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Parenting Resources

Raising children, teens, and young adults is a beautiful but often challenging journey. Below is a curated collection of practical tips, evidence-based books, free programmes, and expert podcasts designed to help your family thrive.​​​​​

 

Quick Parenting Tips & Tools

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  • "It's Not About the Nail" (Video): A short, humorous, and highly relatable video that perfectly illustrates the difference between fixing a problem and simply offering empathy.

  • The Importance of Sleep (TED Talk): An eye-opening talk on how vital sleep is for your child's emotional regulation, brain development, and overall mental health.

  • Chore Tracking Tools: Practical devices and systems to help make daily household chores a positive, routine part of family life.

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Free Behavioural Support Programmes

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  • ​​​Confident Parents: Thriving Kids – Behaviour [For Parents of Kids Ages 3–12]: A free, phone-based coaching programme offered by the Canadian Mental Health Association (BC). It provides parents with highly effective, everyday strategies to manage challenging behaviours.

  • Everyday Parenting: The ABCs of Child Rearing [Free Online Course]: Developed by Dr. Alan Kazdin (a leading expert in child psychology), this free course offers a practical toolkit of behaviour-change techniques to make your daily home life smoother and more positive.

  • Collaborative Problem-Solving Approach [By Dr. Ross Greene]: An empowering parenting approach that moves away from traditional rewards and punishments. Instead, CPS teaches parents and kids how to work together to solve the underlying problems causing difficult behaviours before they escalate.

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Recommended Parenting Books

 

1. ​Managing Emotions & Everyday Brain Science

  • The Whole-Brain Child (by Dr. Daniel Siegel & Dr. Tina Payne Bryson): 12 revolutionary, science-backed strategies to help nurture your child's developing mind and handle daily meltdowns with ease.

  • Shift: Managing Your Emotions - So They Don't Manage You (by Dr. Ethan Kross): A wonderful guide on how to help your family control their inner voice and manage big emotions.

  • The Emotional Lives of Teenagers (by Dr. Lisa Damour): An essential guide to understanding the intense emotional highs and lows of adolescence and raising capable, connected teens.

 

2. Anxiety, OCD, & Challenging Behaviours

  • Breaking Free of Child Anxiety and OCD (by Dr. Eli Lebowitz): The scientifically proven SPACE programme that teaches parents how to support their anxious child by changing their own parental accommodations.

  • The Everyday Parenting Toolkit (by Dr. Alan Kazdin): A step-by-step guide to using the famous "Kazdin Method" for easy, lasting, and positive behaviour changes.

  • The Explosive Child (by Dr. Ross Greene): A compassionate and highly effective approach to understanding and parenting easily frustrated, chronically inflexible children.

 

3. Supporting Youth Who Self-Harm

 

4. Parenting Teen Girls

  • Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood (by Dr. Lisa Damour): A map for parents navigating the predictable, healthy, and sometimes messy developmental milestones of teenage girls.

  • Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls (by Dr. Lisa Damour): An urgent and practical look at the unique stressors girls face today, with clear strategies to help them build resilience.

 

5. Parenting Young Adults & Fostering Independence

  • How to Raise an Adult (by Julie Lythcott-Haims): A powerful book on how to break free from the "overparenting" trap and prepare your child for real-world success.

  • The Gift of Failure (by Jessica Lahey): An essential read exploring why letting children make mistakes is the best way to help them become independent, successful adults.

  • Grown and Flown (by Lisa Heffernan et al.): A warm, supportive guide on how to stay close as a family while helping your teen transition successfully into independent adulthood.

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Dr. Lisa Damour’s Parenting Podcasts
To listen to these fantastic, bite-sized episodes, search for the titles below on the [Ask Lisa: The Psychology of Parenting Podcast] website or your favourite podcast app.

 

1. Phones, Gaming, & Social Media

  • Will Social Media Harm My Kid?

  • How and when do I give my kid a phone?

  • What to do about shocking texting?

  • Should I track my teen's location?

  • Should I let my kid use TikTok?

  • My Daughter’s Nude Selfie Got Out. What Do We Do Now?

  • How Much Gaming is Too Much?

  • Would My Kid Play Violent Video Games?

 

2. Friendships, Peer Pressure, & Romance

  • My Kid is Being Bullied. What Should I Do?
    My Kid Was Dumped by Her Friends. How Can I Help?

  • My Friends’ Kids Are Excluding My Kid. What Should I Do?

  • My Daughter Is the "Mean Girl." What Do I Do?

  • How Do I Encourage My Tween to Drop a Bad Friendship?

  • Can I Talk My Teen Out of a Toxic Romance?

  • How Do I Support My Heartbroken Son?

  • Is There a Gentle Way to Drop a Friend?

 

3. Gender, Sexual Health, & Substance Use

  • Should I Give the "Sex Talk" if I Think I’m Already Too Late?

  • How Do I Support My LGBTQ+ Daughter?

  • My Kid Looked at Porn. What Should I Do?

  • How Do I Talk My Teen Out of Vaping?

  • How Do I Get My Son to Give Up Pot?

 

4. School, Mental Health, & Tough Conversations

  • My Daughter Is Cutting Herself. What Should I Do?

  • What Do Parents Need to Know about Suicide?

  • How Do I Combat My Kid’s Perfectionism?

  • My Clingy Teen Hates Going to School. How Do I Help?

  • My Kids Lose It When They Make Sports Mistakes. How Can I Help?

  • Lying, Sneaking, Cheating. What Keeps Kids from Being Honest?

  • How and When Do I Tell My Kids Their Grandma is Dying?

  • How Do I Talk to My Child About Racism?

 

5. Family Dynamics & Divorce

  • How Should Step-Parents Fit In?

  • How Do We Help Kids Through Divorce?

  • How Do I Parent a Young Adult (and Deal with My Own Parents)?

  • My College-Bound Kid Is “Soiling the Nest.” Help!

  • Should My Kid Take a Gap Year?

  • How Do I Get My Teen To Take Charge of Her Life?

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