Parenting By Design.

18/09/2025

I still think this is what matters most:
The way we do life within the four walls of our home.

It’s in how we raise our kids. Teaching them to hold doors, hold conversations, and hold space in their hearts

It’s in being a dependable and intentional presence in their lives, and teaching them how to show up for the people they love

It’s in getting them off of too much technology and into the fresh air, where the noise of the world isn’t constantly overwhelming their hearts and minds.

It’s in helping them see the value of the people
they encounter every day, and how much of a difference they can make in someone’s day with a kind word or a smile.

The highest influence we hold is in guiding the steps of our kids—tiny ripples that grow into waves, and have the power to change the whole world.

Because the greatest legacy we’ll leave isn’t in what we achieve, it’s in who we raise.

The future begins at home.

© Casey Huff

17/09/2025

Parenting has a way of exposing every corner of you—the patient parts, the impatient parts, the tender, the exhausted, and sometimes, the downright frustrated. Before I picked up Good Inside by Dr. Becky Kennedy, I often caught myself labeling moments as “good days” or “bad days” based on my kids’ behavior. If they listened, I felt like a good parent. If they didn’t, I felt like I was failing. This book cracked that mindset wide open.

Dr. Becky’s message is simple but life-changing: every child is good inside. And maybe just as importantly, every parent is, too.

1. Seeing My Child Beyond the Behavior

One of the hardest shifts for me was learning not to define my kids by their meltdowns. A tantrum in the grocery store used to feel like defiance. Now, I see it for what it really is: my child struggling with feelings too big for their little body. That doesn’t make the moment easy, but it does make me more compassionate.

2. Connection First, Correction Second

I’ll be honest—my default has always been to “fix” the problem right away. But Dr. Becky reminded me that kids don’t need a lecture in the middle of their storm; they need connection. Sometimes that means sitting quietly next to them, sometimes it’s a gentle touch, and sometimes it’s just saying, “I’m here.” Strangely enough, those moments of connection often calm the storm faster than any punishment ever did.

3. Boundaries Aren’t Cruelty—They’re Comfort

I used to feel guilty saying no, like I was crushing my kids’ spirits. But Good Inside reframed boundaries for me: they’re not walls, they’re anchors. Saying, “No, we can’t have candy before dinner,” isn’t mean—it’s love. My kids may push back in the moment, but deep down, they feel safer knowing I’m steady when they can’t be.

4. Learning to Repair Instead of Chase Perfection

This one might be the biggest relief of all: I don’t have to be perfect. I’m going to yell sometimes. I’m going to overreact. But repair is more powerful than perfection. When I come back and say, “I shouldn’t have spoken that way. I love you. Let’s try again,” I’m teaching my kids that mistakes don’t ruin relationships—they can actually make them stronger.

5. Parenting Myself Along the Way

Here’s the hard truth: a lot of my parenting struggles weren’t about my kids—they were about me. My exhaustion. My old wounds. My need to feel in control. Good Inside gave me permission to parent myself, too—to notice when I need rest, to calm my own inner storms, and to remember that I’m good inside, even on the days I feel anything but.

Why I Recommend This Book

Good Inside isn’t just another parenting book with quick hacks and tricks. It’s a mindset shift. It reminded me that my kids aren’t problems to solve—they’re people to connect with. And I’m not failing if I stumble; I just need to repair, reset, and keep showing up.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re drowning in guilt or second-guessing your every move as a parent, this book is a lifeline. It gave me the grace to see my kids’ goodness—and my own—even on the messiest days.

15/09/2025

9 TED Talks That Will Change Your Life

Curious? Stuck? Searching for more meaning?

These 9 talks shifted how I think, lead, and live,
and they can do the same for you, too. 👇

1. Do Schools Kill Creativity?
🎙️ By Sir Ken Robinson
🎯 About: The urgent need to rethink education.
💡 Why watch: Discover why we need creativity and
why we lose it.
🔗 Watch here: https://lnkd. in/dzPDbrtb

2. Build a Life of Purpose and Meaning
🎙️ By Ken Miller
🎯 About: Living aligned with your values.
💡 Why watch: Reconnect with what matters most.
🔗 Watch here: https://lnkd. in/dSnPHFnj

3. How to Make Stress Your Friend
🎙️ By Kelly McGonigal
🎯 About: Transforming stress into strength.
💡 Why watch: Rethink how pressure can fuel growth.
🔗 Watch here: https://lnkd. in/dzR6PNvU

