Our kids are growing up as AI natives, and most of us are still playing catch-up. Carol talks with two leading voices from the Stanford Accelerator for Learning about what it really means to raise informed, grounded kids in an AI world.

Victor Lee, faculty lead for AI and education at the Accelerator, starts simply: AI is a tool, not magic, and parents don't need to panic, they just need to get informed, and he explains how to do so.  Isabelle Hau, the Accelerator's Executive Director and author of Love to Learn, introduces the concept of relational intelligence, our capacity to connect meaningfully with others, and makes the case that as kids spend more time with AI, human connection becomes more important, not less.

The conversation turns to AI companions and what Victor calls the fast food problem: instant gratification that can't replace real relationships. Victor and Isabelle also dig into the digital divide and the double standard kids face between home and school.  The key, they remind us, is that parents need to stay curious instead of judgmental as we talk to and learn with our kids about this brave new, rapidly changing world of AI. 

Resources Mentioned

• Isabelle Hau, Love to Learn: The Transformative Power of Care and Connection in Early Education
• Victor Lee, Advancing Data Science Education in K-12
• CRAFT program (Classroom Ready Resources About AI for Teaching), Stanford Graduate School of Education
• Stanford Accelerator for Learning
• Common Sense Media research on teen AI companion use

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💼 LinkedIn: Carol Sutton Lewis
🌐 Website: GroundControlParenting.com
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Talking to our kids about money is never just about dollars and cents. It brings up our values, our fears, our own childhood experiences, and sometimes even our regrets.

In this On the Ground episode, Carol is joined by co-hosts Keisha Sutton-James and Jen Hays Lee for an honest conversation about raising money-smart kids. They talk about building generational wealth while carrying the fear of backsliding, finding the balance between giving our kids opportunities and teaching them the importance of earning, and recognizing how the way we were raised shapes the way we handle money now.

They also tackle a real parent dilemma: What do you do when your child wants those wildly expensive sneakers all their friends seem to have? The conversation turns practical as Carol, Keisha, and Jen share the tools that have worked in their own homes, the lessons they’ve learned along the way, and the places where they are still figuring it out.

Whether money is discussed openly in your home or never talked about at all, this episode offers ideas and tools to help you raise kids who understand money, choices, and responsibility.

On The Ground is a recurring segment, new this season, where Carol and two other moms dig into the issues we're all talking about around the kitchen table.

Follow Ground Control Parenting:
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💼 LinkedIn: Carol Sutton Lewis
🌐 Website: GroundControlParenting.com
📫Substack: @carolsuttonlewis

You've decided to get a divorce. Now what? When do you tell the kids? How much do you share? What do you say about the other parent? And what if you're already worried you'll get it all wrong?

Divorce is one of the most common experiences families go through, and also one of the hardest to talk about with our kids. In this episode Carol sits down with pediatric psychologist and parent coach Dr. Ann-Louise Lockhart to figure out how to do it with care.

We get into how and when to tell your children, why telling them together matters, how much to share and what to hold back, and how to build a healthy co-parenting relationship even when you and your ex can barely be in the same room. Dr. Lockhart explains why a changed family structure is a loss that kids grieve, how to keep them out of the middle, and she offers a powerful script for any parent who feels they got it wrong and wants to reset. It is an honest, practical conversation you can use right away.

Dr. Ann-Louise Lockhart is a pediatric psychologist, parent coach, and author of Love the Teen You Have.

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💼 LinkedIn: Carol Sutton Lewis
🌐 Website: GroundControlParenting.com
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How do you raise a child who wants to read? Award-winning educator Alvin Irby has a simple answer, and he found it in a barbershop.  In this episode, Carol talks with the founder of Barbershop Books, the national nonprofit that places books in barbershops and inspires Black boys to read for fun.

Alvin's approach: ask Black boys what they like to read, then give them those books. He explains why the titles children actually love, like Captain Underpants and No, David! rarely appear on book lists created for Black boys, and how well-meaning curation can trap kids rather than free them. You’ll hear why he advises parents to replace the word "or" with the word "and," affirming what a child already loves while introducing something new.

Carol and Alvin also explore how children can build their reading identities and find literacy assets hiding in plain sight, on cereal boxes and in the bathroom. They talk about the reading trauma many adults carry, and why giving children agency over how and where they read can help us raise the next generation of readers.


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💼 LinkedIn: Carol Sutton Lewis
🌐 Website: GroundControlParenting.com
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What can sisterhood teach us about raising children? In the first episode of Ground Control Parenting Book Talk, Carol explores this question with award-winning journalist Deborah Roberts, author of Sisters, Loved and Treasured: Stories of Unbreakable Bonds.

One of six sisters, Deborah draws on both her own family and the many women she interviewed to share the honest, sometimes complicated truth about sibling relationships. She and Carol dig into the patterns every parent will recognize: comparison, labels, and favoritism. They each candidly reflect on the labels that stuck in their own families, and on how being seen as "the favorite" can be both special and burdensome. Deborah also opens up about the close bond between her daughter Leila and stepdaughter Courtney and the journey to it. You can't force closeness between siblings, but as she and Carol discuss, you can nurture and protect the conditions for it.

