If you find yourself asking “why is my child so easily distracted?” and wondering how you can help – you’re not alone. All parents at one time or another wonder about their child when you find them doing something totally different when you know that they know they’re supposed to be doing something else. It can be frustrating and a source of conflict when it happens frequently.

More often than not the culprit is sensory overload.

The attachment relationship between parent and child is a significant topic of concern, parents often question if their child exhibits all the characteristics of a securely attached child. While, no child will meet all the characteristics coupled with a scale of how behaviors to determine attachment. The one thing we love the most about the attachment theory is it only takes one intentional person to change an insecure attachment style.

As children get older, especially when they reach adolescent and teen years, there is a need for relinquishing some control over the lives of our children. It’s hard! We are driven by the desire to protect them at all costs. However, that isn’t what children need or want from their parents at this stage in their lives, and decreases the older they get.

Building and maintaining connections with your child does not have to be a daunting task or one that takes hours to do. We are all busy parents, and our kids are busy too! But there is no reason to feel shame for being a busy parent or worry you aren’t doing enough to build or maintain your connection and secure attachment with your child. The answer to how much time to spend with your child may surprise you!

The truth behind meltdowns is that we cannot avoid them. Why? We all have plans, including our children. We all react to when plans don’t go our way. However, the younger the child, the less established their cognitive development, their nervous system is immature, and they either not yet learned coping and regulation strategies or have not had enough practice to put them into play during times of need. It’s important for parents to recognize what psychological events that happen when our children have a meltdown, so that we can show up for them more empathetically, and geared with some tools to help both in the moment and afterwards.

Jealousy gets a bad rap and has negative connotation because it’s associated with and exposes our own shortcomings. But in reality, jealousy and comparison of others is a part of human nature. There are two types of jealousy that act as motivators that are explored and how parents can help their children cope with the feeling of jealousy.

In light of the recent fires, we want to give special attention to families who have experienced loss. Although most affected areas are not yet able to return to their homes to assess the damage, we wanted to provide comprehensive tips about how to prepare your child after the wildfires and how your child may react as they begin to cope with the gravity of the situation, in which may be traumatic for them

As parents we believe we should have all the answers and solutions to all the questions and problems presented to us throughout our parenting journey. Even the most seasoned parent may need to take a parental pause to figure out what to do. It is okay not to have an immediate solution to all the questions and problems presented by children and in our parenting journey. And when this happens, we have some steps to get you to an answer or solution.

Collaborative parenting is in many ways a 180-degree progression from the authoritative way of raising children that many children of the 80’s and 90’s were raised. In continuing to learn from the generation before us, we too are working to improve the way we parent our children. If the goal of parenting is to raise healthy, happy children that have a strong family connection the secret sauce to ensuring this comes in the form of mutual respect, collaboration, and communication that collaborative parenting offers. The research shows that these three elements can pay dividends toward a common family goal – strong connections.

John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth and their Attachment Theory might not be something you’ve heard of but is a major developmental objective for children to develop with their caregivers, mainly their mothers since they typically act as the primary caregiver in many families. Being able to develop an attachment relationship with caregivers isn’t hard for children to do. However, creating a secure, healthy attachment relationship and reaping the benefits of such relationship is dependent on the parents, their parenting style, and availability of the parents. So, let’s break down attachment and how to provide your child with the care they need to insure a secure attachment.

I made a social media post about filling your own cup and it got me thinking about the importance of taking care of ourselves as parents as much as we do with our own kids. Later that afternoon, I coincidentally, stumbled upon the scientific reasoning behind why filling up your own cup is vitally important since we oftentimes succumb to the pressures parents face to be perfect parents while putting our needs second, if not totally unmet due to excessive levels of sacrifice parents subject themselves to.

November 13th is World Kindness Day, but we don’t really need or shouldn’t need a day to remind us to be kind to others as well as to ourselves. We often get asked, do you need to teach kids how to be kind, and if so, how do you? Although kindness is an abstract concept we have outlined three ways to teach this social concept to children.

Children are naturally persistent and when parents think of qualities we want our children to sustain into their adulthood, persistence is a key quality. But persistence can be tricky when children don’t take no for an answer and push to get what they want. Its times like these that parent have a clear choice in how to manage a child’s persistence while also maintaining respectful communication that doesn’t break a child’s will and doesn’t drive a parent mad!

It’s that time of year: daylight savings time is near! How to prep for infants and toddlers, and how does the time change affect older kids who don’t necessarily need the same prep as younger kiddos?

There has been alot of questions about if we should talk to our kids about the upcoming election, and if so, how do it in a developmentally appropriate way that doesn’t highlight the particular candidates and their beliefs. The answer is yes! We should definitely be speaking to our kids and here are some reasons why!

Ever notice how one family member can feel stressed, anxious, or fearful and it’s as though the feelings were contagious, and other family members start to feel the same sort of emotion and dysregulation? Those are mirror neurons at work. Our feelings and moods are in some ways contagious! And children are just as susceptible to feeling parents or caregivers emotions and moods, as parents are susceptible to feeling our child’s dysregulation. So it’s important we stake steps to regulate our emotions and teach our children to do the same.