Positive Parenting | Mr. Dad

Alfie Kohn, author of The Myth of the Spoiled Child. Topic: Challenging the conventional wisdom about children and parenting Issues: Parents are accused of being permissive and overprotective, unwilling to set limits and afraid to let their kids fail. At the same time, young people are described as entitled and narcissistic. But there is no scientific evidence at all to support these claims.

Deborah Heisz, author of Live Happy. Topic: Ten practices for choosing joy. Issues: The truth about happiness; the science behind having a positive attitude, building positive connections and relationships, nurturing creativity, mindfulness, resilience, gratitude, giving back, and even spirituality.

Heather Shumaker, author of It’s OK to go up the slide. Topic: Renegade rules for raising confident and creative kids. Issues: Risk vs. independence; why we need to put safety second; the importance of modeling mistakes; navigating technology; children’s rights at school; don’t banish scary stories; deal with disasters in the news; mean words matter learning to relax.

Mary Reckmeyer, author of Strengths Based Parenting. Topic: Developing your children’s innate talents. Issues: Setting kids up for success; finding out what your parenting strengths are; understanding your children’s strengths; creating a parent-child partnership based on your and your children’s strengths.

Andrew Hacker, author of The Math Myth. Topic: Delusions and false promises of STEM. Issues: Debunking the ideas that everyone needs to study math; most kids who don’t finish high school or college have had problems in math classes; how mandating math for everyone actually becomes a barrier to graduation and careers; the problem with common core; the importance of teaching numeracy (practical application of basic math concepts such as statistics).

Rachel Lehmann-Haupt, author of In Her Own Sweet Time. Topic: Egg freezing and the new frontiers of family. Issues: The media circus that surrounds the hook-up culture; what the data says about shifting family structures and how they affect the children born into them; pros and cons of post-35 pregnancy and motherhood; important facts about fertility, egg freezing, and other modern reproductive technologies.

Joelle Casteix, author of The Well-Armored Child. Topic: A parents’ guide to preventing sexual abuse. Issues: What is child sexual abuse (myths, signs, healthy behavior)? How predators groom children; teaching children to be save without panicking them; the importance of teaching kids the proper biological names for all of their body parts; communicating with your child, from toddler to teen.

Erika Christakis, author of The Importance of Being Little. Topic: What preschoolers really need from grownups. Issues: The importance of creating an atmosphere of free expression; bolstering children’s resilience; what parents should look for in a preschool; the paradox of early learning (kids are hard-wired to learn but there’s an epidemic of preschool expulsions, medication, and anxiety); why all those craft projects are more for the parents than for the kids.

Adam Breiner, ND, medical director of The NeuroEdge Brain Performance Center, in Fairfield, CT. Topic: Head injuries, concussions, and brain injury. Issues: Symptoms, signs, myths, and fact about head injuries and concussions; hyperbaric oxygen therapy, diet moditication, and other unusual–and very successful–treatment options.

Robert Lustig, author of Fat Chance. Topic: Beating the odds against sugar, processed food, obesity, and disease. Issues: The science and politics that have led to the current pandemic of obesity of chronic disease (think diabetes, heart disease, and more); strategies to help us lose weight and recover our health; what happened when researchers took teens off of sugar for 10 days (hint: the results are amazing)

Joe Gurkoff, coauthor of How Can I Help? Topic: How to help others; what you can (and can’t) do to counsel a friend, colleague, or family member with a problem Issues: Learning to listen, clarify and define the problem, map a realistic path to success, improve accountability, and regain your independence.

Elizabeth Green, author of Build a Better Teacher. Topic: How teaching works and how to teach it to everyone. Issues: Everyone agrees that a great teacher can have an enormous impact. But is it simply a matter of natural charisma, or can it be taught to millions of people who make up the American teaching workforce?

Harold Pollack, coauthor of The Index Card. Topic: Why personal finance doesn’t have to be complicated: Issues: Ten simple, no-nonsense, jargon-free, easy-to-follow, pieces of advice to follow to create a financial plan that will work if good times and bad.

Jesse Itzler, author of Living with a SEAL. Topic: 31 days training with the toughest man on the planet Issues: An inspiring, hilarious story of friendship, discovery, fitness, muscle soreness, pushing limits, and the benefits of stepping out of your comfort zone.

Tim Hollister, author of Not So Fast. Topic: Parenting your teen through the dangers of driving Issues: How brain development affects driving; what driver’s ed doesn’t produce safe drivers; how and why to prepare a “flight plan” for each drive before handing over the keys; how an when to say no.