My Top 7 Parenting Tools

Welcome to Mom On Purpose, where it’s all about helping moms overcome challenges and live their best lives. My hope is by being here, you are more inspired to become the mom you are made to be. I’m Natalie, your host, a wife, boy, mom, dog, mama, Chicagoan, and former lawyer turned professionally certified coach. If you’re here to grow, I can help. Let’s go.

Hello my lovely friends. How are you today? I hope you are doing well today I have a really fun topic. I want to talk about my top seven parenting tools that I find the most helpful in my personal life in raising my kids in all of the work that I do using these tools and how effective they’ve been. And this podcast episode was prompted by one of my girlfriends who does this work. She was asking me for parenting tools and suggestions and resources and kind of where to get started.

Her kids are a little bit younger than me and I sent her my Mom On Purpose Foundation’s parenting podcast episode. That is a great one to get started with. And then I thought I want to do another one where I specifically just talk about seven tools that I use and love and give a little bit of background and tactics and mindset that go along with each of them. I also gave her my Intentional Parenting class, which is inside the Mom On Purpose membership. So if you are not in there when you join, you get access to this immediately and it gives you the foundational framework for how to approach motherhood like a high performance job. I call it my mom, like it’s your job process. So you actually have real standards for yourself in a way that is aligned with the mom who you want to be.

It’s a very purposeful approach to motherhood and I cannot recommend it highly enough. So you can join over at momonpurpose.com/coaching. A spin on this episode that I thought would be really fun is breaking it down into some specifics under each tool. So I’m going to share what the tool is, why it matters, the science behind the tool, what a lot of moms get wrong with this tool, a tactical how to use this tool tip, and then how I actually use this tool. So I’m going to go through all of those in each of these seven tools and hopefully that gives you, a lot to go off and you can refer back to this podcast as a resource and guide to really help you show up as the purposeful, intentional parent that you want to be.

The first tool is validating feelings. To validate feelings means to simply acknowledge your child’s emotions without judgment or trying to dismiss them or rationalize them. It’s about helping your child feel seen and heard. And why does this matter? Because when kids feel their emotions are validated, they’ll develop emotional security. It is a healthy and strong attachment system that we’re talking about here and they’re much more likely to manage their feelings in healthy ways. It also builds trust and connection in your relationship with them. So what does the science say about this? Well, research and developmental psychology shows that children who experience emotional validation from their parents have better emotional regulation skills and fewer behavioral issues. Validation helps them feel safe and understood, which is critical for emotional development. What many moms get wrong with using this tool is trying to fix or solve or talk their kids out of their feelings much too quickly. I see this time and time again, it’s, you know, one time acknowledging, oh, I see you’re upset, but, and then trying to rationalize why they shouldn’t be upset.

But I couldn’t give you the green cup because the green cup is dirty and don’t you see there are so many other cups, it’s okay, this purple cup is a great option. Really trying to talk them out of being upset instead of just allowing their upsetness and acknowledging what it is that they actually want and are not getting. And you know, doing that as long as it takes them to calm down is the work. Um, and that leads perfectly into how to use this tool. The next time your child is upset, let’s say they want dessert for dinner. Try saying to them, I know you want dessert for dinner. I hear you. It’s hard to not get what you want. I get it. And just repeat that. And this approach will show compassion, connection and it’s really just you validating their feelings. I can’t recommend this highly enough because the minute you start talking about you know, the consequences of having too much sugar and how dessert is for after dinner and just whatever kind of story you’re trying to tell them to talk them out of their feelings, it’s going to lead to bigger emotions.

So even if you’ve said it once, I know you want dessert for dinner, I hear you, it’s hard to not get what you want. I get it. Repeat it again and again and again as long as they’re upset. So for me personally, this is something that once I learned how to do, oh my gosh, total game changer, it 1000% changed my parenting and that means that I’m really unbothered by my kids having strong reactions to them, having meltdowns to them having tantrums to them getting really upset. I just go to the place where I get it. I get that that’s their experience, even if I don’t like agree with it. And even if I’m not going to change my answer with whatever it is that they want, it allows me to give them space to feel upset. I don’t need them to feel happy for me.