Stay tuned for more episodes of GCP Book Talk, a new recurring feature in Season 8, where we look at great books through a parenting lens.

Follow Ground Control Parenting:
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💼 LinkedIn: Carol Sutton Lewis
🌐 Website: GroundControlParenting.com 
📫Substack: @carolsuttonlewis

Boomer, Gen X, Millennial. Three moms, three generations, one question that divides mom group chats: how do you discipline in the age of gentle parenting?

In this episode of GCP: On The Ground, Carol sits down with Keisha and Jen to wrestle with the parenting issue so many of us are living through right now. They move from the research linking spanking to worse outcomes, onto the harder question underneath it: does gentle parenting reject the way Black families raised us, or does it evolve it?

This conversation ranges from spanking to its alternatives, from talking back to respect, from societal expectations to the realities Black parents carry as they prepare their children for a world that too often judges them differently. The moms also take on a listener's question about second-guessing your own values when family weighs in on how you discipline, and they get honest about the role grandparents, aunties, and uncles play, including why kids seem to respect a whole different set of boundaries depending on who's in the room.

GCP: On The Ground is a recurring segment, new this season, where Carol and two other moms dig into the issues we're all talking about around the kitchen table.

Follow Ground Control Parenting:
📱 Instagram, TikTok & Facebook: @GroundControlParenting
💼 LinkedIn: Carol Sutton Lewis
🌐 Website: GroundControlParenting.com 
📫Substack: @carolsuttonlewis

What does it mean to raise children when your family's life is a matter of public record? Maryland's First Lady Dawn Moore knows that tension intimately,  and she's navigating it with clarity, humor, and grace.

First Lady Dawn Moore was one of the architects of the historic 2022 campaign that elected her husband, Wes Moore, as Maryland's 63rd governor and the first African American governor in the state's history. As First Lady, she champions children's mental health, military families, and women's economic empowerment. But in this conversation, she's a mom, figuring out the same things we all are, under a much bigger spotlight.

Carol and The First Lady talk about protecting kids' privacy in the age of social media, keeping children grounded when misinformation is about their own parents, and the values Dawn is passing down from her Queens upbringing to her kids. The importance of being kind. And why belonging in every room has nothing to do with your last name.

Follow Ground Control Parenting:
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💼 LinkedIn: Carol Sutton Lewis
🌐 Website: GroundControlParenting.com
📫Substack: @carolsuttonlewis

How much screen time is too much? Are some types better than others? And how should our approach change as kids grow from toddlers to teens? This week, Carol sits down with Jasmine Hood Miller, Director of Family Resources and Content Strategy at Common Sense Media and a mom of three boys, to reset the entire screen time conversation.

Jasmine's research-backed message: the timer is the wrong measuring stick. What matters is the type of screen time — and whether it's supporting the four essential skills every kid should be building: human connection, curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking. Carol and Jasmine walk through screens at every stage, covering co-viewing with little ones, short-form video and developing attention spans, the "first phone" conversation, monitoring vs. trust with teens, location tracking etiquette, gaming chat features parents often miss, and the freeing truth that you're allowed to reset — no matter how far things have gone.

Resources: Common Sense Media  — also available as a free app with media ratings, reviews, and parent advice. Follow Common Sense Media on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. 

We’re trying something new this season —  and we couldn't have picked a more important topic to start with. Welcome to the debut episode of GCP: On The Ground, a new recurring segment where Carol gathers three generations of moms to dig into the issues we're all talking about (or should be) at the kitchen table.

These days your kids' phones may know more about them than you do.  So for this first conversation, On the Ground moms Jen Hayes Lee and Keisha Sutton-James join Carol to talk about parenting in a world where algorithms direct what our children see, shape how they see themselves, and influence what they value. These moms dig into the hard questions: What does consent mean when our kids’ lives live online forever? How permanent is permanent on the internet? And how do we stay connected to our children without pushing them away?

Three mothers, no scripts, no easy answers. Just a candid, thoughtful conversation about the realities of raising kids in the digital age.

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💼 LinkedIn: Carol Sutton Lewis
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Misty Copeland returns to Ground Control Parenting, and a lot has changed since her last visit.
She's taken her final bow with American Ballet Theatre. She's come through a hip replacement. And she's parenting her young son Jackson (who “stole the show” when he joined her on stage at her final performance) while figuring out her next chapter now that ballet is no longer the center of the frame.

In this conversation, Carol and Misty cover a lot of ground: how you care for a body that used to be your livelihood, how you raise a resilient child without passing on the pressure you grew up with, and what it actually looks like to let go of perfection — on stage, at home, and in the mirror. They also talk about the work Misty is building beyond ballet, including the Misty Copeland Foundation, her latest books for young readers, Letters to Misty and Bunheads, Act 2, and her future writing plans. And there's plenty of laughter along the way, especially when the conversation turns to her son.

A returning guest, a new chapter, and the kind of conversation — funny, honest, real — that only happens the second time around.  Season 8 starts here! 


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💼 LinkedIn: Carol Sutton Lewis
🌐 Website: GroundControlParenting.com