TPP 314: Dr. Abigail Gewirtz on Helping Kids Find Hope & Optimism in the Most Challenging Times
episode
Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
34 min
1 speaker
6 chapters
transcribed 2 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Why is it harder for kids to feel hope and optimism in today’s chaotic world?
We need to listen, we need to help our children identify what they're feeling. And when we've processed all those feelings with them, we have to help them feel empowered to be able to do what they can do. Because the feeling of powerlessness, and there's a huge literature on this sort of learned helplessness or powerlessness is it is an awful, terrible, horrible, no good. Very bad feeling.
Welcome to Tilt Parenting, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed at inspiring, informing, and supporting parents raising differently wired kids. I'm your host, Debbie Rieber. Since my guest for today's episode, Dr. Abigail Gewertz, was on the show just over two years ago near the start of the COVID pandemic, the world has continued to go through increasingly complicated and challenging times. And like I'm sure all of you out there listening, I have struggled to find ways to help my child feel hope and optimism about the state of the world. The war in Ukraine, a A spate of school shootings, a very polarized political landscape, catastrophic weather events. So I wanted to ask Abigail, the author of the wonderful book When the World Feels Like a Scary Place, Essential Conversations for Anxious Parents and Worried Kids, if hope and optimism is possible to find even when things around us feel so unpredictable and chaotic, and if so
So how can we cultivate this optimism for our kids in an authentic way? In our conversation, Abigail shares her ideas for doing that, as well as ways we adults can manage our own fears and worries to be able to show up for our kids and the importance of guiding kids towards something that makes them feel purpose and meaning. A little background about Abigail. Dr. Abigail Gewertz is a child psychologist and professor at the University of Minnesota's College of Education and Human Development. Her career has been devoted to developing and testing award-winning skills-based parenting programs to promote children's resilience. Abigail has consulted for and presented to national and international organizations, including the US Congress and UNICEF, on parenting.
Thanks so much and now here is my conversation with Abigail. Hey Abby, welcome back to the podcast.
Thank
you,
Deborah, it's a treat to be here again.
Wow, uh so much has changed, even as a way to dive in. I was going back because this is your second appearance. You came on the show, I think, just at the beginning of COVID to talk about your book when the world feels like a scary place, essential conversations for anxious parents and worried kids. Of course, you wrote that pre COVID, it was so appropriate for our conversation at the time. And I feel like a lot has changed. So I wanted to bring you back on to explore some things that have been really hard in the world lately and how to help our kids. But before we get into that, for people who haven't listened to that initial episode and want to know more about your work, could you just introduce yourself and tell us what you do in the world?
For sure. I'm a child psychologist and I'm a professor of psychology at Arizona State University. for the last more than twenty years have been interested in understanding and helping parents in families that have been through difficult things. And in particular, my research area of focus is how to help parents be their kids' best teachers. and how to talk about difficult things. I've worked with families fleeing war. I've worked with families in which parents have been deployed to war. I've worked with families exposed to other kinds of violence. And I've never met a parent who hasn't wanted the best for their child, but sometimes we don't have the tools that we need. My team and I, with the help of thousands of families, have learned to apply and provide parents with tools to help them help their child navigate
difficult things. And the book, When the World Feels Like a Scary Place, Essential Conversations for Anxious Parents and Worried Kids, really takes different topics that are scary. They're scary things that are beyond what happens at home.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Why is it harder for kids to feel hope and optimism in today’s chaotic world?
0:00–7:09
2
What trends has Dr. Gewirtz observed in children’s anxiety since the pandemic?
7:09–13:55
3
How can parents manage their own fear so they can support their children?
13:55–20:43
4
What practical steps help children move from feeling powerless to feeling empowered?
20:43–26:28
5
How do you guide a child toward a purpose or passion that builds optimism?
26:28–31:17
6
What impact does consuming pessimistic media have on a child’s developing brain?
31:17–33:59
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
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TPP 522: A Whole Child Approach to ADHD with Phil Boucher, M.D.
TPP 091a: A Conversation With Steve Silberman About His Book “Neurotribes”
TPP 521: A Conversation with Dr. Peter Gray About Restoring Childhood
TPP 253a: Advocate and Author Jonathan Mooney on Why Normal Sucks
TPP 520: Dr. Özgür Bolat on Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids