At the beginning of my parenting journey I unknowingly passed by hundreds of opportunities for me and my kids to develop resilience. In my book Bounceback Parenting I explain that I made the mistake of thinking that my job was to make everything easy or comfortable for my kids. I often offered help [...]Continue Reading
problem solving
What to do when your kid hits another child – How to teach the skill of self-motivated self-regulation (SMSR)
Today's article is about how to handle situations where one kid is hitting another. Author Vivek Patel shares how to handle this situation from a self-motivated, self-regulation standpoint rather than from a a fear-based self-regulation standpoint. How to teach the skill of self-motivated [...]Continue Reading
The First Step to Getting Out of Survival Mode – I Had to Let Go of the Fantasy
This post is an excerpt from my book Bounceback Parenting: A Field Guide for Creating Connection not Perfection. To enjoy my kids I had to come to grips with the fact that parenting would be nothing like I imagined and, in fact, many sweet, memorable moments often happen at the same time as the [...]Continue Reading
Problem Solving for Parents – How to Ask Questions That Will Get You Better Help
Problem solving as a parent sometimes fills me with confusion and overwhelm. I find myself seeing all of things going wrong and despairing at figuring anything out. One of the things I've always had difficulty with is asking for help. Not because I don't want it, but because I get confused [...]Continue Reading
How Mistakes Can Strengthen Our Families
I used to have a very hard time seeing anything but the ways I had failed when I faced struggles as a parent. If I was dealing with siblings fighting, I figured it was because I had done everything wrong and failed to teach the kids to get along. If one of my kids struggled to focus when [...]Continue Reading
If behavior is communication – what do I do about it?
One of the most powerful shifts I made as a parent was when I started really focusing on behavior as communication, rather than simply reacting to the behavior in front of me as if it were a direct assault on my nerves. When one of my kids is really out of sorts, it acts as a beacon to me and I ask [...]Continue Reading
