Kirk Martin (0:00)

Hey moms and dads, don't you just.

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Kirk Martin (1:20)

Being with your family around the holidays is awesome because they're always so supportive, right? Your parents are like, man, you're doing such a good job with that strong willed child. And the never make any bad comments. It's okay. It's not like that, is it right? Are you tired of having to explain why your child does certain things or tired of defending the way you're parenting your child to your parents or in laws or other family members? It's hard. It's already hard enough being a parent of a strong willed child and now you have to do it in front of other people who are judging you. And there's this constant source of tension, right? For parents of kids like ours, you either hear the whispers, right? You hear those whispers because your child is having a meltdown, right? And they're whispering like, well, if they would just discipline their child, they wouldn't have to do right? And that can tear your family apart. And it's just not fun and it's just not helpful. So in the spirit of the holidays, I want to give you some tools to help your family actually be supportive of you. So that's what we're going to talk about on today's episode of the Calm Parenting Podcast. Welcome. This is Kirk Martin, founder of Celebrate Calm. You can find us@celebratecolm.com if you need help. Reach out to Our child.

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Look, we are well aware of this.

Kirk Martin (2:30)

We were the ones in the family that had the first strong willed child and all the other kids were the good kids. So obviously we were just awful parents and doing it wrong. And so reach out to Casey because he understands you. Casey c a s e y celebratecom.com Tell us about your child or kids, what are they struggling with? What are their ages? And we'll reply back as a family because this is our family mission. Quick mention, huge Christmas sale going on. Take advantage of it. Why? Because it's practical tools. It's insight and practical tools that will actually change your family. I'm just going to say this. We have a lot of people are like, oh, I love your podcast. I listen to the podcast, but we're not really, you know, we're making some changes. But I'm like, but you need all the tools, right? I get like 10, 12, 15 minutes on this. But in our materials I can go into great depth and I can give you 10 different options for each situation. Whereas with here, I'm just giving you a couple, right? So just take advantage of it. Tell your spouse, this is what I want for Christmas. You don't have to worry. You don't have to go to the mall. You don't have to do anything. Follow this link. It's on sale hobby. So you're going to save some money. And it's what I really want. I'll be overjoyed and happy. And if you even want to go even further, you could actually listen to the men's CD and start doing what this guy says and then it'll work a lot better anyway. So here are a few tips to use with your extended family. 1. I want you to be confident. I want you to be confident in telling family members, look, we want you to be involved. We want our son, our daughter to have close relationships. We want them to have fondness. Like, well, look, I'm just going to tell you what I told my dad because he would come in, career military guy. Like, I'm going to show you how to discipline. I was like, dad, you're his grandpa, right? His other grandpa passed away. He only has one when you are gone, I want him to have fond memories of you, to remember that you weren't the one who came in and disciplined and corrected him, that he had a grandpa who took him out places and spoiled him a little bit and bought him donuts. Because we won't, because they'll make the rest of the day awful. But you can go do it right? I want you to have that. I want you to have that close relationship. So I told my dad, let me handle the discipline and the tough stuff. I want you to enjoy him. I want you to spoil him, as grandparents should. But leave the discipline to me right now. Grandparents jump in because they love you and love their grandchild and they want to help. So give them specific things they can do in order to help. So here are a few. Be curious. Mom, dad, look, I acknowledge my son, your grandchild. He's challenging, difficult, I get it. But here's when he's at his best, and here's what he really needs. When you come and visit, will you be curious about what your grandson is interested in? Will you start affirming all the positive things that you see in him? Because you know why? Because he is an amazing kid. He's just not. He's just not living up to your expectations all the time. And he may not get the best grades, but he's a really smart, curious kid. I want you to be a grounding influence for him. Right? Find ways for your family members to connect with your child in ways that make your child shine. Right? If your child loves building things, and Grandpa or Uncle Joe are awesome at building things, have them work on a project together, right? Because now you've got grandpa or Uncle Joe with your son. He's like, man. And they can look and see. Man. You're really good at seeing in three dimensions, man. How did you fix that thing? How did you see that? That is awesome. And you put them in a position where your family members can see, man. Yeah, I know he struggles sometimes at the dinner table, and maybe he struggles in school, whatever it is. But, man, when my grandson is doing X, man, that kid is awesome. Come up with a special project they can work on together. You know why that's important? Because the holidays are filled with unstructured time, and that's really hard for our kids. But if there's a project that they're working on together that fills in with time, with some structure, and it plays to your child's strengths. Here's another one. When your family members inevitably ask about school or grades, you can say, look, here's where Ethan is shining this year. He's got a great critical thinking skills. This kid asks the best questions. He's good at debating. You know why? Because he's a really good thinker. You know what else he is? Persuasive. You know how many jobs you have in life where you need to be curious and push the boundaries and ask questions and be a good analytical thinker and persuasive lots of them. You know what? My son has so much energy. You know what he did with that energy? He built this really cool thing from scratch. You know what else I love about my son? Huge heart. You know what? The older the senior citizens, the old neighbors down the street were struggling with something. He went down and he volunteered to help them. He's volunteering at an animal shelter. He started his own little business. He can build a robot from scratch. He takes apart things. Doesn't always put together the right way, but he takes things apart right. And he's always looking at things and he's finding out how things work. He's tinkering with things. That's the kind of curious kid that I really wanted to raise. And I'm thankful that I got a curious kid.