Hi guys,

It’s been a while, huh? It feels like every time I get comfortable with a new rhythm, it changes. The latest change comes in the form of newborn life and returning to a demanding job. We are in the thick of it right now, but I’m trying to enjoy even the toughest moments. Being a mommy of  two high energy toddlers and a newborn can exhaust your patience by the end of the day, but I’m so thankful for resources like Generation Mindful that help parents and children grow and learn together.

I’m an educator, and the Growth Mindset Theory has been transforming the educational  world over the last few years. It is the idea that we are continuously learning and growing, even though I may not be good at something. But if I keep learning and practicing, I will get better. 

Growth Mindset does not only apply to students. Anyone can benefit from developing a growth mindset, especially us parents. Parenting is hard, and there’s no one size fits all. We tend to parent the way our parents parented us. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Parenthood is one area that my husband and I are putting the Growth Mindset into practice. 

I’m really excited to team up with Generation Mindful. Having a sassy two-year old and a four year old with sensory challenges, it’s been difficult to find a balance between punishment and learning moments. We’ve decided to dedicate those learning moments into developing emotional intelligence in our children.

When we first found out our four-year old, Shiloh, had proprioception sensory challenges,  it was overwhelming, and we felt like we had failed. As we learned more about it, a lot of his behaviors started to make sense. He’s a sensory seeker and if he’s not getting enough input, he seeks it no matter if it’s in a positive or negative way. Shiloh has been going to occupational therapy for almost a year now, and we are seeing a lot of improvement with him. He can better articulate his feelings, and now I love having resources at home to help build his emotional intelligence. 

Our kids were so excited to set up the Time-in Toolkit. They were both decoding their feelings on the chart, and we even had our first calming corner experience.

Shiloh got upset because he wanted to continue putting tape on the posters, but we were all done. He got to explain why he was feeling “frustrated,” and we talked through some calming down strategies. He decided that he wanted to take a few minutes to read a book in his tent as a way to calm down. I caught a snippet on video.

My boys are benefiting greatly from our Generation Mindful resources, and here are 5 reasons why I’m loving them as a parent:

1. Visuals: Kids begin to put language to their feelings, and going through the visual tools helps them process their emotions.

2. The non-judgmental online community and classes help parents with challenges they may be experiencing and give great ideas to take a positive approach to parenting where there are more learning moments than punitive.

3. The snuggle buddies are AWESOME. My kids absolutely love them. They talk about their feelings with them, and put on puppet shows with help from daddy :).

4. The kit grows with your child. Some of the items in the kit are too old for my kids right now, but I’ll definitely be adding them in the future.

5. My husband and I are growing as parents. We always say we don’t know what we’re doing. We’ve never been parents before lol.

So talk to me guys. Do you have a growth mindset when it comes to parenting? What aspects of parenting littles are challenging for you? What’s your parenting strategy?