What’s Your Parenting Patronus?

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

How parents raise their children has always been up for speculation and criticism since the post-WWII days of Dr. Spock. His book published in 1946, The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, suggested that parents knew the best way to raise their kids. He even states in the introduction, “You know more than you think you do.” 

He advised that the more care, contact, and consideration a parent invested into their child, the better their child will turn out. How you did it, for the most part, was completely up to you.

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Sitcom Parenting 101

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Millennials know that the blueprint for parenting has changed a lot from generation to generation. In the 80’s and 90’s, the parental focus was on behavior and obtaining desired outcomes (like good grades), regardless of how they achieved them. This is a stark difference to the neuroscience and development-based styles that are encouraged today. To be fair, the internet was a novelty and the latest information on raising kids were in books or on talk shows.

I believe our parents tried the best they could all things considered, but growing up with family shows like Full House and Boy Meets World made me wish I had parents that were just a little more caring and supportive. As a parent now, does that sitcom-style parenting that I looked up to still resonate?

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Have you watched Bluey?

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

I first heard about this show last year. A friend had asked if we had seen it and suggested that we (and our son) would enjoy it. I was 5 months pregnant at the time and our son was becoming bored with the usual suspects: Team Umizoomi, Paw Patrol, Blues Clues, Blaze, and Bubble Guppies. So why not give it a try?

The world of kid’s TV is crammed with numbers, letters, and constant drilling of basic academics. Bluey brings none of that to the table. I was impressed to see that each 7-minute episode is jammed packed with humor, imagination, and lessons in parenting. Yes, parenting.

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Whole-Brain and No-Drama Podcast Playlist

| Patti Webb

As we close out The Whole-Brain Approach, we wanted to give you some recent podcast episodes with authors Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson. You didn’t think we just did books, did you?

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Child(ish) Reads: No-Drama Discipline

| Patti Webb

While The Whole-Brain Child is definitely an awesome approach to child-rearing, the neurobiology can be a bit of a bear to get through. For No-Drama Discipline, the authors zero in on disciplining with the Whole-Brain approach and the result seems to be much more practical (or at least as practical as neurodevelopment can be).

No-Drama Discipline: The Whole-Brain Way to Calm the Chaos and Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind
by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson

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