I don’t need them to perform for me. I don’t need them to agree with me. I don’t need them to like my decision. I just allow them to feel however they want to feel. This comes up so much in the clients who I coach because there are things that our kids want all of the time. And this doesn’t change as they get older. So I was just coaching someone who’s 12-year-old, didn’t want to go to some of the doctor’s appointments that were scheduled for her. And as a 12-year-old, she has, some knowledge of what’s happening and can articulate that she doesn’t want to go. And so it kind of seems like, oh, well then maybe the respectful thing to do would be like to tell her she doesn’t have to go. But for let’s say, a toddler, you would never tell a toddler, okay, you don’t have to get buckled in your car seat just because you don’t want to be buckled in your car seat.

You would say, I’m so sorry, I know you’re upset and mommy’s going to buckle you in your car seat. So validating feelings doesn’t mean changing your mind just because they’re 12 or they’re older. If you know they’re under majority, they’re under 18 and or they’re living in your house, you get to decide what the boundaries are and it’s okay if they don’t like them. So for the 12-year-old, it’s okay that she didn’t want to go. You don’t have to want to go, you just have to go. And I get it, you don’t like it, you don’t want to do it. I hear you. And this is just what I’ve decided and this really piggybacks off of how I teach being a leader of your family. And it’s just like being a leader of a company or in a job, corporate job setting where, you are making decisions and you are hearing and respecting and listening to you know, your employees or the people who are working, you know, on your team.

And yet that doesn’t mean that you automatically change your mind. So it might be, I hear you, you don’t want to do this, I get it, and this is what we’re doing. If you think of the plane analogy that a lot of people like to give, the pilot decides what’s best for the plane, the passengers, the route, and if that means, landing early, taking a detour because of weather or whatever the case may be, that’s what the pilot’s going to do. Even if everyone on the flight is upset about it, the pilot knows that the pilot is the leader and the pilot’s in charge doesn’t mean the pilot’s disrespectful or kind of bossy. It just means that the pilot is the one making the decisions and at the same time giving space for you know, everyone to feel about it however they want to feel about it.

So I bring this up here because I think a lot of times we think mistakenly that validating feelings means somehow we, have to change our minds and say yes to what our kids want. But that’s not it at all. Validating feelings means you’re genuinely just saying yes to their feelings and you’re not asking them to feel any different than how they’re feeling. That is authenticity, it’s connection. It will, increase your attachment bond and it’s just such an incredible tool that I use all of the time in my parenting. 10 outta 10 recommend it. Number two is holding boundaries. Holding boundaries means you’re setting clear and consistent limits for your child and you are following through with them. It’s creating structure in the way that you want to. And this matters because it gives kids a sense of safety and security. I always like to say my number one job is to keep my kids safe and boundaries are a huge part of that.

They will also learn what is expected of them, which is helpful for them. The science shows that children thrive when they have predictable boundaries. Consistent limits contribute to better emotional and behavioral outcomes because they create a sense of safety and reduce uncertainty. I think that what moms get wrong most with setting boundaries is that they think that the boundary is for the kid to follow. It’s deciding what a rule is and expecting your kids to follow that rule and then if they don’t, you’re really frustrated and upset. So for example, if you have a rule, let’s say take teenagers for example, that your teenagers must clean up before going out, you expect them to follow that rule and when they don’t, you get upset that that’s not what’s happening. Even though you have this rule, but you don’t have any kinda consequences or, anything that happens if they don’t clean up or for a toddler, let’s say you expect them to not take a toy from their sister because you told them it’s not nice to take toys from other people.

If you are not stepping in and being the boundary, if you are not taking actions about what you will do, if the boundary isn’t followed, then you are not using boundaries correctly. So boundaries are about what the rule is and what you will do if x, y, z happens. So you want to clearly communicate the boundary. Uh, for example, you know, I might say something like, I won’t let you hit or I won’t let you bite, or I won’t let you take that out of your brother’s hands. Consistency is key here and I’m focusing on what I’m doing. So I am the boundary and if it takes multiple times, then that’s on me. It’s not on them. I love boundaries so much because it keeps me focused on trying to control myself and not trying to control my kids. So I don’t think the thought, they never listen to me, they’re not listening to me.

Instead I think, oh, I get to go be the boundary here. So for example, my youngest son right now loves dumping out all of the dog food from the dog bowls, when he is in that area of the kitchen. So I tell him, no, we’re not going to dump food out of the dog bowls. I do not expect him to never do that again just because I told him that I never have that expectation. So when I see him going near it trying to dump out the dog’s food, I jump in and think to myself, oh, this is my time to be the boundary. It’s my job to remove him or remove the bowls. It’s not his job to “listen”, this is what we so, gosh get wrong. It’s just putting the boundaries on our kids and then getting frustrated or mad when really we need to put more expectations on ourself for what we are going to do.

