Reminder: Through 9/30/19 I’m offeringthe Friends and Family membership rate to join the private coaching community I host online for parents! I would love to work with you closely, helping you enjoy this parenting journey.
Read more about this below.
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Recently a mom in my private coaching community posted in our forums: “I feel like I just can’t win.”
Maybe you know how she feels. In the previous week her child:
– Ran from his childcare classroom multiple times
– Slapped a teacher
– Spit, kicked, and hit multiple people, multiple times, including the mom herself
– Shouted, screamed, and melted down, mostly in public
– Bit a child at the playground
In short, her three-year-old had a tough week. As a result, so did she.
Are you, as a parent, coming to view American healthcare as a soul-sucking showstopper of happiness?
Don’t despair. Today’s guest, Dan Weissmann, has some great ideas and advice!
Dan sparked a movement when he began a podcast about the many ways average Americans – confronting a healthcare system that can be ruinous both financially, and healthwise – think of and approach family health and happiness.
The Arm and a Leg Podcast dives into some crazy stuff!
Listening to Dan’s show you can learn about:
– A couple who discovered that their healthcare had unceremoniously dropped them just a few months before that child was due to arrive
– The story of how we got insulin, and how, due to high cost, people who rely upon it are becoming modern-day rebel cowboys, figuring out how to create it themselves
– Traveling Renaissance Faire folks who can teach you how to resolve disputes with your healthcare provider
Dan stops by today, to talk about how we got here and the true state of healthcare in America today.
Plus in Parenting News: We discuss the work of friend-of-the-podcast Devorah Heitner regarding what kids are really watching on YouTube, and how you can deal with it, in this article on her website. I also read her words from a recent Parenting Newsletter that I wrote on the dangers of YouTube for kids.
Also in the preshow I share that friends-of-the-podcast Jessica Lahey and KJ Dell’Antonia invited me onto their show, #AmWriting, to discuss what it’s like to overcome difficult circumstances and achieve your goals.
If you’d like some insight into your host, and why we have the show at all, this conversation is a great starting point.
Click here to listen!
Today’s episode is sponsored by the amazing Janine Halloran, expert in teaching kids coping skills, and an incredible resource she has created to help your child handle even the biggest feelings!
Click copingskillsforkids.com/coping-cue-cards to check out Janine’s Coping Skills for Kids Cue Card Decks.
We have all been hit hard by the news recently. And if we, as adults, are feeling the strain and stress, it’s a safe bet that our children feel it too.
How can you help?
In this bonus episode I offer five ways.
Helpful links:
Click here for episode 261 of We Turned Out Okay, my conversation with Maureen Healy (whose Bubble Breathing exercise I suggest in this episode.)
Click here for the link to the Eckerd College article about Marjorie Sanfilippo, whose study about kids and guns I talk about in this episode.
Click weturnedoutokay.com/weekly to sign up for my parenting newsletter, which right now (in real-time) is an in-depth, 4-part series on how to handle overwhelmed at the start of the school year.
Picture this: your children are facing up across the topsoil mound in your backyard. And they’re throwing dirt at each other.
You have no idea how it started, or who started it. All you know is, you sent them outside to play and here they are, hurling dirt.
Perhaps your first instinct is to lose it, and fly off the handle.
To shout, to send them to their rooms, maybe even to spank them.
It would feel so good… To show them who’s boss, and to make them listen to your authority.
And, maybe that would work in the moment. Maybe you’d end up with more obedient kids – in the short-term, at least.
But when a coaching client of mine experienced this exact scenario, she did something different.
She did something that, together, we had been working on:
Heads up: a week from tomorrow I’m teaching a FREE online parenting class, “How to Help Your Kids Get Along with Other Kids!” Learn more and register for the class by clicking here.
Training update:
While I did get 2 advanced chapters of Educating Happy Kids: 9 Ways to Help Your Children Learn What They Need to Know into the Ninja Parenting Community, I had high hopes of getting a cover survey to you this week… But I was unable to do that.
I’ve experienced a flareup of my tendon condition, and cover creation, while super fun, requires a lot of clicking.
I haven’t been able to do it.
And I am sorry about that.
It hurts to get in here and report that I wasn’t able to do something for you that I had set out to do.
But I am pressing on! Hopefully within the next week I will be able to share covers and get your input on the one you like the best.
The dangers of YouTube and how to protect your child from them
YouTube is simply a tool.
Tools can be used for good purposes – like learning how to knit using short rows, or clean the inside of your car’s windshield. But tools can also be used for nefarious purposes.
In response to an Educating Happy Kids advanced chapter, she wrote into our forums: “I think “YouTube is Dangerous” was well done, but you neglect to explain that your example is just that, an example. It’s not the only place where those problematic algorithms live.”
This mom has a great point.
Probably like you, I love YouTube and use it frequently. But it does have its dangers, and they are problematic for this very reason: just about everyone uses YouTube.
Including our kids. With so many millions upon millions of children using YouTube, it represents a huge danger, and thus is worthy of consideration all by itself, in a blog post like this.
Usually on Mondays I teach a quick phrase – this week it was supposed to be just one word – in the WTOO Facebook group, but instead I was getting an MRI and so couldn’t get in there.
So I decided to use this space to teach it to you (many of you are in the Facebook group already, so this week you’re getting this here, instead of there: )
As life partners, we all have some disagreements.
But what if you feel like your disagreements are interfering in family life?
That’s what this episode is all about, so if you’re worrying about any of this you’re in the right place!
I’ve got 3 ways to get your spouse on the same page as you are.
