Raising Boys & Girls

Boundaries are hard at home. Some kids don’t respect them. Some kids have lots of them. It can be tough to know how to help build healthy boundaries at home. This week, our dear friends and wise co-workers at Daystar, Sherman Bucher and Emma Pasquale are talking about just that. Grab a pen and paper because you’re going to want to take notes on this one! Grab a copy of Are My Kids on Track? to fol...

Sexual Integrity…sounds like a hard concept to grasp and an even harder concept to teach the kids we love. But our new friend Jim Burns and our long-time friend, Erin Mashaw, have written a book to help us do just that! We’re so excited about this book and about our conversation with Jim and Erin that brings such grace, hope and wisdom to the topic. We can’t wait for you to listen in on this one. ...

Where do your kids struggle, in regard to boundaries? Your sons? Daughters? When we wrote Are My Kids on Track, one of the things we talked about was how boys struggle in respecting boundaries, whereas girls struggle in setting them. Has that been your experience? What have you found that has helped? In this week’s episode, we talk about both…teaching the kids we love to set and respect boundaries...

We had the privilege to sit with Tori Hope Petersen recently and hear, not only her powerful story, but the difference she is making in the world for children. We talked foster care, adoption, resilience, and healing from trauma...both for kids and for ourselves. And, of course, we talked about her new wonder of a book, Breaking the Patterns that Break You. We can’t wait for you to listen to this...

Do you have a teenager living in your house? Or an almost teenager? This was one of our favorite conversations with one of our favorite authors, Rosalind Wiseman. In this episode, she talks about what’s going on with the adolescent guys and girls that we love in relationships, and what we can do to help. And make sure to listen through till the end because she gives us some much needed wisdom on w...

This week we’ve got two more wise and wonderful staff members from Daystar...Blair Baird and Tommy Hart. Blair and Tommy bring so much thoughtful, practical insight—not just to the Daystar staff—but to our podcast in helping the kids we love grow in their ownership skills. Mixed Emotions Cards Grab a copy of Are My Kids on Track? to follow along with us through the season! Are My Kids on Track? Sp...

So many of you all know and adore her already—like we do. But, if you haven’t yet encountered Ginny Yurich and her amazing resources, you are going to LOVE this episode! We talk all things play-related, how important it is to get kids outside, and so much more! Until the Streetlights Come On: How a Return to Play Brightens Our Present and Prepares Kids for an Uncertain Balanced and Barefoot: How U...

Ownership is foundational to healthy relationships…being able to own our part in conflict or even in disagreements. In this episode of the podcast, we talk about why ownership is particularly hard for some kids, and what we can do to help!  Milestone Three: Empathy Pantene "Sorry, Not Sorry" Commercial Grab a copy of Are My Kids on Track? to follow along with us through the season! . . . . . Sign...

Jeannie Cunnion is a wise and dear friend of ours, who has written another fabulous book, this one called Closer to God. In this episode, she talks candidly, practically and hopefully about what that can look like as a family. We can’t wait for you to listen in on this conversation. We have a feeling you’ll love Jeannie every bit as much as we do!  The 509 Foundation If you enjoyed this episode, c...

Happy New Year’s Eve, friends! We love an opportunity to reset around here, and New Year’s gives us one both as individuals and as families! In today’s podcast, we’ve got some ideas that can help your family grow together with a little more intentionality and a lot more grace as we move into 2025. "He doesn't ask us to try harder, he just makes us brand new." - Melissa Trevathan Ep 65: Developing...

Merry Christmas Eve, friends! We know there is a LOT going into these next few days. And so we wanted to arm you with our three favorite tips to navigate all of the Christmas tension. Listen along with your kids and come up with a plan together. Braver, Stronger, Smarter: A Girl’s Guide to Overcoming Worry & Anxiety Strong and Smart: A Boy's Guide to Building Healthy Emotions A Liturgy for Those L...

The twenties are a notoriously tough time of loneliness and confusion about relationships, job choices and LIFE! Our friend and co-worker has written a fabulous book called Cul-de-sac Crossroads: Navigating Life’s Twists and Turns in Your Twenties with Courageous Clarity. And she helps readers do just that in this book! Your kids will laugh and learn and love this book by Mary Spencer Veazey, and...

