The MicroStep Minute
Parent Resources
Improve your parenting in just a few minutes with easy action steps backed by brain science and simplified for busy parents.
Do Your Eyes Light Up?
Learn how a simple moment—like letting your face light up when your child enters the room—can boost connection, build emotional safety, and strengthen your parent-child relationship.
The Who Needs What Moment
Feel like you need your kid to behave so you can feel better? That’s your cue to pause. In “The Who Needs What Moment,” learn how naming your need and inviting your child into the solution builds trust, not tension.
Say It Straight
When we’re vague with our kids, we create confusion and pushback. This post explores why clear, direct communication—delivered with warmth and follow-through—is one of the most powerful tools in parenting. Saying what you mean (and meaning it) builds trust, accountability, and emotional safety.
How to Help Kids Feel Seen (Even in Chaos)
This post explores how small, intentional moments of acknowledgment—like drying a child’s rubber duck—can meet a child’s deep emotional need to feel seen. When kids feel noticed, their behavior improves, trust grows, and connection deepens.
Listening Without Judgement
This post unpacks how listening with acceptance—not correction—helps kids feel safe, understood, and more likely to open up. It’s not about agreement; it’s about presence, trust, and staying in the conversation.
Breaking the Judgment Cycle
In tough moments, it’s easy to judge our child’s emotions instead of accepting them. But judgment shuts kids down—while curiosity and compassion help them feel seen, safe, and truly loved. This post explores how shifting from correction to connection builds emotional resilience and trust, even in the messiest moments.
Resetting Rewires
When parenting feels off-track, you don’t need a total overhaul—you need a reset. This post explores how even a small moment of repair can rewire connection, build trust, and shift the emotional tone at home. It's never too late to start over.
Nobody Likes Feeling Ignored
Parents ask me all the time, “Why would I empathize if a child is screaming, telling us we are awful, refusing to put on their shoes, or not.
Connecting Even When You Can't
So many moms come to me and ask, "Why won't my daughter share more with me?" Very often, it’s not about catching her at the perfect moment.
Reflections on the U.S. Surgeon General’s Report Parenting Under Pressure
Parenting today is harder than ever—and the U.S. Surgeon General’s report confirms it. This post reflects on the rising stress parents face and offers a powerful reminder: you don’t have to do more, you just have to feel less alone. Small moments of connection and support matter more than we think.
“Yes, and”—A Surprising Strategy for Your Kids
Saying “Yes, and…” helps kids feel heard and sets a boundary—without conflict. This post introduces a simple improv-inspired strategy that validates your child’s perspective while guiding behavior with calm, connection, and clarity.
5 Clues to Help You Understand Your Child’s Behavior
Kids’ behavior is often a clue, not just a challenge. This post shares 5 common signals to help parents look beneath the surface, understand what their child’s behavior is really communicating, and respond with clarity and connection.
Stop and Smell the Candy Canes
The holidays can feel overwhelming, but small moments of presence matter more than perfection. This post invites parents to slow down, savor connection, and let go of doing it all—because joy lives in the little things.
Parenting Resolutions: Small Acts, Big Impact
Big parenting changes rarely stick — but small, consistent actions can have a huge impact. This post shows how tiny shifts in how you show up every day matter more than grand resolutions. Little moments create lasting connection.
The Ten Minute Moment: One Secret to Happier Kids (and Parents!)
Just ten minutes of focused, one-on-one time can boost your child’s confidence, reduce meltdowns, and strengthen your bond. It’s not about quantity—it’s about presence. One small moment, done consistently, can change everything.
The Importance of Face-to-Face Time
While disconnection is inevitable in the modern world, reconnecting is magical. Putting down your phone and paying full attention to your child projects that they are more important than your phone—which is simply priceless.
Ditch Multitasking for Better Parenting
The benefits of multitasking are a powerful but deceptive illusion that creates a recipe for disaster (especially for moms). Being curious in a 'single-tasking' moment makes children feel cared for, supported, and loved.
Put a pin in your story and listen for your child’s instead.
Vacations offer a reset, but returning to routine often brings stress and power struggles. When kids resist, parents, already overwhelmed, tend to focus on their own frustration. Instead, a simple MicroStep—pausing to validate and problem-solve—turns conflict into connection.
The Art of the Refusal: When Kids Say No and What to Do About It
When kids refuse to cooperate, it's easy to fall into power struggles—explaining, yelling, giving in, or bribing. But these common responses only reinforce resistance. Instead, shift the dynamic with clear expectations, simple choices, and natural consequences. When refusals stop working, kids stop using them, making everyday battles a thing of the past.
Repairing Restores Connection, Builds Trust, and Models Healthy Behavior
Conflicts in parenting are inevitable, but true strength lies in repairing and restoring bonds. Repairing mends rifts, teaches resilience, empathy, and communication. Bonus: it models healthy relationships, showing that love and understanding heal and strengthen connections.