“High energy” is one of those phrases a lot of adults use as shorthand. It sounds neutral, even affectionate, but it often carries an undertone of concern. But before a child is ever described as “high energy,” there’s usually a trail of small,...

There’s a line in that rarely makes it into parenting books, but it should: If a parent sees their child as difficult, this perception alone can shape that child’s behaviour more powerfully than the child’s actual temperament or actions. Not the...

We tend to think of learning as something that only happens in the brain. Reading, reasoning, and remembering all sound so intellectual and cognitive. But in truth, it often begins in the body. Before a child can absorb a lesson, they need to first...

“So, what do you do?” This is a normal question to field when you meet anyone new.  It’s a social norm to lead with our job titles, as if our value is measured by a payslip or a LinkedIn headline. But to be fair, it certainly isn’t necessarily...

A collective shiver is bound to go down a parent’s spine when their child sighs and announces, “I’m bored.” It can feel as if we’ve failed them—like a good parent should always have a clever distraction up their sleeve. The modern world doesn’t...

The suffocating pressure that hums in the background of modern parenting can be felt everywhere.  In the worried way people ask, “So what curriculum are you using?” or “What grade is your kid in now?” It’s in the awkward silence that follows when...

You can tell a lot about a society by how it reacts to a child who doesn’t do well in school. And so, there’s a mental script most parents and their kids subsequently inherit: study hard, get good grades, go to university, get a “real” job, live a...

We know of this quiet, invisible script that runs in the back of so many parents’ minds: a set of inherited beliefs about success, safety, and what it means to raise a “good” child.  The same voice subconsciously tells us, “Don’t aim too high....

Here’s a little secret most of us didn’t get told when we became parents, educators, or therapists: You and your child are not wired the same way. When you first hold your child, there’s an unspoken assumption that they are, in some fundamental...