So a lot of times with younger kids, you just need to be the physical boundary for them. A lot of it is physical, but for older kids it’s much different. So if your teenagers didn’t show up to work multiple times in a row, they would get fired. The being fired isn’t a punishment, you know, the boss isn’t going to yell at them and say You’re so bad, right? The firing is just because the expectations of the job were not met. And for that company or wherever they’re working, they need someone who’s reliably going to show up and do the work for the best interest of the company. And so you can have similar kinda outcomes that you want to create for older kids that are based on respect and love, not punishment. It’s not if you don’t obey me, bad things happen to you. It’s just this is what happens when you don’t do X, Y, Z.

So for my little ones, it’s really easy. It’s like, like if you keep throwing blocks at your brother, I’m going to remove the blocks not to punish you. You’re not a bad kid, I just see that you can’t control the urge to play with the block blocks appropriately. So I’m just going to remove the blocks. Do you see how that’s very different? So the energy behind the consequence really, really matters. So just remember communicating a boundary is about what you say you are going to do if a B, C happens. Tool number three is love. This refers to unconditional love that you have for your child for who they are, not just for what they do. It’s showing affection and warmth and acceptance no matter their behavior or mistakes. Unconditional love is foundational to healthy development. It fosters security, that secure attachment, self-worth and resilience in children.

It creates this home base where they really feel safe. So the science behind this shows that children who experience unconditional love from their parents have higher self-esteem, better emotional regulation and lower levels of anxiety and depression. This type of love helps kids feel secure enough to explore the world and their own capabilities. What I think that most moms get wrong is that we believe we’re showing unconditional love, but in fact we overemphasize praise that comes from doing a “good job” or the right thing. So when you make a really big deal about your kids performing well, getting good grades, making the team, you know, shooting the goal, whatever it is, when you overemphasize and praise their successes, it can send the message that the love is conditional. Because the inverse is also true then that when there are hard moments when the kids are going through challenges, when the kids don’t do the homework or they’re not making the team or they’re having a hard time and they see you withdraw or you get mad, it’s easy for kids to interpret that as conditional love.

So unconditional love shines even in hard moments when kids mess up or they challenge you. It’s not just about praise, it’s about being there validating that they’re a good kid even when they’re making mistakes. So this is interesting, right? And I positioned this right after boundaries because you know, unconditional love doesn’t mean, oh you made a mistake so there aren’t any consequences. It’s not that at all, but it’s still showing warmth and acceptance even when they’re making mistakes. It’s saying you are a really good kid and there is nothing you could do that would ever change that. And the actions that you took to push your sister and then hit her are not acceptable actions in this home. So it’s separating out actions from identity. I’ve done a lot of coaching around teenagers with this when helping moms kind of navigate teenagers who are making decisions that the moms wouldn’t want for their kids or they’re taking some actions that we want to think are disrespectful, you can think that actions are disrespectful or the decisions are harmful without making it mean something about the kid.

It is always to your benefit and to the kids’ benefit for you to have a positive identity in your mind about your kids. And of course you still can have boundaries and consequences and all of that, um, as a part of kind of your parenting tool belt. But when that comes from love and warmth and acceptance, a deep acceptance of who they are, that is what maintains the relationship and the security and the safety and the attachment at home. So how do you do this? How do you show unconditional love? Well, I think you make sure that you have positive intentional identity statements about your kids in your mindset so that the perspective that you see them through is really connecting, respectful and positive. So if you have the mindset you are good no matter what, then the way that you parent is going to be a lot different.

It doesn’t mean you don’t have boundaries and rules, of course you’re going to have that and also you’re going to show up really connected, really loving, really strong, really confident. So you might say, I love you no matter what, you are a good kid no matter what and I won’t let you go to that party or whatever. It’s for a little kid. There is nothing that you can do that would make me love you any less. I love you, you are good and I won’t let you bite or again, whatever that is. But you’re making sure that you validate and reinforce the love and affection and warmth even when you are enforcing boundaries. How I like to use this tool with my kids is kind of twofold. First, I really make sure to use those communication tools where I’m telling my kids that they’re good no matter what they do, that there’s nothing that they could do that would impact their goodness. And I tell them I love being their mom and I just have kind of like a handful or so of thoughts that I share with them all of the time I’m sharing with them positive identity statements. And again, I do this for me not because I think that they’re going to play that out in a certain way just because it feels good to be a mom who thinks her kid is a good kid and that’s how I want to see them. That’s how I want to create that attachment, that connection, that safety with how I show up. The second part of this that I do is expecting my kids to have challenges. To have challenges and obstacles and failures that I don’t even know what they are. Some of them I might predict and others of them are going to be a total surprise to me and already have been.

