Rachael Fritz_NPN_Contributor

I blame 90’s sitcoms. You know the scene. Everyone walks into the kitchen fully dressed. The whole family is eating breakfast together. Kids grab their backpacks and coats and willingly head out the door. Mornings at my house don’t look like that. And chances are yours don’t either. Even though mornings with my three young kids don’t resemble the Tanner’s, I found a way to consistently start each day without yelling, threats, bribes, or punishments. Because the thing is, crappy mornings have a way of ruining the whole day and great mornings lead to great days. It’s why I’m so invested in getting the morning right. So what’s the secret? Well, there are a few. (And it turns out I can’t say everything I want to in a single article. So I wrote this free guide you can snag with all the details!) Here is how it breaks down: Set the Stage: Great mornings start the night before. I know it’s annoying to have someone tell you to prepare for the morning. But I don’t mind being annoying. I want you to think of it as setting yourself up for minimal movement. What would it take to reduce you running around the house by 50%? By 80%? Slow: This one is only possible if you actually set the stage. We’ve got to slow down in the morning and take time to connect with each of our kids first thing. Whether they are 2 years old or 12 years old, greet them consciously - with slowness, warmth, delight, and love. Silly: Prepare to be playful in the morning. So often we reach for “bottom of the barrel” strategies like fear, threats, and bribes to move our kids along. You’ll be much more effective and preserve connection if you lean into playfulness. In my guide, I outline ways you can use play to stop a behavior and use play to move things forward. Signal: This one can be particularly helpful if you’re currently finding yourself yelling, “Let’s go!” or “It’s time to leave!” like a broken record. Let something else signal the time for you. One example of this is setting an alarm to have your kiddos’ favorite song play when it’s time to get shoes on. See if you can get out the door before the song ends! Surrender: Sh!t happens. Literally - my four year old always has to poop when it’s time to leave. Mornings will get better but they won’t be perfect. That’s ok. When things get derailed, sometimes all we can do is surrender to the moment. Kids might be late for school. We might be late for our meeting. But it’s all going to be alright. This guide comes from my heart and my experience. This isn’t generic and it isn’t a recycling of things you’ve already heard. It’s packed with value that WILL improve your mornings. I can’t wait for you to try it. Let me know how it goes! Seriously. I want to know. You can get in touch with me at rachael@parentingonmars.com.

If you’re like most parents, returning home from a vacation with children can leave you feeling like you need a vacation from the vacation. With a little planning though, you can re-enter your routine with ease and even work in some much needed “vacay recovery.” Here are some top notch tips for helping you (and your kiddos) get back into the swing of things. Plan a buffer day for the family: It can be tempting to try to squeeze in as much away-time as possible, but returning home on a Saturday vs. a Sunday can make all the difference for you and your kids. Have a loose plan on how you’ll spend your first day back and keep it low key. My kids love to have pajamas and a movie day! If you’re really on your A-game, you might decide to pull out some old toys or games to keep kids entertained while you unpack luggage and prepare for the week. Plan a buffer day for YOU: This is great if you have school aged kiddos. If you can swing it, take the Monday off! Send the kids back to school and take your own pajama day. Resist the temptation to be productive and truly relax. No, you really don’t need to get back to work. This is your permission to take the extra day for YOU. Hire a service to clean while you’re away: The hustle and bustle to get out the door for vacation can sometimes leave your home in disarray. There is nothing better than coming home to a clean house. You’ll be so happy to walk into a clean home, with beds made, dishes cleaned, and toys tidied. From here on out, make it part of your vacation budget! Pre-plan grocery delivery: Place a grocery delivery order for the day you return home. Consider quick meals like frozen pizza or pasta. Of course take-out is always an option too, but even a small delivery of groceries to set you up with the essentials can put your mind at ease as you head into the week. Order prints of your vacation photos: If you see a dip in your mood upon returning from a vacation (this happens to my husband!), you might consider a fun activity for the family to reflect on the trip once you’ve returned home. Order prints of your vacation photos and have a scrapbooking night as a family. You don’t need to get fancy with materials either. Put the photos in a pile and let everyone cut, glue, and chat while you remember the fun you had!

There aren’t many topics that seem to ruffle feathers like the “Gentle Parenting” debate. And honestly, it makes so much sense. At some point the term Gentle Parenting came to be associated with permissive parenting, lack of boundaries, and parents who seemingly never get upset or raise their voice above 50 decibels. And while I didn’t coin the phrase, and I’m not too interested in defending the beast that gentle parenting has become, I will fiercely defend the parenting approach that I think it was trying to be. We love labels and categories, a quick google search on parenting approaches will turn up phrases like: gentle parenting, attachment parenting, connected parenting, permissive parenting, traditional parenting, conscious parenting, etc. But you don’t have to pay attention to any of that. If there is one thing I believe all parents need to understand, it’s that the best outcomes for our children depend on parenting in a way that builds a secure attachment between them (kids) and us (parents). And good luck trying to rebrand attachment theory, it’s grounded in decades of research. Its purpose and good name is here to stay! In my transformational parenting program The Empowered Parent: 90 Days to Parenting with Confidence, Pride, and Success, I lead parents to build this securely attached relationship with their children. And while my clients tackle aspects of parenting both deep and wide reaching, there is some myth busting that almost always takes place. So let’s set the record straight on three arguments I come across a lot. They’ll never be ready for the “real world” - which isn’t gentle at all. Yep! The world isn’t gentle. And guess what! Our kids are already living in that world. They experience pain, confusion, and heartache just as we do. They endure the death of family members, friends move away, they attend a new school, they encounter mistreatment, they witness images of violence. And they do all of this before they have a fully developed brain that could make better sense of it all. The world is tough, and we don’t need to be a source of that toughness. Instead, we provide security and safety. This is how our children grow to have resilience when they face hardships. The resilience is a result of having a safe and secure base in us to come home to. You can’t just let kids do whatever they want. I don’t know that anyone who understands attachment theory would advocate for letting kids do whatever they want - children need boundaries. I do however know that when parents move away from a mindset of needing to control their children and hold power over them, they see more cooperation and mutual respect. Think of your parenting as a set of guardrails along a path. If the guardrails are very narrow, our kids will constantly bump into them, causing friction and frustration for all of us. If the guardrails are too far apart or not present at all, our kids lack safety and reliable ways to learn from our leadership and presence. But when the guardrails are just right, we allow our children to explore, learn from mistakes with natural consequences, and provide the safety and leadership of thoughtful boundaries. Sometimes kids just manipulate for attention. This one may be half true! While I don’t think children misbehave to manipulate, I do think that a need for connection (i.e. attention) can show up with undesirable behavior. In her book Beyond Behaviors, Dr. Mona Delahooke explains that all behavior is communication. If we are able to shift from a behaviorist mindset that solely looks at behavior as something to be rewarded or punished, we are then free to examine beneath the surface and uncover the underlying cause of a child’s behavior. Often, our examination will reveal a child’s unmet need or an underdeveloped skill. At the simplest level, a newborn doesn’t cry to manipulate us. A newborn cries to get a need met - for example the need to be fed. And an infant hasn’t yet developed the skills (i.e. brain development) to ask for food with words or sign language. A key piece to the 90 day Empowered Parent Accelerator program is growing in knowledge of our child’s brain development. Understanding this development can make all the difference in how we respond to behavior - and probably most importantly the story we tell ourselves (and our children) about who our children are at their core.