Parenting Great Kids with Dr. Meg Meeker

With Father’s Day right around the corner, Dr. Meg thought it would be great to devote this entire episode to her conversation with gifted comedian, actor, The Tonight Show guest, children’s book author, and best of all a wonderful dad to five children: Michael Jr! Dr. Meg and Michael Jr. have been friends for many years, and their conversation reflects the depth of their respect for each other. A...

One of Dr. Meg’s favorite things is to answer questions from you, the listener. This is a special episode of the “Parenting Great Kids” podcast as Dr. Meg devotes the entire episode to doing just that, helping you make sense of roadblocks we all encounter as parents. Listen in as “America’s Mom” helps you navigate many situations with your kids that can often be tricky. Do you have a question for...

When life just seems like it can’t get any worse, it’s almost instinct to just give up and let life happen to you. There’s a feeling of depression that can creep in, and a sense of helplessness can paralyze you if you let it. It takes a lot to press-on and take back your life , but you can do it! After spending years in a home where her father was abusive to her and her mother, and then losing her...

With struggles coming at them from every angle, young boys need all the help from their parents that they can get to avoid temptations. One temptation that all boys face, but that can be extremely destructive, is pornography. That’s why this episode will be so important for parents of young boys since Dr. Meg continues her conversation with Stephen Arterburn. Stephen is the author of the book Ever...

With struggles coming at them from every angle, young boys need all the help from their parents that they can get to avoid temptations. One temptation that all boys face, but that can be extremely destructive, is pornography. That’s why this episode will be so important for parents of young boys since Dr. Meg interviews Stephen Arterburn. Stephen is the author of the book Every Man’s Battle , and...

Waking up in the middle of the night to take care of your kids is always stressful. Is it a dirty diaper? Is it a bad dream? Is it that baby is hungry? All these questions run through your head as you make your way over to take care of the baby. And then, while you’re taking care of baby, feeding or comforting, you can make the most of your unexpected awake time by praying or reading a devotional....

As our country faces a crisis unlike anything we have faced, Dr. Meeker felt it was important to talk to you about Coronavirus. All of us are working diligently to keep our families protected and naturally there are concerns about whether we are doing the right things or doing enough to stay well. In today’s episode, Dr. Meg gives you practical advice on taking care of your family, teaching your k...

When you get to the “storybook” wedding day, often you can’t imagine how your marriage could possibly end in divorce. The reality is, it happens, but that doesn’t make you a terrible person or a bad parent. Sometimes a redemption story comes out of the rubble as was the case with Dr. Meg’s guest this episode, Tracey Lynn Russell. Tracey felt like she was living a dream marrying what she thought wa...

With the month of March being National Birth Defect Prevention Month, what better interview to conduct than one from a mom that gave birth to a baby with a birth defect. Dr. Meg talks with Stacey Mandel about her daughter who was born at 27 weeks and how she handled having a premature baby and also her feelings about her newborn daughter’s birth defect. Because of an incredible, life-saving inject...

Young boys are growing up every day and will learn what it is to be a man and father from somewhere. More often than it should, the teacher is television programming, music, or a bad example of a man in the young boy’s life. It’s ever more obvious that young boys need someone to look up to and show them what manhood and fatherhood should look like. This is where Dr. Meg’s conversation with John Sm...

Whether you are a new parent, about to be a parent “again”, or you have been a parent for more than a decade, there are fears that each of you face as you raise your kids. There’s always a voice in your head that says, “you were too harsh this morning,” or “you were way too lenient this afternoon.” With the increase of social media posts, these days are bombarded with comparisons and perfect photo...

With societal pressures about body image, sexual activity, and inclusion in the “it crowds”, daughters have an increasingly difficult time staying strong these days. Even something as simple as an off-handed comment about you needing to lose weight can shift your daughter’s mindset toward an unhealthy body image. All these pressures can make it difficult for your daughters to stay safe, happy, and...

