parenting hacks Archives | Alison Escalante MD

Should Parents Take Expert Advice or Follow Their Instincts?

As parents, we love our kids and we try so hard to be the best parents we can. We know that the people historically raised kids, often with physical punishment or shaming words, was not good for them. So we look for good, expert parenting advice we can use to give our kids what they need.

The Ultimate Parenting Checklist

I am so excited to introduce the Ultimate Parenting Checklist: five bits of uncommon wisdom that will make your life as a parent easier.

Being a parent is wonderful, but parenting can be stressful. That stress leads us to “do our research” and hit google. And the internet gives us unending amounts of parenting advice. That’s when it gets confusing. Who should you listen to? What do you do when the advice conflicts?

How To Burnout By Age 10.

The emotional cost of youth sports.

When you think of youth sports what feelings come up for you as a parent? For me, as a parent and a pediatrician, it makes me feel tired. Don’t get me wrong, being active every day is important for kids with growing bodies. Yet for so many kids, youth sports is more a life absorbing career than the one hour a day of play pediatricians recommend.

Why Does My 3-year-old Hurt the Dog?

This question comes from a concerned mother. She writes, “Our current challenge is that we adopted a dog, and my 3-year-old son seems to be acting out because maybe he is jealous? He’s normally very kind and gentle, but has been acting out in a general and has been a bit aggressive or overzealous to the dog. He’s not responding to our respectful interference.”

Teaching Kids Self-Control with Popsicles

Our family really needed a fitness reboot. The past school year had been challenging; we’d had a sequence of wonderful college students to watch our kids, but their class schedules kept changing. The turnover led to a situation where we could not sign the kids up for sports… and we needed a little nutritional and fitness tune-up.

My Child Interrupts All The Time

“Recently (in the last 2-3 months) my 3 year old son has become very vocal and insistent on being heard. Particularly when I’m in the room. If I’m trying to talk to anyone he starts holding a separate conversation and then shouts ‘I’m trying to talk!’ How can I honor him but still be able to have conversations with other adults???” This question came from one of the moms in our Should-Free Parenting facebook group, and it echoed something I hear a lot.

Why I Sent My Kids to Summer Camp

It was obviously time for the boys to try sleep away camp, and the camp I chose was only an hour away. At the ages of 8 and 10, and able to go the same week, I knew it was time for my kids to experience the joys of interacting with the woods without their parents hovering. I loved going to summer camp as a kid, and I was sure they were ready for it.

The Reality Behind Inside Out.

Have you ever wondered if the movie Inside Out might actually be real? This is one of my all time favorite movies, because it does an amazing job of showing something true about how we work on the inside. If you saw it, you watched a little girl try to live her life, while colorful little people with the names of her emotions competed for control of her brain.

How to Hack Your Brain with Happy Music

Neuroscientists have found a scientific equation to identify the best feel good songs. Or you can download the playlist.

Did you know you can hack your brain with the right music? If you want to be happier, you can listen to happy music. However, if you need to work through some darker feelings, music in sync with that can help.

10 Tips to Stop Meltdowns on Family Vacation

I look forward to family vacation so much! Our lives get so busy and it’s a chance for us to reconnect and make amazing memories together. We look forward to our trips exactly because it is a break from our usual life, the routine that can become grinding. But it’s being off our routine that disrupts our kids and causes the meltdowns. And I’m not talking about just the toddlers! Kids of any age have tantrums on vacation… and so do their parents.