Episode 25 is an honest conversation surrounding The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. We highly recommend this book for parents of teens and tweens even though it completely scared the bleep out of us! Also check out the author's companion video Smartphones vs Kids. Jonathan Haidt does an amazing job breaking down why we are where we are. The 90's gave us personal computers and the internet. 2010 gave us the first iPhone. In 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram. The front facing camera then led to the selfie craze. These pivotal moments opened the door to losing real face to face moments with screens as well as adding a level of stress, unrealistic expectations and ultimately depression for a significant percentage of our youth population. Then the pandemic shattered our sense of reality and has now created a generation of IPAD / YouTube kids (skibidi toilet?). Social media providers know how to keep our kids locked in to the screen using algorithms and gamification. How can parents deal with this when we are also locked in? Time to look up and recognize the importance of social interaction in the real world, not our screens. Not to say they are a bad tool ... they are a great tool with endless possibilities. Teaching our kids how to turn them off is ballgame. For us, it really comes down to REAL social experiences.

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Ages & Stages! Using American Academy of Pediatrics take on Ages and Stages as a guide, we discuss the importance of early intervention, milestones, and the challenges faced with significant gaps coming out of the pandemic and living in an age of social media. Playdates, board games, cooking, and general non-virtual moments all matter. Reading to our kids at an early age is so important. The CDC's milestone tracker is a game changer.

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Track your child’s milestones with CDC’s, FREE Milestone Tracker mobile app, available for iOS and Android in English and Spanish. Interactive developmental milestone checklists help you know what to look for in your child. Use the app to complete a checklist for your child’s age, share a summary with your child’s healthcare provider, and get tips for encouraging your child’s development. The app has many easy-to-use features, including

• Milestone checklists for 2 months through 5 years of age;
• Summary of your child’s milestones to share;
• Activities to support your child’s development;
• Tips for what to do if you become concerned; and
• Reminders for appointments and developmental screening.

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Problems, problems, problems! Big ones for parents may be little ones to our kids. Big ones to our kids may seem little to parents. It doesn't matter, all are important. Listening is critical. Telling someone else how to feel never truly ends well.

Chad, Trisha & LenEll discuss parenting strategies on how to navigate the tricky balance of teaching our kids how to cope while allowing them room to figure things out. Parenting never stops, it only changes.

Air pods are the ultimate invisibility cloak to our kids and an outstanding way to avoid having conversations. How parents were taught doesn't always work today. Screens & social media (ugh Tik Tok and YouTube Shorts) require creative methods of staying connected with our kids.

Finding perspective in all of this is key to understanding that what we feel may not match what others in our family may feel. Exploring all of this is our theme in Episode #23 for Finding Moments.

FM Thought ... would you want to be a kid again in high school today? #perspective

Quote of the Day ... "be yourself; everyone else is already taken" - Oscar Wilde

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