4. The Dangers of Silence
🎙️ By Clint Smith
🎯 About: Speaking up for what matters.
💡 Why watch: A powerful call to use your voice.
🔗 Watch here: https://lnkd. in/dJvvgmR2

5. Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are
🎙️ By Amy Cuddy
🎯 About: How posture affects confidence.
💡 Why watch: Learn to boost your presence instantly.
🔗 Watch here: https://lnkd. in/dJmdm9CW

6. How to Speak So That People Want to Listen
🎙️ By Julian Treasure
🎯 About: The art of compelling communication.
💡 Why watch: Speak with intention and impact.
🔗 Watch here: https://lnkd. in/d5P8Yw8z

7. How to Fix a Broken School? Lead Fearlessly,
Love Hard
🎙️ By Linda Cliatt-Wayman
🎯 About: Courageous leadership in action.
💡 Why watch: See how purpose and heart can
drive transformation.
🔗 Watch here:​​ https://lnkd. in/dar4xtkA

8. The Puzzle of Motivation
🎙️ By Dan Pink
🎯 About: What really drives us to perform.
💡 Why watch: Ditch old-school motivation myths.
🔗 Watch here: https://lnkd. in/dF43JFMC

9. My Year of Saying Yes to Everything
🎙️ By Shonda Rhimes
🎯 About: Stepping outside your comfort zone.
💡 Why watch: Reignite joy, creativity, and courage.
🔗 Watch here: https://lnkd. in/d7FCYy5h

Change doesn’t start with a big leap.

It starts with one idea.

These TED talks?
They might just be the spark you need.

You don’t have to watch them all today.

But pick one.
Reflect.
Implement.

The impactful life you want is built one bold choice
at a time.

9 TED Talks That Will Change Your Life 👇

29/08/2025

I used to think I was a good parent because I read all the books, attended every class, and filled my child's schedule with enriching activities. I color-coded our calendar with music lessons, soccer practice, and educational playdates, believing that more was always better. My days were consumed with negotiating, bribing, and entertaining a child who seemed perpetually bored despite having more toys than a small toy store.

Then came the morning my three-year-old had a complete meltdown because I suggested she help me put away groceries. As I listened to her dramatic protests—"But I don't WANT to help! It's too HARD!"—while surrounded by a kitchen full of organic snacks I'd carefully curated for her, something clicked. This tiny human, who I'd been treating like a fragile flower, was completely incapable of the most basic life skills. Worse, she seemed to expect the world to revolve around her desires.

Michaeleen Doucleff's "Hunt, Gather, Parent" shook the foundation of everything I thought I knew about raising children. Through her journey with indigenous communities around the world, Doucleff reveals how our well-intentioned Western parenting approaches might actually be creating the very problems we're trying to solve—entitled, anxious, and disconnected children.

This book invites us to step back and question our fundamental assumptions about childhood, learning, and what children actually need to thrive.

Seven Eye-Opening Lessons from "Hunt, Gather, Parent" by Michaeleen Doucleff

1. Children Are Born to Contribute, Not to Be Served
The most revolutionary insight from Doucleff's research was discovering that children in indigenous cultures don't just help with family tasks, they insist on it. I had been operating under the assumption that childhood meant protection from responsibility, but Doucleff revealed how this approach robs children of their natural desire to be useful and valued family members. When I stopped treating my daughter like a guest in our home and started inviting her to participate in real, meaningful work—cooking dinner, folding laundry, caring for our garden—everything changed. Her complaints of boredom disappeared, replaced by pride in her contributions and a growing sense of competence. She wasn't just keeping busy; she was developing genuine life skills while feeling truly needed.

2. Less Entertainment Creates More Engagement
Before reading this book, I felt like a cruise director, constantly planning activities and solving my child's boredom. Doucleff's observations of children in traditional cultures revealed something startling: kids who aren't constantly entertained become more creative, self-reliant, and genuinely engaged with their environment. I began what felt like a radical experiment—stepping back from my role as entertainment coordinator. The initial protests were intense, but within weeks, my daughter began creating elaborate imaginary worlds, finding joy in simple activities like watching ants or arranging rocks. This shift didn't just reduce my stress; it awakened capacities for wonder and self-direction in my child that constant stimulation had been suppressing.

