You and your husband decide to get a divorce, how do you tell the kids? We spoke to Dr. Andrew Rosen PHD, ABPP, FAACP to find out how to tell your kids you are getting divorces, how to get divorced without hurting your child and much more. Dr. Rosen founded the Center for Treatment of Anxiety and Mood Disorders.

Diversity Equity & Inclusion is under attack, so we spoke to Dr. Iheoma Iruka about why it is important, in early childhood education, especially in predominantly white communities. If your classroom is mostly white, we talked about how to raise children who will be allies. Iruka also addresses the challenges faced by white teachers in diverse classrooms and suggests strategies for building relationships and fostering empathy. She highlights the significance of Head Start, which supports children and families holistically, and advocates for inclusive curricula and materials.

Dr. Iruka is a tenured professor in the Department of Maternal Child Health at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health. Dr. Iruka is adjunct professor in the Department of

Public Policy and the founding director of the Equity Research Action Coalition at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at UNC. Dr. Iruka is an applied developmental psychologist who is focused on ensuring that racially minoritized children and children from low-income households thrive through anti-bias, anti-racist, and culturally grounded mixed methods approaches. Dr. Iruka is co-author of We Are the Change We Seek and Don’t Look Away: Embracing the Anti-Bias Classroom.

Running a classroom in a predominantly white community, educators have the ethical and moral responsibility to educate their white students to be global citizens who embrace diversity, equitable practices and inclusive behaviors. Educators can achieve this through diverse and equitable curriculum and classroom environment choices, such as:

Variety of color in human representation such as baby dolls, toy figures, classroom decorations and books.

Go further and ensure that the people of color are not in subservient roles. For example, not the servants for the kings and queens. Instead in roles of import such as the pilot and the train driver rather than the porter and the mechanic.

With gender equity in mind, have female figures as police officers, mechanics, doctors. Linguistically, dont gender these roles with terms such as fireman; use firefighter instead.

Consider transportation and vehicle exposure Are tractors common in the child’s environment? Perhaps taxis and buses are more common. Ensure that the child’s community is represented but that other, more diverse, communities are also represented.

Consider home dwelling types Is there a dollhouse in the classroom? Is the family presented there a more traditional composition or more in line with our modern society? When communities are built in the block area, are apartment buildings created or only suburban dwellings?

Do not read books that stereotype People of Color and women. Alter the words if a book is beneficial in other ways but has an element or two that is no longer appropriate. For example, many books featuring vehicles use the male pronoun for most, if not all, the vehicles. This can be changed while reading aloud.

During play, use names and words that do not fall into the traditional English category. For example, if seeking to use an N name in an example to the children, choose Nakima or Norleys over Nicole.

Music…where possible, play the original version of a popular song for children rather than the Kid-version. Oftentimes the kid version strips the song of its important ethnic qualities and culturally representative instrumentation.

There are many ways to parent a child. What do you do if your style is at odds with others? In this episode we speak with Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and Perinatal Mental Health Counselor (PMH-C) Kate Kripke. Kripke has worked supporting mothers and families for more than 20 years in various organizations and settings, most recently as the founding director of the Postpartum Wellness Center in Boulder, Colorado. Kate Kripke is author of Reinventing Supermom:Support and Strategies for New Mothers Who Feel Lost and is the host of Motherhood Uncut, a weekly unscripted podcast where she candidly explores all facets of motherhood.

In this episode, we have a conversation about different parenting styles, acknowledging that there is overlap between styles and that parental stress can lead you away from the style you may prefer to fall into. Kripke also offers some advice for what to do when your family dynamics vary greatly from others in your life.

Takeaways:

• There are four basic parenting styles: authoritarian, permissive, neglectful and authoritative.
• Authoritative is widely considered the most healthy parenting style, featuring a combination of warmth, boundaries and flexibility while still making it clear that the parents are in charge. Children of authoritative parents know what is expected of them. Their parents explain reasons for the rules and consequences for breaking them. Parents also listen to their child’s opinions, but the parent remains the ultimate decision maker.
• If parents are not taking care of themselves, they will be easily triggered in hard parenting moments. Periods (or even days) where you find yourself stressed and depleted can lead to a more authoritarian or neglectful parenting style. Self care is essential to ensure you are showing up as the best parent you can be for your children.
• Authoritarian parenting can come from a place of fear or perceived threat. It is oftentimes not a conscious choice of style.
• Speak openly with your children about experiences where a different parenting approach may have led to your child feeling uncomfortable or uncertain. Open communication can help them work through those feelings and experiences.
• It’s a good idea to have a conversation with the other parent in your life if you feel truly uncomfortable with the choice they have made. For example, “Hey, I just have noticed that we parent our kids differently, and I want to make sure you know that these are the choices I'm going to be making with my kiddo, and it may be different than yours. Do you have any questions?”
• The more comfortable and accepting we are of the decisions that we're making for our children and our families, the less likely we are to judge other parents for their choices or practices.
• The kids that do the best in life are children who are raised by parents and families where there's A focus on values rather than rules. So saying, “Our family really values kindness. So when we're talking to people, we say please and thank you, and we look them in the eye.”

