Art Creativity & Wellbeing

Today's guest, PJ Jonas, got a few goats several years ago, because she just loved goats. Always keeping that love in the forefront, PJ and her family – her husband and their eight children – went from those few goats early on to, today, owning and operating a family farm which creates soaps, lotions, and edibles, all from goats milk. When you learn that the Jonas family homeschools in addition to...

Today's episode is a celebration: the Ninja Parenting Community is one year old! That means I've been helping parents of young children figure out their toughest challenges for a whole year – and we've overcome some doozies: – "How do I handle multiple meltdowns?" – "What do I do with my child's disrespectful language and shouting?" – "I'm so overwhelmed… What with sports schedules and everything...

We're sticking with the food theme this week, today addressing listener Tim's concerns about kids and food: "Why are my toddlers not eating fruits/vegetables? Why are they only eating snacks (cereal, popcorn, Lunchables, grrrrrr)?" In March of 2016 I made the whole month about food – how to handle picky eaters, how to prepare food without going bankrupt or spending hours in the kitchen – I even cr...

When today's guest, Jeannie Marshall, became pregnant with their son Nico after her family relocated to Italy, she developed a fascination for how Italians introduce their babies to food, and the part that food plays in Italian children’s lives now that factory foods and agribusiness have made inroads into Italy. She details her experiences in one of my favorite books, The Lost Art of Feeding Kids...

Can you think back on your own childhood and come up with some crazy sibling-fight stories? I’ve heard some doozies, people being hung out windows or tied to trees by their siblings, the time a brother put green dye in a sister’s hair – so the sister retaliated by pouring glitter into the brother’s bed! Siblings can hurt each other in lots of big and small ways; sometimes it feels like there’s no...

Today's episode, originally broadcast in late 2015, is a Your Child Explained, about how to help our kids grow into creative, happy, socially engaged and above all successful adults. In Tuesday's guest episode, nursery school owner and director Tanya Trainor shared about the changes she, her staff, and the children they serve made to their playground. The traditional slides, climbers, and other bi...

Today’s episode, originally broadcast in late 2015, was super fun to record because I got out of my usual studio and hung out at what’s easily the most amazing playground I’ve ever seen. All of the equipment we see on a typical playground – huge climber, big slide, jungle gym – was gone, and in its place were loose pieces. Bricks, cement pavers, wooden siding, bales of hay, an 8 foot long rowboat,...

Have you ever had it happen where you're asking your child to do something, and he or she is saying "no"? Depending on your child's age or developmental maturity level, I bet you hear that word – "no" – an awful lot. Today's ninja tactic digs into one way to cut down on the noes! It's all about giving kids directives instead of asking, which sounds simple but in reality can be pretty complicated:...

One member of the Ninja Parenting Community might be channeling your thoughts right now: "Oh why do little kids obsess over certain movies? I have been putting Monsters Versus Aliens on every day for a month. What is going on those little brains that makes them demand the same movie so often for so long?" Kids do this all the time… and not just with movies, they do it with books, and stories, and...

Normally, in a We Turned Out Okay guest episode, it's me doing the interviewing… but today that format gets turned on its head! Recently the gentleman behind the Blessing Not Stressing podcast, Rob Broadhead, invited me onto his show. He's such a great interviewer and the idea behind the show is such a lovely one that of course I said "yes please" – and as we spoke I knew I wanted you to be able t...

These last several Just You and Me episodes have been about important stuff: being happier at home, having well-behaved children in public, helping kids resolve their own conflicts. They've each hinged on one particular idea: that the toys kids play with and what's in their environment, can really change their behavior. (Head back to episodes 154 , 157 , and 160 for the rest of the "Loose Parts" s...

Do you tell your kids how beautiful they are, or how smart they are? This past Tuesday's conversation with Nicole Gardner reminded me once more how dangerous praise – at least the wrong kind of praise – is. Read the show notes for today's episode, about how to make sure you're giving the right kind of praise (and not the harmful kind of praise) by clicking the link below… You'll also find an insta...

