Stepparenting

Stepparenting

Listen to a Great Interview on The D-Shift Podcast

Parenting Techniques

How To Keep a Good Relationship with Adult Children Still Living at Home

Parenting Techniques

Five Ways to Deal with Being Overlooked on Mothers’ and Fathers’ Days

Media Appearances

The Counter Culture Mom Show Looks At Commitment, Boundaries, and Unconditional Love

Three Ways to Cope with Toxic Biological Parents

Four Ways to Encourage Step-Sibling Relationships

Childhood Trauma

Six Ways to Help Our Children Stay Hopeful

Childhood Trauma

Three Destructive Myths About Hope and How to Counter Them

Parenting Techniques

Why and How to Have to Have Difficult Conversations With Our Children

Parenting Techniques

Why We Need to Love Our Kids Unconditionally and Set Boundaries for Them

The Best Reason To Keep Trying With Our Kids

Childhood Trauma

What If Our Kids' Bad Habits Are Actually Out-of-Place Skill Sets?

Listen to My Conversation with Rich Heller on Rick in Relationship

What Research Teaches About How to Help Our Children Struggling with Depression

Parenting Techniques

How to Motivate Our Children to Do Household Chores

Parenting Techniques

Why Our Kids Need Responsibility for Household Chores

Parenting Techniques

Why Do I Have to Constantly Repeat Myself With My Kids?

Parenting Techniques

Do You Feel Like Your Household is Chaotic? Here’s How to Cope!

Parenting Techniques

Four Ways to Be the Mentor, Not the Villain, in our Children's Stories

Parenting Techniques

Figuring Out Where We Fit In Our Children's Stories

How to Empower Our Children to Create Their Own Happiness

Parenting Techniques

How to Accept that We Cannot Control Our Children's Decisions

Parenting Techniques

Five Principles for Parents to Regroup and Recharge for the New Year

Parenting Techniques

Take Time to Enjoy the Opportunities We Have With Our Children

Feeling Lonely as a Stepparent is Common, and There Is Help

The Importance of Taking One Step at a Time

Parenting Techniques

Five Things Theater and Movies Can Teach Us about Dealing with Family Drama

20 Holiday Traditions to Try With Your Blended Family

How To Cope When Your Children Reject You

Three Important Things to Remember About Christmas Presents for Your Child's Biological Parents

Why and How to Help Your Kids Stay in Touch with Biological Family During the Holidays

Media Appearances

Discussing Bonus and Foster Families With Circle 31

Foster Parenting

Why and How to Help Our Kids Deal With the Unavoidable Loss in Adoption

Parenting Techniques

Seven More Ways to Manage Holiday Stress

Parenting Techniques

Seven Ways to Help Manage Stress Over the Holidays

Parenting Techniques

Why and How We Need to Manage Our Expectations for the Holidays

More Research about Family Traits that Help Foster Resilience

7 Things You Can Do if Your Child is Suffering from Anxiety

How to Build Our Kids' Resilience By Helping Them Change Their Self-Defeating Narratives

Is There A Difference Between Bullying and Conflict and Does It Matter?

Parenting Techniques

How to Parent Children From Different Faith Traditions

How Healthy Boundaries Can Be Your Best Self-Care

Five Principles of Effective Self-Care for Foster and Bonus Parents

Parenting Techniques

How to Let Our Kids Know We See Them Clearly and Love Them Unconditionally (part 2)

Parenting Techniques

How to Let Our Kids Know We See Them Clearly and Love Them Unconditionally (part 1)

Why It's Easy to Repeat the Cycle of Trauma and How to Stop

Childhood Trauma

A Common Reason Why Your Kids May Reject You

Parenting Techniques

Why and How To Keep Our Kids Connected to Their Biological Parents

Speaking Engagements

Join Me at the Renew Retreat in Raleigh, NC

Boys Who Have Suffered Trauma May Be Less Resilient Than Girls

Embrace the Power of Being Our Child's Plan B

Parenting Techniques

How to Remain Sane When Your Adult Children Still Live at Home

Parenting Techniques

Why We Should Give Kids More Control Over Their Lives and How to Do It

Parenting Techniques

What Hobbits Can Teach Us About Being Good Mentors

Parenting Techniques

Why Raising Other People's Children Requires That We Become Good Mentors

Parenting Techniques

Three Principles for Helping Children You Don't Understand

Parenting Techniques

Does It Matter Whether Our Kids Can't or Won't Behave?

Parenting Techniques

How to Start Planning for Spring Break

More Encouraging Evidence that Positive Experiences Can Counteract Traumatic Experiences

Join Me on Mothers of Misfits Podcast

Parenting Techniques

Why and How to Help Our Children Find Groups They Enjoy

Study: Positive Childhood Experiences Can Counterbalance Adverse Ones

Parenting Techniques

How to Help Our Children Change Bad Habits

Parenting Techniques

Four Ways to Limit Parenting Stress

Parenting Techniques

Case Study: We Need Boundaries to Protect Our Entire Family

Parenting Techniques

We Need to Be Careful What We Label Child Abuse

How to Celebrate with Children of Different Faith Traditions

Lessons About the Holidays I Learned At Walt Disney World

How to Help Your New Family Adjust to the Holidays

Be Prepared for Holiday Sadness From Your Foster or Step Children

Should We Get Presents for Our Kids' Biological Parents?

Parenting Techniques

We Need to Be Grateful for Our Kids, and Let Them Know

Honoring the Unique Challenges of Military Stepfamilies

Four Tips for Decreasing Holiday Stress

Parenting Techniques

It's Important to Our Kids When We Show Up

Parenting Techniques

It's Never too Early to Start Planning for the Holidays

Parenting Techniques

What It Means To Recognize Our Children Have Agency

Parenting Techniques

How To Reduce Burnout By Letting Go of Decisions

Parenting Techniques

One Key Reason that We Burn Out as Parents

Another Reason That Step Parents Are Important

Ways to Build Resilience in Young Adults

Parenting Techniques

Why I Look for Low-Maintenance Consequences for Children

Parenting Techniques

How to Use Logical Consequences with Children

Parenting Techniques

How to Respond to "You Are Not My Parent!"

Childhood Trauma

The Trap of Blaming Other People

Parenting Techniques

Don't Forget About the Quiet No-Problem Child

Media Appearances

An International Podcast

Childhood Trauma

Insisting on Accommodations for Children With Trauma

Parenting Techniques

Why It Is Important to Build a Family Team

Media Appearances

Stories of Inspiring Joy

Parenting Techniques

Knowing that Someone Somewhere Cares About You

Parenting Techniques

More About How to Respond to "It's Not Fair"

Parenting Techniques

How to Respond to "It's Not Fair!"

Parenting Techniques

Don't Forget This Free Parenting Summit

Parenting Techniques

More Thinking About "It's Not Fair!"

Parenting Techniques

Chaos to Calm Parenting Academy

Parenting Techniques

How to Think About "It's Not Fair!"

Why Quality Time is Essential to Stepparenting

Why Sacrifice Is Crucial in Stepparenting

Parenting Techniques

Foster and Stepfathers are Uniquely Important