Penn wants to put a magnet on our fridge of Dr. Hope Seidel’s face with her top 3 pieces of advice for struggling parents.
Put your own oxygen mask on first.
Question what success really means.
Struggle produces growth.
I hate to break it to him that may be too many words for a fridge magnet, but the sentiment still stands. Dr. Seidel joined us on the podcast this week to calm some of our nerves before the school year starts. The message was clear: you have to let your kids fail. As a perfectionist who wants to cover my kids in bubble wrap every single day, it’s hard to hear.
How Do You Define Success?
Parents often say I’ll worry about my own needs later. However, Dr. Seidel says we need to put our own oxygen masks on first. There is no better way to teach our children than to model it with our own behavior. I personally try to tell my kids when I had an especially hard day, whether it’s from work stress or personal anxiety. It’s important for them to see the process as I work through my emotions.
Dr. Seidel also pushed us to question what success really means. When I thought about my kids being successful, I thought about them being grateful, hard-working, and resilient. None of those things happen without enduring some challenging times. It’s so hard to see them struggle but the lessons they learn from it are so much more valuable than any A on a test.
Dr. Hope Seidel has been practicing medicine for over 20 years. She is a pediatrician, a mom, and now runs a 1:1 parent coaching company called Parent With Hope. As always, Dr. Seidel’s episode is filled with a ton of useful nuggets for parents preparing for back to school. We hope you enjoy it!
