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How to Talk to Kids about Death & Dying with Joe Primo – ReRelease

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Special Guest: Joe Primo

Having a conversation about death and dying is not typically a conversation people are excited to have with their kids. And yet, we all know it’s necessary. A friend of mine came over to me at a party the other day. She had just found out that her mother-in-law had stage 4 cancer. While dealing with her own whirlwind of emotions, knowing that I provide tips and scripts to have these tough conversations with kids, she asked me; “What do I tell the kids? What if they ask me if she’ll die? What do I say when she does?” The concept of dying can be scary, sad, confusing, angering and upsetting for many of us. Our own emotions, our concern about our children’s emotions- how they are going to take the news- how they are going to cope with life when someone they love dies- how might they grieve—what’s normal- these can make us worry about having the conversations in the first place. Not to mention, our confusion over what to say and how to say it can make this topic on how to talk to kids about death and dying- a real tough one.

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How to Talk to Girls about Anxiety, Depression, and Social Media with Donna Nakazawa

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Donna Nakazawa: is the author of four books that explore the intersection of neuroscience, immunology, and emotion, including The Angel and the Assassin, named one of the best books of 2020 by Wired magazine, and Childhood Disrupted, which was a finalist for the Books for a Better Life Award. Her latest book is GIRLS ON THE BRINK: Helping Our Daughters Thrive in an Era of Increased Anxiety, Depression, and Social Media. Her work has appeared in Wired, Stat, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Health Affairs, Parenting, AARP Magazine, and Glamour, and has been featured on the cover of Parade and in Time; she has appeared on Today, NPR, NBC News, and ABC News.

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How to Talk to Kids about Childhood Illness with Dr. Jen Pratt

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Dr. Jen Pratt: Childhood illness can turn a family’s life upside down. We probably all have friends, neighbors, community members or maybe even family members who have coped with or are currently coping with childhood illness. While it wasn’t my child, many of you know that my dear friend’s son, Gavin, was diagnosed in 2018 with Ewing’s Sarcoma and I was there for the initial meetings, tests, surgeries and flew in for some of the hospital visits or just to help out with my friend’s other child who often has to be sidelined when a sibling is ill. It’s hard on everyone. Perhaps you remember the interview I did with Gavin’s sister who talked with us about being a sibling and unfortunately, because Gavin’s cancer was so aggressive and rare—he lost his battle with it, and Jadyn so beautifully discussed how to talk to kids and how to cope with the children who have lost a sibling. Those were hard talks, weren’t they? But we really do need to learn how to talk to kids about all of this. Perhaps you just want to know how to be a good friend or family member while someone else you know is going through this—I applaud you for being here because boy, do people need that. Perhaps you are here because you need to get some questions answered for yourself and your own child who is coping with a childhood illness from dealing with hospital stays, delays, medication, missing out, fear of the unknown and the intense feelings of most everyone around you who cares about you. For all of this, let’s turn to Dr. Jenn Pratt.

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How to Talk to Kids about Trauma Recovery with Dr. Thema Bryant

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Dr. Thema Bryant: Children deal with stress, disappointment and trauma often—in the form of discrimination, bullying, abuse, neglect and other stressors—how do we help them deal with the trauma instead of burying it, dwarfing it and hiding who they truly are so that they can simply survive? How can they acknowledge their trauma, express their toughest emotions and in a sense, “come home” to who they are, to their bodies, to their identities to themselves when something has been profoundly lost? For this understanding of trauma recovery, we turn to an amazing and insightful guest, Dr. Thema Bryant.

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How to Talk to Kids about Being a Social Media Star with Devorah Heitner

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Devorah Heitner, PhD is the author of Screenwise: Helping Kids Thrive (and Survive) in Their Digital World and the founder of Raising Digital Natives. She passionately believes in the power of mentoring kids in creating a positive tech culture and she is delighted to be raising her own digital native. She’s also super cool and actually has an article out about some things to consider if your child wants to be a youtube star in the Washington Post—and we’re going to dig right and flesh out the information so we know how to have this discussion about fame, social media and what to look out for if your child brings the idea of putting videos up on social media to your attention—best to be prepared, right?

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How to Talk to Kids about the Power of Different with Dr. Gail Saltz – ReRelease

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Special Guest: Dr. Gail Saltz

Every parent wants his or her child to be happy and successful. As parents, we learn from many books, experts, our own parents that there is a formula for this—they get enough sleep, we feed them right, we send them to school, give them love and boundaries, make sure they do their homework, we put them in the right sports, get them involved with enrichment activities—the brain and body develops and our child will be successful. Of course, in practice, this is often not such a clear-cut picture.

No child is the same as another. No brain is the same as another. And sometimes, when children don’t seem to be following the preconceived pattern that we expected, that we learned about, maybe that we hoped for, we might wonder how our child, who is different from the norm could become happy and successful. It turns out, as some have already discovered, that there is a power in being different and as parents, we can help cultivate, inspire and build upon that difference and that’s where the magic can happen. What magic you might wonder? What is the power of different? That’s why we are privileged to have our amazing guest, Dr. Gail Saltz, for today’s podcast episode.

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How to Talk to Kids about Self Esteem, Gender Identity & Being Yourself with Jeffrey Marsh

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Jeffrey Marsh: This podcast will focus on the collision between self-esteem and gender identity- especially for children who don’t have the support they need to truly embrace who they are. For kids who identity as LGBTQ, they don’t need a “perfect” parent who knows exactly what to say, but rather, one who will ask the questions, stay curious, and above-all-else, be a supportive advocate for their child. Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews nonbinary author, activist and social media star, Jeffrey Marsh.

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How to Talk to Kids about Emotions, Boundaries, Transitions & Conflict with Alyssa Blask Campbell

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Special guest: Alyssa Blask CampbellThis podcast will focus on how to help little kids navigate big emotions in specific common situations. Alyssa Blask Campbell of Seed and Sew will help us understand what to do and say to help our kids (and ourselves) through those frustrating situations so we don’t get derailed and get to the other side!

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How to Forego Impossible Parenting Standards & Tap into Our Own Wisdom with Meghan Leahy ReRelease

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Meghan Leahy – Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the stress and perfectionism of our overparenting culture–and at the same time, yearned for solutions to ease the struggles of everyday family life? Perhaps you have been caught at the grocery store with a tantruming 2-year-old, made organic salmon for your 4-year-old only to have it thrown across the room or attempted to reason with your 5-year-old about why you should stay at the party so you could have some “adult-time” after they were more than an hour past done, done? We hear about the endless “shoulds” of modern parenting– and yet real life just needs real solutions. Today, we are going to discuss how we can parent outside of the lines with guest, Meghan Leahy.
Meghan Leahy is the On Parenting columnist for The Washington Post, and a certified parenting coach. She is the author of PARENTING OUTSIDE THE LINES and is the mother of three daughters. She practices Zen Buddhism, holds a bachelor’s degree in English and secondary education and a master’s degree in school counseling. She has appeared on NPR, ABC and in numerous other publications. Leahy lives with her family outside Washington DC.

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