Art Creativity & Wellbeing

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...

In which we talk about how, when we are so worried, we can also feel simultaneously frozen and stuck – and, when we feel that way, the effect on our kids is devastating. Sign up for round 2 of the Streamline Your Mornings Free 5-Day Challenge (which you know you want to if weekday mornings are, well, challenging : ) and for key links to today's episode by going to weturnedoutokay.com/186. Click he...

When he was just five years old and a child in preschool, Nicole Olson's son was suffering. Lots of changes were going on in his world, and in the midst of dealing with them he "lost his personality." Nicole had thought that, if only she checked all the right boxes and pushed him into all the right activities, academic and otherwise, that he'd be fine. When she discovered that was not the case, sh...

Here at the beginning of the school year, teachers are doing their initial assessments, figuring out who of their students is how far along the literacy timeline. It can be a worrisome time for us parents – what if our kids don't read when they're supposed to? What if they tell you "reading is boring"? What if they hate reading? We all know that reading is THE key to our children's future success…...

If you're struggling with back-to-school time, or starting-school time – I'm creating shows this month and next to help you feel better. Today's is all about homework. Over the years I've had parents share the most horrible stories about homework and their little kids, like the mom whose six-year-old received an afterschool detention for missing four homework assignments in a row. That one still m...

With fall youth sports in full swing, I wanted to share something ugly that I witnessed last spring: a dad berating his young son, after the boy and his fellow teammates took a real drubbing, losing a soccer game big-time. In this empathy-lacking, divisive grown-up-up world, what kids learn on the soccer field seems more important and relevant than ever before; listen to today's show to find out h...

Back when We Turned Out Okay turned 2, I asked you all for a gift: your questions! Today I'm answering one of those questions, listener Caroline's about how to deal with medical issues in your child, and expanding out from "medical" advocacy by sharing, in the second half of today's episode, about how to advocate in other aspects of your child's life. I am so happy to bring back medical ethicist D...

"With kindergarten," a listener shares, "I feel like I'm about to toss her to the wolves." How are you handling the stresses of the autumn? If you've got a child starting school or preschool, or returning to school, daycare, or preschool, it can be really tough on both you and your kids. That's why today is the first of a 3-part series, the We Turned Out Okay Back-to-School Guide. Today I share th...

It's the beginning of the school year, if you're listening in real time, and thus the time of year where we are all figuring out new routines, new bus routes, new sports schedules and after-school activities… Definitely a time where we can feel overwhelmed. Today's show answers Shelley's question: "what are the hazards of overscheduling my kids?" The way I see it, there are two big hazards in over...

Are you feeling any of the following right now? Worry about busy schoolday mornings, with the chaos of everyone trying to get up/get dressed/eat/get teeth and hair brushed/get lunches/get out the door/etc.? Fears that, even though you've got a pretty good routine right now, that that could all change with one bad night or morning meltdown? Guilt at being consistently – no matter what you try – sup...

Today's guest, author, artist, and speaker Dan Blank, knows an awful lot about fostering creativity. As dad to a six-year-old and a new baby, he also knows the struggles that creative people go through to retain their creativity – their sanity, even – while raising children. For Dan it's a foregone conclusion: the way we humans are, right down to our very core, demands creativity. It's not somethi...

Do you ever wish your kids took on more around the house? Does the prospect of getting to that point seem so overwhelming that you give up before you've even started? Today we're talking about the how to foster responsibility in kids – not an easy task! The way I see it, there are 3 things we can do to encourage responsibility in our kids. Listen to today's show to find out what they are and how t...

"My wife doesn't want me to spank them, I get it – I don't want to either but what else can I do?" These words come from a listener's email, a desperate plea to figure out how to discipline kids and keep order during the daily grind. This listener goes on to say "I got spanked, and turned out okay… I got more than spanked to tell you the truth, and I know what the constant barrage of words being s...

Back in the early 90s, when I was a preschool teacher, I worked with two 4-year-old best friends, "Stacy," who had lovely chocolate brown skin and eyes, and "Kim," who had blonde hair and blue eyes. One day, as these two best buddies waited together in line for the bathroom, Kim innocently looked up at me and said: "I don't like black people." I was speechless – she's holding the hand of her best...

When We Turned Out Okay turned 2 several months ago, I asked you all for ideas about what you wanted me to address on the show. Listener Kerri said "I would like to know as a white person what I need to do to be sure my children are not contributing to the racism that is hurting so many." Today, I speak with married, interracial couple Ingrid Alli and Hamilton Graziano, in possibly one of the most...

Today we take on one of the toughest issues of all: getting our kids to listen to us. This is something every parent deals with and in recent weeks I've been asked about it more than once. Stephanie says "they seem to have come to me without the ability to listen;" Jocelyn says she struggles with "kids not listening and obeying the first time I ask (or the first ten times)"… Is this you? Do you fi...

It's time for NPC member Jen's parent-coaching call, and it's a doozy: Jen was feeling guilty about being "responsible" for getting her kids into situations where they were overtired and/or frustrated. She took their misbehavior as her fault, and in this episode I help her figure out a more productive way to frame the situation. We also dig in to several other issues, and by helping Jen resolve th...