As kids grow their bodies change. So do their thoughts, feelings and desires. When young adolescents (10-14 year olds) start experiencing crushes, it can be exciting, awkward and very confusing. Tweens need education designed for them so they can make healthy choices when they are ready to become sexually active. Enter AMAZE, an innovative and yes, friendly, animated online video sex education resource for young adolescents. AMAZE takes the awkward out of sex education, or as they put it: "More ...
Apr 06, 2018•17 min
When computer games are a problem for parents, it's usually because a child/teen has become obsessed and no longer shows interest in "family time." Even when family time isn't impacted, parents may have other questions like: • "Is my child addicted to computer games?" • "Are violent games encouraging my child to be violent and/or desensitizing him to violence?" • "Is all this screen time hurting my child's social development?" Dr. Rachel Kowert, psychologist, online gamer, and author of "A Paren...
Mar 14, 2018•16 min
At times, every child feels worried, confused, or scared. In those moments, kids need safe adults to talk to. When your child comes to you, out of the blue, with a burning question, or when your family is faced with a sensitive situation that requires your bringing kids into the loop, how do you do it effectively? Psychologist Dr. Robyn Silverman, author of "Good Girls Don't Get Fat" and "Bully: An Action Plan for Teachers, Parents and Communities to Combat the Bullying Crisis" reminds parents t...
Feb 28, 2018•18 min
In the minds of kids as well as adults "failure" is something to be avoided at all costs. But Jessica Lahey, educator and author of "The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Kids Can Succeed" says we may be missing something important in our mistake-averse approach to life. "I don't want kids to fail. I want kids to have this adapt-positive response to making mistakes. Unfortunately, when I talk to parents these days a B- is 'failure' to them." Annie talks with Jessica ...
Feb 13, 2018•19 min
Many caring moms and dads today have turned away from the authoritarian parent model they may have grown up with. The new approach is often influenced by the belief that a parent should be a child's friend. In that role, it's hard to say "no." When kids only hear "Yes, of course you can, sweetheart." how can they learn how to deal with life's inevitable frustrations, obstacles, and set-backs and become responsible and resilient? And how can parents live under the stress of having to be the "perf...
Jul 19, 2017•18 min
Losing her father can impede a girl's emotional and relational development – that's tough to overcome. At this moment, tens of millions of fatherless daughters of all ages are struggling to step out of the stigma of being fatherless and start moving toward self-survival and success. "Fatherlessness is a journey," says Deena Babul, RN, and co-founder of the Fatherless Daughter Project. "It's not something you're supposed to get over. The pain of losing one's father tends to go underground, and it...
May 01, 2017•17 min
Three months after Heather Von St. James gave birth to her first child, she was diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer caused by asbestos. She was told she had fifteen months to live. Fast-forward eleven years and Heather is very much alive and has dedicated her life to helping parents who are cancer patients. "My job, as an advocate, is not to tell patients the 'right way' to do things." Heather says. "Those parents know their kids far better than I do. (The q...
Apr 15, 2017•17 min
Parenting tweens and teens is challenging. They're testing boundaries, just as they should at this age. And whether we like it or not, they're frequently pushing back and trying to establish their own independent identity (interests/values/opinions) apart from Mom and Dad. That level of conflict is reality in most intact, stable, both-parents-married-to-each-other families. When a separation or divorce occurs and either parent is beginning to date, that's likely to create extra challenges for te...
Mar 22, 2017•19 min
Has parenting really changed all that much since we're now raising our children in the Digital Age? Not according to G. Cory Warren, Corporate Communications Director at LifeLock. LifeLock partnered with the National Parent Teacher Association (P.T.A) to develop a free online tool for parents called The Smart Talk. According to Cory, "The role of parents today is not any different than the role of parents who came before. It's to be involved, to have conversations, and to show an interest in wha...
Feb 22, 2017•17 min
When we're worried, we are not feeling empowered (or safe or happy). That's part of the reason parents often tell our kids "Don't worry." Easier said than done. "Worrying is on one end of a continuum with fear on the other and anxiety in between," says Psychologist Dr. Dan Peters. "Fear," he says, "is a response we all need biologically to survive. It's a response to a real threat in the environment. Anxiety is an irrational fear. The thing we're anxious about (and stress and obsess over). That ...
