Proactive Parenting with Deanna Marie Mason PhD

This episode is based on new research about how snacking can undermine healthy behaviours, like sport participation. Researcher have compared the number of calories that children consume after sporting activities to the number of calories that they burned while playing. They found that children are eating and drinking more calories from their snacks than what they are expending while playing.
These findings are discussed along with other previous research about how parents see their children's activity levels, how they evaluate their child's weight and current trends in child and adolescent obesity and excess weight.
Practical advice on how to avoid unnecessary snacking and shift the cultural norms around food and children are discussed with the goal of improving child health and supporting healthy, life-long habits.
New episodes are published each Tuesday so stay tuned for more science-based Proactive Parenting information.
Proactive Parenting is based on validated theories and scientific research to provide the information you need to care for your modern family. Not everyone grew up in a completely healthy family of origin and consequently may be unsure of how to be a parent when they start a family. Proactive Parenting was created for parents who need a solid foundation to start raising their children, and for parents who want to do better. It is a way to move past old behaviours, break unhealthy habits, and replace them with parenting actions that will lead to a healthy family life for both children and parents.

If you want to learn more about Proactive Parenting, please visit my webpage and social media sites:

Website: www.proactiveparenting.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deannamariemason

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.deannamariemason/

This episode is focused on how accidental parenting occurs and what parents can do to avoid the risks of engaging in accidental parenting. Simply put, accidental parenting happens when we use a parenting technique or approach that does not sufficiently take into account the development of our child. Because of this, the anticipated results aren't achieved and we find that we have actually created a bigger or more complex problem than the one that we were trying solve.
This episode is based on a real-life example taken from my practice. By working through the parent motivations, the approach, the style, and the outcomes, it is easy to see how accidental parenting can happen even when we approach our children with love and desire to parent them well. While it's easy to fall into accidental parenting, there are ways to avoid making this mistake. Understanding the developmental age of our children is the key to selecting appropriate parenting techniques and knowing how to flex or customise them to reflect the unique characteristics and personalities of our children and support our family's values.
In addition to learning about what accidental parent is and why it happens, three clear and easy suggestions are given to help parents avoid the risks of accidental parenting in their families.

Just to let you know, for the duration of the Proactive Parenting podcast launch, I will be releasing two episodes a week instead of my normal weekly release schedule. I hope you enjoy the extra episodes.
Proactive Parenting is based on validated theories and scientific research to provide the information you need to care for your modern family. Not everyone grew up in a completely healthy family of origin and consequently may be unsure of how to be a parent when they start a family. Proactive Parenting was created for parents who need a solid foundation to start raising their children, and for parents who want to do better. It is a way to move past old behaviours, break unhealthy habits, and replace them with parenting actions that will lead to a healthy family life for both children and parents.

If you want to learn more about Proactive Parenting, please visit my webpage and social media sites:

Website: www.proactiveparenting.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deannamariemason

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.deannamariemason/

Today I want to talk about that sweetest of age, the early school age years. Depending on where you are listening from, school may start for your little one at age 3, as in Western Europe, or age 5-6, as is common in the Americas. Regardless of where and when your kidlet is attending school, you can take advantage of the power of routines to help at home and at school.

These years of early education are a remarkable time of transition for your child. Your little one will move from completely focusing on themselves to engaging with other children and adults. This is a huge opportunity for you, as a parent, to use this natural developmental stage to guide them towards behaviors that will help them understand their place in the larger context of the family, other children, and be in the classroom.
The key to guiding your child successfully during this stage is to set up an environment that supports this growing confidence to maximize their new skills and abilities while keeping them safe and avoiding accidental parenting. The best and easiest way to do this is by having clear, age-appropriate limits to protect their safety and building family routines so everyone can participate and feel good about being independent and successful contributing to family unit.

Today we’re going to talk about getting little ones to eat, but not too much, and the right things. There are so many theories about how to get our kiddos to eat veggies, fruits, fish, beans, but the answer to how to get kids to eat healthy foods is really naturally built into them. All we have to do as parents is to let the natural process do it’s thing. And what is that natural process? Simply put, it’s hunger.

Most parents are familiar with spending a lot of time and money searching for gifts that after being unwrapped and briefly explored, end up in the back of a closet, tucked into a toy box, or simply discarded. Most of the highly advertised, “top toys,” or “must have gifts” are just marketing successes sold to children and parents rather than meeting anyone’s real desires or needs.
It's hard not to fall prey to savvy marketing and repeated advertising. It’s difficult to overcome the persuasive influence that advertising firms have, even if you are watching for it. And it is virtually impossible for our little ones to avoid being influenced by what they see in commercials, product placements in their favorite YouTube videos, and pop-up ads while hanging out online. And for us, as parents, it’s hard not to get your kid what everyone else has. There is real peer-pressure amongst parents too.

So, this episode has been developed with all of these influences in mind and as a way to offset some of the pressures we feel during this season of celebration and gift giving. To give toys or gifts that our children will play with throughout the year and look back on fondly when they are older (you know those toys you still keep from your childhood because you can’t bear to separate from them?), we have to really pay attention to development. If we evaluate if our child has the ability to manipulate the toy, interact with it without becoming frustrated, and still explore and expand their understanding while playing, well, then we have hit the ball out of the park.

Keep listening to find out recommendations for all ages and stages from babies to adolescents so you can avoid the pitfalls of gift giving and really surprise your child with a wonderful gift this holiday season.
Proactive Parenting is based on validated theories and scientific research to provide the information you need to care for your modern family. Not everyone grew up in a completely healthy family of origin and consequently may be unsure of how to be a parent when they start a family. Proactive Parenting was created for parents who need a solid foundation to start raising their children, and for parents who want to do better. It is a way to move past old behaviours, break unhealthy habits, and replace them with parenting actions that will lead to a healthy family life for both children and parents.

If you want to learn more about Proactive Parenting, please visit my webpage and social media sites:

Website: www.proactiveparenting.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deannamariemason

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.deannamariemason/