Summer is coming to a close, and school is right around the corner. While this is a normally a familiar rhythm for families, nothing about starting this school year feels familiar. No matter what school district you are in, you're likely facing major adjustments to how school attendance will function. As parents try to figure out how to best care for their children in this time of uncertainty, school staff are doing the same thing.

Holly Wallace happens to be both - a mom, and a high school principal in the Dallas area. She joins us for a conversation concerning the start of the school year, bringing both perspectives with her. Listen in for tips on managing anxiety, supporting students and teachers, and navigating these new waters with a sense of positivity.

For better or worse, conflict is an inescapable part of the human experience. There are tensions and disagreements in even the healthiest of relationships. So if it's impossible to avoid conflict altogether, how do we best navigate it? Answering this question is central to the work of Jennifer Hargrave, our guest for this episode.

Ms. Hargrave is an experienced attorney who focuses her practice exclusively on family law, and provides representation to clients throughout the greater Dallas metropolitan area who are either contemplating or going through a divorce. She is especially skilled at helping clients construct creative settlement agreements. Based on her background in collaborative divorce, she encourages her clients to approach their divorce using non-adversarial techniques to minimize conflict as much as possible, diminishing the destructive effect on the family. She joins our three hosts to discuss what healthy conflict looks like, and how we can not only get through, but grow through the tension.

Find Jennifer Hargrave's law office at https://hargravefamilylaw.com

When we start to list skills we hope our children master, executive functions might not be the first thing that rolls off our collective tongues. But, understanding what they are and what they help us achieve can be crucial to our kids' development.

Leda Owens knows the importance of this work. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor who has extensive knowledge in diagnosing and treating ADHD and developed the Executive Functioning Counseling and Training (EFCT) program, as well as the "Parenting the ADHD Child" parenting workshop. Leda provides guidance to parents and their children as they navigate new learning and emotional diagnoses or life challenges and assists families in addressing concerns related to academic achievement, adjustment to divorce, anxiety, attention deficits, behavior concerns, and depression. And now, she joins us to discuss executive functions and the role of the parent in nurturing the developing minds of our children.

Our bodies need energy to function properly, no matter our age. What we choose to eat and drink has a direct effect on how well we can focus, learn, and perform. And as parents, we aren't only making those choices for ourselves... we're helping facilitate those choices for our children too. So how do we do that well?

Enter Nina Salhab. Nina is a a Registered and Licensed Dietitian Nutritionist at the Cooper Clinic in Dallas, TX with more than 20 years of nutrition and wellness counseling experience. She has a heart for helping families navigate the sometimes frustrating and often confusing world of nutrition. She joins us to share some simple tips and wonderful resources that she has gathered throughout her career. If you've ever had a fight with your child about what to eat, this episode is for you!

Find Nina Salhab on Instagram: @nina_salhab_rdn2020

Resources mentioned in the show:

Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

Real Mom Nutrition

The National Agricultural Library

The Ellyn Satter Institute

Cooking Light

Food Hero

You have questions, we have… more questions? And maybe a few answers along the way! Jane Hensley, a therapist in the Dallas area, joins us to work through some listener questions about relationships, communication, and parenting.

2020 brought a reality that none of us saw coming. Whether great or small, all of us have felt the effects. As parents, it has made this summer look vastly different than we expected. So how are families coping with the change? How are kids staying active, but staying safe? How are parents that can't send their kids to camps not losing their minds?? Our three hosts are joined by two of their colleagues, Dr. Karen McClard and Karen Kassanoff, to discuss the world in which we currently live, and how to make the most of this unexpected season.

With tensions around systemic racism continuing to run high in cities all over the world, we felt compelled to bring you this bonus episode of Parenting For The Present. For some, awareness of this issue may be a new thing. For others, they've lived with this reality their entire lives. For Shonn Brown, raising three Black children meant doing her best to prepare them for the moment her kids might be on the receiving end of injustice. That moment came for one of her children just a few weeks ago. The story of their experience and the actions that followed are not only inspiring - they provide a road map for how all of us have the power to take something dark and use it for the betterment of our world.

The world is rapidly changing, and media is often at the center of it. Angela Patterson sees this more fully than most; she is a PhD candidate in psychology with an emphasis on media. Her work addresses the ways that media and psychology inform each other, and what affect that has on our spiritual being. We discuss the current research on the effects of social media, screen time, and how to chart a healthy course for your family's interaction with technology.