Art Creativity & Wellbeing

Every January since We Turned Out Okay began, I've shared my goals for the coming year. Not resolutions… which feel to me a little more arbitrary and easier to pull out of… but Goals. And this year is no exception! Somehow the idea of glass balls and rubber balls (one of which breaks when dropped, and the other of which bounces) felt really important to share with you, probably because I'm returni...

Happy new year!! Next week we'll work on making 2018 be the best year yet – but part of that is looking back at 2017. Today I'm sharing the three most valuable lessons I learned from 2017, a year that many listeners characterized as pretty awful, but one that held many valuable lessons for me – and in many ways was a good and fun year too. I also share some changes I've made to the podcast schedul...

In which we discuss favorite episodes, Karen's, and Listeners'… The family dynamics of introverts versus extroverts; the joy and learning that comes with Loose Parts; falling down and getting back up again; a profound and hilarious potty training story. All links at weturnedoutokay.com/205 … Happy listening and Happy New Year!! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other sub...

On the day I recorded this episode, late last week in real time, I had a moment, at about 10 AM, where I realized I ought to be in about three different places… All at exactly 10 AM. That's when my heart started racing. Then, when I looked around my home and realized all that still wasn't quite done, or not even started yet… and then I realized I was still in my pajamas… The complete and total fut...

Today's guest, returning champion KJ Dell'Antonia of the #AmWriting with Jess and KJ Podcast, brings her best ideas for how you can really enjoy this time of year, no matter what craziness you've got going on in your life. The WTOO annual Parent Holiday Survival Guide goes Beyond Audio in 2017 Each year I bring you resources I know you'll love as you figure out how to enjoy the holidays. This year...

Are you, like lots of your fellow listeners, noticing a certain unhappiness creeping in to your daily life? A sense of insanity that you cannot escape from? Overwhelm at all the stuff you've got to do in pretty short amount of time, and getting shorter every day? Then you should join the free 5-Day Handle the Holidays Challenge. It starts tomorrow if you're listening in real time – Monday, Decembe...

In today's episode I tell a story about a woman who once sat at a table full of loved ones, watched some of these loved ones manipulate her child, and feel completely powerless to help.   Maybe you've found yourself in a similar situation:  – You understand that holiday gatherings include some degree of etiquette and civil niceties  – But sometimes these people – these dear relatives, friends, lov...

In today's episode with 3-time returning champion Janine Halloran, the conversation goes in all kinds of useful directions, many of which I did not see coming! Listen to learn more about: – Big Feelings, the ones Janine says "feel like you can't contain them in your body" – How to stop engaging in the all-too-common and dangerous parenting ploy, "positively invalidating" our kids' feelings – Wheth...

Ermagerrrd, Episode 200!! It is fitting that this particular episode is with a guest who specializes in helping families tell stories – really, in helping people preserve their family legacies. Nicola Davison, mom , biographer, and journalist, has hit upon an idea that really resonated with me, so I know it will resonate with you: engaging our parents and grandparents to tell their stories, and to...

I'm kicking off the holiday season insanity with an episode that is counter-intuitively meta-level… And I promise, there will be time for more practical ideas before the end of the year. But this one is special, something I've wanted to talk about on the show for a while now, regarding how easy it is for us to step all over our children's dreams, both their short-term, heart's-desire hopes, and th...

If you want to: – Handle afterschool activities, bedtime routines, and homework like a ninja parent – Work better with everyone who looks after your child – Deal with the time crunches and scheduling issues that come with the parenting job – Feel better within yourself I've got a 21-day challenge to help you! Streamline your whole life during these 21 days (which begin as soon as you join, no need...

Happy Thanksgiving! At first glance this may seem a peculiar episode for Thanksgiving Day… parenting through tough times? While for many people holidays are a wonderful time, for some they're difficult. Dealing with family members who disagree with your politics; protecting your kids from cheek-pinching, insult-comic-style aged relatives; feeling like you have to justify your life choices – these...

