Pandemic parenting. It gets better? A tool kit

Mad props to the parents out there having to do their jobs and serve as substitute teachers during the pandemic. There have to be anxious moments.

In this talk, author Madeline Levine offers practical advice for managing that process. Her latest book is Ready or Not: Preparing Our Kids to Thrive in an Uncertain and Rapidly Changing World. The work highlights how some common parenting practices are setting up children to fail, and offers healthier alternatives.

“If our children are to thrive in a world that is rapidly evolving and full of uncertainty, they need less structure and more play. They need to become comfortable with experimentation, risk-taking, and trial-and-error learning. Shielding them from failure is counterproductive. Our kids need to spend less time burnishing their resumes and more time exploring and reflecting.”

If your laundry list these days includes balancing pandemic-sized stress and a healthy lifestyle, and helping impressionable children do the same, listen in. This talk offers a wealth of helpful information.

Madeline Levine is a psychologist with over 35 years of experience as a clinician, consultant, educator and author. She is a co-founder of Challenge Success, a project at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education. The program is designed to address the fact that we live in an anxiety-inducing era of human civilization, for parents and children, and the impact of our high-pressure focus on grades, test scores and performance. She gave this Town Hall Seattle talk on August 26. Town Hall’s Candace Wilkinson-Davis moderated the event.

Please note: This recording contains one unedited word of an adult nature.