Teaching Social Safety  Media With A Tween Novel – The Case Of The Missing Person

While I know today kids think that owning a device and having social media accounts is a right, not a privilege. It’s our job as parents to set limits to make sure our kids are emotionally mature enough to navigate having a device.

The truth is lots of damage has been done to kiddos seeking connection, comfort, and encouragement on social media.

Everyone wants their child to practice social media safety but how do you teach it?

Sitting your kids down for a frank discussion about it is one option and one I’ve used myself.

But there is an additional way you can open the conversation -Through a novel.

Really? Yep. You can read a tween novel with your tween and follow the instructions in a free pdf – Social Media Safety which you can grab HERE.

When it comes to healing from trauma, the first step is acknowledging the trauma.

When we acknowledge the trauma -whether it is caused by one of the six risk factors or due to being neurodivergent in a neurotypical world, we can begin to heal.

What does the Bible say about healing from trauma? Is there hope? That's what you may be asking right now. Let me assure you, there is hope.

Grab a cup of coffee and join me as I share 3 Biblical promises about healing from trauma!

Celebrating with kiddos with trauma histories and neurodiversity looks a lot different than neurotypical celebrations.

When raising kiddos with trauma histories/neurodiversities it is easy to get caught up in meeting physical needs.

In her article “Hopes and Prayers,"  Joyce Maynard describes what happens to many of us.

“We’re so consumed with the feeding, the dressing, the buckling into our car seats, the finding of bathrooms, and the counting of heads,” she says, “that we sometimes forget that there is any greater mission to raising children than making sure the crusts are cut off the sandwiches and that everybody gets a balloon.”

When raising kiddos with trauma histories/neurodiversities, this is especially dangerous.  It is easy to get stuck in the rut of feeding and clothing children and trying to deal with each phobia or medical issues, reading articles on attachment, talking to other parents about what to do, etc..  It becomes exhausting and overwhelming.  All the joy is sucked out of life when there is no celebration. 

Grab a cup of coffee and join me as I share ten tips on how to plan your own family events and practice the habit of celebration!

Kelly Edwards of 90 Minute School Day joins me today to talk about -healing, growth, and resilience in homeschooling.

Kelly shares:

I’m just thrilled to help parents in homeschooling make the transformation that I feel like I stumbled down the mountain and up the mountain and through the woods in the dark to get to myself. That’s really where the 90-Minute School Day came from: coming alongside parents who are either considering homeschooling or have already been homeschooling, make the shift in their homeschool from a top-down approach to being relational with their children as the foundation and going from there.

Dr. Jerrod Brown returns to the podcast to teach us about "The Gut-Brain Health Axis"

Dr. Jerrod shares -

"This is a topic that I’ve been doing more and more work on over the last

Grab a cup of coffee, a notebook, and a pen, and learn with Dr. Jerrod!

What about being spiritually prepared? Although the emotional and spiritual components are often intertwined, there is an aspect of spiritual preparation that stands alone.

When a Christian decides to become a missionary or start a ministry, training takes place. Often it involves Bible college or leadership training at church. Missionaries study the culture of the people they are going to serve. They learn the language, habits, and customs of the people. Why? Because we understand that no one should ever enter the mission field without being thoroughly prepared.

Most of us entering the adoption/foster care world and/or raising a kiddo with neurodiversity do not receive this type of spiritual training unless we seek it out.

Grab a cup of coffee and join Kathleen as she digs into this topic and shares some answers from a survey on this topic!

In this episode, I first lay the foundation for why we need investment parenting. It all has to do with co-regulation.

Children with trauma histories/ Capital Letter Syndromes have altered brain development. The main outward sign of past trauma is what we often refer to as “bad behavior” or the inability to self-regulate (if you want it to sound more science-y and less critical). The truth is, when it comes to behavior, we must remember that every behavior expresses a need.

When it comes to kiddos with a trauma history/Capital Letter Syndrome, the ability to self-regulate is absent. It’s CAN’T not WON’T Regulate. In simple plain language that means, he cannot calm himself. He can’t help but be overwhelmed to the point that he is either hiding under the table (flight), not responding to what you are asking of him (freeze), or running away from the situation (flight). He CAN’T. Not physically able. Not emotionally able. In this scenario, the adult must take the reins and help the child by co-regulating. Co-regulation helps a child develop a new pattern for stress regulation.

Grab a cup of coffee and join me to learn how to practice investment parenting with co-regulation!

You don't want to miss this episode.

Daughter Audrey and I get super real on autism, neurodivergence, and how to parent kiddos on the spectrum. (These tips work with kiddos with trauma histories as well!)

We are both on the spectrum, so not only do we share what we've learned about parenting our kiddos, but we do it through the lens of neurodivergence.

As far as parenting goes, we share the "Instead Of" Tips -Tips You can use instead of traditional parenting. 

Grab a cup of coffee and join us! If you aren't following Trauma-Informed Parenting, today is the day to sign up so you can get your own copy of the Infographic! *Linked in the show notes!

Alexithymia is when a person has difficulty experiencing, identifying, and expressing emotions. 

I’m beginning this episode/article with a definition for a reason. When we are parenting kiddos with trauma histories/Capital Letter Syndromes (or reparenting ourselves) we hear many terms. Alexithymia is one of those. Along with proprioception, interoception, and a slew of other words which leave us scratching our heads.

Often we parents don’t have time to create notes and look every new-fangled term up when therapists use them as frequently as we use the word “that. While I’m not a professional therapist, nor do I have lots of letters behind my name, I am a Trauma-Informed Parenting Teacher. I like to take concepts and break them down into bite-sized pieces and share them with you so we can all be better parents, grandparents, caregivers, and professionals.

Grab a cup of coffee and join me as I share about alexithymia!

I have a special guest, Duygu Balan. She is an author and psychotherapist specializing in intergenerational trauma. She has just co-written a workbook called, Re-Write: A Trauma Workbook of Creative Writing and Recovery in Our New Normal.

Duygu works with individuals and couples working through adverse childhood experiences (ACES), attachment injuries, and trauma. She also works with parents who are survivors of child abuse healing their inner child as they raise their children.

Grab a cup of coffee, join us, and be sure to grab your Re-Write Trauma Workbook!