Posts

How to Talk to Kids About Becoming Individuals Without Interference with Julie Lythcott-Haims

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- without Over-Parenting” which has just about 7, 500, 000 views now. And in it she talks about how mapping out our children’s every move, check-listing their childhood so that they get into the right colleges and get the right jobs doesn’t actually make a successful, fulfilled person unless success is only moving up a preconceived and narrow ladder that may not actually feel like success for your child. How can we, as parents, drop the rope—or the leash—that is keeping our children from their passions, from their individuality, from their destiny—and how can we talk to our children about embracing who they are, learning who they want to be and willingly taking the steps to forge their own path? For that, we are turning to Julie Lythcott-Haims.

How to Answer Kids’ Toughest Questions about Sex with Logan Levkoff, PhD ReRelease

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 that kids want to have these conversations with their parents—and not just once- they want to have lots of conversations about this information over time. They want the knowledge and they want the guidance.

How to Talk to Kids about Being Sensitive in a Loud, Fast, Too-Much World with Jenn Granneman

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 over-stimulating world? For this, we turn to our next guest, Jenn Granneman.

How to Talk to Kids about Middle School with Judith Warner Rerelease

Judith Warner – This podcast is about how to help ourselves and our children navigate middle school successfully. Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews Judith Warner, author of “And Then They Stopped Talking to Me,” about middle school friendship, relationships, emotions, frustrations, screen-time and more.

How to Talk to Kids about Adoption, Foster Care and Attachment with Allison Davis Maxon, LMFT

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.

How to Talk to Kids about Race and Racism with Shanterra McBride and Rosalind Wiseman

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 opportunities for growth. How do we ensure we do better and embrace a willingness to engage in courageous discomfort as we dive into our questions about race and racism? For this, we have 2 amazing women on today, Shanterra McBride and Rosalind Wiseman.

How to Talk to Boys about Sex with Peggy Orenstein Rerelease

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 squeamish as it may make us, we’ve got to get talking to boys are sex. About consent. About empathy, porn, intimacy, media, misogyny, arousal, LGBTQ, connection. This, as you all know by now, is not just one talk but a series of little and bog discussions along the way. It is not just for Moms or just for Dads- this is for all of us. When we unravel the hidden truths and put high beams on the realities of young male sexuality and culture in today’s world, we create a provocative paradigm-shift that can help us move forward to raising more-informed boys and better men.

Peggy Orenstein is the New York Times bestselling author of Girls and sex, Cinderella Ate My Daughter, Waiting for Daisy, Flux and Schoolgirls. A contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, she has been published in USA Today, Parenting, Salon, the New Yorker and other publications, and has contributed commentary to NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Her new book has come out to glowing reviews and is called Boys and Sex, Young Men on Hook Ups, Love, Porn, consent and navigating the new masculinity. She lives in Northern California with her husband and daughter.

How to Break the Cycle of Reactive Parenting with Hunter Clarke-Fields, MSAE

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.

How to Talk to Kids about StepFamilies and Blended Families with Ron L. Deal, MMFT ReRelease

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 do acts of service for them—cooking, cleaning, picking up the dry cleaning, or fixing something that might help the other person. Some prefer quality time. Perhaps you recognize your love language in all of these—and the love languages of others in your family. Things get convoluted– and well-intentioned people miss the mark when they, for instance, value acts of service but their partner or children show love through quality time or words of affirmation. Not to mention, this can be hard enough in a family that hasn’t gone through the life altering changes like divorce, remarriage or death of a parent—but what about the blended family who has to navigate step parents, step siblings, step grandparents with all of their nuances, needs, rules, emotions, concerns and ways that all of these different people want to feel valued and important? Blended families must deal with the pain of the past, the complexities of new relationships and the unique challenges that come with creating one family. As parents and stepparents, how can we have these important conversations about fear, loss, inclusion, empathy and connection—tying the binds between the biological family members and the new family members? How do we find love, strengthen it and keep it in a step family? For these answers, I have the honor of having a wonderful conversation with our guest today, Ron L. Deal.

How to Talk to Kids about Meaning & Purpose in a Secular Age with Katherine Ozment Rerelease

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 Times, and Salon. Grace Without God was named a best book of the year by Publishers Weekly and Spirituality & Health. I’m not surprised because it is beautifully written and thought provoking. You can learn more about Katherine and her book in the show notes of this podcast as well as on her website  www.katherineozment.com