We hope Smiles & Frowns is a great kids behavior tracking tool for you, no matter what parenting style you choose. And, boy, are there plenty of styles and strategies out there. Have you heard of “child-led parenting” yet? This one ought to give you a laugh to start the weekend.
Category: Great Reads
If you think the DST shift if hard for you, think about how it affects your kids. They really need sleep to be at their best. Thankfully, parents.com has some great tip to start a few days in advance to help them make smooth time transition. Okay, the countdown is on!
Ah, the power of music. This SUPER SHORT observation has a few points on just how good it is for a child’s brain and body. Maybe it could inspire some musical new behaviors to reinforce. Maybe it will lead to new ideas for rewards. Or maybe it’s just a fun nugget for the weekend!
Helping kids build a strong inner voice means choosing our own words carefully. This one from Parents.com has some suggestions for speaking in ways that build their “emotional abundance”. My favorite line: “These moments don’t cost a thing, but they feed something much deeper: trust, resilience, and connection.”
When it comes to parenting styles, there’s no one size fits all. But from ‘gentle parenting’ to “FAFO (f’ around find out), the most common trends among all parents include prioritizing consequences and forming strong and emotional bonds. (Something a behavior tracker like ours can help you do.) This link from The Independent also includes a bonus video with tips for working with kids with different behavior styles of their own.
This one from CNBC might give you ideas for some new behaviors to define and encourage. (And customizing behaviors in S&F is easy.) The big theme is about resilience. The title of this one originally mentioned “toxic parenting habits,” btw, and I’m glad they changed it. As parents, we’re always working to figure out better ways to do things. This article offers some good perspectives that can really help.
I’ve studied over 200 kids—parents who raise mentally strong children never do 7 things
It’s our job to give kids the tools they need to be mentally strong in life. Child psychologist Reem Raouda has studied more than 200 child-parent relationships. Based on her research, she’s identified the seven things to avoid if you want your kids to be resilient and confident.
www.cnbc.com
This one from Psychology Today is tricky and deep – even a little hard to follow. (And I’ve read it four times.) But the insights it offers about what shapes a child’s mindset are pretty thought provoking. So dive in and hang on! There are some great nuggets here.
The Overlooked Parenting Skills Kids Need Most
Troubling trends in youth mental health have shone a light on how children—and parents—are struggling today. It’s hard to be a parent in 2025, regardless of your child’s age. Young children have trouble making sense of the world; grown children wrestle with setting boundaries with parents (and vice versa). Fortunately, there are some overlooked ways to solve problems and foster resilience—at any age.
www.psychologytoday.com
We’re all aware of the stress social media is causing for our kids, including making them feel that they are missing out or are less than others. This nice one from parents.com suggests that encouraging hobbies and interests can build their self-esteem. The result? Replacing the Fear Of Missing Out with the Joy Of Missing Out. Try creating some new Smiles and Rewards in our app help motivate their mojo:)
Did you know Father’s Day in Australia is in September? Well, as we say goodbye to good ol’ month #9, we have two sweet dad posts to share from Down Under. The first talks about fathers building a positive sense of what it means to be “a man and a dad”. It looks at the need to share parenting more equally with moms (which is a major feature of S&F, btw). And the second is a charming nod to how having kids changes guys into dads in the great ways. Nice!
Starting with what makes a child stubborn is what makes this “tips” list from TOI different. The ideas here suggest ways to turn learned behavioral patterns (ie. yelling gets me this) into empathetic opportunities to create new patterns that work better for everyone.