Have you ever referred to your kid as the shy one, what about the bossy one? In this episode of Little Feet Community podcast, we will discuss personality types with psychotherapist, best-selling author and national media commentator Niro Feliciano. We discuss personality tendencies present at birth and how experiences, as well as nurturing, influences how a personality evolves. Niro is the author of the TODAY.com column “Is This Normal?” as well as This Book Won’t Make You Happy: 8 Keys to Finding True Contentment. Her second book, All is Calm…ish will be released for the 2025 holiday season.

Takeaways:

• While some personality traits are present at birth, external factors influence their development throughout stages of life.
• Avoid labeling your child with negative personality definitions such as shy, bossy, and moody. Help your child identify the positive aspects and nurture your child’s emotional growth.
• If you find you feel triggered by one of your child’s personality traits, reflect. Work to ensure that your own unhealed traits are not impacting how you nurture your child.
• Physiological traits can influence personality development. Recognize and nurture these traits.
• Some facets of a personality trait will prove to be challenges in your child's life, but the same trait is also going to be a strength.

In this episode of Little Feet Community podcast, we speak with author and clinical physchologist Dr. Emily Edlynn about critical areas of child development that impact self confidence. We discuss Dr. Edlynn's publication Autonomy Supportive Parenting, a user friendly guide that offers easy to implement action items and techniques that will help support strengthened confidence and autonomy for your child (and your students). Her book is a must read for all those working with children. She is also one of the hosts of Psychologists Off the Clock, a podcast about the science and practice of living well.

Takeaways:

So, research shows that it’s important to support a child in three essential categories:

• helping your child develop autonomy
• helping your child develop competence and a feeling of agency, (I love Emily’s quote, “Competence breeds competence.”)
• helping your child feel truly connected, valued, with a sense of belonging in their relationships.

Remember, by implementing practices that strengthen autonomy, you can enable your child to feel confident making choices, confidence embracing their freedoms, agency to to explore new things and take on challenges and confidence to live in a manner that aligns with their own personal values. Here was another great Emily quote: “Do less so that they can grow more.”

Three good techniques through which to develop these goals is

• helping your child develop a healthy relationship with mistakes, accepting that they are a part of learning and growing.
• use language that validates their misgivings, feelings and experiences while also communicating your confidence in their abilities, and
• employing scaffolding techniques to meet them at their current skill level and then nudge them gently beyond that level.

If you are like me, you benefit from real world examples of what these techniques look like. Part 2 of Dr. Edlynn’s book, Autonomy Supportive Parenting is chock full of such examples. And, if you order the book through the link we’ve included in our episode description, a small percentage of the sale will go to the creation of more podcast episodes like this one.

Book link: https://amzn.to/4kmmzfP

Mental health challenges are common and chances are, you or someone you care about lives with this challenge. In this episode, we spoke to Leslie Cohen-Rubury, a psychotherapist, LCSW and podcast host of, “Is My Child A Monster”, about how to support your child and educate them about mental health as well as address mental health concerns in the family. Cohen-Rubury discusses strategies for parents to support their children when exposed to unhealthy mental health episodes, the significance of teaching emotional intelligence, modeling healthy behavior, and fostering connection and how to have a relationship with a family member with a mental illness.

Here are some takeaways

• Include age appropriate mental health discussions as you teach your child about emotional intelligence, using developmentally appropriate language and resources.
• If your child is witness to unhealthy behavior, validate the child's feelings and provide emotional support. Studies show that having an ally during bullying or potentially traumatic experience has a positive impact. Put your arm around the child, let them know you are their ally.
• Work to see the positive intention in the person's behavior, also known as dialectic thinking or perspective. Leslie said, “I want to teach my child that there can be two opposing ideas, perspectives or thoughts that can coexist.”
• An experience can leave a lasting traumatic response if we avoid facing the impacts of the experience and if we do not process the impact of the experience. Watch for your child avoiding places or people as signs that they may be experiencing some unresolved feelings about experiences. To support your child, try to foster communication techniques so they feel comfortable sharing the experiences, such as the game Roses and Thorns. Most importantly, when your child is sharing, try to listen, rather than react.
• When should a parent share a personal or familial history of mental illness? It’s okay to have everyday language around emotional intelligence and mental health challenges from the start. As your child gets older, you can ask if they would like to learn and understand more. For example, “Do you want to know why you can’t wear your shoes in their house?”