3. Learning Happens Through Observation, Not Instruction
One of my biggest parenting revelations came from understanding how children naturally learn. I had been exhausting myself with constant explanations, tutorials, and guided activities, believing that good parenting meant being a full-time teacher. Doucleff showed me how children in traditional cultures learn complex skills simply by watching adults go about their daily lives. I began including my daughter in real activities without turning them into lessons—she watched me cook, garden, and handle household challenges, absorbing far more than any formal instruction could provide. This approach not only reduced my teaching burden but gave her authentic learning experiences rooted in real life rather than artificial educational activities.

4. Cooperation Is Taught Through Modeling, Not Rewards
The chapter on fostering cooperation without bribes or punishments completely transformed my approach to behavior. In Maya communities, Doucleff observed, children naturally want to help and cooperate because they see their contributions as valuable to family life. I realized how my constant praise, sticker charts, and rewards were actually undermining my daughter's intrinsic motivation to be helpful. When I stopped making helping a big deal and simply modeled cooperative behavior while including her in family tasks, her desire to contribute emerged naturally. She began helping not for external rewards but because she understood herself as an important part of our family team.

5. Emotional Regulation Develops Through Connection, Not Isolation
Perhaps the most profound shift came from learning how traditional cultures handle children's big emotions. Instead of time-outs, consequences, or trying to logic children out of their feelings, parents in these communities stay calmly present during emotional storms. When my daughter had meltdowns, instead of sending her to her room or launching into explanations, I learned to sit quietly nearby, offering my steady presence without trying to fix or change her experience. This approach helped her learn to move through difficult emotions rather than suppressing them, building genuine emotional resilience rather than compliance based on fear of punishment.

6. Independence Grows from Interdependence
Western parenting often focuses on creating independent children, but Doucleff revealed how true independence actually develops from a foundation of secure interdependence. In traditional cultures, children grow up embedded in community relationships where they experience both support and responsibility to others. I began cultivating this sense of interdependence in our family, involving my daughter in caring for family members when they were sick, including her in decisions that affected our household, and helping her understand how her actions impact others. Rather than creating dependency, this approach fostered genuine confidence and consideration that pure independence training never achieved.

7. Simplicity Breeds Resilience
The most liberating lesson was discovering how simplicity in childhood creates stronger, more adaptable adults. Children in traditional cultures don't have rooms full of toys, packed schedules, or constant entertainment, yet they demonstrate remarkable creativity, problem-solving abilities, and emotional strength. I began deliberately simplifying our home environment and my daughter's experiences—fewer toys, more open-ended play materials, unstructured time in nature, and regular exposure to manageable challenges. This shift required me to tolerate my own discomfort with her occasional boredom, but the results were profound: increased creativity, better problem-solving skills, and a child who could find joy and engagement in simple pleasures.

"Hunt, Gather, Parent" question the assumptions underlying our entire approach to childhood. Doucleff writes with the curiosity of an anthropologist and the heart of a parent, offering insights that feel both revolutionary and intuitively right. For any parent feeling trapped in the exhausting performance of modern parenting, this book provides not just alternative approaches but permission to trust in children's natural capacity for growth, contribution, and joy. It's a reminder that the best parenting might involve doing less, not more, and trusting in wisdom that has successfully raised humans for thousands of years.

29/08/2025

26/08/2025

Raising boys has always come with its challenges, but today’s culture makes it even more complicated. Parents are caught between outdated stereotypes that tell boys to “man up” and modern pressures that leave little room for them to express the full range of their emotions. David Thomas and Sissy Goff, both seasoned counselors, step into this tension with Raising Emotionally Strong Boys, a book that feels both practical and deeply hopeful.

Reading it, I found myself nodding again and again. The authors don’t shame parents for what they might have missed, they offer tools to help boys understand their emotions, manage them in healthy ways, and build resilience that will last into adulthood. What I appreciated most is how the book balances insight with application: it explains why boys often struggle emotionally and then gives parents clear steps for guiding them toward strength without losing tenderness.

The message is clear, emotional strength is not about toughness or shutting down feelings. It’s about equipping boys to handle life’s inevitable challenges with honesty, empathy, and resilience. In a world where mental health struggles among young men are rising, this book feels urgent, necessary, and deeply compassionate.

5 Lessons from the Book:

1. Emotional Strength ≠ Emotional Suppression
Many boys are taught, directly or indirectly that showing feelings is weakness. Thomas and Goff turn this on its head: emotional strength is the ability to recognize, name, and work through feelings, not hide them. Suppression only creates bigger struggles later.

2. Language is a Tool for Resilience
Helping boys put words to their emotions builds clarity and control. When they can say, “I feel frustrated,” instead of acting out in anger, they gain power over the situation rather than being controlled by it. Parents can model this by labeling their own emotions openly.

