Megan Whitesides Coaching

Are you tired of nagging your kids to put away their backpack, pick up their towel, put their clothes in the basket, etc.? Yes? Here are a few options. 1️⃣ Keep doing what you are doing ?             Is it working? 2️⃣ Stop caring or you do it.   Some things need to be let go of.  I have a squeegee in my kids shower and have asked them to squeegee it, it happens sometimes.  I decided to let it go because I was tired of nagging them.  Sometimes when I am downstairs and they have recently showered I will squeegee it.  It's not that big of a deal if they don't do it.  Would I prefer it done, yes.  But, I'd rather not nag about that.  Or what about them taking their shoes off in the garage instead of the mud room?  Would I prefer them off in the garage, yes.  But, I'm not going to nag about that.  I have decided that the relationship is more important, and stop caring if they take their shoes off ...

Recently I was coaching, and someone asked how do I teach empathy?  I don't think there is one right answer, but the more I have researched and learned about empathy here is what my thoughts are.  I'd be curious what your thoughts are? First of all I like to define empathy: the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.   I like the word UNDERSTAND.  Once we understand someone it's a lot easier to mirror their feelings (if we want).  I think we can have empathy and not have to feel what they are feeling.  I also think it's appropriate to feel what they are feeling. When your child/teen is acting out: yelling, crying, running away, ignoring etc. WHAT COULD BE GOING ON FOR THEM? Try and understand their point of view, this is empathy. A few things I think that help me to have more empathy are: ✅They must really be struggling, I wonder why? ✅I can see where they were coming from. ✅I'd act like that too if I were feeling... I think to teach t...

When my kids have a tantrum or any kind, one thing I think that makes it a little bit easier to stay calm is to think, "this is so good for you." So often as parents we want to "fix" or "help" our child.  We don't want them to feel sad, disappointed, discouraged, frustrated, but guess what IT'S SO GOOD FOR THEM.  If we allow them to feel whatever they are feeling this is teaching them, they can handle it.  It's teaching them, it's not a problem, it's teaching them, they don't need food, video games, or other buffers to numb it or get away from the feeling. I know it's hard and we don't want them to feel sad their friends were being mean.  Frustrated because they can't master a skill.  Disappointed because they didn't make the team.  When we just allow them to have their experience and believe them and not try to help or fix you'll be amazed how quickly they move through it and move on.    👉🏼Recently one of my...

We were recently traveling with some friends and one of them asked my husband and I what we're doing well or what's going well in our parenting. This was a great question to reflect on.   So I want to ask you what are you doing well or what's going good in your parenting? Get out a piece of paper and write for a few min. about this.   Tomorrow I will share with you a few of the things we said.  One thing may surprise you. Don't base this on your child's success or lack there of.  Think about how you feel.  What do you like that you do? Here are just a few other questions that I thought of you may want to ponder? What's important to you? How do I know I'm a "good" parent? What would a "good" parent think and do? What's going well with (specific child)? If you have a hard time with this that's ok.  I used to not be able to think of anything I was doing well until I learned coaching tools and applied them to myself and I saw the most...