I recently suggested we watch a movie together as a family. Over the years I have learned with six kids in the house, (seven this week) you can't ask them what they want to watch at the same time, you have to ask them individually. Perhaps there is no greater optimist than the parent who thinks [...]
One of the eternal struggles of parenting is getting your kids in bed and having them stay in their beds. Bedtime is a simple struggle at its root, kids don’t want to go to sleep and parents just want the kids to go to bed. It’s a struggle because we have competing agendas at bedtime, [...]
In this episode of the podcast Chris, Kayla, and Ryan are all about chores. They discuss finding the sweet spot between recognizing that no one wants to do chores and that they need to be done. They also address how leading by example and offering to help might be good places to start. Become a Patron [...]
Lack of predictability can be scary for people with trauma. It can make transitions of any kind a challenge, whether you are transitioning from playing in the park to going home for dinner or transitioning from summertime back to school. Fortunately, there are ways to help our kids better manage those transitions. Everything starts with [...]
One of the things I struggled to understand when we first became parents was felt-safety. I understood that negative behaviors could be driven by fear, which made perfect logical sense, it still does. But how can someone who is safe have those same negative behaviors just because they don’t feel safe? I didn’t understand felt-safety because I [...]
It’s the start of a new year so we thought we’d go back and start at the very beginning, it is after all a very good place to start.I remember when we first learned about trauma and its impacts, and how that new knowledge impacted me. Learning about trauma changed me in two very important [...]
There is a question we always ask parents we work with, "Why do you parent the way you do?" After all, understanding why you do what you do is more important than understanding how you do it. You can't change the "How" if you don't understand the "Why". We typically get some combination of these [...]
We are excited to announce the launch of our online parent coaching service, Empowered Parent Coaching. We know that families are struggling more than ever during these strange times. Behaviors have regressed and patience is running out. Stress levels are higher in our homes these days than ever before. We know that many people need help. […]
We had no idea when we started our podcast four years ago how much it would grow. What started out as the three of us sharing our honest conversations about our families has now been downloaded over 300,000 times! We love reading listener comments, emails, and reviews. We love meeting you at events and conferences […]
I was invited to keynote the Florida Foster and Adoptive Parent Association Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida a few years ago. It is always a special privilege to share with families who are in the trenches. I love meeting them, hearing their stories, and being able to share information and experiences that can help them […]