Plus: in Parenting News, we consider coding as one of the academic 3Rs.
Join us!
Links to a whole bunch of good stuff, including the key links talked about today and free potty training and temper tantrum free guides
The video of the week: “My spouse isn’t on board with how I’m raising our kids”
And thank you so much for listening!
Live Q&A and Open House Tour
Ever wished you could check out the private coaching community that I run for parents of young children?
Do you have questions about if it could work for you, even in your busy, insane life and with whatever technical skills you possess (especially if you feel like they’re not very good)?
You’re in luck! On Thursday, April 25 at 1 PM EST I am throwing open the doors to the Ninja Parenting Community!
I’m taking you right inside, and showing you:
– What our members love about it
– How the community helps parents turn family time into “the best time of the day”
– And I’m taking questions too!
It’s free… I’m so excited to bring you in and show you around!
It’s live… But even if you can’t be there live, signing up gets you the replay so you can rewatch as many times as you like. It’s where my heart and soul is… because I get to work closely with so many amazing parents.
Don’t miss out on discovering this secret to happy parenting…
Click weturnedoutokay.com/tour to sign up!
What difference, you might be wondering, can it possibly make to my kids if I have good relationships with other grown-ups?
Actually, it matters quite a bit.
In this installment of the Raising Successful Kids series we talk about the impact of our relationships, including with our spouses and life-partners, on the eventual fulfillment and happiness of our children.
Key links from our conversation, including the resources I share, to help you understand this idea and move forward with it
The video of the week: “How does my relationship affect my kids?”
And thank you so much for listening!
Temper Tantrums and Potty Training:
During today’s break I share about two helpful free guides I offer.
While the podcast is long-form – your opportunity to look into the mind of a child development expert – the free guides are super quick.
You can watch the video, read the checklist, and immediately handle the temper tantrums or get started with potty training (depending on which guide you choose : )
Click here for the FREE video and checklist to handle every temper tantrum
Click here for the FREE video and checklist to successfully potty train your child
Want to receive valuable ideas and tips on parenting, without either free guide above? Click here for my weekly parenting newsletter!
This is the only kind of paddling your child should ever be exposed to.
Recently one of the moms in my parent coaching community wrote in to share that her 4-year-old sons were about to start school… in a preschool-through-12th-grade school where corporal punishment is used.
“I can’t imagine [my boys] doing anything that would warrant a paddling, but I could not make myself check that box saying it was okay,” she wrote in our forums.
She then shared that, if parents check the “no, don’t spank my kid” box, children are exposed to other punishments such as a 3-day suspension and zeros on any assignments missed!
I was shocked. In every state there are laws against striking people in prisons and in the military; in most every state it’s illegal to strike an animal.
But it turns out that in 19 states, it’s okay to strike a child in school.
Come down the rabbit hole with me, into the world of corporal punishment.
It’s a world that might be much closer to you than you ever imagined.
Accidents, and traumatic events, can happen no matter how careful we are. Today’s episode helps you help your young child process traumatic events.
“Today my 2.5-year-old and his Dad were in a car accident… This happened around 1 PM today and my son has been talking about it and asking questions all evening. I’m trying to answer in simple clear terms but I feel over my head. It feels like a punch in the gut every time it comes up again.”
So wrote one of our Ninja Parenting Community members over the summer. Scary stuff!
Helping her process her young child’s trauma, and helping her through her own, has been a real focus of mine ever since.
So it seemed only right to share these lessons with you!
That way you’ll be prepared if something traumatic happens that involves your children.
Tune in to find out 3 ways to help your young child process trauma – and read about these 3 ways, find the entire back catalog of the podcast, watch my recent YouTube video about how to make big parenting decisions, and check out lots more stuff at weturnedoutokay.com/242 …
And thanks for listening!
3 Ways to help your young child process a traumatic event
With something upsetting happens in the life of a young child, they need fairly continual reassurance that they’re safe, and that the people around them will take care of them and keep them safe.
But as with our Ninja Parenting Community member’s recent experience, trying to give them that reassurance can be stress-inducing and overwhelming for us parents.
So, here are 3 ways to help your child confront, process, and come out the other side when something traumatic happens:
1) Let them talk and play it out.
Knowing and truly understanding that these questions and concerns will continually come up for your child can in itself make it easier to handle constant questioning.
Letting them ask these questions, talk about the situation, and even play it out over and over again is a necessary step in processing and moving beyond trauma for children.
2) Read, and play, and do normal stuff.
After something upsetting has happened, give your young child the reassurance that “we’re getting back to normal.” You can best do this by making sure that, as much as possible, you keep your child in a regular routine, with regular bedtimes and mealtimes.
3) Give your child time, and trust the process.
They will feel better, and when they do the questions and continual processing will go away.
Here’s what this NPC member reported a few weeks after the initial trauma:
“A positive update – now a couple weeks out, he’s asking only occasionally about it and has heard the same consistent positive answers enough times to seem secure and okay.
Thank you, Karen!!”
If you’ve recently gone through something upsetting or dramatic with your child, we can help you feel “secure and okay” as well… Join the Ninja Parenting Community today, and get the same kind of support that this member got when something unexpected and frightening happened in her life.
I was able to give her help that regular We Turned Out Okay listeners can only dream of… Including a supportive response very soon after the accident, plus a video in which I shared lots more about helping kids through bad stuff during a live, exclusive members-only call just a day or two later.
Need this same intensive, supportive level of help?
As life partners, we all have some disagreements.
What difference, you might be wondering, can it possibly make to my kids if I have good relationships with other grown-ups?