And through thinking this way I’m not so fixated on making sure they’re happy all the time or making sure that I solve their challenges. I don’t think that’s my job. I think that’s kind of where we get into trouble because we try to make sure our kids are happy all the time and then we hang our worth and goodness as moms on whether our kids are happy and it gets us into big trouble. It kind of makes us crazy trying to control something that’s outside of our control. And of course if we take a step back we see, oh actually my kids aren’t supposed to be happy all the time. They’re supposed to have challenges, they’re supposed to, you know, have failures and learn and grow and who do I want to be and how can I show up from love through all of that?

That is kind of my mindset around it and it helps me love them in the hardest moments. Number four, respect. Respect is about treating your child as an individual with their own thoughts, their own feelings, their own needs, their own lives. It means listening to them, valuing their opinions and being mindful of how you communicate with them just like you would with any adult who you respect. Respectful communication builds stronger relationships and fosters cooperation. It’s just kinder and gentler and more connecting to be respectful. Think about a boss that you’ve had who has been really disrespectful. It’s so hard to want to go to work and be around that boss. Conversely, think about a boss who’s been really respectful. You love going to work, at least you like that you have a great boss. That is what it’s like to have a respectful parent. It doesn’t mean that the parent always says yes, it just means that you’re showing up, respecting your kids.

Kids who feel respected are more likely to have higher, better self-esteem and are more likely to feel respected and show others respect because it was modeled to them. The science behind this shows that kids who feel respected by their parents are more likely to exhibit pro-social behavior such as empathy and cooperation. Respect builds a foundation of mutual understanding and leads to more harmonious interactions. Said differently. When you respect your kids, they’re more likely to have positive relationships and engage in respectful behavior. I think that what we as moms can get wrong is that we confuse respect with control thinking that if your kids respected you, it means they would do what you say. So if your kids don’t listen to you, they don’t follow through with the boundary, then you think a thought like, my kids are disrespectful, they don’t respect me. And that makes it harder then for you to show up respecting them.

But I think this is just kind of confusing all of the things . So kids have agency to think, feel, and act however they want. Your rules, your boundaries are for you and your family and showing up as the mom who you want to be. Sometimes your kids are going to follow those rules and sometimes they’re not and that’s just part of life and growing up. So you can love them and respect them and still hold, hold a boundary. And I know that it’s hard to not mirror disrespect. So when someone disrespects you, it’s more likely that you want to disrespect them, but that is not helpful for you nor for your kids. And so really practice getting out of that mirroring habit so that you respect them, showing them you see them, you hear them, you understand them, or if you don’t, asking more questions so you can understand even in the hardest times when maybe they’re not showing the respect that you would like them to be showing.

So how do you kind of implement this practice? Active listening by, you know, getting on your child’s level, particularly if they’re younger. So you make eye contact with them. Say thoughts that you can think of that feel respectful such as, I want to hear what you have to say. Listen, avoid interrupting them, don’t dismiss them. Don’t say things like, oh it must be so hard to be in first grade. That’s invalidating, that’s disrespectful. For older kids even if you know you’re saying no to something that they want, you can still show them respect. I love you, I hear you, and it’s a no, it’s kind of like stepping into the leadership of a company. It’s like, as the leader of this family, I have decided the answer is no. And it’s okay for you to feel upset and mad and however you want to feel about it.

I get it. I, I see your side and I’ve still decided it’s a no that is so different than what we typically do. I have tried to show my kids respect from infancy. I acknowledge being a baby is hard. I believe my kids and I look them in the eyes. It doesn’t mean I’m never overwhelmed, it doesn’t mean I don’t say no. I do feel overwhelmed. I do say no, but I do it really respectfully. When my middle child, my second son, when he would be so wiggly and so wild and just not want a diaper change, I would just whisper in his ear, I know you don’t want a diaper change, I get it and mommy’s going to change your diaper right now. And you know, half the time that you know, didn’t result in anything being different. But the other half of the time he actually was much more connected and kind of responsive to that diaper change.