This is one conversation I have been SUPER excited to bring you for a really long time! During my talk with Ignore It! author Dr. Catherine Pearlman, a.k.a. The Family Coach, she answers listener questions, talks about what works to stop bullying, and most importantly comes up with tons of ways that you can curb your child's bad behavior and REALLY enjoy life with your kids to the fullest. Key lin...

A podcast listener wrote to me recently with a a really good and important question: "We see all kinds of ways for girls to deal with being assaulted, how to prevent it, how to heal, support groups and the like… How do we teach boys to keep their hands to themselves or what not to say?" She's got a two-year-old boy and she does not want him to grow up into harasser or an abuser. I based this episo...

Today is one of my very favorite kinds of shows, a Parent-Coaching Call with an NPC member! – – A HUGE tree fell in our yard during a buck wild nor'easter last week, and we lost power for days! ( Click here to check out the video I made of the tree! ) All back now and everything is okay… But I had to delay the start of our epic "How to Help Your Child Navigate the Choppy Social Waters of Life With...

– – A HUGE tree fell in our yard during a buck wild nor'easter last week, and we lost power for days! ( Click here to check out the video I made of the tree! ) All back now and everything is okay… But I had to delay the start of our epic "How to Help Your Child Navigate the Choppy Social Waters of Life Without Getting Pulled Under Yourself or Losing Your Mind" mastercourse. The first live module n...

It's agonizing to watch your child go through the social stuff of life. You know what I'm talking about: When you spend your days stopping angry sibling fights, as if you were a boxing referee. When one of them gets made fun of at school – or worse, bullied. When they get broken up with by a friend. When they have a crush on a fellow eight-year-old and say to you "who could love a face like this?"...

Today, I answer a listener question about how to buckle in a squirming child who doesn't want to be in a car seat. And then I tackle something that makes us all squirm… The unhappy social stuff in our kids' lives. You know what I'm talking about: When you spend your days stopping angry sibling fights, as if you were a boxing referee. When one of them gets made fun of at school – or worse, bullied....

Listen to today's episode for a quick and easy way to cut down on your child's bad behavior : ) – – – New Course Offering: It's agonizing to watch your child go through the social stuff of life; getting called a mean name or crybaby; getting "broken up with" by a friend, encountering sibling strife. It upsets us parents because 1) our heart breaks for our beautiful child, and 2) we don't know what...

Each fall as the nights get longer and Halloween gets close, spooky feelings crop up. They can be fun, but for kids these feelings also be downright frightening. Today I'm excited to bring you my conversation with my youngest, Jason, who remembers well the feeling of being afraid of the dark and shares really great advice for helping your kids cope with their fears. We talk about all kinds of Hall...

Sexually abused at age 7, I consider myself not a victim, but a survivor. In today's bonus episode, brought on by the #MeToo movement, I share the most important tool in my healing – and the conviction that, if you or a loved one has been sexually abused or harassed, there is help and hope for a good life (even a great one). Click here for key links, and please consider sharing this episode if you...

Given their small stature and relative powerlessness, the idea of something as powerFUL as a gun captivates young children. But in the violent world we live in, their fascination can seem to us morbid and frightening… All the more so in the wake of mass shootings like the one just a few weeks ago in Las Vegas. Today's show gives you concrete ideas about how to raise a nonviolent child in our viole...

In which a coaching client of mine shows me that something I'd always thought to be truly impossible is, in fact, possible. It brings up the question "what happens to our children when we believe something is impossible?" Alternatively, what happens to them when we believe that something is possible? Key links at weturnedoutokay.com/189 ; Click here to learn more about the Ninja Parenting Communit...

Today's guest knows that we live in a time where everything around us – the challenges, the technology, changing culture – can seem both terrifying and awesome. Former psychotherapist and current creativity coach Mark McGuinness teaches how to embrace the awesome, and mitigate the terrifying with his podcast, 21st Century Creative, and today he brings wonderful ideas for you to enjoy more of your...

In which I identify 5 different ways you might feel about your child and schooling, on a continuum from 1) you knew going into school that your child had issues that impact education, and would need to be addressed to 5) you have no worries about potential issues, and the school reports no problems. It doesn't matter which of these five spots on the continuum you occupy – the way to work with your...