Blogging

Child(ish) Reads: Never Enough

| Patti Webb

This book came out three years ago. I didn’t jump to review it because at the time, our kids were only 5. That’s a bit young to start worrying about achievement culture. Now, even though high school and applying to colleges are far off, there are still big parts of this book that speak to child development; both academically and personally.

The book also gives more nuance and research to our education system, and sheds more light on that pesky Gen Z: Cautionary Tale thing. It’s a great book to start your school year.

Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic-and What We Can Do About It by Jennifer Breheny Wallace.

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Gen Z: A Cautionary Tale

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

A couple weeks ago, a study reported that we are entering a post-literate society: people simply aren’t reading books anymore. The horror!

Before that, there was a trend of managers sharing what their new Gen Z hires were saying/requesting/complaining about in the workplace. For shame!

And lest we forget the article about Gen Z never having completed an entire book during high school before showing up to college. WTF!

Gen Z carries a reputation that’s hard to ignore. Yes, they’re the most socially tolerant, entrepreneurial, tech‑fluent (to an extent), emotionally aware, and scientifically literate generation we’ve ever seen. But, they’re also routinely labeled as entitled, fragile, phone‑obsessed, socially awkward, overly sensitive, and unprepared for adulthood. Those criticisms show up everywhere, especially in headlines about academic struggles, resilience gaps, and workforce readiness. But context matters.

As we’ve been told many times, Gen Z’s identity has been shaped by an always‑on digital landscape, rising mental‑health challenges, and a level of societal instability no previous generation faced at the same age. Many of the behaviors older generations interpret as weakness or entitlement are actually signs of a generation growing up under unprecedented pressure. And that’s exactly why Gen Z has become a warning for parents raising younger kids today.

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Mid-Year Check-In

| Patti Webb

We’re back from Summer Blog Break and recapping not only our summer to-dos but our resolution goals as well. May/June may have felt like the longest month ever, but we just got our Back-to-School shopping lists and the last four weeks of vacation are gonna slide by ridiculously fast. Let’s call this our Q2 review.

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Child(ish) Review: Toy Story 5

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

I’ll be honest, I never really got into the Toy Story franchise. I know Woody, Buzz, and Jessie are beloved icons, but I just wasn’t into sitting down and watching the movies when they came out, and even now as a parent. So when Patti told me Toy Story 5 was coming out and I casually mentioned that I was indifferent, the gasp she let out was audible. For reference, the first Toy Story came out when we were 10.

But then the Toy Story 5 trailer dropped, Lilypad appeared on screen, and suddenly I was fully invested. In this installment, Bonnie is introduced to a new high‑tech tablet which completely disrupts the balance of playtime, forcing Jessie, Bullseye, Buzz, Woody and the rest of the gang to confront what it means to matter to a child in a digital age.

Toy Story 5 is essentially a child‑development case study wrapped in a Pixar movie. The film directly tackles themes that map onto core developmental domains: social-emotional growth, imaginative play, peer relationships, technology use, and the psychological experience of being “enough.”

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Summer To-Do List: 2026

| Patti Webb

Another school year is done! We have two months to exhale.
If you are anything like us, you’re probably also thinking way far ahead to the next school year, trying to use the season to make sure your kid moves forward, not back.

We gotta have fun, stay active but also rested, make memories, do the summer homework; it’s a tall order. Hopefully, we can do a little bit of everything.

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