When you’re getting ready for a trip, do you take the time to plan out what to bring with you and what you’re going to do?  

When my kids were little, we often took them to the beach.  We would get all packed up, and invariably once we were there I would have forgotten something — a garbage bag, the sunblock stick for the nose, the baby powder to get the sand off the kids before a fresh...

Does your child struggle with BIG feelings and are their emotions all-consuming?   Are your child's emotions unpredictable, keeping you on edge because you're not sure how to parent through it or what to do? You are not alone.  Parenting kids through big feelings can be hard and scary.  Many parents find it either maddening or anxiety-provoking — and some parents find it a mixture of both and...

Given that we’re in the season of gratitude, we tend to talk and think more about what we are grateful for — and given that gratitude is associated with increased levels of happiness it’s no wonder that this can be more of a “feel-good” time of year.  This time of year also has many parents asking how they can raise more grateful kids, especially as the holiday marketing season ramps...

When your kids challenge you, do you find that you tend to think of them as difficult, defiant, or strong-willed?  Our kids seem to challenge us at all the most inconvenient times, when we have the most going on and the least bandwidth.  When this happens our thoughts tend to go down the path of I don’t have time for this right now, and why can’t they just do what I need them to do for once?

We...

As parents we all know that reading to our children is important, but did you know that you can help your child develop empathy for others and learn other lessons through reading?  Studies have been done with children as young as 18-24 months, finding that parents were able to help teach their children about helping and sharing through reading.  To teach your kids to help and share through reading, the key...

Do you think your parenting partner is too strict, or too lenient?  We all have opinions about the best way to parent, and it’s not uncommon to disagree with our partners about how to raise and discipline our kids.  But we can run into a problem when we are parenting in response to our partner, spouse, or co-parent — and then end up too far in the opposite direction.

This was an issue that I...

It’s summer and vacation time!  How are you envisioning your family vacation? I don’t know about you, but I always had visions of fun family times together with happy and grateful kids.  Unfortunately, my dreams of vacation never matched my reality.  As the vacation went on, my kids fell apart, and I couldn’t wait for it to end.

I was coaching a mom recently whose family had gone on...

I connected with two of my child therapist friends this past week, and I took the opportunity to ask them what they want parents to know right now.  They both had similar answers but one rose to the top.  As child therapists, they wish parents would relax and stop catastrophizing.

Phones are ringing off the hook for child therapists everywhere — my friends included.  Parents are anxious and scared,...

Do you feel like parenting is harder than ever right now?  That’s what I’m hearing — Parents are telling me that it’s HARD with a capital H, and they are floundering.  Parents desperately want to be able to help their kids, but they don’t know how.

Here’s what I’m hearing:

I don’t know what to do
I don’t know where to start
I don’t know what questions...

Do you have questions about how to best support your child —  About challenges they are experiencing, behavior issues, a decision or situation concerning school or other activities, or through these challenging times in general?

This past week I ran an Anxiety Workshop that was sponsored by the Parent Teacher’s Association in Georgetown, and there were a lot of questions from the parents.  With...

I’ve been talking about Parenting From Neutral a lot lately, but do you really know what it means and why it matters?  I’ve mostly talked about how when you learn to Parent From Neutral, you take the heightened emotions of frustration, anxiety, and overwhelm out of your parenting process so you can calmly and effectively parent your best when your kids need you most.

But there is another factor to...

Have you ever wondered how to increase your child’s resilience?  Most parents would agree that they want to raise resilient kids, but they never really stop to think about what it is and how they might help their child develop this trait.  It’s typically not top-of-mind until they are in the midst of a challenge.  Given that we’ve been living through challenges on a global basis, the...