Recently I attended a presentation about all the key stuff happening in our kids' brains, in which today's guest, Nicole Gardner of the Bezos Family Foundation, shared research, stories, and ideas that resonated so deeply with me, I knew I needed to get her on the show. I learned that: – babies' brains create millions – millions! – of new neurons every second – young kids are all set to learn what...

Does your child ever get into arguments, verbal or otherwise? What's your instinct when this happens – do you want to jump in and smooth everything over? That's not an unusual reaction, because we parents really hate it when our kids fight! In this Just You and Me episode, we dig into why "smoothing everything over" is detrimental to our children's development, and what to do instead. Click weturn...

Each week I send out a "what's on the podcast this week" email to people who signed up for a free guide or a free online class – and this week, I screwed up royally about an episode of We Turned Out Okay! I wrote the email update for this past week well before I recorded the episode that went up this past Thursday, and as a result what I said would be this week's Your Child Explained episode wasn'...

It's been a busy few weeks in the Ninja Parenting Community – I counted twenty different issues that parents in there are collectively dealing with – and I knew that, if they're having these issues, most likely so are you! Lots of them are bigger issues – but some of them can be resolved so easily. In today's episode, I talk about one of the latter, and how simply by changing one phrase to a relat...

Today's guest, a medical ethicist (in other words, a person who helps determine what is ethical in people's health), took my breath away with his eloquent words on stuff that impacts young children every day. Dr. Arthur Caplan, professor of bioethics in the Department of Population Health at NYU's Langone Medical Center, and I talk about everything from cloning mammoths to stopping malaria and the...

Any graduations, weddings, vacations, or visits with family coming up in your life? If you're nervous about how your child will behave, hopefully we can help you feel better by the end of this episode! As I see it, there are three steps to getting our little kids to behave out in the world (at least – most of the time…) Click weturnedoutokay.com/157 for the show notes, including an outline of the...

Today, we're bringing you another great parent-coaching call with one of our Ninja Parenting Community members! Like many children, Sabrina's youngest daughter struggles with the family's morning routine. She likes to be independent, she doesn't like "to be told," and oftentimes she is not hungry for breakfast before school. Sabrina brings up a whole host of issues having to do with routine, follo...

Today, Ashley Milne-Tyte of The Broad Experience podcast returns to We Turned Out Okay, and our conversation goes in a direction I hadn't anticipated: how women can take on too much, become overwhelmed, and end up unhappy and possibly even ill. Because Ashley's podcast focuses on "women in the workplace," our conversation starts out with the focus on women and moms. But somewhere in here, we stop...

What if there was one question you could ask – and the result would be a more harmonious home? (I know, I don't love the word harmonious either, but it really fits here, so I'm sticking with it.) A harmonious home is one in which the people who live there enjoy each other's company, at least more often than not. Differences are worked out peacefully, everybody's needs are met, and it just feels li...

Today, a listener question about kids and bad language: "My four-year-old has picked up some bad language from other kids in her class. How should I deal with being called "dog face"!! This can seem like a puzzle to which we parents just don't have the answer. If you're feeling like that, listen in! In today's episode I share how to prepare for when your child throws something like this that you –...

Rarely am I speechless – in life or podcasting – but today's guests took my breath away with their observations of real young adults who grew up without open-ended play in their lives. Lisa Daly and Miriam Beloglovsky, authors and professors, know a lot about how easy it is for a child growing up today to have zero practical knowledge. It's because their lives were spent preparing for, and taking,...

Recently I spoke with a mom to 2- and 4-year-old girls. Her youngest is just starting to push back (as all 2-year-olds do) – and she's pushing back some times really disrespectfully! Shouting "no!" Sometimes lashing out. Refusing, disrespectfully, to do what her mom needs her to do. Sound familiar? That's why we're including this subject in the Common Parenting Challenges series! Find out how to h...

We're going big-picture today, talking about Einstein's idea that "the most important question facing humanity is, "is the universe a friendly place?" Our answer to this question shapes how our children will answer this question; if we feel surrounded by enemies, so will our sons and daughters. Is that what we really want for them? Or, do we want our children to feel themselves surrounded by frien...