Dr. Lauren King is a brilliant psychologist who started Southeast Psyc in Nashville, an organization we refer to often. You’ll see why as you listen to this insightful podcast on understanding your child’s brain and best practices for neurodivergent kids. You’re going to want to grab a pen and paper for this one! Such helpful information…from such a kind, trusted voice in our world. UCLA Peers Cli...

This week, we’ve got two more of our favorite co-workers and friends (one who happens to be one of Sissy’s family members) on the podcast talking about relationships for kids! Allye Gray and Aaron Weber, both with years of experience working with kids, talk this week on practical things we can do to strengthen the social skills of the kids we love…particularly the skill of reciprocity! This is a s...

One of our favorite comments—whether in counseling or on the road is when we meet folks who tell us that we’re the reason they got a dog (unless they got a bad dog…and then we’d maybe rather not hear about that! 😉) But it has happened more times than we can count because—you all know—we believe so strongly in the power of pets in the lives of kids. We cannot count how many times we’ve had kids sa...

This week on the podcast, we’re talking about reciprocity, which simply means the back and forth of conversation—or even relationship. Most kids—most of us—lean toward either initiating or receiving. Think of it like tennis…hitting the ball back and forth. Back and forth. Both are involved in healthy relationships and we want the kids we love to learn to do both! Quiet Power: The Secret Strengths...

We have the privilege of walking alongside so many adoptive families at Daystar. Two of our dear friends and fellow therapists, David Denton and Emma Soechting. have spent years learning from and working with kids who have been adopted. We’re so excited to share some of their wisdom on the Raising Boys and Girls podcast, during Adoption Awareness month. There is so much good on this episode…whethe...

We have been waiting for this conversation for so long. We have multiple friends who have told us how much they adore Amy Julia Becker for years and it was a delight to get to sit down with her recently. She shares so much wisdom and hope on what it looks like to reimagine family life with disability. You’re going to want to listen, share, and take notes on this episode. Reimagining the Good Life...

Who better to talk about helping kids build the social milestone of awareness than a therapist who has been caring for kids for six years and a middle school teacher, recently turned counselor? Rachel and Richie bring so much wisdom to the table in this important conversation on helping kids we love develop awareness. Grab a pen and paper because you’re going to take notes! And we’re so grateful t...

Dr. Elisa Song is a Stanford, NYU, UCSF-trained pediatrician, and one of the foremost pioneers and trusted medicine experts in pediatric integrative and functional medicine. She’s the author of the bestselling Healthy Kids, Happy Kids and a mom to two amazing kids of her own. We are so excited to share this rich conversation with the wise and insightful Dr. Elisa Song with you. We believe this epi...

In these post-covid, technology-ridden times, we believe it’s never been more important to talk about the social milestones, with the first being the milestone of awareness. With the boys and girls we love, we see some universal reasons that kids might struggle with this one. Grab a copy of Are My Kids on Track? to follow along with us through the season! . . . . . Sign up to receive the monthly n...

How are you feeling today? It seems to be one filled with lots of anxiety and trepidation, for lots of us. We kept talking about what we most wanted to hear on Election Day, and so we recorded a podcast including just that! We’ve got a few parenting reminders on what it looks like to model all of these important milestones we’ve been talking about, some conversation starters to share with the kids...

We are thrilled to introduce you to two more of our amazing co-workers at Daystar Counseling who also happen to be dear friends! Allye Gray and Blair West are both thoughtful, wise, women who happen to be HIGHLY resourceful themselves! This week, they’re sharing ideas they use as therapists and ideas you can implement at home to help the kids you love develop the highly important muscle of resourc...

Jennifer Breheny Wallace is an award-winning journalist and author of the instant New York Times bestselling book Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic – and What We Can Do About It. Her forthcoming book Mattering in the Modern World: A Solution for the Crises of Our Time is based on five years of research and an original global mattering survey. Wallace is the founder of The Matter...

In Raising Worry-Free Girls, Sissy defines anxiety as an overestimation of the problem and an underestimation of themselves. The same is true for boys. In 30 years of counseling kids, we have never seen kids struggle with the idea of resourcefulness like we do today. You all, we believe this conversation is crucial to helping the kids we love grow up into emotionally healthy adults. They need both...