May 23 · The whiteboard trick for airport departures

For: Parents of preteens and teens with smartphones

“get devices out of bedrooms... They shouldn't have charging stations in their bedrooms. They shouldn't be allowed to sleep with their phone, buy them an alarm clock.”

Approach Most dangerous online activities, including stumbling upon pornography, happen when kids are isolated in their bedrooms at night.

Episode 377: The Power of Family and Staying Connected Through Adulthood with Dr. Kathy Koch · May 21, 2026

For: Parents experiencing conflict or distance with older teens or young adults

“A lot of kids don't like the dinner table or the restaurant table because you have to stare at each other. They'd rather talk in the dark... They'd rather drive because they can't make eye contact.”

Approach Direct eye contact can feel confrontational to a defensive teen; side-by-side activities lower their guard and encourage vulnerability.

Episode 377: The Power of Family and Staying Connected Through Adulthood with Dr. Kathy Koch · May 21, 2026

For: Parents of children approaching age 14

“you want them to know right off the bat that it's not representative of real sex any more than like, spider-man is representative of crime fighting right so like it is an entertainment thing”

Approach Avoid a lengthy back-and-forth conversation; tweens will not want to discuss this deeply, so deliver the message quickly without wiring shame to natural arousal.

Deodorant, Porn, and Nudes: How to Actually Talk to Your Tween About the Hard Stuff · May 22, 2026

For: Parents of anxious or neurodivergent children preparing for travel

“identify what are those potential stressors? What are the concerns that you might have ahead of time? And they might be things, again, that completely aren't on your radar, but It might be things like I'm really concerned about what the bathrooms are going to be like”

Approach Children's travel anxieties often center on hyper-specific sensory details adults overlook, like bathroom layouts or coat textures.

TPP 375a: How Can Our Family Navigate Vacations When They Throw Off My Child's Need for Routine · May 22, 2026

For: Parents feeling pressure to maximize every moment of a family vacation

“my child wanted to stay indoors and work on Minecraft. And luckily, my husband was cool with that. So my husband stayed with Ash and I went for a walk by myself.”

Approach Parents often ruin vacations by forcing constant exploration; allowing a child to retreat into familiar screen time preserves their emotional baseline.

TPP 375a: How Can Our Family Navigate Vacations When They Throw Off My Child's Need for Routine · May 22, 2026

For: Parents traveling with children who need physical outlets to stay calm

“getting our kids out and about and doing things physical. That can help regulate them. And that can also help create routines. So maybe you get out in the morning and you go for a short walk around the block wherever you are.”

Approach Anchoring a chaotic travel schedule with a simple, repeatable physical activity provides the sensory regulation neurodivergent children crave.

TPP 375a: How Can Our Family Navigate Vacations When They Throw Off My Child's Need for Routine · May 22, 2026

For: Parents experiencing frequent guilt over their reactions or parenting choices.

“The mom guilt equation is basically taking the expectations for the situation and subtracting it from your actual behavior. And that difference, that is how much guilt shows up.”

Approach Guilt isn't a random punishment; it's a measurable gap between who you want to be and how you're actually behaving in a specific moment.

Why You Keep Yelling Even When You Promised Yourself You’d Stop · May 21, 2026

For: Parents navigating resentment from older teens or adult children

“And you say to your kid, hey, you're the guinea pig. You've always been our guinea pig. You know, and we did what we thought was right. And we're so sad to know that you felt that it was not right.”

Approach Owning your lack of experience when they were younger validates their feelings without requiring you to carry inappropriate guilt.

Episode 377: The Power of Family and Staying Connected Through Adulthood with Dr. Kathy Koch · May 21, 2026

For: Parents managing stressful travel departure mornings with children

“I would write at the top what time, for example, the plane was leaving. And then I would write down below that, what time do we need to be at the gate? And I would do this with Asher.”

Approach Collaboratively estimating travel times builds executive function skills while securing the child's buy-in for a stressful transition.

TPP 375a: How Can Our Family Navigate Vacations When They Throw Off My Child's Need for Routine · May 22, 2026

For: Parents of middle schoolers

“So it begins with the letter B for brief and B stands for begin peacefully. And what I mean by that is rather than thinking, okay, I have a few seconds, I need to dive in the deep end here.”

Deodorant, Porn, and Nudes: How to Actually Talk to Your Tween About the Hard Stuff · May 22, 2026

For: Parents struggling with reactive yelling and subsequent guilt.

“Question number one, when do I yell?... Question number two... what story am I telling myself in that moment?... And then question number three, what am I actually needing under the yell?”

Approach We often blame yelling on the immediate trigger, but it's actually the meaning we assign to that trigger—like feeling disrespected—that causes the outburst.

Why You Keep Yelling Even When You Promised Yourself You’d Stop · May 21, 2026

For: Parents of early adolescents struggling with hygiene

“I have bought six new deodorants. And they are in every room of the house and one is in my car. So like if you realize that you're heading out the door and you forgot one, there's one on the table”

Approach Parents often view poor hygiene as a moral flaw, but for tweens, it is simply a new habit that feels like a hassle.

Deodorant, Porn, and Nudes: How to Actually Talk to Your Tween About the Hard Stuff · May 22, 2026

For: Parents hosting teen social gatherings

“But as soon as you know that he's on his way or he's in the door, then you put that on silent and you put it in a basket and you pay attention to the people in the room”

Approach This physical boundary forces teens to practice being fully present with the people in front of them rather than those absent.

Episode 377: The Power of Family and Staying Connected Through Adulthood with Dr. Kathy Koch · May 21, 2026

For: Parents of high schoolers exploring career paths

“I love the question, what problems do you want to help solve? Because they're oriented to problems... So what problems do you want to help solve and what people do you want to serve?”

Approach With two-thirds of students heading toward jobs that do not exist yet, focusing on specific job titles limits their perspective.

Episode 377: The Power of Family and Staying Connected Through Adulthood with Dr. Kathy Koch · May 21, 2026

For: Parents of affectionate middle schoolers

“I love snuggling with you and I love time with you. But I can't have your legs on me the whole time because then they start to get really heavy and my legs fall asleep. So let's just sit side by side.”

Approach Middle schoolers often experience touch hunger and become overly physical; modeling your own boundaries helps them learn to advocate for their personal space.

Deodorant, Porn, and Nudes: How to Actually Talk to Your Tween About the Hard Stuff · May 22, 2026

For: Parents of middle schoolers with smartphones

“don't talk about this as something that has happened to your kid or could happen to your kid or will likely happen to your kid, but use an example of somebody else because your kid will get defensive”

Approach Kids fear peer rejection far more than legal consequences; frame the risk around a friend's parent finding the photo or peers turning on them.

Deodorant, Porn, and Nudes: How to Actually Talk to Your Tween About the Hard Stuff · May 22, 2026

For: Parents of tweens starting to date or have crushes

“But if they go out with a group of 10 kids and you're like, oh, it's fine. It's a group thing. That's when they start daring each other to do things and pushing each other into uncomfortable situations. So a one-on-one is actually much safer.”

Approach Parents assume group dates provide a safety net, but large groups actually increase the likelihood of kids pushing each other into risky situations.

Deodorant, Porn, and Nudes: How to Actually Talk to Your Tween About the Hard Stuff · May 22, 2026