In week’s podcast episode, we’re talking about bad behavior. Specifically, The Good News About Bad Behavior. That’s the name of a new book by journalist, author, speaker, and parent educator, Katherine Lewis, and in this episode, Katherine and I talk about what our kids’ behavior is telling us and how we as parents, teachers, and other adults in kids’ lives can best respond to it while encouraging our kids to develop into healthy adults.

In researching and writing her book, Katherine connected with one of our favorite parenting thought leaders, Dr. Ross Greene, and reframed her own thinking about bad behavior as being a child’s way of demonstrating lagging skills. Katherine’s book aims to help parents navigate tricky behavioral situations and work with their children toward better solutions. I really enjoyed this conversation and hope it offers you some good food for thought.

Katherine Reynolds Lewis is an award-winning journalist and author of The Good News About Bad Behavior: Why Kids Are Less Disciplined Than Ever – And What to Do About It. Her work has appeared in the Atlantic, Fortune, Money, Mother Jones, The New York Times, Parade, Slate, USA Today’s magazine group, the Washington Post Magazine and Working Mother.  She holds a BA in physics from Harvard University and is a certified parent educator with the Parent Encouragement Program (PEP) in Kensington, Md. 

Things you’ll learn from this episode

• How parents can shift their mindset in the way they think about behavior
• Why our kids’ need to experience failure, and why modeling it for them can be so powerful 
• How to let go of what others think of our approach to parenting and discipline
• Ways parents can compassionate advocate for and educate others about our children
• What Katherine hopes her book does in the world in terms of changing the conversation surrounding behavior
• What the good news about bad behavior actually is

Resources on the good news about bad behavior

• Katherine Lewis’ website
• The Good News About Bad Behavior: Why Kids Are Less Disciplined Than Ever, and What to Do About It by Katherine R. Lewis
• Katherine Lewis on Facebook 
• Katherine Lewis on Twitter
• Katherine Lewis on Instagram
• The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children by Dr. Ross Greene
• Lives in the Balance (Dr. Greene’s website)

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