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We live in a world obsessed with behavior. Parents are told: If your child is well-behaved, you’re succeeding. If not, you’re failing. But here’s the truth… Behavior is only the tip of the iceberg. Beneath it lies a much richer story… the why behind our children’s actions. Every challenging behavior (in kids or adults) has roots in feelings, needs, beliefs, and nervous system patterns. It carries the imprint of a whole life history, shaping how someone perceives and reacts to a moment. When we stop at the surface and try to control behavior, we miss the chance to connect. We miss the chance to teach our children how to express what’s underneath in ways that help them feel seen, supported, and safe.

Did you know our brains are wired to pay more attention to the negative than the positive? It’s called Negativity Bias . For our ancestors, this was essential: noticing the rustle in the bushes that might signal danger mattered more than noticing a beautiful sunset. Helpful for survival? Absolutely. But in modern life, especially in parenting, this bias makes it harder to see what’s good. Parenting gives us plenty of moments that feel hard, messy, or overwhelming. If we aren’t intentional, stress and struggle can become the only things we notice. That’s why practices that anchor us in presence and gratitude are so powerful. They retrain our brains to notice goodness, too. As Steve Maraboli says, “If you want to find happiness, find gratitude.” We often imagine happiness is waiting at some milestone: when the baby sleeps through the night, when the fighting stops, when life finally feels easier. But in truth, happiness grows from noticing the small glimmers of goodness already here. So dear parent… What can you celebrate today that’s going well in your family?

You’re not just raising your kids. You’re also raising the younger version of yourself who didn’t get what they needed. Think about it… Every stubborn “no,” every meltdown, every slammed door can feel like an echo from your own childhood. Sometimes those echoes sound like the words you wish someone had said to you. Other times, they mirror the moments you promised yourself you’d never repeat. That’s why parenting can feel so big sometimes. The challenging moments we face with our kids aren’t just about this moment. They’re tangled up with the past, with the experiences we carried forward from being kids ourselves. And here’s the beautiful part: That overlap is also a doorway. When we connect what we felt as a child to what our child is feeling now, we unlock more compassion, more empathy, and more room to respond the way we wish our parents had. Our own childhood becomes a map that can guide us to lead the moment differently than it was led for us. Over time, every hard moment becomes a chance to guide our kids and tend to the younger self inside us who needed something different.

Real life parenting scenarios from within the coaching world of Jai