Special Guest: Julie Lythcott-Haims, When I asked my next guest to come back on the show and I wanted to know what she’d like to discuss this time because she has such interesting perspective and a way with words—and she said, she'd like to talk about how "kids don’t thrive when they’re raised like dogs on a leash who have to go a certain way to please their owner (parent)." You see my next guest did this amazing, extremely popular Ted Talk in 2016 entitled “How to Raise Successful Kids-...

Special Guest: Logan Levkoff, PhD Parents, much to their surprise, have a great influence on their kids’ attitudes and values around sex, body exploration and relationships. While kids might tell you that they absolutely, positively do not want to talk to their parents (of all people) about sex or dating, the studies reveal something completely different. Perhaps you remember when we had Richard Weissbourd of Harvard University on the show and he told us that his research continually shows...

Special guest: Peter Mutabazi. What is to come for a child who is told he is garbage? Worthless? Beaten to the ground? I have often said that children who have the love, kindness and acceptance of an adult—or several adults—can be the difference. As you might remember me saying, Search Institute found that many young people don’t feel that they have at least 3 key adults to turn to in a time of need and challenge. Our next guest had a very hard start to his life—abused by his father and...

Special guest: Dr. William Stixrud. Are we raising an anxious generation? Many would agree that we are. The causes of the uptick in anxiety among children has started to be discussed—even within our podcast- we have talked with Jessica Lahey and our obsession with grades and our focus on avoiding failure at all costs. We have talked with Julie Lythcott Haims about the bubble-wrapping of our children that leaves them unprepared for a life that we deliver them to at the age of 18—a life in...

Special guest: Dr. Kelly Fradin: Many of us have been there. We walk out of an appointment with our child’s doctor or teacher and we feel concerned—and a whole host of other feelings from fear to anger to sadness, confusion and of course, love. We all hope that our children are healthy and cruise through life fairly unscathed- so when reality hits and we hear that our child has common challenges like ADHD or learning disabilities or more severe challenges like feeding issues, asthma, food...

Special guest: Jason B. Allen: It is no secret that many of our black and brown boys are marginalized, mistreated and made to feel inferior in today’s world. You’ve heard leaders call for systemic change- but that only happens when the people within our systems, help them to change. We need advocates, educators and activists to help do this important work—to teach and guide us, as parents and coaches and prominent people in the lives of youth on how to help all our young people reach their...

How do we raise good humans? Do some parents just get lucky with easy children or perhaps they have some kind of special superpower to know what to do? Are there steps to follow or specific things to avoid? We probably all know by now from listening to this podcast and reading all the books that have come with it that we can’t yell, hit or ignore a child into being “good” so what’s the secret sauce? For this, we have invited Dr. Aliza Pressman on the show today.

Special Guest: Chelsea Brennan Many parents believe that money is another taboo topic that we just don’t discuss. After all, there is a lot of emotion, status, privilege and judgment tied up with money that make it a topic that can be triggering to many. But when you think about it- where are kids learning about money these days? Many only see the swipe of a credit card & the magic of online shopping- where we press some buttons and we walk out with stuff—or better yet, it appears at our...

Special guest: Dawn Heubner, Ph.D We all want our children to feel safe, secure and engaged in their lives. But when big, bad things happen in the world- from mass shootings to natural disasters to other tragedies detailed on the news and filtered through the adults at the restaurant, the neighbors on the street, the kids on the bus and friends at school- the world can feel a little less safe and secure for many of our children. How can we reserve our kids feelings of optimism, safety,...

Special Guest: Dawn Huebner, PhD Do your children or young teens get nervous? Scared? Jittery? Uneasy? Agitated? Stressed out? Well, everyone gets worried sometimes. Some people are able to move through worry fairly easily while others find that worry can get in their way. Does that happen to your kids? In certain situations, it can happen to mine. Some kids worry about school, tests, or where they’re going to sit at lunch. Others worry about bugs or thunder storms, bad dreams or being away...

How do we talk to kids about children who have differences like spina bifida, fragile X syndrome, autism, or who are deaf or blind? Many times when children ask, out of curiosity, about a child’s difference that they see on the playground, at school or in a store, some adults are quick to shush that child out of fear of embarrassing the other child, the other parent, or themselves. It can catch us off-guard and we may not know what to say. In chapter 5 of my book, which is on talking to kids...

Special guest: Dr. Harold Koplewicz: This podcast focuses on how to raise resilient, self-reliant and secure kids in an age of anxiety. The most common health disorders among children are mental health disorders. That’s 17 million children! We must help children cope with stress and learn from their mistakes—and we can do this through scaffold parenting. Scaffold parenting is a framework based on structure, support and encouragement. Dr. Robyn Silverman speaks to Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz,...

Do you have a sensitive child? Or, perhaps you are the sensitive one having been told your whole life, “you’re too sensitive!,” “shake it off!” or “you’ve got to toughen up!” Well, no more. Did you know that nearly 1 in 3 people are highly sensitive individuals? And while sensitivity has its challenges at times—it also provides some beautiful gifts. How do we talk to and support our sensitive kids? And if we are the ones who are sensitive, how do we raise a child in a loud, often...

Many would agree that most teenagers are emotional. Sometimes those emotions are worn on the sleeve while other times they are more covert but often ever-present. How do we understand our teenagers’ intense and often fraught emotional lives—and how do we support them through this critical developmental stage? For that, we have the pleasure of having the fabulous Lisa Damour back on our show today. Recognized as a thought leader by the American Psychological Association, Lisa Damour,...

Life gets crazy and parenting can be stressful. Many parents anticipate the stress and experience stress throughout the day—whether it’s morning time and getting the kids off to school, or after-school time when homework must be completed—shuttling multiple children to practices and activities, getting a healthy dinner on the table while dealing with sibling arguments—or dealing with bedtime shenanigans. And let’s not forget friendship issues, electronics battles, getting your kids to clean...

Many people have the wrong idea about adoption and kids. Adoption is nuanced and those involved in adoption are human! Experts in adoption have found that children, adoptive parents and birth parents may grapple with seven different core issues in adoption and permanency. Let’s discuss them today and find out how to talk about them with our children and teens.

Talking about race and racism isn’t easy. There are a lot of questions that we may not know how to answer while in the moment and many situations that we may not know how to handle when we are in them. We also may be confused about how to raise children who are true allies and who are willing to step up, have tough conversations themselves and not just do what’s right in the moment but also what could be helpful in the long run as we strive for lifelong relationships and lifechanging...

Special Guest: Peggy Orenstein The pervasiveness of hook-up culture, ubiquity of locker room banter, accessibility of internet porn, media steeped with distorted images and wide acceptance of the “man box” or “bro culture” participation is having complex and negative effects on our boys. And as pornography has become a new kind of sex education that most boys are privy to by the tender age of 11 and sexual assault showing itself as a more commonplace occurrence, it is time for a change. As...

Hunter Clarke-Fields, MSAE, RYT, is a mindful mama mentor. Hunter is the creator of the Mindful Parenting course, host of the Mindful Mama podcast and widely-followed author of Raising Good Humans: A Mindful Guide to Breaking the Cycle of Reactive Parenting and Raising Kind, Confident Kids. She helps parents bring more calm and peace into their daily lives. Hunter has over twenty years of experience in meditation practices and has taught mindfulness to thousands worldwide.

Ron L. Deal, MMFT - Every person in a family wants to feel loved and wants to be able to show love to others who they care about and appreciate. And while that concept may be simple- the execution can be surprisingly complicated as not everyone gives and receives love in the same way. Some may desire reassuring physical touch while another person enjoys compliments, encouragement and other words of affirmation. Still others may feel most loved when they receive gifts or their family members...

Special Guest: Katherine Ozment Katherine Ozment is the author of Grace Without God: The Search for Meaning, Purpose, and Belonging in a Secular Age. She is an award-winning journalist who has worked in publishing for more than twenty-five years, including as a senior editor at National Geographic, for which she once rode a donkey through the desert of Israel and Jordan for several weeks. Her essays and articles have been widely published in such venues as National Geographic, The New York...

Imagine being stuck in a world that doesn’t really “get” who you are. You’re different and in many cases, people see these differences as bad and something that needs to be fixed. My next guest, Deborah Reber, has spoke to us before about neurodiversity- and is back to talk more specifically about what she refers to as “differently wired” kids. We are talking about the one in five children with ADHD, dyslexia, Asperger’s, giftedness, anxiety, sensory processing disorder, and other...

Think you are doing a crappy job as a parent? You are not alone. It’s pretty much a byproduct of our society, with its incessant demands coupled with the in-your-face competitiveness parents see on social media. We mess up constantly—but my next guest reminds us that great parenting is not the same thing as perfect parenting. Great parenting starts with true self-compassion, the kind that means you don’t judge yourself. With her relatable voice and her hands-on strategies, I would like to...

Special guest: Dr. Julie Kinn.Military families face many unique challenges- from long family separations and shifted responsibilities in the household to frequent moving, injuries and sadly, sometimes, grief and loss. That means that being a child in a military family means a great deal of adjustment to frequent change as well as a host of undulating emotions that come from deployment, reunions, the unknowns and the new normal. How do we talk to military kids about the unique challenges that...

Special guest: Kari Kampakis It’s not easy to be a teenage girl. Dealing with cliques, bullying, rejection, and social media fiascos can be overwhelming and disheartening. So yes, being a parent or a key adult in the lives of teen girls can also be a challenge- how do we best advise the teen girls for whom we only want the best when we don’t always know which way is up! Our teen girls are going through so many important changes—physical, emotional, social, cognitive—they are learning what...