Jan 31, 2017•20 min
In high achieving schools, the expectations of parents and teachers can be intense. Getting top grades puts kids under unhealthy levels of stress. And is it even necessary? According to school counselor and therapist, Phyllis Fagel, "It's not clear what grades even mean any more. In today's Digital Age, with this many variables [contributing to our kids' chances for success in the workplace] I think people are just trying to control whatever they can. And grades is one of them." Many colleges ar...
Jan 08, 2017•16 min
Our culture pressures mothers to conform to an ideal of "good mom." When our children are little we are often too busy with caregiving to think about who we are. As kids reach the point in their development where they aren't as dependent, we may find ourselves with more time for ourselves. According to Life Coach Caroline Greene, this new chapter of parenting can be accompanied by a "deflation and a loss of identity and feelings of loneliness, isolation, and confusion." For Caroline, ten years o...
Dec 07, 2016•21 min
We hear a lot from parent educators about the importance of teaching kids to be "resilient." The "How?" part of the equation isn't always clear to us or to our kids. Too often teens (and adults) let a setback sink them into despair. Life coach Chester Hall tells the teens he works with "Even when you feel at the very bottom, and [you think] nothing can get worse, it's really hard to mess this [life] up. Even if you make some huge mistakes, there is always time to bounce back." Annie talks with C...
Nov 19, 2016•19 min
Research shows that how kids feel about being at school impacts their ability to do well at school. It comes down to something pretty simple: Kids need to feel welcome at school and that someone (a teacher) feels invested in their education. During this election cycle there has been an increase in the vitriol and nastiness and the racism, sexism, xenophobia that we and our young people are regularly hearing. The Southern Poverty Law Center has studied Hate in the Race (including the level of vit...
Oct 29, 2016•23 min
Middle school social interactions are often a series of very quick, very short conversations, taking place amidst a chaotic backdrop. If you're a kid with learning and attention issues who may not be able to read social cues well or find the right words for a quick response, you might find yourself in a fast-moving world where other kids don't respond to you in positive ways. "It's heart-breaking," says learning specialist Mark Griffin, "to watch a kid who really wants to be part of a group and ...
Oct 17, 2016•24 min
Most educators want nothing more than a positive school environment where all students feel respected and accepted. And yet, there are daily challenges to creating and maintaining such an environment. Dr. Jennifer Freed takes that challenge directly to students. "We decided the best way to improve climate of schools and communities was to empower teenagers themselves to be the leaders of climate and community, and we developed a training that teaches them, for example, how to intervene in bullyi...
Oct 02, 2016•16 min
Everyone has heard the voice of his or her own "inner critic" taking pot shots at us during times of low self-confidence. For many girls and women that inner critic often mutters (or shouts) about how we look. A running internal monologue of body-shaming can become so ubiquitous we don't even know we're doing it. And yet, without awareness of this self-abuse, how can women truly gain the confidence we need to reach our full potential? How can we stop seeing other women as competitors in a univer...
Sep 18, 2016•21 min
The term "special education" is typically used to define "instruction/classes for children with special needs because of physical or learning problems." But what about the special needs of gifted kids? And who falls into that category? The classic definition states that gifted children are those with unusual ability or potential in any one or more of 4-5 areas. Those are: intellect, academics, creativity, performing arts, or leadership. How much ability? How much potential? According to Dr. Jim ...
Jul 25, 2016•22 min
Tweens and teens often procrastinate. And when they do, parents may resort to threats, bribes, and/or pep talks. Some parents may lose it and say something like this, "Your whole future is riding on your SAT scores. When the hell are you going to start studying?!" Guess what? Those choice words only add to the pressure your child is already feeling. And nobody works better under pressure. According to Dr. Hendrie "Hank" Weisinger, "Regardless of the task, pressure ruthlessly diminishes our judgm...
Jul 10, 2016•28 min
We label people we don't understand. We label people we fear. We label people we have written off as not being worthy of our time or friendship. Labeling people makes them easier to hate. Labeling people can trick us into believing that our hate is justified. The Diversity Center of Northeastern Ohio is a human relations organization dedicated to eliminating bias, bigotry, and racism. Today's podcast is about The Center and its new film, #RethinkLabels, which brings more awareness to the way we ...
