids to be emotionally...

Are your kids struggling with anxiety?  With everything that’s going on in the world, many people are experiencing heightened emotions.  Our kids easily pick up on the emotions around them, so it’s not surprising that your kids might be experiencing more anxiety right now too.

And, you might be finding that it’s coming up in completely unexpected areas — which is completely normal.  When we are experiencing a feeling, ou...

As parents, do you want your kids to think that the world is safe and that bad things don’t happen?  Most parents want to protect their children for as long as possible and for babies and toddlers that is absolutely true.  With the war between Russia and Ukraine featured in every news channel, all over social media, and as the topic of many adult discussions, if your kids leave the house they are hearing about it.  And ev...

As parents, we typically have an expectation of how things will go for our kids.  But what happens when they don’t turn out as we expected?  When this happens, do you think that something has gone wrong?  

I invite you to take a minute and think about how you react and how you parent from a place of “something has gone wrong”.  For most of my clients, when they believe something has gone wrong, they go into alert mode.  ...

Are you raising a “difficult” kid?  As a parent we tend to label our kids “easy” or “difficult” based on how they are for us to parent.  Unfortunately, the labels we place on our kids can become self-fulfilling so I’m hoping to introduce a new perspective.  

Characteristics to describe “difficult” children can include easily frustrated, consistently inflexible, and very vocal about their opinions — and when they are disp...

Do you wonder how you can raise your kids to be more kind?  The best place to start with raising kind kids is to actually be kinder to yourself.  So if you find that you are prone to beating yourself up, thinking that being hard on yourself will motivate you to change — you are actually making it harder for yourself to change. Kids learn through modeling, so when you take care of yourself and are kind to yourself, you’re ...

Are you raising a “difficult”  or an “easy” child?  As parents, we tend to put our kids into one bucket or another based on how easy or difficult they are for us to parent.  If they listen well, are flexible, and go with the flow, then we label them as “easy”.  But if they are more opinionated about what they want and don’t bend easily to how others think they should be acting, then we label them as “difficult”.  

“Diffi...

Do you walk on eggshells, afraid to say no to your child because of how they might react?  I was coaching a client this week with a struggling three-year-old who has not yet developed the skills to be able to handle frustration or express big feelings appropriately.  Whenever the Mom says no, the child goes into a complete tailspin and meltdown.

Does this sound familiar?  I think most parents have faced this at one time ...

Do you think that parenting is hard and wish it could be easier?  If so, you’re not alone.  I hear this from parents all the time — that’s why they come to me for help!   And when we start working together, the first thing we work on is the belief that parenting can be easier!

Before I go any further, I truly want you to know that if you’re really struggling, I get you.  I absolutely know that there are many days that pa...

When was the last time you got or gave a big bear hug, and you were really present for it?  Hugs make us feel good.  When someone hugs us it’s comforting, and we give hugs as a way to comfort others.  We usually don’t give much thought to it, but there is so much research on the impact of hugs on our physical, mental, and emotional well-being.  Hugs are very powerful from a parenting perspective!

Because January 22nd is ...

Do you worry about what other people think of you as a parent?  Do you need other people to think of you as a good parent, in order for you to feel like you’re doing a good job?  I ask this because that was me.  I was not a confident parent, but I had a child that was naturally confident — I learned a lot from her.

My daughter was born opinionated, and she figured out a way to express her very strong opinions before she ...