Parenting is challenging under the very best of circumstances. It requires that you be constantly on, adapting to your kids’ needs, and balancing everything.

• How can you keep your kids safe without being overprotective?
• How can you give your kids tools to deal with the world?
• What if I'm not doing enough?

Today, we learn how to deal with this stress from the inside out. Kids learn by watching. When we deal with our stress, we teach them how to deal with theirs. Our kids are learning from us.

When our children are stressed, when they're experiencing big feelings and they don't know how to cope with or communicate them, they express themselves through their behavior.

You might see them act out. You might see them withdraw. You might see them yell. You might see them pout.

Today, we shift our thinking. We view these behaviors not as a problem but as communication. Your child’s behavior is actually communication. They're communicating to you that they are stressed. When we tune into their behavior with this in mind, our perspective changes and we learn to lean in with empathy.

Being a parent is difficult in the best of circumstances, but now we’re challenged with knowing how to raise kids, work, take care of the home and everything else … through a pandemic! And that’s not something we’ve ever done before, so it’s time to give yourself some grace, OK?

It's important that we as parents know how to deal with stress, which is the focus of today's lesson. When you manage your own stress, you're better able to connect with your children in these challenging moments, and you can co-regulate with them so they feel calm and safe too.

There is a lot of judgment, especially around parenting. There's judgment from your family, friends, the media, and even parenting books.

Context matters and you're going to hear all kinds of parenting judgment, but remind yourself that there is no one right way to parent your child. It's a dynamic process. What works today might not work tomorrow. It boils down to being thoughtful about why you made a decision and being compassionate with yourself. If it ends up being the wrong decision, know that you are not psychic. You made the best decision you could at the time with the information you had.

Today’s lesson is all about getting curious about the context for why we make certain parenting decisions and better understanding where our judgements may be coming from so we can release them.

Think about your child as a flower. When a child is not flourishing, when they're not growing in the way you feel they should, we often try to change the seed. However, our energy would be better spent thinking about how we can change the environment that our children are in. What can we do to make sure the environment is conducive for all children to grow?

We're not trying to change the seed; rather, we change the environment to provide an opportunity for our children to flourish, no matter who they are.

Attention Seeking is Connection Seeking

In today’s bonus lesson, you’ll learn to reframe attention-seeking as connection-seeking. When you do this, it changes how you respond and how you show up for your child.

Breathing Through the Challenge

Breathing is one of the most powerful things you can do as a parent when you're experiencing a challenge with your child. When you focus on your breath in times of challenge, you respond to stressful situations from a place of calm.

Co-Regulation: Validating Feelings

Today, you learn how to bring calm to a situation through co-regulation. You'll learn why this technique is both validating and leans in with empathy, as well as how it can be used to discover the underlying reason your child is frustrated, angry, or upset in the first place.

Delegate and Pre-Plan

Many parents are trying to work from home and also do distance learning or help their children with their schoolwork. There are a lot of challenges in that. When you think ahead, you can pre-plan and equip your child with an alternative behavior to interrupting you.

Expectations: Relaxing Your Standards

If you're a working parent, doing your job, being your child's teacher, and being a parent are three different jobs you can't do all at once or fully. Today, you'll learn how to relax your standards to a level appropriate for a global pandemic.

Future Sketch: Proactive Problem-Solving

What does distance learning look like for your child? In today’s lesson, you’ll visualize what the future looks like, and give your child a mental image of what is on deck for them. This technique can be applied to everything from distance learning to a morning routine.