Jun 26, 2016•16 min
Are 21st Century Dads really all that different from 20th century dads? According to parent coach Aaron Schiller, "Today's dads around the world are changing more diapers than ever before." A welcome change, for sure, but in what other ways are dads stepping into a more prominent role in the lives of their sons and daughters? Annie talks with Aaron about helping dads transition into a hands-on relationship with their children, especially if they themselves had a mostly "hands-off" kind of father...
Jun 12, 2016•20 min
Parents often have the best intentions. We want the best (and the most) for our kids. But when parents consistently over-function in their role by stepping in and doing the work for the kids, they may end up raising young adults who under-function. "We see in the workplace that these young people aren't as resilient, as adaptable, not as able to be independent or to communicate effectively because they haven't had the opportunity to learn those skills, " says psychologist Joanie Connell, author ...
May 28, 2016•17 min
Parents are very tuned in to other parents. When we see something in public looks like "bad" parenting, our impulse to judge may be to strong to resist. But a snapshot of a situation doesn't often tell the whole story. You don't know what came before, and you don't know what's going to happen after. Rushing to judgment doesn't help child or parent. It takes a village to raise a child, but what's a concerned villager to do? "Instead of me assuming that (the parent under pressure) needs parenting ...
May 14, 2016•20 min
Bullying is a learned behavior, and we want the perpetrators to _unlearn_ it as quickly as possible. But what and how can targeted kids teach the aggressor? Obviously, if a child is being harassed, he or she needs to tell somebody. But who should kids turn to for help? According to anti-bully activist Tammy Motola, "More than three million kids are bullied at school each year, but only _four percent_ of teachers intervene while that's taking place." Why so few? Is it because "kids will be kids" ...
May 03, 2016•20 min
We hear a lot about "girl power," but in many ways our culture disempowers girls. How so? According to Dr. Laura Choate, author of Swimming Upstream: Parenting Girls for Resilience in a Toxic Culture, our culture (through stylized clothes, toys, dance classes, TV, movies, pop stars, etc.) teaches girls that they have to "define their worth and value in their appearance. And not just being thin and beautiful, but also being as hot and sexy as possible." Annie talks with Dr. Choate about how paren...
Apr 14, 2016•18 min
When kids have issues with other kids outside of the school day, it can bleed over into the next day at school. And the day after that. So much so that school hallways and lunchrooms can begin to feel like battlegrounds. How can schools help? "It's definitely not a technology gap," says school administrator Matt Renwick. "Kids are very intuitive and can figure things out on their own." The problem, he says, isn't a matter of giving them the tech tools, it is teaching them how to use technology r...
Apr 02, 2016•16 min
We know that kids learn by making mistakes, but we're not always comfortable with that reality. As author and educator Tyler Durman puts it, "The way we react to our kids' mistakes really tells them (whether) they are safe to come to us with their imperfections or not. And also our own vulnerability and our willingness to say we're sorry when we've blown it... to invite them into our (personal) journey and the things we (as adults) are working on." Annie talks with Tyler about how life is a jour...
Mar 17, 2016•22 min
For teens and adults alike, works of fiction are a powerful tool for exploring emotions and behavior. As Los Angeles-based psychotherapist and YA (Young Adult) author Matt Casper puts it, stories can "increase empathy and also imagination, allowing the reader to explore the mind of another." With that perspective, young readers can understand themselves better as well as increase their understanding others. Annie talks with Matt about the therapeutic value of exploring fictional characters, espe...
Mar 03, 2016•14 min
It's not easy being a child, tween, or teen with ADHD. It's not easy being the parent of one either. Whether your child has recently received this diagnosis or has lived with it for a while, how you deal with it can have a profound impact on your child's social success in life. Katherine Ellison, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and co-author (with Dr. Stephen P. Hinshaw) of "ADHD: What Everyone Needs to Know", indicates that "A really important part of being a parent of a child with ADHD is to...
Feb 18, 2016•15 min
For most adults, working with teens probably doesn't top their bucket list. Working with delinquent and out-of-control teens is even more challenging. Yet Dr. Patrick M. Duffy, clinical psychologist and author of "Parenting Your Delinquent, Defiant, or Out-Of-Control Teen" really enjoys this population of young people. "There's something about their spirit," he says. "And it's rewarding when you can see someone make progress, whether it's when they get a job, do better at school, get along bette...
Feb 05, 2016•20 min
