Part One: Guest Interview Gloria, founder of The Parent Coaching Institute (http://www.thePCI.org)(PCI) and author of Parenting Well in a Media Age (http://www.amazon.com/Parenting-Well-Media-Age-Keeping/dp/1932181121/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374869125&sr=1-1&keywords=parenting+well+in+a+media+age), talks with PCI Coach Karina De La Cruz. Karina is the mother of three young children and a professional parent coach certified through the Parent Coaching Institute. She owns and operates her parent coaching practice SiembraLife (http://www.siembralife.com). Karina tells us that siembralife means “Planting Seeds for Life.” Karina focuses her parent coaching on what brings life to children and to parents. At the PCI we discuss these types of questions: “Where is the aliveness?” “What makes us feel and be fully alive?” “What can we do to bring more life to challenging situations?” Life is not always easy, but by being fully alive, engaged and participating in life, we bring a new aliveness to those tender, difficult moments. This podcast emphasizes parental influence as a way to “plant seeds for life” Did you know the media has been called “the third parent?” Why? Because it’s such a mighty influence on so many levels. TV, video, video games, i-pads and computers are not just devices for entertainment—screen machines are “influence machines.” They change our kids’ attitudes and behaviors. They shape their values…often not in alignment with what we want for our children…Screen machines can literally change our kids into people we don’t want them to be! Are parents more influential than screen technologies? I, and all the PCI coaches around the world truly believe that parents are the most powerful influence in their children’s lives. We believe that, because it’s the truth. We want to help parents know that clearly and unconditionally. In this podcast Karina shares ideas that have worked for her own family and with the parents she coaches. We don’t have to throw up our hands in surrender to those digital devices. We can remain the biggest influence in our kids’ lives with a deep understanding our own parental power and with focused activities that support family aliveness that keep parents in the driver’s seat—no matter where technology leads us! Part Two: The Parent Coaching Corner™ I continue coaching Geri, mom of three boys, ages 13, 11, and 9 regarding self-management of their digital devices. In our last session we uncovered that Geri is staying consistent with consequences and rules with the electronics, and consequently, the boys are taking the boundaries around electronics more seriously. And they are also learning valuable lessons form the other activities Geri provides for them. This is our ninth session and Geri is in the middle of an important transition—back to school. Since she is in Arizona, the boys’ summer is short and they are now starting back into a new school routine. Geri was pleasantly surprised to see how all her hard work with the boys this summer was transferring to help with the transition from summer vacation to start of school. Join us to hear what has gone well and learn about a new challenge that has cropped up and what Geri plans to do about it. (Listen to the eight previous podcasts to catch up with Geri.) Please Note: You hear a portion of a one-hour coaching session. We can’t record the entire session, but we give you the important gist. For more information about PCI Parent Coaching, please visit The Parent Coaching Institute’s website.