Parenting with Purpose
2018-19 Speaker Series
Presenter: Erin Walsh
Erin Walsh will offer a Parental Survival Kit that is chock full of practical advice for dealing with the many issues we all face as our elementary kids move into middle school and as our middle schoolers become true ‘teenagers’. With this arsenal of strategies, parents can help kids learn to control impulse behavior, cope with their changing bodies, avoid power struggles and most importantly stay connected with their child throughout this challenging time!
Wednesday, Nov. 14 6:30-8:30 p.m. at MHS, Arts Center
Presenter: Dr. Michele Borba
Topic: Raising Unselfies: Why Empathy Is Key to Children’s Success, Happiness, and Resilience
UnSelfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World by Dr. Michele Borba, introduces a revolutionary but simple idea that will transform our kids’ lives: that empathy—rather than being a nice “add-on” to our kids’ development—is in fact integral to their current and future success, happiness, and well-being. And empathy is a quality that can be taught—in fact, it’s a quality that must be taught, by parents, by educators, and by those in a child’s community. What’s more, it’s a trait that kids can cultivate and improve, like riding a bike or learning a foreign language because it’s comprised of habits.
But why should we want our kids to empathize? For starters, the ability to empathize affects our kids’ future health, wealth, authentic happiness, relationship satisfaction, and ability to bounce back from adversity. It promotes kindness, prosocial behaviors, and moral courage, and it is an effective antidote to bullying, aggression, prejudice, and racism. Empathy also prepares kids for the global world, and gives them a job market boost. Empathy is core to everything that makes a society civilized, but above all, it makes our children better people and it’s why we must raise empathetic children. But how? Nine essential competencies comprise empathy. With practice, they can become habits that children will use for a lifetime to maintain their caring capacities. UnSelfie offers dozens of ways to instill these habits.
Join Dr. Erin Erickson, family nurse practitioner and co-host of Mom Enough®, as she shares tips and strategies to help you apply the science of mindfulness to everyday parenting. Erin loves working with moms and dads and is dedicated to sharing her understanding of the mind-body connection and mindfulness-based skills to help both moms and dads become more reflective and intentional in their parenting and in their lives.
Resources for Parents
- Common Sense Media for Parents
- Digital Health and Wellness Tips
- What Kids Do on the Internet and its Impact on Development
- Identify Strategies to Keep Technology from Controlling Your Family
- Warp Speed: Parenting Teens in a Digital Age
- Bringing Developmental Relationships Home Booklet
PAST SPEAKER EVENTS
- FAMILIES FIRST: TAP THE POWER OF PARENT/CHILD CONNECTIONS Presented by the Search Institute on November 9, 2017