Resilient Child

Being partnered with a narcissist or borderline personality can be hard enough, but learning how to shield children from the fallout is paramount. Here, the authors tell listeners how to manage parenting when a narcissistic or borderline partner is part of the equation. 

The author of 21 Days to a Happier Family, Dr Justin Coulson, on raising kids who'll bounce back from adversity and challenging times. Have you ever watched your child give up too quickly and easily, moaning 'I can't'. Perhaps your child resists going to school because they don't like their teacher or their friend rejected them. Maybe they failed in a sporting contest or an exam. One of the most frequent questions Kidspot parenting expert Dr Coulson is asked is 'How can I help my child become resilient?'

Encouraging children to explore and reconnect with their adventurous side is more important than ever. Rewilding Childhood offers game-changing tools and techniques to help you raise empowered children who will thrive in this unpredictable world. You’ll find out how climbing trees instils a healthy attitude to risk, how adventuring into fields and forests cultivates gratitude, and how getting messy with a paintbrush can liberate a child and elevate their confidence.

What if you and your spouse have been kidnapped? The kidnappers have committed a murder right in front of you, in your own home? What if a person died while trying to defend you? What would you do? These are the questions that community role model Charles Champion must resolve. Before the incident, Charles, the protagonist of the story, was able to live out his dreams at a young age, despite the many discouraging situations that surrounded his life. Growing up in the ghetto was a struggle, but having a mother in and out of jail was not easy for him to deal with.

Many children today are growing up in the midst of adversity, whether family difficulties or larger societal crises. All children need to be able to deal with stress, cope with challenges, and persevere through disappointments. While we cannot protect children from all hardships, we can promote healthy development that fosters resilience.

How do we provide discipline that is effective but not overly harsh? How do we teach our kids to be resilient and manage their feelings when we have trouble managing our own? Drawing on their extensive knowledge of ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) and PACEs (protective childhood experiences), psychologists Morris and Hays Grudo describe a balanced parenting approach to help parents manage these tricky balancing acts with confidence.

It is a jungle out there, where the strongest members prey on the weak-minded. It’s a jungle where you need resilience in order to survive and thrive. It’s a jungle that your children have to conquer. No, this is not your ordinary self-help, positive parenting, or educational psychology book. Frank Dixon, the author of this eye-opening guide on how to raise resilient kids, has created an easy-to-follow strategy for parents.

With so many “experts” touting different approaches to raising thriving children, how do you know which is the best one? Dr. Rhonda Spencer-Hwang, professor of public health at Loma Linda University and mom of three, had the same question. As a member of a community known worldwide for its health and longevity, often referred to as a Blue Zone, she decided to study the area’s many centenarians to find out what they - or their parents - did right in childhood to make them so resilient to stress, disease, and the adversities of life.

In a time when so many children and young adults seem to be struggling, parents are looking for help in bringing up mentally healthy kids who are equipped to thrive. Finally, evidence-based help is now available for overwhelmed parents who are trying their best but feel like they’re falling short.

Children can often act out or shut down when faced with a setback or a tricky issue like homework, food or screen time. This is what acclaimed parenting experts Dr Siegel and Dr Bryson call the 'No Brain' response. But you can help your child develop the ability to cope, solve their own problems and thrive by nurturing their 'Yes Brain'.

When trying to deal with our current troubles and anxieties, it can be deeply irritating to be asked to consider our childhoods. They happened so long ago; we can probably barely remember, let alone relate to, the little person we once were. But one of the most powerful explanations for why we may, as adults, be struggling, is that we were denied the opportunity to fully be ourselves in our earliest years. This book is a guide to better understanding our younger selves in order to shape who we wish to be in the future.

Dr Shefali teaches us how to control our expectations, embrace the present moment and let go of the anxiety surrounding how best to parent our children. Become the awakened parent you've always wanted to be and watch your children thrive. All parents have aspirations for their children, but for some these hopes turn into unrealistic expectations. In many cases, this puts huge amounts of pressure on children and has the potential to cause real harm, hindering your child's development.

There's a new set of 3Rs for our kids - respect, responsibility, and resilience - to better prepare them for life in the real world. Once developed, these skills let kids take charge, and let parents step back, to the benefit of all. Casting hover mothers and helicopter parents aside, Vicki Hoefle encourages a different, counterintuitive, yet much more effective, approach to parenting: for parents to sit on their hands, stay on the sidelines - even if duct tape is required!

Witty and straight-shooting, Duct Tape Parenting entertains as it informs parents how to do less in order to raise more confident, capable children.

Bringing up a child to be an authentic and mentally robust adult is one of life’s great challenges. It is also, fortunately, not a matter of luck. The Good Enough Parent is a compendium of life lessons, including how to say ‘no’ to a child you adore, how to look beneath the surface of ‘bad’ behavior to work out what might really be going on, how to encourage a child to be genuinely kind, and how to handle the moods and gloom of adolescence.

In this 10th-anniversary edition of Don't Alienate the Kids attorney, mediator, and therapist Bill Eddy shows listeners how to protect children from the harm of alienation and high-conflict divorce, boosting their resilience by teaching them to think flexibly, manage their emotions, and moderate their behaviors.  

Wits Guts Grit is inspired by the many what-if questions acclaimed science writer and mother of two Jena Pincott asked herself as research on the invisible forces that shape our minds and health has emerged and grown over the past decade. What if we identify the microbes that support stress resilience, find ways to expose our kids to them, and then test them?

As parents today, we often feel that our role is to protect our children from the world: to cushion them when they fall, to lift them over obstacles, and to remove sharp rocks from their path. But controlling a child’s entire environment and keeping all pain at bay isn’t feasible—we can’t prepare the world for our children, so instead we should focus on preparing our children for the world.

Having a child sit still and “concentrate on their breath” for 30 minutes just doesn't work. Ask anyone who has a kid. The meditations in this collection were professionally written and recorded to teach fundamental mindfulness meditation skills to children in an easy, approachable way.    

As cofounder of Outreach Concern, Inc., one of the largest school-based counseling services in the country, Dr. Rick Capaldi developed a guide to raise kids into confident, independent adults. His "three Rs" - read your child's environment, regulate their emotional temperature, and redirect their behavior - will help parents and teachers steer children toward emotional stability and success.

Turn your setbacks to breakthroughs and fears to power with this guide on developing a growth mindset—become a responsible and resilient adult!