Children -

Breaking Free: Overcoming Toxic Parenting for a Brighter Future

ByJoe Martino April 22, 2024April 22, 2024

Breaking the Cycle: Healing from Toxic Parenting – Dive into the profound impact toxic parenting has on children’s mental and emotional well-being, echoing into the adults they become! Uncover the telltale signs of toxic parenting behaviors and grasp the correlation between parental psychological abuse and mental health. Empower yourself with effective strategies for breaking the cycle and embarking on a journey of healing from past trauma. This installment marks the second part of an enlightening series, laying the groundwork for future explorations into this critical topic. You can find part one

Change | Children | Parenting

Recognizing toxic parenting and how to overcome it to live our best life

ByJoe Martino April 1, 2024April 1, 2024

Overview of Toxic Parenting Toxic parenting is a term used to describe behaviors that detrimentally affect a child’s physical and emotional health, with long-lasting implications. In addition to the common traits mentioned earlier, toxic parents may also exhibit traits like emotional neglect, where they fail to provide the necessary emotional support and validation to their children. For…

Children | Family | Parenting

Navigating Toxic Relationships: Healing and Setting Boundaries with Toxic Parents

ByJoe Martino February 19, 2024

Discover effective strategies for dealing with toxic parents, including setting boundaries, seeking professional help, and practicing self-care to improve mental health outcomes and foster healthier relationships. Overview of Dealing with Toxic Parents Definition and Impact of Toxic Parenting Toxic parents exhibit behaviors such as emotional abuse, control, and manipulation towards their children [3]. Growing up…

Children | Parenting

Please stop telling your kids that you lost your temper because you love them

ByJoe Martino January 23, 2020

You’re teaching your kids through your actions, not your words. When you tell them you did whatever poor behavior because you loved them so much, you’re being dishonest to both yourself and them.

Children | Family | Parenting | Things I Hopy My Kids Learn

Things I Hope My Kids Learn: #31 Whenever Possible, Do Good.

ByJoe Martino November 28, 2017

This is part of a continual series called, "Things I hope my kids learn." I currently have 150 different things written down that I hope they write. You can find the whole series of posts here. #31. Whenever Possible Do Good. So often little opportunities are missed. I was thinking today about the fact that…

We are hardwired to connection from birth.

ByJoe Martino February 4, 2016

In large measure, what is causing this crisis of American childhood is a lack of connectedness. We mean two kinds of connectedness—close connections to other people, and deep connections to moral and spiritual meaning.

Children | Points to Ponder

A note to Ricky’s mom: Why humiliating our child never works

ByJoe Martino October 8, 2014

The following post is a guest post by my wife, Erica. The topic of parenting is such an important one. So often, it seems to us that parents turn to shame and humiliation in order to get results and often feel trapped. Read on for Erica's thoughts. Several days ago a video swept the Internet,…

Children | Parenting | Schools

5 Ways to Change How We Are Raising Boys. (Guest Post)

ByJoe Martino September 15, 2014

Train them to be gentlemen and not label such as misogyny. It’s not, it’s being classy, romantic, and civil. And yes, part of that means we can say: “Man up!” and not be accused of meaning “UFC fighting, beer guzzling, BBQ dripping from mouth barbarian.”

Children | Family | Parenting | Schools

Why am I so emotional today?

ByJoe Martino September 2, 2014

I have random memories from first days of school. I suppose that’s true for many people. One positive one is cutting grass the night before. Back then, ABC or some such station had Monday Night Baseball and I wanted to watch the Dodgers play with my mom. She loved Tommy Lasorda, him being Italian sealed…

Children | Parenting | Points to Ponder

Points to Ponder (100 Words or less)

ByJoe Martino April 17, 2014

The sensible alternative to overparenting is not less parenting but better parenting. The alternative to permissiveness is not to be more controlling but more responsive. And the alternative to narcissism is not conformity but reflective rebelliousness. In short, if we want to raise psychologically healthy and spirited children, we’ll need to start by questioning the…