But either way, I felt good about how I was showing up. That’s really why I do it. Whenever someone says, oh it must be so hard to fill in the blank, that’s disrespectful. Oh, it must be so hard to be a baby, right? It is hard to be a baby. This baby can’t communicate, they can’t walk. They’re 100% dependent on getting their needs met by their parent. It’s so hard to be a baby and it’s hard to be a kid and it’s hard to go to school and it’s hard to be a, you know, a middle schooler and it’s hard to be a teenager. It is hard to be an adult. It is hard at every single age and acknowledging that is respectful because it’s validating their experience.

So lead with respect. Again, you can still have rules and boundaries and you make decisions that are in the best interest for you, your kids, your family, for whatever you’re deciding on. But you can do that in a very respectful way. Tool number five is repair. Repair is the process of apologizing. It’s mending the relationship after there is some sort of conflict. So this matters because it teaches your kids that relationships can weather difficulties and that making mistakes is part of life. It models accountability and emotional maturity. It also matters because you are a human mom who will make mistakes and so there’s no reason to go to shame about your mistakes. Instead, you can validate your goodness and allow space for being a human mom who makes mistakes, who then repairs the relationship from that moment of disconnection. Research shows that repairing after a conflict strengthens the relationship and it also helps children learn conflict resolution skills.

So kids whose parents repair well have better emotional resilience and social skills. So lots of reasons to get good at repair. I think that what we as moms mostly get wrong here is that we worry that admitting our mistakes will undermine our authority. Also, it feels hard to repair. If you are feeling shame, if you think that saying sorry for whatever you did means that you are a bad mom, you’re less likely to do it, you’re more likely to abdicate responsibility because you’re thinking that what you did means something about your internal goodness. And so that’s why you gotta separate out your identity from your actions. Owning up to your mistakes right after they happen helps your kids change the narrative about what happened. It’s so important. So for example, after you yell, say something like, I’m so sorry, I yelled, I was feeling frustrated and I did not process that feeling well.

Instead I reacted to it. I am so very sorry and I’m going to continue to work on it. I love you. You don’t blame, you don’t kind of give a reason for it, you don’t justify it. Instead you’re taking full responsibility for your actions that created the moment of disconnection, doing that from love very directly. And you’re not asking for acceptance. You’re not kinda looking for something because if you’re doing that, then that’s an ask. That’s not a true repair. I have gotten so much better at repair my friends, I work on these skills and repair was one that I wanted to improve upon. And I have to say that having that intention really has created the result for me. I say I’m sorry really well and I do it without expectation, without an ask. Most of the time my kids just kind of look at me and, and that’s it.

And it has been so life changing because I feel more aligned with who I genuinely want to be. Tool six is to teach. Teaching involves just guiding your kids through life’s lessons. Whether it’s about managing emotions, navigating social situations, or learning new skills. It’s about being a mentor, not just kind of a rule and enforcer. It’s you teaching them any and everything that you want to teach them. It could be about manners, it could be about religion, it could be about anything. Kids learn through modeling and instruction. So you can teach them how to navigate a challenge with maybe their sibling talking about how to problem solve it. And then also you could talk about your stories maybe with your own sibling, their aunt or uncle when you were younger, kind of sharing your experience with them. And you can model that, with your spouse at home and kind of show them what that looks like.

Studies show that parents who take an active role in teaching their children help them develop better cognitive and social skills. This helps build confidence and encourages curiosity. I think that what moms can get wrong is that they think teaching means that the kids learn. So what your child does is not reflective of whether you taught them something. So if you just think of a teacher teaching who has 20 kids in her class, there are going to be a variety of different ways that the kids learn and implement what was taught. Some kids will pick things up really quickly and easily. Others it will take a bit longer. So if you think about this with respect to your kids, you want to evaluate your teaching based on how you showed up and taught, not based on whether your kids learned what it is that you taught them.

This can come up in a variety of ways. I’ve coached a lot of moms with older kids whose kids are kind of making different decisions that they would’ve chosen for them. So for example, if I coach a client who is really strong in her Catholic faith and then reflects back on how she modeled that and taught her kids that religion and now is experiencing having a teenager or young adult who’s not practicing being Catholic anymore, that can feel like, oh my gosh, I didn’t teach them well enough. I did something wrong here. When really that’s just confusing the teaching and the learning. So kids still have agency, even though you teach them, you could teach them all the things and will that influence them and impact them? Yes. But what they do with that is up to them. So you gotta make sure that you don’t go into trying to control them just because you want to teach them, evaluate how well you taught them something based on how well you taught it, not based on if they’re following what you prescribe.

