Raising Kids in a Digital Age

Being a kid—and a parent—today really is more challenging than in past generations. To support families, students and staff, the Hudson School District is offering a series of webinars on “Raising Kids in the Digital Age.”

Jeff Levin, the founder of The Reconnection Project and retired N.H. Chief Justice John Broderick will discuss the cultural factors that are the primary causes of student stress and anxiety and give some no-cost practical tips on how we all can reverse these trends.

Webinar Series Topics

#1 - Elephants & Icebergs

Video: Parent Webinar #1

  • Understanding why these kids feel so much pressure from “Outcome Fever.”
  • Educate parents to see the “crisis” of stress and anxiety among their kids and their classmates; Help them see the digital age “elephants” that are affecting their kids (and themselves).
  • Develop a felt sense of the granular difference between our childhoods and the students’.
  • The importance of working with the truth: develop a full understanding of the Digital *Age and what we call “Digititis,” as well as a discussion of the iceberg of student anxiety.

#2 - Finding a Balance: Protection vs Preparation

Video: Parent Webinar #2

  • Discussion of child development, select psychological theories (most notably Erikson’s Eight Ages of Man and Winnicott’s Holding Environment), and why they are so important today.
  • The New Parenting Playbook, which can have negative effects on kids.
  • A discussion of what trauma can do to mental health.
  • The five signs of mental illness; when to seek professional help.

#3 - Listen

Video: Parent Webinar #3

  • Talking to Your Kids about Elephants and Gremlins—The art of active, undistracted listening.
  • How to have difficult conversations with children.

#4 - Outcome Fever

Video: Parent Webinart #4

  • Understanding how Outcome Fever Affects your Family.
  • Reducing Outcome Fever: changing focus from what children do to who they are.
  • The importance of building working collaborative relationships between parents and teachers, coaches, and administrators.

#5 - Managing Screens & Dealing w/Family of Origin Issues

Video: Parent Webinar #5

  • Unplugging from Screens as a Family.
  • The critical importance of modeling, especially modeling and enforcing disconnecting from devices.
  • How parents’ emotional baggage is exacerbated by devices.

#6 - The Six Is with Special Guest Lynn Lyons

Video: Parent Webinar #6

  • The Six I’s: Imagination, Independence, Integrity, Intestinal Fortitude, Intimacy and *Identity—How to Give Your Kids Those Gifts.

April 26

Video: Parent Webinar #7

  • Finding a balance between preparing children for adulthood and protecting them from harm.
  • Help them learn that vicarious parenting, the diluted attention they’re paying to their kids, and the lack of participation from kids on everyday chores around the house are hurting kids.
  • The benefits of failure.
  • The importance of vulnerability and accountability.
  • Concrete skills for building stronger connections between parents and children.
  • Techniques to respond to a child’s struggles without “rescuing” or enabling.
  • Specific skills for parents to positively respond when their children test them.