Resilient Families Archives - Page 2 of 15

Resilient Families

We’re learning how to create a resilient, emotionally healthy family culture. Here you’ll find honest parenting stories and ideas for developing resilient families. We’re letting go of perfect, we’re forgiving ourselves over and over and we’re growing together.

Glad you’re here!

I am not psychologist or therapist, I am a mom who has studied and implemented ideas I’ve found on family resilience and connection for the sake of my own family, and I am a parenting mentor who has worked with other families helping them create more connection and positive communication in their own families. The perspectives shared here on Bounceback Parenting come from my own experiences and studies.

I do my best to share honestly about the unexpected challenges, fears frustrations we’ve faced in our family, and many readers share in the comments as well. Knowing you are not alone is validating and comforting.

A few of my influences in regards to parenting and family resilience include:
(These are Amazon affiliate links).

Strengthening Family Resilience by Froma Walsh, Ph.D.
Mindset by Carol Dweck Ph.D.
Mindsight by Dan Siegel M.D.
Connection Parenting by Pam Leo
Taking the War Out of Our Words by Sharon Strand Ellison

What does it mean to be a resilient family?

First, we may need to change perspective here. A resilient family isn’t a fixed state of being, something you either are or are not. Family resilience is something we can grow over time by cultivating family processes and capabilities that allow us to cope with difficulties, learn from challenges, and solve problems together.

“Resilience can be defined as the capacity to rebound from adversity strengthened and more resourceful.” “What distinguishes healthy families is not the absence of problems or suffering but rather their coping and problem solving abilities.”
~Froma Walsh

Some of the topics I talk about here on Bounceback Parenting that helps you develop greater resilience in your family include:

Practicing Presence: Trying to find a bit more mindfulness and bit less judgement in ourselves so that we increase the ability to pause and respond rather than simply reacting.
Strengths-Based Perspective: Empowering our children and ourselves. Developing a growth mindset in our families.
Open Communication: Improving the clarity of our communication through better listening, and deepening our understanding of our own communication habits and needs.
Emotional Health: Learning more about healthy experience and expression of emotions in ourselves and others.
Flexible Routines – Simplifying daily routines of family life to increase your ability to bounce back when the inevitable disruptions occur.

Hare are a few of readers favorite posts on these topics, and of course you can find more in my other categories on connecting with kids, dealing with anger, and taking care of yourself.

Jun 16

Using Specific Language to Get Kids to Listen

When we say "Get Kids to Listen" usually what we mean is: I want my kids to follow my directions. One of the tricks to this though, is learning to give directions that kids can follow successfully. We were staying at a hotel with a pool when I got a great reminder of how NOT to get my kids to [...]Continue Reading

Apr 11

My Newest Baby Will be Welcomed in 2018

After I had my last baby in 2010, I remember having a strange feeling - knowing she was our last, I wondered if I would ever feel those emotions of creating something really life changing again. It was a kind of a 'Now what?' feeling. Well, my newest "baby" is under creation, but this time [...]Continue Reading

Apr 4

This Belief Keeps You Constantly Busy – and not able to slow down with your kids

Are you the person keeping yourself from slowing down? I'm certainly at fault on this sometimes, even when it feels like it's everyone else making the demands on my time. Going more slowly while doing day-to-day tasks with my kids is so nurturing for us, yet sometimes I get stuck on a [...]Continue Reading

Mar 20

Top Parenting Books for Positive Parenting

These are the top books for learning about positive parenting. When we decide to look for new parenting tools one of the first things most of us think about is finding a good book to read. Some books below I have only read in part, some all the way through. I tend to be a "gleaner" of parenting [...]Continue Reading

Dec 31

Dealing with Annoying Mouth Noises – How to handle repetitive impulsive sounds

Maybe the key to dealing with mouth noises isn't to stop them altogether, but to find a new way to direct those impulses. A reader wrote in about her six year old son who seems to constantly be making annoying, repetitive mouth noises. What are these noises all about? And what can we do about them? [...]Continue Reading