This also comes up a lot with kind of eating and food. So if you are teaching your kids about nutritious ways to eat, that’s awesome and evaluate how well of a job you did based on how well you taught them, not based on whether they are now eating in that exact way. They still get to decide how they want to eat. That is their journey. You can use everyday moments as teaching opportunities. I think reflecting back on how you are showing up and teaching is really important so that decades don’t go by and then you think, oh man, did I really teach that effectively? I don’t know. Instead, kind of reflect now and ask yourself, okay, is there anything I want to teach my kids? And we’re not, you know, not going to sit them down and have a whole lesson about it, but instead you are going to just kinda model it, talk about it in those little moments and be an example of it. I love teaching my kids growth mindset tools. I love, praising resilience and effort and kind of drop in thoughts that help them figure things out on their own and really just inspire them. So when I’m teaching, I’m looking for how I can show up to encourage them. And it can be something simple like, you know, if my son is building a block tower and all of the blocks fall over, I might say something like, oh man, that’s a bummer, but you could always try again, right? Like, that’s just a little moment where I am suggesting to him that there’s always an opportunity to try again. I also try to live out these tools and model through the tools so that my kids learn that way and so that I am teaching them through my actions. So when I’m repairing, I’m teaching them what a good repair, what a good apology sounds like.

Alright, lastly, number seven is mindset. This tool is about showing your kids that their thoughts create their entire reality. It’s like putting on sunglasses. If you put on rose colored sunglasses, you will see the entire world through a rose colored perspective. If you put on really dark black colored sunglasses, everything’s going to look dark. The same is true with mindset. The way you think about the world and other people and your self changes your experience of it. So this matters because it’s going to help your kids feel so much more in control of their lives. Like they can navigate any challenge that comes their way and overcome obstacles to create the exact life that they want. Research shows that kids who believe they can improve through effort and through having a growth mindset are more likely to succeed in all areas of their lives. And this is true regardless of how well your kids do in school.

I think that, it’s such a shame that we overemphasize grades because it discourages thinking outside the box. It discourages failure. It really encourages just memorization and kind of that blanket intelligence. And I just don’t think that that is the number one most important skill that your kids could have for setting themself up for success for the rest of their lives, being able to process their feelings, being able to learn and understand what it means to learn, which means you have the same circumstance, but you do something different. You create a different outcome that’s real life learning. And I just think that the more we at home as moms can teach our kids the mindset, the more equipped they’ll be to navigate the challenges that come to them throughout their lives.

I do think that in general, society indefinitely, we as moms focus too much on praising outcomes like grades and achievements without encouraging effort, without really teaching thoughts, create feelings, without showing that you can change the way that you’re looking at something. You can put on different colored sunglasses and have a completely different experience of life. And that can be so empowering to learn and to teach our kids. So how to use this at home, really focus on praising effort instead of results. Like results are cool, but also praise the effort instead of saying, you are so smart. Try. You worked so hard on that. That’s awesome.

I like to talk about failures as a positive because this is something that I grew up,with. Failures were never seen as failures, so I never took them personally. It was always just told to me to just try again. Wasn’t a big deal, just keep going. I mean, my dad would just tell me, oh, who cares? Big deal. Try again. As long as I was showing up and trying, getting a bad grade or missing the mark or not making the team or any of that was never seen as something negative or bad. It was, you went out there and you tried, this is freaking awesome. Now let’s double down and do it again. Even until, you know, I was a, an adult I, remember taking the bar exam and the CFP exam and just getting the same message from him. Like, it’s totally fine if you fail.

Who cares? Try again. Like, it was just never taught to me that failure was a big deal and I’m so grateful for that. And that is definitely something that I try to teach to my kids as well because it’s served me so well. When I have obstacles or failures, I just don’t see them as a big problem. I just see them as a challenge to overcome. So as a review, my top seven favorite parenting tools are, number one, validate feelings. Number two, hold boundaries. Number three, unconditional love. Number four, respect. Number five, repair. Number six, teaching. And number seven, mindset. I hope you enjoyed this episode, my friend. As always, thank you so much for being here and listening. I will talk with you next week. Take care.

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