Megan Whitesides Coaching

I love Mel Robbins, and recently I heard something on her podcast that has stuck with me. I’m not even sure she was talking specifically about parenting, but as soon as I heard it, I thought, this applies to almost every relationship and especially to our relationships with our kids. The question was: Does this person need to be heard, helped, hugged, or high-fived? I have found myself using this question over and over with my kids. Because sometimes when our kids are upset, our first instinct is to fix it. Or give advice. Or explain why they shouldn’t be upset. Or tell them what they need to do differently. And sometimes, that's not what they need at all. Sometimes they just need to be heard. Sometimes they need help. Sometimes they need a hug. And sometimes they need someone to celebrate them and say, “You’ve got this!” You can even ask your child what they need. Of course, in the middle of a meltdown, they may not have any idea. 😅 But even if they can't tell...

The Story You Tell Yourself About Your Child Matters More Than You Think What if the way you experience your child has less to do with who they are—and more to do with the story you are telling yourself about them? So much of how we experience our kids is shaped by what we think about them. If you think, “My child always whines,” your brain will become really good at finding all the times your child whines. If you think, “My teenager never listens,” you'll notice every eye roll, every ignored request, and every time they walk away while you're talking. Our brains are incredibly good at looking for evidence to support what we're already thinking. And this can work for us or against us. The story I used to tell myself I used to have a habitual thought about one of my sons: “He's such a brat.” It was almost automatic. When he did something that annoyed me, there it was. He's such a brat. And because that was the story I was carrying around, I became reall...

 The other day, I was thinking about how many arguments we get into with our kids that really don't need to become arguments at all. You know the kind. Your child says, “You never listen to me, just listen!” And your immediate response is: “What do you mean I never listen to you? I listened to you for 20 minutes yesterday!” Now you're both arguing about whether or not you listen. Or maybe your child says: “I want ice cream. I don't want this gross dinner.” And suddenly you're explaining nutrition, reminding them that they had ice cream yesterday, telling them how much work you put into dinner, and explaining that everyone else is eating their dinner . Sound familiar? I've started thinking about how often our kids aren't actually asking us to fix something. They're just making a statement. And what if, instead of arguing with the statement, we just agreed with it? If your child says, “You never listen to me,” try: “Okay.” Or even: “You're...

 How to Raise a Child Who Loves Reading If there is one gift you can give your child that will benefit them for the rest of their life, it's a love of reading. Children who enjoy reading don't just become better readers. They become curious learners, stronger communicators, better problem solvers, and more empathetic people. Reading opens doors to new ideas, different perspectives, and endless opportunities. The goal isn't to make your child read. The goal is to help them want to read. Here are a few simple ways to help cultivate a lifelong love of books. Read to them before they can read themselves One of the greatest predictors of a child becoming a reader is having someone read to them regularly. Reading together builds vocabulary, strengthens attention, sparks imagination, and creates positive memories around books. Even after your child learns to read independently, don't stop reading aloud. Listening to stories together exposes them to richer vocabulary an...

When Your Child Is Upset… and You Feel It Too Have you ever noticed how easy it is to match your child’s mood? They’re annoyed… and suddenly you’re annoyed. They’re mad at you… and now you’re mad right back. This is called mirroring . And honestly, it’s something we all do. But here’s the problem when we mirror our kids, we’re not actually helping the situation. We’re just adding fuel to it. Instead of calming things down, everything escalates.  We’re often the ones left feeling guilty about what we said or how we reacted. What This Looks Like in Real Life The other day, my son told me I “ruined his hair” because I combed the back down. My first reaction? Roll my eyes. Get annoyed. Say, “Fine, do it yourself then.” Or when your child is upset with you, it’s so tempting to get defensive… or even have that quiet thought of, “ I’ll show you .” But that never works. It just makes things worse for them and for us. 3 Ways to Stop Mirroring Your Child 1. Notice It Awarenes...

We all know that if we want stronger muscles, we have to use them. We don’t get stronger by sitting still we get stronger by doing things that take effort. Our brains work the same way. If we want our kids to have stronger, smarter, more resilient brains… they need opportunities to use them. That means: doing hard things trying new things working through things that feel a little uncomfortable solving puzzles or figuring things out That’s how the brain grows. Simple, everyday activities can do this in a big way especially for young kids. One of those activities is using both hands at the same time to follow patterns like zig-zags or dots. It might look like just a fun little exercise, but there’s actually a lot happening inside the brain.  You can see an example HERE. When kids use both hands together, they’re activating both sides of the brain and strengthening the connection between them through the corpus callosum . And just like a muscle, the more that conn...