3. Validation Builds Confidence
Boys often hear “you’re fine” when they’re upset, which unintentionally minimizes their experience. A stronger approach is validation, acknowledging their feelings without judgment. This teaches them that emotions are real, normal, and manageable.

4. Practical Coping Strategies Matter
From physical outlets like exercise to calming tools like deep breathing, giving boys a “toolbox” of coping strategies helps them navigate stress in real time. Emotional strength isn’t just theory, it’s built through repeated practice of healthy responses.

5. Strength Grows Through Struggle
Shielding boys from every difficulty only weakens them in the long run. Instead, the authors encourage parents to let their sons face challenges, with support, so they learn resilience. Emotional strength develops when boys see they can endure discomfort and still move forward.

Raising Emotionally Strong Boys is more than a parenting guide, it’s a lifeline for raising sons in a time when they desperately need safe spaces to grow emotionally. It gives parents hope and practical tools, reminding us that boys don’t have to grow up emotionally stunted or disconnected. They can become men who are strong, kind, and emotionally wise and it starts with how we guide them today.

23/08/2025

I didn’t read this book to become a perfect parent.
I read it because I was scared—scared that I was missing something in my child, and maybe in myself.
I read it because I wanted to understand what was happening beneath the surface of the tantrums, the shutdowns, the questions I didn’t know how to answer.

What I found was not only insight—but deep, compassionate wisdom. The Whole-Brain Child isn’t just a book about parenting. It’s a book about being human. About what happens in the mind, and what healing can happen when someone is willing to stay with us in our chaos.

Here are 7 lessons that stayed with me—lessons I didn’t just read, but felt:

1. Integration is the Goal, Not Control

I used to think parenting was about managing behavior. But this book taught me that what children (and adults) need is integration—connecting the different parts of their brain so they can work together. This changed everything. Instead of trying to control or fix my child’s reactions, I started wondering, “What part of their brain is leading right now? And how can I connect with them there?”

2. “Name It to Tame It”

This was a breakthrough. When my child was spiraling, I used to rush to distract or explain. Now, I stop. I name what they’re feeling: “You’re scared.” “You’re mad that it’s bedtime.” And slowly, like magic, their little bodies begin to relax. Naming emotion isn’t small—it’s how we help children feel seen. And feeling seen is how the brain begins to heal.

3. The Upstairs and Downstairs Brain

This metaphor helped me parent with grace. When my child is “downstairs”—overwhelmed by emotion—they’re not being difficult. They’re being flooded. And instead of punishing them for it, I can meet them there. I can say, “I’ll be your stairs. I’ll help you climb back up.” It’s softened my responses and reminded me that their struggle isn’t defiance—it’s disconnection.

4. Connect, Then Redirect

When I feel out of control, I want to correct first. But correction without connection feels like rejection. This book taught me that children can’t hear redirection until they feel emotionally safe. So now I start with empathy, eye contact, a hug, a breath. Only then do I offer guidance. It takes more patience—but the connection lasts longer than any time-out ever could.

5. Memory Can Be Healed, Not Just Buried

One chapter broke me open: how implicit memories—ones we don’t even consciously remember—can shape behavior. Not just in our children, but in us. I started seeing my own reactions as echoes from my past. My anxiety, my triggers, my need for control. And for the first time, I stopped blaming myself. I started offering myself the same compassion I was learning to give my child.

6. Use “Mindsight” to Help Your Child Understand Themselves

This idea—helping kids understand their own minds—felt like planting seeds of lifelong emotional intelligence. When I say things like, “You’re feeling two things at once—it’s confusing,” or “Your brain was in protection mode,” I’m not just explaining. I’m building a bridge for them to know themselves. That’s a gift no punishment or reward can offer.

7. You Don’t Have to Get It Right Every Time

This wasn’t a headline in the book—but it was between the lines. Every example, every story, carries the unspoken truth: you will mess up, and you are still good. This gave me permission to be human in my parenting—to apologize, to learn, to model repair. It reminded me that our children don’t need perfect parents. They need present ones.

The Whole-Brain Child gave me language for what I didn’t understand in my child—and what I hadn’t yet understood in myself. It doesn’t offer gimmicks or quick fixes. It offers tools to parent from the inside out. It offers healing—not just for our kids’ brains, but for our own wounded hearts.

23/08/2025

"The most powerful tool for shaping behavior is a child's desire to please us."

