Family Looking Up

Social media is full of the good, the bad, and some ugly.  Today we talk with instagram super influencer Collin Kartchner about the effects that social media may be having on you and your children.  

In an ever advancing world we may struggle to keep up with everything happening on social media.  One thing that is becoming more and more clear is the consequences of misusing social media.  In this episode we discuss how access to a virtual world and prolonged amounts of time spent on it each day may be leading to depression, anxiety, feelings of worthlessness, and in some cases self harming or even suicide.  Collin is starting a new dialogue and hoping to get the word out to parents that it is time we take control.  We are responsible for monitoring use of social media in our homes. We can have a discussion about how the images and posts we--and our teens--are looking at how they are making us feel.  His message is that we are good enough.  We don’t have to look to a virtual world for approval.  

The “Mom Squad Challenge” this week is to take an honest look at how the things and people you are following are making you feel and have that same conversation with your children.  If something does not uplift and bring you joy, delete it from your feed.  

Today we are talking to Angela Ferrari.  Angela grew up in the mountains of western Maine.  Living in a rural setting, she developed a talent for finding creative ways to play and captivate her imagination.  She is a talented writer, illustrator and produces the Story Spectacular Podcast.   Her Story Spectacular podcast is filled with stories, vivid characters, songs, jokes and fun facts for kids.  In this episode we talk about ways for parents to live a creative life and encourage creativity in their children.  

Topics Discussed:

1. How Angela became a Children’s Story Podcaster
2. What Story Spectacular is all about
3. The benefit of story podcasts for kids
4. How to find people to help you fulfill your dreams
5. How we can support our kids in their creativity
6. Why Angela chose to write children’s literature
7. Ways for moms to awaken their creativity
8. Maintaining the fun when following your passion
9. How routines help accomplish your tasks
10. How audiobooks benefit troubled readers
11. How much to push your kids in their creative interests

Mom Squad Challenge: Start Something New! Carve out 40 minutes for yourself and give yourself permission to start something new.

Family life can get very busy.  Sometimes it feels like we are playing tag team with our spouse instead of being a married couple.  Today we talk to Melissa Hunt from the very popular website The Dating Divas.  She give us great creative advice about getting over the excuses we have for not dating our spouse.  If you are looking for ways to keep the marriage fun and excitement alive, you are going to want to listen to this.

What we cover in this episode:

1. How the Dating Divas got started
2. The Mission of the Dating Divas
3. Why it is important to work on the relationship with your spouse
4. The challenges that prevent us from dating our spouse
5. Finding time to date
6. Dating when money is tight
7. The importance of a formal invitation for a date
8. The importance of being intentional in your marriage
9. Tips for planning your dates
10. How to date when you have kids
11. How to take the first step to start dating again, if you are struggling in your marriage
12. The problem with bringing expectations to the date
13. Ways to make your spouse feel special everyday
14. Developing a habit to date
15. Ways to make Valentine’s Day special, fun and take off the pressure

Mom Squad Challenge: Put three date nights on your calendar!

If you would like to find out more about The Dating Divas, visit their website at www.thedatingdivas.com  or email Melissa Hunt at: [email protected]

How do we help our teenagers?  This common question is explored by School of Family Life Associate Professor Laura Padilla-Walker.  She focuses on two ideas crucial for a teen to develop as they head into adulthood: fostering self-control and self-esteem.  We explore ways for parents to be positive and patient in helping teens to develop these bedrock traits.

For years as a business consultant, Chris was putting the signature, “Do Good. Be Great.” on his email signature.  One day, he received the dreaded call from his son’s school saying his son had been bullied.  As he thought about the struggles in our world and specifically the struggles in his son’s life, he thought, “We have enough people striving to be great.  What if we simply strive to be kind?”  He changed his email signature to Do Good. Be Kind. and from there his powerful message was born.  He now travels to schools and businesses talking about this important message.  In this episode we have a conversation with Chris about his message, the importance of kindness, and how we can pass that on to our children.

Things talked about in this episode:

1. What is Do Good. Be Kind.?
2. Everyone has their own definition of what it means to Do Good. Be Kind.
3. The three pillars of kindness: Kind to yourself, Kind to others, Kind to the world
4. This is not an anti-bullying movement.  Do Good. Be Kind. is about  being proactive about being kind.
5. When you are kind to yourself, it flows into being kind to others.
6. Little daily reminders can make a big difference in how we treat people
7. Do Good. Be Kind. is not about being perfect.  It’s about striving.
8. Simple ways to make a big change in the community around us
9. Strategies for ways to be kind to ourselves and how to teach it to our kids.
10. How patterns of habit influence how we feel about ourselves.
11. How to teach our kids to proactively look for ways to be kind to others
12. Find your values.  Recognize the things you say versus the things you do.
13. Teaching our kids to recognize there is a backstory to everyone’s life.
14. How to teach our kids to be kind to the world around us without making it a political statement

Mom squad challenge: Dedicate 5 minutes of your day for positive affirmations.  Give yourself credit for the things you do.

To  find out more about Do Good. Be Kind. visit dogoodbekind.life  #dogoodbekind or email Chris at: [email protected]