Parenting Doctors Podcast

This 7-minute podcast focuses on the Top 10 considerations when addressing a child’s tantrum during family pictures  (1)   When parents take the short cut and reinforce the child’s refusal beahviors and tantrums with sour patch candy, a snickers bar, a twix, or some kind of gummy, this has the following consequences:  a.     Reinforces tantrums and other misbehavior. b.     Teaches a child that ca...

What makes a successful family?  (1) An occasional family meeting with open dialogue about how the family is doing.  (2) Regular family dinners.  (3) SCREEN FREE ZONES  - Each house needs screen-free zones.  This starts with the bedrooms.  Behavioral sleep experts recommend that adults get the TVs out of the bedroom.  Kids need their TV's out of their bedroom.  The American Academy of Pediatrics r...

I traveled around the state of Wisconsin this week.  I met some wonderful professionals – teachers, principals, school counselors and psychologists, mental health counselors, psychologists in private practice, social workers, occupational therapists, and speech pathologists.    So many people are working hard to make a difference and collaborate with teachers and parents to help kids achieve an ex...

Today's parenting podcast is a tribute to a movie favorite -- Back To The Future.   Parenting nuggets are discussed -- consistency, warmth, engagement...

All siblings argue and engage in conflict making sharing difficult sometimes.  Positive households with warmth, good communication skills, and unconditional acceptance by parents make repair attempts and subsequent sharing easier.  But, sharing can still be difficult.  The One-Child Mentality ("Syndrome") makes sharing even harder to develop.   Still, sharing is hard for everybody.  We can help ch...

Do you ever feel overwhelmed as a parent?  Do you ever feel like you have lost control or are on the verge of "losing it" in the face of chaos?  If that is you, you seem normal to me!!  But, we know that maintaining poise is key in the face of the pressures of life and parenting. Here are two techniques that can help you keep it together and regain control.  Most importantly, these techniques can...

Protective Parents: Five Nights at Freddy's?  I taught seminars with approximately 100 educators and mental health clinicians this week in Alabama.  One of the issues that came up this week is the issues associated with video games.  Parents use video games for baby-sitting purposes.  We've known for decades that video games increase aggression.  Lately, there have been some games that are increas...

We have seen the devastating effects of parental uninvolvement.  And, we have seen the research and media identify the concerns regarding over-involvement (i.e. snow plow parenting, helicopter parenting).  What about Pivotal Moment Involvement?  Common sense parenting tells us that Pivotal Moment Involvement (PMI) is critical in child development.  This podcast emphasizing the value of pivotal mom...

Does parenting decrease happiness?  Parenting is the epitome of inconveniences.  With regards to happiness, the pleasant life does suggest that happiness goes down.  But, the good life and the meaningful life cause happiness to go up.   Engaged parents, as opposed to disengaged parents, can do specific things to increase engagement, meaning, and subsequently happiness.  

Parents can do a lot to not embarrass their child or leave them out there alone for uncomfortable moments.  "Can we have another milk.  Lisa spilled it."  Instead.... Say, "Could we please have another milk, we spilled it." (Or, "I spilled it.").   This podcast emphasizes some of the keys to joining with your child.

To emphasize personality functioning minimizes the power of love in parenting.   There is a misperception in parenting – you are smart if you can describe your kid’s personality really well.    Shaping, reinforcing, instructing, teaching, guiding, instilling, strength-building are all more important jobs as parents than coming up with descriptions of your child’s personality.  

In Part 1, I suggested two belief changes for all parents: - Conflict is positive, not a negative in family life. - Promoting conflict as a healthy pillar in childhood development, maturity, and education.   - I suggested 3 phases of sibling conflict: problem identification, solution exploration, and solution focused agreement. In Part 2, identifying emotions, summarizing the other person's (sibli...

Conflict is Good Since the beginning of time, siblings have fought.  Everybody in my generation who had siblings understands sibling rivalry and arguing.  Arguing is a part of life.  I’ve taken some time to look at sibling conflict from a different parenting angle. I see conflict as good and I encourage arguing.   

  1. Reward desired behavior- reward behavior in the direction of the desired behavior. 2. Praise effort more than results. 3. Count to 10, breath, take a step back – be like an eagle taking a broad perspective, not a snake that strikes out. 4. Identify clearly want you want the child to do with clear expectations.  Communicate everything, assume nothing…. 5. Take time to discuss how all actions h...

Dealing with kids and their fickle friendships can range from an inconvenience to a nightmare.    Kids have rocky relationships and up and down behavior and nagivating this terrain can be rough.   One client said to me, “My daughter is having a birthday party in a week.  Recently, a girl in her class told her that she couldn't’ wait to attend her birthday party.  The next day, she ignored my daugh...

If we had a bug in our ear, we could receive feedback whenever we are in a situation when we are rushing, impatient, intolerant, lack compassion, reluctant to take the time to explain our perspective, and not taking the time to listen to our children's perspective.  

Movie Review of the movie Inside Out.  The movie focuses on the five characters of Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Anger, & Fear.  While limited, this is a great movie on emotional intelligence.  Introduces children to emotional integration and putting words to feelings and emotions.   

A Book Review on the best book out there for parents and youth sports.

A four-year old was shown some marshmallows.  He could have one marshmallow now, or he could have two marshmallows in 15 minutes. There is a striking difference between those children who can wait for two marshmallows.  How does this apply to parenting?

It is helpful for parents to reflect on the three clear reasons why inappropriate behavior is reinforced:  (1) ignorance, (2) intolerance of being inconvenienced, and (3) shortcuts.   Either we don’t understand, or we dread hassle, or we are anxious to shortcut a learning opportunity.  

Emphasize Choices Not Orders: How to let your children be free without the family chaos! We discuss how emphasizing choices is helpful, particularly during those uncomfortable (but necessary) moments of disciplining children.