Here are lessons from "Gentle Discipline: Using Emotional Connection--Not Punishment--to Raise Confident, Capable Kids" by Sarah Ockwell-Smith:

1. Prioritize Emotional Connection: Ockwell-Smith stresses the importance of building a strong emotional connection with your child. This connection fosters trust and security, making it easier for children to respond positively to guidance and discipline.

2. Understand Child Development: The author highlights the need to be aware of child development stages. Understanding what children are capable of at different ages helps parents set realistic expectations and respond appropriately to their behavior.

3. Focus on Positive Reinforcement: Instead of punitive measures, Ockwell-Smith advocates for positive reinforcement. Acknowledging and rewarding good behavior encourages children to repeat those actions, promoting a more cooperative environment.

4. Set Clear Boundaries with Compassion: The book emphasizes the importance of establishing clear boundaries while maintaining a compassionate approach. Setting limits helps children understand acceptable behavior, but it should be done with empathy and respect.

5. Use Natural Consequences: Ockwell-Smith suggests allowing natural consequences to occur as a way of teaching lessons. When children experience the results of their actions, they learn responsibility and the impact of their choices without punitive measures.

6. Encourage Problem-Solving Skills: The author encourages parents to help children develop problem-solving skills. Instead of simply telling them what to do, guiding them through the process of finding solutions fosters independence and critical thinking.

7. Practice Self-Regulation: Ockwell-Smith emphasizes the importance of self-regulation for parents. Managing your own emotions and reactions is crucial in modeling appropriate behavior for children and maintaining a calm household.

These lessons provide valuable insights into fostering a nurturing and effective parenting style that promotes emotional well-being and positive behavior in children.

17/08/2025

Research shows the biggest predictor of your child’s future mental health… isn’t a perfect parent.

It’s a repairing parent.

Because here’s the truth:
Rupture is inevitable.
We will lose our patience.
We will raise our voices.
We will miss the cues.

But science is clear—what damages children isn’t the conflict itself… it’s the lack of repair.

🧠 According to Siegel & Hartzell (Parenting from the Inside Out, 2003), consistent, attuned repair after conflict builds resilience, rewires stress responses, and strengthens secure attachment.

Why does this matter?

Because every time we circle back with gentleness…
→ “I’m sorry I yelled, that wasn’t fair to you.”
→ “I got frustrated, but I still love you.”
→ “Let’s start over, together.”

We’re teaching something profound:
That love doesn’t disappear when things get hard. That mistakes can be healed.
That relationships can bend without breaking.

This is how resilience is planted. This is how secure attachment is built. Not through never failing, but through always repairing.

So the next time conflict happens, and it will—
remember this: Your child doesn’t need a perfect parent. They need a present one who comes back.

Because the real measure of love isn’t the absence of rupture… but the presence of repair.

©️Mercy Lupo

16/08/2025

I came to this book the way you come to a half-forgotten photograph that falls out of a drawer, unprepared, a little reluctant to look too closely. But then you do. And there it is: the younger you, staring back. The eyes are yours, but they’re wider, guarded, holding something you can’t name but can feel in your bones.

Reading Nakazawa’s words in Childhood Disrupted was like stepping into a room I’d locked years ago and finding that child still sitting there, knees drawn to chest, bracing for a sound I couldn’t quite hear anymore. The science she lays out is precise, almost surgical, but it is the compassion threaded through it that broke me open. She doesn’t point a finger or demand confession. Instead, she sits down beside you, in that locked room, and says: You are not broken. You adapted. And now, you can begin.

That was the first time I understood what she meant by “your biography becomes your biology.” The body doesn’t just move on; it keeps score in its own quiet, relentless language. It remembers the slamming door long after the hinges have been replaced. It tucks away the smell of fear, the weight of silence, the way you froze to stay safe. And it whispers those memories back to you through headaches, anxiety, exhaustion, and sudden floods of emotion you can’t explain.

1. Survival is genius in disguise.
That hyper-awareness you carry, the way you scan a room the second you walk in, the over-preparation for every possible outcome—it isn’t weakness. It’s the brilliance of a child’s brain finding ways to keep you alive. You built armor out of thin air. You trained yourself to read danger in shadows. And while that armor may feel too heavy now, it once saved you. Knowing that changes the way you hold yourself—less shame, more reverence.

2. The body remembers what the mind forgets.
We think trauma is only in memory, but Nakazawa shows how it burrows into the body—altering stress responses, immune function, even the way our DNA expresses itself. A migraine might carry the echo of old fear. An autoimmune flare might be the residue of long-ago helplessness. This isn’t weakness—it’s history written in flesh. And like any story, it can be revised with care, patience, and compassion.

