Watch a Clip: Choose One Value and Practice It (Read Transcript)
Watch a Clip: Contribution Creates Confidence (Read Transcript)
Watch a Clip: Step Back So They Can Grow (Read Transcript)
Watch a Clip: Do Less. Trust More. (Read Transcript)
Watch a Clip: Discomfort Equals Growth (Read Transcript)
Child psychologist and parent Dr. Leigh Weisz, PsyD, of Coping Partners, joined CATCH’s May Lunch & Learn to encourage parents to step back from the pressure of managing every moment and instead focus on the long game of raising children who are kind, grounded, capable, and resilient.
Throughout the program, Dr. Weisz explored how daily parenting choices shape what children learn about values, responsibility, and independence. Her message was both reassuring and challenging: parents do not need to do more. In many cases, they need to do less, trust more, and create more room for children to grow through contribution, discomfort, and real-world experience.
Model What Matters
Dr. Weisz began by asking parents to reflect on what truly matters in the long run. Most parents say they want to raise children who are kind, connected, resilient, and capable. But children often receive a different message through the pressure adults place on achievement, performance, and success.
She encouraged parents to choose one core value they want to strengthen in their child and then identify a regular behavior that supports that value. If connection matters, maybe that means building in a consistent moment of togetherness. If kindness matters, maybe that means helping children notice and practice acts of care for others.
The key idea: values cannot stay abstract. They need to show up in everyday family life.
Let Kids Contribute
A major theme of the talk was that confidence grows through contribution. Dr. Weisz explained that when children help in meaningful ways at home, they do more than learn life skills. They begin to feel capable, needed, and connected to something larger than themselves.
She encouraged parents to think beyond occasional chores and instead create regular opportunities for children to take responsibility in age-appropriate ways. That might look like putting toys away, setting the table, helping make dinner, doing laundry, or taking ownership of a shared family task.
Rather than focusing only on efficiency or perfect outcomes, parents can focus on the long-term benefits of letting children participate in real work. Contribution helps children build purpose, confidence, and a stronger sense of belonging.
Step Back So They Can Grow
Dr. Weisz also urged parents to resist the instinct to overprotect or rescue children from every hard moment. Children build resilience by doing hard things, making mistakes, tolerating disappointment, and discovering that they can cope.
She shared examples of everyday ways parents can step back: letting children order their own food, email a teacher, pack their own lunch, navigate a social challenge, or handle a forgotten item or minor disappointment without immediate adult intervention.
Her message was clear: discomfort is not always a problem to solve. Often, it is the very place where growth begins.
Less Screen World, More Real World
As part of this conversation about independence, Dr. Weisz addressed the importance of real-world experience. She noted that children today spend less time in unstructured, face-to-face, independent experiences and more time in screen-based environments.
Rather than calling for perfection, she encouraged families to make realistic changes that create more room for real-world connection. Screen-free meals, phone-free car rides, and more space for boredom, conversation, and offline responsibility can help children build stronger coping skills and healthier relationships.
A Parenting Shift Worth Making
The heart of Dr. Weisz’s message was that raising emotionally healthy children does not require parents to manage every detail of their children’s lives. It requires clarity about what matters most and the willingness to align daily parenting choices with those long-term goals.
When parents model their values, invite children to contribute, and step back enough to let them struggle and grow, they help build the qualities they most want to see in their children.
Key takeaway: We do not need to do more as parents. We often need to do less and trust that our kids are more capable than we think.
Resources:
Dopamine Kids: A Science-Based Plan to Rewire Your Child’s Brain and Take Back Your Family in the Age of Screens and Ultra processed Foods by Michaeleen Doucleff, PhD
Free-Range Kids: How Parents and Teachers Can Let Go and Let Grow by Lenore Skenazy
How to Raise An Adult Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success
By Julie Lythcott-Haimes
Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans by Michaeleen Doucleff, PhD
CBS News Present Kindness 101
Let Grow website
Raising Can-Do Kids: Giving Children the Tools to Thrive in a Fast-Changing World by Richard Pende PhD
The Coping Podcast with Dr. Leigh Weisz
