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"It’s easy to forget that the world we live in is scary to us as adults who know things let alone these kids who have never been through it." - Matt Heinz, husband, dad, and renowned marketing expert   You can listen to the whole interview here or read the article below.   <span style="color: #88b04b;"><b></b></span> <h3 class="p2" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #88b04b;"><b>Meet Matt</b></span></h3> <p class="p1">In anticipation of Father's Day, I sat down with one rockstar dad, Matt Heinz.</p> <p class="p1">Matt is dad to three: Clara is 8, Nicky is 6 and Evan is 3 years old.  He lives on a farm in Kirkland, Washington,...

Recently, we were incredibly moved by Katie Hinde's Ted Talk "What We Don't Know About Mother's MIlk."  Katie, PhD, is a scientist, writer and advocate, who explores the dynamic interactions between mothers, milk, and infants.  Together with her talk and research and a recent study published on breast milk we share 5 facts about breastfeeding that we bet will surprise you.   1.  Breastmilk and baby's saliva create hydrogen peroxide that kills bacteria that can harm your baby.  Katie says, "In 2015, researchers discovered that the mixture of breast milk and baby saliva — specifically, baby saliva — causes a chemical reaction...

  An interview with renowned play therapist and mother Cheryl Shanahan In our modern world, when walking down a Toys R Us aisle reminds us of a boardwalk arcade, it can be easy to forget that sometimes the healthiest toy for our child is a simple cardboard box. We sat down with renowned play therapist and mother of two, Cheryl Shanahan, to hash out the key principles of healthy play.  It turns out that optimizing play with our children can be very easy to do.  We may just need to be reground in a plateau of simplicity. Cheryl is a play therapist, an expert in analyzing children's...

By Alicia Wieser 1.  Reward and reinforce good behavior B.F. Skinner, a world famous psychologist writes of his research on animals and humans that animals and humans rewarded for good behavior learn better and retain it over humans who are punished for bad behavior. (Source: Dale Carnegie) Instead of: "don't be mean" try "when you are nice to your sister, it makes her so happy" "don't throw your food" try praising desired behavior => "YAY!!! You put your food back on the table." Use I statements. Instead of "don't whine" try "When I hear whining, I get frustrated.  I like to help people...

When we tell our child "don't be shy", we are actually being critical of our child.  When we are critical of our child, we are only hurting them.   Science and history show us that criticism causes (1) resentment in our child (2) aggression in our child and (3) our child to engage in the exact behavior we criticize when we are not around. Our goal for our child's behavior  As parents, we are aiming to raise our children to make good decisions when we are not around.   Does criticism accomplish this? Not at all.  How criticism affects our child's behavior We are likely using criticism as...