EveryDay Strong

Do you keep track of how many texts your kid gets each day? If so, it might not surprise you to learn that adolescents typically send and receive thousands of messages every month. But how bad is texting really? And does it affect mental health?

In this week’s mini episode, Eliza talks about how parents can set boundaries around phones and texting that support their child’s physical and emotional needs.

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/when_teens_need_their_friends_more_than_their_parents

https://childmind.org/article/when-should-you-come-between-a-teenager-and-her-phone/

GIVEWAY CLOSES FRIDAY 9/16 *See below for instructions*

Tech is complicated. So are kids. There are many factors that influence mental health and behavior, and phones are one small piece of the bigger picture.

In today’s episode, we talk about some common situations parents face while navigating digital parenting. Our expert, Carrie Rogers Whitehead, shares what parents can do to promote safety, connection, and confidence online as their child grows and develops.

Carrie’s company, Digital Respons-Ability, trains parents, educators, and students on digital citizenship and internet safety.

GIVEAWAY INSTRUCTIONS

For a chance to win a signed copy of her book, The 3 Ms of Fearless Digital Parenting: Proven Tools to Help You Raise Smart and Savvy Online Kids, follow EveryDay Strong on social media and send us a DM with the codeword we share in this episode.

You can also buy her book here.

To end this season, in case you missed catching this episode from Season 2, here's a rerun episode with Jenny Howe!

You might have a vision for what your teenager or child needs in order to thrive. But you're not the only adult in your kids' life: there's her teacher, perhaps his other parent, or their youth leaders at church or a club. Are they resistant to what you know your child needs?

Licensed clinical therapist Jenny Howe deals with this all the time. She specializes in helping parents collaborate with the school to figure out a plan that will work for everyone. Listen now to learn how to have a better conversation and what actions you can take to support your kid.

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To learn more about helping your child, Jenny suggests reading Lost at School: Why Our Kids with Behavioral Challenges are Falling Through the Cracks and How We Can Help Them by Ross W. Greene.

In today's episode, we talked to Lisa Clark, a mother of five, and she shares one of the most challenging experiences her family has experienced and what she did to stay calm and persevere and help her kids thrive through these challenges.

Lisa cared for her husband with a terminal illness in which she learned how to cope by doing things to calm her, she learned how and who to reach out for support,  she learned that modeling healthy emotional behavior means staying authentic to your emotions, and she learned to don't sweat the small stuff. 

Listen as Lisa shares her story and how she cared for herself and her children during the hardest time in their life with laughter, love, and tears.

What can you do when you constantly do the same "parenting fail" over and over? 

You lose confidence in your parenting skills, feel hopeless, and are stuck. What can help with these feelings is changing your mindset to view confidence as something that grows through experience as you overcome challenges. 

And having a clear vision of what you want to accomplish as a parent can build your confidence, which you can impart to your kids. You have to be confident to instill confidence in your kids. 

In today's episode, we talked with clinical mental health counselor Scott McConnell about the challenges of building confidence and how that affects how we parent our kids. 

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To learn more about building confidence, Scott suggests the following books:

No drama discipline by Dan Siegel

The whole-brainchild by Dan Siegel & Tina Bryson

Parenting with love and logic by Foster Cline & Jim Fay

Brainstorm: the power and purpose of the teenage brain by Dan Siegel

How to talk so kids will listen and listen so kids will talk by Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish

When raising a family distances us from old friends, starting a new friendship from scratch can be intimidating! Remember this isn’t your first rodeo. Today's episode with local therapist Collette Dawson-Loveless, LCSW, will help you jump the mental hurdles and make meaningful connections even as an adult! Listen for her tips about building vulnerability, stepping out of your comfort zone, and understanding roadblocks on your path to connection and support.

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To learn more about building connections, Collette suggests the following books:

Love Sense by Dr. Sue Johnson

Attached by Dr. Amir Levine and Rachel S.F. Heller, M.A.

Wired for Love by Stan Tatkin Psy.D.

Parenting From the Inside Out by Daniel J. Siegel M.D. and Mary Hartzell M.Ed.

The balance is HARD between focusing on a kid’s needs and not forgetting about your own.

If you feel like you’re always living on the edge of a breakdown, it might have to do with learning to calm your body, not just your mind. When your own needs for calm and peace are met, it’s a lot easier to parent the way you want to.

Today’s episode with Dr. Andrea Moore (who has a doctorate in physical therapy!) shares science-based grounding techniques for preventing getting to the edge.

One of the most important things you can do as a parent is to take care of yourself. 

We all know the list: get enough water, get enough sleep, get some exercise. 

But that's so much easier said than done.

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You've told your teenager that they really, really need to focus on bringing their grades up or it's going to be difficult to get into a good college--but it's so much more fun to NOT do that, they argue. You're trying to convince them that they should go to bed at a decent hour but they push back: "none of my friends have to go to bed by then."