Do you stress over whether you’re doing the right thing as a parent?  In my recent live workshops, I had almost every parent asking questions about challenges they were having with their kids.  There were also quite a few parents that were looking for confirmation that they were doing the right thing.  

I could feel the stress and tightness in their shoulders, the boulder pressing on...

Do you have a child going through a tough time with a friend?  Learning how to navigate friendships can be hard for children, and heartbreaking for parents.  

At one of my recent workshops, there was a Mom whose 7-year-old was struggling with his long-time best friend.  Her son was coming home in tears, and she was in tears herself not knowing how to help.

I started by asking the Mom to check in...

Do your kids get super engrossed when they are in front of devices or playing video games?  Do feel like a broken record, having to repeat yourself over and over again, issuing threats until your kids finally break away?  Many parents tell me that they have issues with getting their kids to listen, especially when they are on devices.

They think that their kids are ignoring them and choosing not to listen,...

Do you know any adults that lose it easily or really struggle emotionally when they are faced with challenges?  I don’t know about you but I’ve met my fair share!  Knowing what I know now, I do my best to be empathetic because chances are high that they simply weren’t taught how to cope as children.

This is an area that I work on with parents often because it’s common for children to...

We are hearing the terms “emotional regulation”, and “co-regulation” more often in child development, parenting circles, and from pediatricians — but do you really know what they mean and why they’re important?  

According to Psychology Today, emotional regulation is the ability to exert control over one’s own emotional state. This can include rethinking a challenging...

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...

As a parent, when your child is being unkind or exhibiting other unwanted behaviors is your first instinct to correct their behavior?  Big feelings can bring about a host of unwanted behaviors in our kids and trigger a number of responses from us.  As parents we want our kids to be kind and happy — and when they’re not, we can think that something has gone wrong or that we’ve done something...

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...

When you look at all the things on your list that you’re juggling, and the list of things you want to get done, do you ever stop to think about what you’re doing it all for?   Sometimes we get so caught up in the list of things we think we should be doing, that we forget WHY we're doing it to begin with.  Keeping the end goal in mind can help.

When my kids were little, I always really struggled...

Is overwhelm as much a problem for you as it is for the parents I work with?  My clients tell me they’re tapped out, at the end of their rope, and it feels like one more straw will break the camel’s back.  They are struggling to keep up with everything — homework, activities, the emotional ups and downs — and it’s all so overwhelming.

Please know that I have walked in your shoes...