3. Silence has a weight—and it can be lifted.
Keeping secrets felt safe once. Not speaking shielded you from more harm. But what was once a shield can become a cage. The unspoken doesn’t dissolve with time; it calcifies. Healing begins when you name what happened—not for the world’s validation, but so your own body can stop holding its breath.

4. Healing is not an epiphany—it’s a practice.
There is no cinematic moment when all the pain evaporates. Healing is the morning you notice your shoulders are no longer curled toward your chest. It’s the pause before you react, the breath you take when your old triggers rise. It’s the day you catch yourself laughing and realize you forgot to be on guard. It’s a thousand unremarkable moments that add up to freedom.

5. You are the author now.
Your early chapters may be inked in trauma, but you hold the pen for the next ones. Nakazawa’s gift is in showing that rewriting isn’t about erasing—it’s about reframing. Turning survival into wisdom. Turning shame into language. Turning the parts of you that once hid in the dark into lanterns for someone else who is still trying to find the door.

When I finally set the book down, the rain outside had stopped. The streets smelled of wet earth, like the air after something has broken open and been made clean. My tea had gone cold, but I drank it anyway, tasting not bitterness, but the faint metallic tang of truth finally spoken.

I knew then that I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to tend, to unlearn, to grow. And maybe healing is nothing more, and nothing less, than the steady decision to stay with yourself until the child inside no longer feels alone.

13/08/2025

Parenting is a multitasking role far more than managing behavior but building connection, shaping character, and showing up as the kind of adult you want your child to become. Raising Good Humans is that rare parenting book that truly gets this. It doesn’t just focus on the child but lovingly turns the mirror toward the parent and offers a gentle, insightful, and deeply practical guide to raising emotionally intelligent, compassionate kids without shouting, threatening, or losing yourself in the process.

Hunter Clarke-Fields blends her experience as a mindfulness educator and parent coach to create a parenting book that feels like both a toolbox and a lifeline. She invites us to move beyond knee-jerk reactions and power struggles, and instead to parent from a place of awareness, calm, and intention — even when the moment is hard, loud, and messy.

Here are six powerful ways the book supports parents in doing just that:

1. It helps you break the cycle of reactive parenting
Clarke-Fields explains how our stress responses — yelling, snapping, threatening — often come from our own unhealed wounds and emotional patterns. The book helps parents notice their triggers and slow down enough to respond thoughtfully instead of reacting emotionally. This is huge, because change doesn’t start with fixing the child — it starts with calming the adult.

2. It teaches mindfulness as a parenting superpower
Mindfulness isn’t just meditation — it’s learning to be aware in the heat of the moment. The book teaches simple, doable mindfulness practices that help parents stay grounded during tantrums, power struggles, or chaotic mornings. You learn how to pause, breathe, and reset — so your presence becomes a stabilizing force in your home.

3. It shows how to set boundaries with compassion
Setting limits doesn’t have to be harsh or cold. Clarke-Fields shows how to hold firm boundaries with kindness and clarity, teaching your child both respect and emotional safety. You learn how to say no without shame, guilt, or power struggles — and model emotional regulation in the process.

4. It helps you become a better emotional coach for your child
Instead of shutting down big emotions (“You’re fine!” or “Stop crying!”), the book shows how to welcome and validate them. You’ll learn how to guide your child through difficult feelings — helping them name, process, and move through emotions in healthy ways. This builds lifelong emotional intelligence.

5. It replaces power struggles with connection-based discipline
Instead of relying on timeouts, punishments, or bribes, Clarke-Fields offers strategies rooted in connection and empathy. She teaches how to get cooperation without force — using curiosity, understanding, and collaborative problem-solving. It’s a shift from control to guidance, and it changes everything.

6. It nurtures self-compassion in the parent, too
One of the most overlooked parts of parenting is how hard it is. This book never shames or pressures — it offers encouragement and grace. Clarke-Fields reminds you that your own healing and growth matters. As you practice gentleness with yourself, it naturally overflows into your parenting.

Raising Good Humans is a call to grow, to slow down, and to raise children with hearts that are strong, kind, and emotionally whole. It’s for every parent who’s tired of yelling, tired of guilt, and ready to build a home rooted in compassion and calm.

Whether you’re just starting out or knee-deep in the parenting trenches, this book meets you where you are and gives you real tools to move forward with more clarity, peace, and purpose.