Anti-Racist Parenting Conversations
Parents, and especially White parents, have important work to embrace around being, and parenting, in anti-racist ways. Let's start with two steps. #1: Understand “anti-racism.” I believe that most everyone in my life would describe themselves as “not racist.” If asked, they would disavow racist ideas and actions. However, as I have learned embarrassingly recently, it is not enough [...]
Book Recommendations about Parenting & ADD/ADHD
Taking Charge of ADHD by Russell Barkley Super-parenting for ADD by Edward Hallowell. (He also has a podcast with about a million episodes. Free and easy to access!) Late, Lost, and Unprepared by Joyce Cooper-Kahn & Laurie Dietzel This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive compensation if you click the links and then buy. (and if [...]
Puberty Book Recommendations
The Care and Keeping of You (The American Girl book). These people know their market! This book is known and loved by a gazillion people. There's also a "Part Two" version for older girls. This one was recommended to me as a more inclusive puberty book for girls: And for boys, I like this one but FYI it does [...]
After a Lockdown: Tips for Teachers
A mom friend got caught in a lockdown at her child's school recently, and she posted about her frightening experience on Facebook. Another friend asked if anyone helped the kids re-regulate their nervous systems when it was over. Unfortunately, the answer was no--kids were just released to go on to the next thing, probably still scared and with adrenaline [...]
Divorce & Teens
I had the pleasure today of being interviewed by my friend and colleague Barb Steinberg. She's a teen life coach, and asked me to speak with her about parenting teens through divorce. You can watch the interview (just 25 minutes) below. We talk about some of the ways that teens might react to divorce, what parents should know to [...]
Up & Moving: Parenting Hacks that Work
photo: kajsa cc It's late January, and the outside temperature at 6:30 this morning was in the 30s. Our thermostat inside says the house is 71 degrees, but even I didn't think that getting out from under the covers sounded like a good idea this morning. My kids? They were even less interested in getting up, getting ready, [...]
Sex Ed is a Human Right
I discovered on the World Health Organization's website some years ago a page that (broadly) included Sex Ed as a human right. The idea makes absolute sense to me, and I've said that phrase many times ever since. Recently I needed to find the citation... and it took me for-ev-er. It is not an official position (yet) for the [...]
The Arc of the Tantrum – Resources
Imagine that we can plot a tantrum on a graph... The "y-axis" is "level of tantrum" and the "x-axis" is "time." The tantrum shape is a bell curve, divided into stages. The first stage: there's no tantrum, but then there's some sort of trigger, after which behavior begins to worsen. It escalates to its worst level (dysregulation zone) and [...]
Screen time rules are really hard
Screen time rules are really hard. On the one hand, there is a growing body of research telling parents that too much screen time is clearly associated with a variety of problems, including lower grades, anxiety, loneliness, and sleep problems. (citations below) On the other hand, those devices sure are fun and our kids love them and it creates conflict [...]
Mommy, did you ever get segregation when you were a kid?
photo: mikedish CC My 7 year old asked me this question not too long ago. It took me a minute to understand what she was saying—her pronunciation was 'creative,' plus the topic took me by surprise. But once I figured it out, I was both sad and grateful to her for asking the question. I told her [...]
