Episode Details

Depression, anxiety and other mental health issues have skyrocketed among kids, teens and young adults; and this is long before pandemic-related isolation. Dr. Tim Jordan is a developmental and behavioral pediatrician, helping children and their families navigate development and maintain strength, happiness and fulfillment.

Dr. Jordan shares his common-sense approach that enables parents to:

• be more confident and effective
• reduce conflict and drama
• remain a strong influence throughout their children's adolescence

Regardless of the role you play in a child's life, today's conservation will equip you with practical advice to build closer relationships based on trust and understanding.

SHOW NOTES:

• Alongside his wife Anne, Tim founded Camp Weloki for Girls as a safe haven for girls can be heard, be authentic and enhance their social-emotional intelligence.
• Greater hope or greater despair? While it saddens him that kids go through so much adversity, Tim has hope when he can remove children from their childhood baggage and prepare them to become thriving adults.
• Young women struggle statistically significant more with mental health, including overwhelming anxiety and loneliness, than young men.
• Being driven by external motives like money, looks or being famous will lead to less happiness, unfulfilled and with poor relationships.
• Tim frequently asks young people, "What percentage of people between 22-35 years old have a 4-year degree?" Typical answers are between 60-70% when in reality it's about 30%.
• Ask for, listen for and mirror back your child's intrinsic, internal motivation.
• Ask children, "What does success look like to you?"
• By shrinking the geographic freedom of children, Tim believes we've forced them to congregate online + increased their dependency on technology.
• "We blame social media for bullying. It didn't start there. It just magnifies there."
• "You have to earn the next freedom and the next privilege. You earn it by your behavior over time."
• Challenges young girls face:
  • 12.3 years old: average age bulimia + anorexia sets in for girls, which is on pace for the average age when girls are gaining natural weight because of puberty.
  • Educate girls to be image + media savvy on what's real and what's been altered.
  • "I teach my young girls that consumer brands aren't selling you a product. They're selling that you're not good enough unless you have this particular product."
• Comparison trap: Encourage children to gauge their wellness by looking internally, not by comparing themselves to others.
• When children face adversity, encourage heartfelt conversations about how they feel, help them reframe the experience so they don't internalize it.
• While not always negative, anxiety is nature's natural warning sign and an opportunity to check-in with yourself and utilize the skills to cope with it.
• How to have meaningful conversations with children, regardless of their openness:
  • Find the right context. Boys share better shoulder-to-shoulder versus girls share better in circles.
  • Find the key to their doorway. Some children communicate better in writing.
  • Don't blow the opportunity.
  • Be fully present.
  • Do the best you can.
  • Understand they may connect with one parent more than another
• Tim shares the relatable "turtle + the hail storm" metaphor + the responsibilities of both parents + children.
• She Leads: We don't recognize leadership in our daughters enough. Tim encourages parents to recognize when daughters show courage + leadership by standing up for their friends at school, handling conflicts with other directly, being inclusive by uniting others and the other more traditionally rec