In which we talk about how, when we are so worried, we can also feel simultaneously frozen and stuck – and, when we feel that way, the effect on our kids is devastating.

Sign up for round 2 of the Streamline Your Mornings Free 5-Day Challenge (which you know you want to if weekday mornings are, well, challenging : ) and for key links to today's episode by going to weturnedoutokay.com/186.

Click here to find out more about the Ninja Parenting Community, the place where I help parents solve their toughest challenges every day.

When he was just five years old and a child in preschool, Nicole Olson's son was suffering. Lots of changes were going on in his world, and in the midst of dealing with them he "lost his personality."
Nicole had thought that, if only she checked all the right boxes and pushed him into all the right activities, academic and otherwise, that he'd be fine.
When she discovered that was not the case, she felt about the biggest load of parental guilt that one could feel…
That sad, depressed 5-year-old is now 14 and thriving. Today's episode shares their story, and will feel so relevant for you if you worry at all about how your child will learn to get along in this world.
We share about a million links, so click weturnedoutokay.com/185 to grab them, and to sign up for the Streamline Your Mornings 5-Day Free Challenge, which starts in less than a week!

Click here to find out more about the Ninja Parenting Community, the place where I help parents solve their toughest challenges every day.

Here at the beginning of the school year, teachers are doing their initial assessments, figuring out who of their students is how far along the literacy timeline.

It can be a worrisome time for us parents – what if our kids don't read when they're supposed to?
What if they tell you "reading is boring"?
What if they hate reading?

We all know that reading is THE key to our children's future success… but how do you get them to want to read?

Today's bonus episode digs into the two most important factors in getting children to be happy readers.

Click here to listen, and to sign up for the upcoming Streamline Your Mornings 5-Day Challenge, which starts Monday, October 2!

If you're struggling with back-to-school time, or starting-school time – I'm creating shows this month and next to help you feel better.

Today's is all about homework.

Over the years I've had parents share the most horrible stories about homework and their little kids, like the mom whose six-year-old received an afterschool detention for missing four homework assignments in a row.
That one still makes me choke a little.

Or the one about a child forced to miss recess because of a parent's failure to log in and do the required "family homework."

When medical ethicist Dr. Arthur Caplan comes on this show and says "recess is a right," as he did in this episode last spring, I smile at his words.

But my blood pressure goes up.
Way up, at the thought of you and your young son or daughter coping with outrageous, damaging policies like these.

So today I'm taking everything my own training and experience tells me, and everything the wonderful teachers and doctors and folks who really understand young children (and who've spoken up on my show) – and I'm boiling it down into three steps to help you handle crazy homework demands.

Go to weturnedoutokay.com/184 for key links, and to read an outline of the three steps.
Also – Click here to sign up to join the Streamline Your Mornings Free 5-Day Challenge, which I'm offering again in early October!

With fall youth sports in full swing, I wanted to share something ugly that I witnessed last spring: a dad berating his young son, after the boy and his fellow teammates took a real drubbing, losing a soccer game big-time.

In this empathy-lacking, divisive grown-up-up world, what kids learn on the soccer field seems more important and relevant than ever before; listen to today's show to find out how a parent's attitude makes or breaks a child.

Click here to sign up for the upcoming Streamline Your Mornings Free 5-Day Challenge, which I'm bringing back for a second round because the first one was so effective and helpful for parents…

And go to weturnedoutokay.com/183 for key links to this episode!

Back when We Turned Out Okay turned 2, I asked you all for a gift: your questions!

Today I'm answering one of those questions, listener Caroline's about how to deal with medical issues in your child, and expanding out from "medical" advocacy by sharing, in the second half of today's episode, about how to advocate in other aspects of your child's life.

I am so happy to bring back medical ethicist Dr. Art Caplan to address Caroline's question, "Could you possibly give some advice about dealing with stressful situations in general and medical stuff, i.e. advocating for your child?"

Art outlines four key steps that parents can take when confronted with a child's illness, and in looking back I realized that those same steps would be wonderful when trying to advocate for kids in a variety of situations, socially, educationally, in addition to medically.

For an outline of these four steps to advocating for your child and related key links, go to weturnedoutokay.com/182!
Also – to download my free Guide to Happy Readers click here…
Click here to sign up for the upcoming Streamline Your Mornings Free 5-Day Challenge, coming up October 2nd-6!

"With kindergarten," a listener shares, "I feel like I'm about to toss her to the wolves."

How are you handling the stresses of the autumn? If you've got a child starting school or preschool, or returning to school, daycare, or preschool, it can be really tough on both you and your kids.
That's why today is the first of a 3-part series, the We Turned Out Okay Back-to-School Guide.

Today I share the ONE thing you can do to make your child's separation anxiety better!

Please note: the Streamline Your Mornings Free 5-Day Challenge is underway, and thus closed to new participants.
If you want to get in on this challenge when I offer it next in October, go to weturnedoutokay.com/181 to sign up! (Go there as well for show notes and other key links to this Just You and Me Episode : )