Did you know that when you Google “how to talk to my teen” the number one word that comes up with it is “survive?” Have you ever thought about how that language is impacting your kids as they grow into teens? What if, as a society, we were able to reframe our mindset completely, to think of the teenage years as something amazingly special — and what would that do for our teens’ growth and self-esteem?
What if we could even learn to treasure teen milestones the way we treasure all those early ones in the baby books?
(For real!)
Clearly our minds were opened big time on this week’s episode of Spawned.
If you have a teen, a future teen, or ever were a teen yourself, we think you’ll love the positive perspectives about raising teens, from pediatrician and adolescent expert Dr. Ken Ginsburg of The Center for Parent and Teen Communication at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
You may have seen him on, well, basically every morning show and evening news show, sharing science-based strategies that help teens build resilience, and helping families create healthy relationships. He’s also the author of the AAP published Raising Kids to Thrive: Balancing Love with Expectations and Protection with Trust (available from our Amazon affiliate) as well as the AAP toolkit
Listen right here right now!
We hope you love this episode and find it as helpful as we did, whether you’re raising teens right this second, or will be before you know it.
And of course, be sure to subscribe to our feed so you never miss an episode, especially because we have some amazing topics and guests coming up.
Psst… don’t forget to join our new Spawned Podcast listener community on Facebook to get — and give — some great advice with one of the most thoughtful group of parents anywhere.
Parents’ top questions and issues about teens addressed in today’s episode
– Why do parents dread teenagers in the first place?
-Why do teens push us away, and what can we do about it?
-How can we prevent our kids from engaging in risky behaviors?
-How do you get a teen to follow your rules?
-How do we get teens to open up and speak in multiple-word answers?
-How can parents manage the natural rejection we feel as our kids gain independence?
-How can we be less emotional and reactive with our teens overall?
-Why we should focus on the the idea of discipline versus punishment, and resources for creating a discipline plan.
-How do we find the balance between wanting kids to succeed and letting them fail?
-How is the recent college admissions fraud scandal part of a larger issue every parent struggles with?
-What can teens’ roles can be in their own growth and earning of privileges and freedoms?
This week’s awesome sponsor: “Circle” by Mac Barnett
We’re so happy that this week’s episode is brought to you by the new children’s book Circle, the third installment of the Shapes trilogy by New York Times best-selling authors Mac Barnett and John Klaassen, published by Candlewick Press.
Kids 5-9 will love this witty, clever story of three very sneaky shapes — Triangle, Square, and of course, Circle — and how Circle has to rescue Triangle when he breaks an important rule that she’s made.
For a great gift for kids, save 25% using promo code CANDLEWICK through this link on the new release Circle,
as well as the first two books in the Shapes trilogy, Square and Triangle.
Our Cool Picks of the Week
Milo Ventimiglia as Jack in This is Us | NBC
Ken’s Cool Pick: This is Us, and specifically the character Jack — it’s fascinating Ken describe just what makes him a fabulous parental role model and the factors that helped to make him the kind of parent we can all strive to be.
Liz’s Cool Pick: The Instagram feed @goodtype is an outstanding resource for design inspiration, beautiful hand-lettering, and the opportunity to discover talented independent artists who you may even want to hire somehow, some way. (Hint.)
Top photo: Hian Oliveira
Leave a Reply