Parenting

How To Survive Family Holidays

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

You know at the beginning of Home Alone, where they have all these people from three different branches of the family, stuck in one house right before a holiday flight? That’s how we always picture crazy Christmas. Loud yelling, no one knows what’s going on, the littlest kid drinking a ton of Pepsi and wetting the bed. Let’s not get started on dealing with Uncle Frank….

As much as we want to create a magical winter wonderland for our whole family, it can be one of the biggest challenges with younger kids in tow. The whole season just pulses with sensory overload, and sometimes extended family can be more of a bad influence than a helping hand. Whether you are traveling to see family or if family is traveling to see you, here are Mary and Patti’s tips for parents on surviving the holiday season.

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Child(ish) Reads: Unselfie

| Patti Webb

There are a ton of articles about the major differences between Boomers, Millennials, Gen X and Gen Z; and how social media and screen time have driven huge cultural and sociological shifts. Now that Millennials are becoming parents, we have a very real fear: Fear that our kids could grow up to be really self-centered a**holes.

I think our most recent election is a prime example of how empathy influences our actions, our representatives, and our policies moving forward.

Here are some quick facts:

  1. Empathy means a person can recognize, understand and express their own emotions, as well as be attune to the emotions of others. Not just having touchy-feely feelings.
  2. Girls are more likely to be empathetic because parents talk about feelings more openly with daughters than with sons.
  3. Many people blame social media and screens for creating narcissistic zombie kids, but there is much, much more to the rising empathy gap.

Unselfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World
By Michele Borba, Ed.D.

Instead of giving you a play-by-play review of this great book, I want to talk about the things that stuck with me; the great content that not only will help me raise my daughters for the future, but also can shed light on many adults in the present.

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My Personal Parenting Life

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Everybody knows how to raise children, except the people who have them. – P.J. O’Rourke

When my son was born, I had many expectations on how I was going to raise him. Being a pediatric Occupational Therapist, I felt like I had an advantage. I assumed that the troubles and turmoil parents face could easily be solved with follow-through and consistency. I would often hear fellow colleagues tell me, “Wait until you have kids.”

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Child(ish) Reads: Pregnancy Edition

| Patti Webb

Hey Everyone,

Since starting Child(ish) Advice, our mission has been to share Occupational Therapy and child development resources with parents. While Mary covers the therapy side of our mission, I’m contributing for the parenting side.

Together, we’re starting a new monthly series called Child(ish) Reads. Each month, we will talk about popular parenting books, podcasts, and articles and give you the rundown on the ones we enjoyed and recommend.

Since this month has been pregnancy-focused, our first series post will be on the ever-popular subject of Pregnancy Books.

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Baby 101: Class is in Session

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

“There’s no such thing as ready. You just jump on a moving train and you try not to die.” – What to Expect When You’re Expecting (2012)

When I was pregnant with our first born, my husband and I excitedly prepped for his arrival. We nested, made the baby registry, and even scheduled some birthing and baby courses to be more prepared for his delivery and care. However, all of that went out the window when I went into labor at 27 weeks.

Needless to say, I never got a chance to take a tour of the maternity ward, or find out how to appropriately breathe or push when going into labor, or even know what to do or expect once he was born. It just happened.

This brings up the question, do you really need to take baby courses?

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