As we all settle in to another week of the continuing spread of the coronavirus or COVID-19, we come to the realization that we might be homebound even longer than we had anticipated. Now more than ever, we need tools and coping strategies as parents and families to endure the unchartered waters we are in today. If you’re the parent of a middle schooler, you know more than anyone that a kid this age is fraught with uncertainty, indecision and anxiety. How do they navigate friendships? What do they want to be? What do they stand for? This phase of development can get tricky! With executive function not fully developed until they're in their 20’s, they’re far from being able to analyze situations and make the right decisions, yet there is so much happening in their brains! More and more middle school kids are expressing feelings of depression, anxiety and even suicide. We’ve got to help them. But how do we help a kid who can seem annoyed just by our very presence? What do you do when arguing and rebellion is their knee-jerk reaction? I’m so happy and honored to have Dr. Judy Ho here to impart her wisdom and share her experience on how we can effectively communicate with our kids about navigating peer pressure and help them make the right decisions. Dr. Judy has solutions on how we can help our kids exit a difficult situation and avoid the dangers of things like vaping and sexting. Dr. Judy shares her two go-to techniques of effective communication and re-framing of perspective to avoid negative thinking and finding a way to make bad thoughts “workable” for both parent and child. Dr. Judy and I really connected on utilizing mindfulness and meditation as a family to clear our minds and create a feeling of serenity and of being grounded. I actually do this at home with my boys. Dr. Judy leads us on one of her favorite mindful meditations she calls, “clouds in the sky” Did you know kids who practice mindfulness and meditation report significantly lower levels of depression and anxiety? It even helps them score higher on tests! My hope is to offer you valuable information and tools you can use to calmly, wisely and lovingly guide your middle school kids through this especially difficult time. 

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