Discouragement is when someone experiences loss, adversity, or failure and as a result they lose confidence in their own strengths and abilities to cope. They lose heart. This happens to kids a lot. Every day, a child struggles with the painful struggles of growing...
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Elisabeth Stitt Encourages Clarity, Connection, and Consistency
Helping an adolescent child grow up to be a happy, successful, and independent adult has never been easy. Try doing it without a spouse. Or both parents having to work a full-time job. Or the disturbing influences of rapidly innovating technology with its shiny...
New Skill for Parents – Encourage Your Child to Think
It happens on a regular basis. Someone you know - a friend, a spouse, a child, a co-worker - will come to you frustrated because he's having problems. If you're in a hurry and if you have superior experience and wisdom, maybe you can make the problem go away. And...
Encourage Teens to Think for Themselves
Should you give advice? The answer is the same whether you're relating to another adult or to a teenager. One of my friends has an interesting idiosyncrasy. Whenever we talk, his way of interacting with me is to give me advice. I think he does this because he's...
Listening Well to a Teenager Can Be Hard – Some New Encouragement
You may have heard it said that "Few people are good listeners." While this may ring true, I know you'd like to be a better listener for your teen. The benefits to your relationship are enormous. What you find out! The amazing way it strengthens the bond between you....
Encouragements
for Parents
[five_sixth] [/five_sixth][one_sixth_last][social_buttons hide_share_count="true" facebook="true" twitter="true" pinterest="true" linkedin="true"][/one_sixth_last] Encouragements All parents need encouragement, because raising kids is challenging. When something...
The Secret to Mastering a Parent-Child Communication Skill
I recently talked with a mom who was discouraged because her attempts to try some new listening techniques hadn't worked for her. She said they felt strange and she often forgot to use them. So she gave up trying. This is not an uncommon story. And there are reasons...
For Your Child: the Top 5 Power Skills
As i write this, swallows have built a nest above our front entrance way, and the momma and poppa swallows are busy catching bugs and feeding them to their three hatchlings. On occasion, we see three little heads peeking above the rim of the nest. Before long, the...
A Teen’s Huge Window of Opportunity
At puberty, a child's brain is primed to develop the kind of critical thinking that will make them successful as adults. This fact of adolescence is massively important but all too easy to forget. At puberty, the brain cells in their prefrontal cortex, the part of the...
The Precious Window for Teen Brain Development
When asked about teen brain development, I'm challenged to boil a huge amount of research down to a few facts. Here's how I explain it: At the onset of puberty, a child's body and brain are flooded with growth hormones. The resulting changes in the body are visible;...