Dr. Becky Kennedy

Often the most powerful parenting strategy is doing nothing, is waiting and seeing.

Literally, my kid says, I hate you.

You know what?

In this moment, I'm just going to, let me just wait 10 seconds.

So interesting.

You wait 10 seconds.

How often a kid will say, that's not what I meant, or I'm sorry, or can I try that again?

Because I didn't just react right away.

So doing nothing and waiting personally, and sometimes even in parenting.

And I think also the more, you know,

If you're someone who really likes to be productive, it's a really good flag for your parenting.

Yes.

Because so much of parenting, let's say your son's starting middle school, like a lot of kids who start middle school, their friendship group shifts a little bit.

You're like, are they being left out?

The routine shifts, you know, everything changes and no one likes change.

That's right.

And probably the best thing for a kid in those situations is to be present, right?

You want to hear them out or notice, but it's probably not calling that other parent and getting them invited to something they were left out of.

It's not clamping down right away because when we do that in the name of us feeling productive, we get in our kid's way of kind of figuring things out.

First thing I do when I wake up in the morning is make coffee.