Reno Dads invited Family Coach and Advocate, Charitie Carpenter, into the studio to talk about her approach to helping families navigate some of the trickiest parts of being parents. Her company, My Family Connection, is a resource for families to find help with everything from solving co-parenting issues, to managing Individual Education Plans (IEPs) for…
Category: Development
Raising Leaders
Whether he means to or not, every dad teaches his children about leadership. Through our actions, words, and emotions we are an example to our children of how to lead. Acts of leadership we share are doing things as simple as arriving at an appointment on time, following through with a commitment, and respecting others….
Navigating the Transitions
My son Jameson is two years old, and he’ll be three in another month, but it feels at times like he’s going on five or six. He says and does some of the most grown-up things I never would’ve imagined he’d be doing at this point in his young life. He quite frequently tells me,…
The Importance of Community Sports
Who Is Advocating For Our Children? I began writing this post about the importance of community sports, specifically youth sports like baseball and soccer, in February before COVID hit hard. At the time, I was watching the impact that travel and club sports were having on community sports organizations. I wanted to appeal to our…
Childcare During Quarantine
I have been in the childcare field ever since I was old enough to pick up a bottle and a baby. Over the years, I have seen all different kinds of childcare environments including daycares, ABA therapy services, facilities, and in-home care. I can confidently say that having a nanny is one of the most…
COVID-19 Schedule for Kids
I don’t know about you all, but this COVID-19 event hit our house pretty hard. Thanks to my (still classified) adventures in the CIA during Arab Spring, my family has been through a society collapsing event before, so that part wasn’t really a big deal. We are generally pretty prepared with endless amounts of food,…
5 Ways to Support Your Child During the COVID-19 Pandemic
As parents, the COVID-19 crisis has introduced a number of new responsibilities, stressors, and challenges. Whether it’s dealing with a changing employment situation, taking charge of your kids’ schooling, adjusting to a new schedule, or generally feeling uncertain about the future, life looks a lot different right now. This can leave you feeling anxious, fearful,…
SMART Goals for Children
Goal Setting for Children As dads, and parents in general, our responsibility is to give our kids the tools they need to succeed in this life. We strive to get them to become self-reliant, encourage them to become their own advocates, and help establish values to live by. Another tool at our disposal that will…
The Benefits of Reading Aloud to Your Children
As I remember it, when I was growing up in Kansas and Missouri, my dad, step-mother, and grandmother would read bedtime stories to me: Aesop’s fables, Little Golden Books, the Bible, and I’m sure there was even some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as well. I also remember that someone, probably my dad or stepmom, enrolled…
Baseball and Mental Toughness
Youth Baseball Makes Kids Mentally Tough Youth baseball makes kids mentally tough. I can’t imagine there is much debate there other than challenging the virtue of mental toughness. Think about it. A kid pitching and allowing hit after hit and losing a game. Or striking out for the third time in the game or making…
Distress Tolerance (part V)
Losing control and being okay; vulnerability and intimacy If you are reading these in order, you will know that last column I wrote about watching others suffer and being okay with it. This column is about losing control and being okay with it. Similar? Yes. Same? No. Watching someone else go through a tough time…
Distress Tolerance (part IV)
Watching Others in Distress Last column I promised that I would write (in this column) about the importance of watching other people tolerate their own distress. If you read this series in order, it makes a lot of sense because the last installment spent considerable time discussing invalidation or, put another way, bailing people out…