When you are presented with a situation, big or small, where you can make a difference, immediately self-doubt and excuses as to why you shouldn’t even try come to the front of your mind. In this episode, Dr. Meg has a conversation with Rabbi Jen Krause and Dr. Jordan Kassalow about their book Dare To Matter. This is a book about how you can harness the desire to make a difference in the world by...

On the doorstep of New Years Day, resolutions, change, and fitness are always top of mind. As a parent, these things can easily go by the wayside as you just try and keep your head above water raising your kids. Lots of questions come to the forefront when learning how to balance fitness and family. That’s why in this episode Dr. Meg talks to fitness guru and television personality Heidi Powell. S...

It’s the Christmas season, and in light of that, Dr. Meg wanted to do a special Christmas edition of the Parenting Great Kids podcast! If you can learn how to deal with the struggles, joys, and different aspects of Christmas that families deal with every holiday season, you really can make the best of the time with family and friends as Dr. Meg hopes for each of you. Because it’s such a special ti...

Adopting children can be one of the greatest blessings that you experience. Some families choose to adopt to complete their family and some adopt to start theirs. In either case, adopting a child of a different race brings some baggage with it that you don’t necessarily know about until you’re in the thick of it. Sometimes people give you strange looks when you have an adopted child of a different...

When you first have kids, it seems like they will never grow to the next stage, and you continually ask when will my child learn how to do certain things. It feels like parents are always trying to quickly move through their kids’ childhoods so quickly, but when you do that you miss out on some of the greatest joys in life. There are strong bonds and relationships that take work to form, and if yo...

One of the biggest issues people in America face today is how the healthcare system hides pricing from its customers, the patients. In no other industry do you blindly hire someone for a service and agree to pay whatever price they deem appropriate after the service is completed. If you were to hire a person to build a fence, there’s no way to know how many nails or screws he or she will use or br...

One of the biggest issues people in America face today is how the healthcare system hides pricing from its customers, the patients. In no other industry do you blindly hire someone for a service and agree to pay whatever price they deem appropriate after the service is completed. If you were to hire a person to build a fence, there’s no way to know how many nails or screws he or she will use or br...

Keeping your brain sharp can seem like a tough task, and to add on top of it your kids’ brains sounds like an impossible task. Just trying to keep up with the day-to-day chaos is mentally challenging, is there a way to improve the function of the brain? Dr. Daniel Amen says, “you are not stuck with the brain you have, you can make it better,and I can prove it.” With all this in mind, Dr. Meeker si...

The back to school season is always tough for kids as they get used to a different schedule when summer is over. It’s also tough on parents as they are transitioning into the new season and helping their kids deal with the changes as well. In this special episode, Dr. Meg answers your questions about helping kids deal with getting used to new schedules, learning how to make friends, and how much e...

Balancing a really busy work schedule with the right amount of family time can be a struggle, and fathers tend to struggle with this the most. Often, fathers feel that they have to be the primary provider in a family and put too much energy and time into their jobs and don’t leave enough “in the tank” to build meaningful and lasting relationships with their children. No one knows this more than Ne...

Even as an adult, finding what you are good at and what you are passionate about (and subsequently where those two things intersect) can be a seemingly unsurmountable task. It’s easy to lose confidence to help your kids find those things as well. There’s also the ever present temptation to push your kids too hard or force them to laser-focus on things that they just aren’t passionate about. This i...

As a parent, you goal is always to raise your kids and, eventually, become what is called empty nesters. That usually means that your kids can take care of themselves without you having to help all along the way. But what do you do if your kids need to come back home and live for a while? How do you handle that properly while preserving each of your separate lives? These are questions that get ask...

Headaches are tough to deal with regardless of age, but the migraine headache is probably the most feared one of them all. As a parent, you want to prevent pain in your children as much as possible, but sometimes with headaches you feel like there’s nothing that you can do. That’s why in this episode Dr. Meg talks with Keith DiMarino and Dr. Donna Stephenson about Keith’s daughter that struggled w...