Have you ever felt like you just couldn’t get along with your teen? Are they exhibiting a behavior that you just can’t get them to change? Teen behavior problems are one of the top reasons parents listen to the Mighty Parenting podcast. What if that behavior isn’t really a problem? What if that difficult temperament in your teenager could get much better with a simple reframing and common [...]
Kids in larger bodies often have to deal with weight stigma and bullying. This is heart breaking for parents to see. We want to step in and make things better for our child. But how do we do that? Adolescent eating disorder psychotherapists Zoë Bisbing and Leslie Bloch help parents and teens with this every day. They join Mighty Parenting podcast host Sandy Fowler to talk about parents’ initial[...]
Parents often talk about behavior problems or strained relationships with their teenager. While there are many potential contributing factors for those issues, if your teen is stressed, tired, or worn out then anything they are struggling with will be exacerbated. If you are stressed, tired, or worn out then it can strain your relationship with your child. On the Mighty Parenting podcast, Sandy [...]
Everything is going along fine then our kids hit middle school and girl drama happens. Now there’s a daily report on who said what to whom. The big news of the day is who is mad, who is their friend, and who they sat with at lunch. While relationships are always important, the teen years are a time when girls’ friendships are essential and yet they seem to be a battleground. When teen drama [...]
Do you have an unmotivated teenager? An unhappy one? It turns out motivation and happiness go hand-in-hand with purpose. But we don't focus on purpose with our teens. It starts when they’re little and we ask our kids what they want to be when they grow up. As they enter high school we start asking about colleges and careers. But it turns out we’re focusing on the wrong question if we want our [...]
Teens can be difficult, withdrawn, or moody during the best of times and these are not the best of times. Our teens and twenty somethings are dealing with a lot and it’s taking a toll. John MacPhee from the JED Foundation and Janis Whitlock of Cornell University join Mighty Parenting podcast host Sandy Fowler to understand what’s happening to our teens during Covid. They are shining a light on[...]
Talking to our kids about sex and sexuality can be difficult or uncomfortable, and it doesn't end with "The Talk". You aren't broken if you don't know how to talk to your kid about puberty, bodies and sex. Feeling awkward and unsure just means you haven't been shown how to talk or given the right information to talk about. When that conversation moves into consent, sexuality, or gender identity [...]
Today’s show is about parenting a teen who is addicted to drugs. Not someone who’s in recovery or has moved through recovery, but a child who is actively abusing drugs. It’s not a pretty topic and many would say it’s not an uplifting one but this show is uplifting because we are all here to understand; to understand what other parents are going through, to understand how we can support [...]
Are you living with a surly teenager? An unmotivated teenager? Feeling guilty because you don’t want to spend more time with your family? Months of living with the stress of a Covid lifestyle has taken a toll on families. Parents are frustrated, simply d-o-n-e and facing parental burnout. Even when we take the time to use our stress-relief strategies, it's often not enough. And the beginning of [...]
We know anxiety rates are skyrocketing in teens, even the ones who seem to have it all together. But how do we impact that? How can we help them reduce their anxiety? Agency. This is the ability to exert power, to have control over our life. It turns out, feeling like we are in control of our life reduces anxiety. That’s the power of agency, feeling like we have control over our life. And [...]