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Raising A Kid Who Can: The Ten Parenting Essentials To Start the School Year Strong

A new school year brings an opportunity for a fresh start for all of us!

If we have learned anything from living through a global pandemic, it’s that today’s kids need to be able to adjust and recalibrate and to manage everyday challenges with confidence and composure. But how do we ensure that the next generation can roll with the inevitable punches of daily life?

Enter three mental health experts and longtime Safe Community Coalition volunteers and supporters Heather Tedesco, PhD, Jennifer Weaver, LCSW and Catherine McCarthy, MD, whose new book, Raising a Kid Who Can: Simple Strategies to Build a Lifetime of Adaptability and Emotional Strength , is considered by experts to be “a must-read for parents (Dr. William Stixrud, coauthor of The Self-Driven Child), “exactly the road map parents need” (Dr. Eli Lebowitz of the Yale Child Study Center), and “a truly great addition to the world of parenting books” (Dr. Tina Payne Bryson, coauthor of The Whole Brain Child and No-Drama Discipline). The authors created a playbook that arms parents with all the tools they need to navigate a complex world and help our kids move from an age of anxiety into an age of adaptability in a way that no other generation before has been able to do.

Join us for an evening where you can learn from a child psychiatrist, a parent psychologist, and a child therapist who have spent years distilling the latest parenting science and best practices to answer the complex question: Based on all that modern science has to offer, what are the most important things I should try to do in raising my kid? The speakers know what matters, they know what works, and they know how to explain it to parents so they can do it. They will give you the confidence and clarity to tackle the thorniest questions facing todays parents, such as how to handle a meltdown, what to do if your child is feeling anxious, how to approach technology, and how to prepare your kids for an uncertain future.

The Safe Community Coalition in partnership with the Temple Rodef Shalom is proud to host the authors of Raising A Kid Who Can on Wednesday, September 13th, 2023. We hope you will plan to join us at Temple Rodef Shalom for an event that is sure to help parents – and kids – start the new school year off strong.

Presentation and Q&A 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Book Signing immediately afterward

In Case You Missed This Year’s Spring Speaker – Lynn Lyons

On March 15th, 2023, Lynn Lyons presented at the Alden Theatre at the McLean Community Center to speak to our community on Anxiety. Anxiety and worry are normal and expected parts of learning and growing, but when teens and children face challenges cognitively, socially or emotionally, anxiety can step in and take over. Anxiety can be overwhelming and rigid, but it’s also based on predictable patterns that can be shifted once we learn how it operates.

Lynn Lyons, licensed independent clinical social worker and best-selling author of Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents and the newly-released The Anxiety Audit, presents Helping Your Family’s Emotional Health: Practical, Strategic Skills and Solutions for Managing Anxiety, Enhancing Flexibility, and Creating Wellbeing.

Based on current research and over 30 years of clinical experience, Lynn Lyons presents a strategic approach based on skill-building, with prevention the preferred route. Using creativity, connection and awareness of their own patterns, parents will learn how to increase their child’s flexibility, support the tolerance of uncertainty, and emotionally and preventatively equip themselves and those they love as we all move forward.

In Case You Missed Last Year’s Spring Speaker – Julie Lythcott-Haims

On April 26 the Safe Community Coalition and The Potomac School co-hosted a presentation by Julie Lythcott-Haims entitled “Throw Out the Checklisted Childhood: Tips and Strategies for Raising Successful Kids.” Former Stanford dean and New York Times bestselling author of How to Raise an Adult, Julie Lythcott-Haims explained why our culture of over-parenting is hurting our children and making them ill-equipped for adulthood.

In her presentation to parents, Julie illustrated the myriad ways that overparenting is damaging our kids, our relationships and our communities. She pointed out that our kids are anxious, depressed, self-harming, starving themselves and attempting (sometimes completing) at killing themselves. Julie discussed the research on overparenting and how it contributes to an increase in depression and anxiety with a decrease in executive functioning skills. Julie noted that overparenting takes on three forms: overprotection, fierce direction, and excessive hand holding. According to a study by Terri Lemoyne and Tom Buchanan, Julie shared in her How to Raise an Adult book, students with parents who “hover” or “helicopter” are more likely to be medicated for anxiety and/or depression. Julie pointed out that our children need to go through trial and error–and yes, fail–in order to develop agency (“I can”) and resilience (“I can cope”).

During her two visits Julie has gained a strong understanding of the challenges and concerns of the McLean community, and she was inspired to create for McLean a list of recommendations for parents to follow to prevent the harms of overparenting. She termed this list a 12 Step Parent Pledge which she urged the parents in attendance to adopt and to encourage their peers to heed as well. (Julie has since refined the Parent Pledge and sent out her newsletter explaining how she came to it.)

Take the Parent Pledge

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