The smart parenting toolkit for healthier family habits
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Why a smart parenting toolkit, now?
Smarter, not harder parenting is all about growth mindset shifts to prototype better habits for the health of your whole family. To be the best advocate for yourself, all it takes is more iteration and less perfectionism to land the time-tested tools that bring you and your kids more connection, emotional growth and mental fitness. Join us in learning and practicing at your own pace with 3 new habits and a worksheet to prototype your own.
We’ve joined up with parenting experts in the field to bring you our favorite smart tools!
The importance of validating your kids’ emotions
It’s natural for parents to dismiss, fix or suppress their teen’s emotions because we experience the world completely differently. Most often, it’s accidental despite our best intentions, which can lead to long-term negative effects. To facilitate deeper empathy and understanding, try out these 2 practices to help them process their emotions and arrive at their own clarity.
Developed in collaboration with Teen Brain Trust, an educational platform for parents and other adults in teens’ lives.
From commanding to invitation for better cooperation
Culture’s conditioned us to think that good parenting means being able to control our kids into things like cooperation. It’s not uncommon for parents to default to commanding, demanding and telling our kids what to do, which is a dead end street for not just our kids, but ourselves. To unlearn these unhealthy habits, try out these series of practices to reframe commands into invitational questions for greater ease of problem solving together.
Developed in collaboration with Janell Bitton, Parent Coach & Educator
How to open communication with your children
We never intentionally set out to sever communications with our teens, but often times our own anxiety and emotional discomforts get in the way of helping them feel safe to talk to us. Our problem solving intentions quickly go south. To turn this around, and create the container for your teen to confide in you, consider this 5-step approach to build stronger and more open lines of communication.
Developed in collaboration with Dr. Dana Dorfman, MSW and Ph.D. in Clinical Social Work
What’s included in the smart parenting toolkit:
- Introduction: What is Smart Parenting by Apparently
- Practice 1: Validating Your Kids’ Emotions by Teen Brain Trust
- Practice 2: Inviting vs. Commanding by Janell Bitton
- Practice 3: Opening Communication with Your Kids by Dr. Dana Dorfman
- Worksheet for Smart Parents
Core toolkit takeaways:
- Become a stronger advocate for your inner smart parent with growth mindset and habit-building tools
- Prototype a new smart parenting practice to replace an old habit you wanna kick
- Explore the importance of validating your kids’ emotions and resisting the urge to dismiss, fix or give unsolicited advice
- Transform the habit of commanding into a practice of asking inviting questions for better problem solving
- Design the space for open lines of communication so your teen actually wants to talk to (and confide in) you
- Become a stronger advocate for your inner smart parent with growth mindset and habit-building tools
- Prototype a new smart parenting practice to replace an old habit you wanna kick
- Explore the importance of validating your kids’ emotions and resisting the urge to dismiss, fix or give unsolicited advice
- Transform the habit of commanding into a practice of asking inviting questions for better problem solving
- Design the space for open lines of communication so your teen actually wants to talk to (and confide in) you