The Science of Parenting
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The Science of Parenting
Protect and Prevent | S. 4 Ep. 3
By anticipating what’s coming, parents and caregivers can help prevent problems and risky behaviors.
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This institution is an equal opportunity provider. For the full non-discrimination statement or accommodation inquiries, go to www.extension.iastate.edu/diversity/ext
Welcome to The Science of Parenting podcast where we connect you with research based information that fits your family. We'll talk about the realities of being a parent and how research can help guide our parenting decisions. I'm Mackenzie Johnson, parent of two littles with their own quirks. And I'm a parenting educator.
Lori Korthals:And I'm Lori Korthals, parents of three in three different life stages. One is launched, one is in college, and one is in high school. And today we are continuing our season four and we're talking about prevention.
Mackenzie Johnson:Prevention, that part of parenting. Hmm.
Lori Korthals:Tell us about this thing.
Mackenzie Johnson:Yes. So we are going to be continuing this conversation. But as a reminder about our content we're covering in season four, we're talking about this parenting approach called the RPM three from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development came out with this kind of model and publication. And it's an acronym, so respond, and then today, prevent, monitor, mentor, model. So all things that we do in our parenting, just thinking about this approach and these different parts of it, how we can understand it across our different ages. But one reminder we want to give is that this is about a lifelong parenting perspective, right? It's across all ages, it's across multiple days and weeks. Thank goodness that one day is not the only day because I tell you, there's days I don't want it to be the only day. That life long perspective of parenting. So when we talk about prevent and these other aspects, we think about it across our entire lifetime with our kids.
Lori Korthals:We do and I'm wondering if our listeners have figured out how you threw a framework in as a whole season. We know Mackenzie loves a framework, right? So not only, you know, has she tossed frameworks and steps in to each of our episodes, this is now an entire season. But well, okay, let's start with research and the definition of prevent. So what are we preventing in the first place? Well, what we're doing as parents over our child's entire lifetime, essentially, is that we are wanting and desiring to prevent risky behavior or problems essentially, before they arise. And this is essentially a definition that has two little parts. And so one, that thing that we try to prevent is we try to spot possible problems ahead of time. And then what we try to do is the second part, which is to work through the problem. And so as we think about spotting a possible problem or risky behavior, we then want to think ahead and say, Okay, well, how then can I work through that problem or risky behavior?
Mackenzie Johnson:Yes. And I feel like that kind of ties into the first episode of the season, we talked about those four words of to describe and reflect on our parenting of consistent, effective, active, and attentive. With preventing, I really think it does require us to be that kind of attentive parent in tune with what's going on with our kids so that we can spot those possible problems. And then yeah, that knowing what to do about it, right, how do we actually prevent that risky behavior? What do we do about the problem? It kind of comes in with that effective, right? That what we try does help prevent that risky behavior? Exactly. Those words of effective and attentive are really important here with our parenting.
Lori Korthals:They are and one thing we were trying to do as we were researching was okay, what other words might we use to think about the word prevent and one of those words was observe. Another word was anticipate. You just said the words in tune. And those are all part of this process. So what I'm wondering is can you think of a time that you might have been effective and attentive so to speak in spotting a potential problem and then you worked through it?
Mackenzie Johnson:I'm sure I have. I think we do. Right? That's the thing we do as parents. Okay, well, I can think of a kind of obvious one. So my kids are little, and when we moved to our new home, there's these stairs, and kind of in a high traffic area in our home and acknowledging that my child who was just getting ready to walk and who was just learning to climb stairs in our previous home, that was going to be a problem. And so that was actually on my list of move-in day, move-in week priorities. I was like, you know what, we've got to get a baby gate here, something that we can latch and close. Because even if they would be playing through the hallway and fall, it needed to be something firm and sturdy, because it was kind of a high traffic spot. So I mean, I guess in that way, I spotted a fall risk, and solved the problem with the baby gate.
Lori Korthals:It counts. It all counts.
Mackenzie Johnson:So, what about you. What's something recently where you've been preventing.
Lori Korthals:So about 10 years ago, probably now, I moved my family out of school that they were attending, out of town, literally out of state actually. And about that time, my children would have been middle school and elementary and early elementary. And so especially like that middle schooler, you know, people said to me, oh, this is really going to be difficult. And so I was getting all of these conversations about how to spot and prevent, you know, problems or issues around her being moved from her friend group in one state into another friend group in another state. And so there was that spotting of potential problems. And then working through it, one of the things that we did was, we actually visited each of the schools that the three children were going to attend. And a super cool thing that was happening was the new school was actually going to have a field trip in our town that my middle schoolers' future classmates would be attending. And they were going on this field trip. And so what we were able to do was my daughter was able to attend the field trip with her future classmates in her own town. So it was a really excellent opportunity. She was in her arena, she was in her hometown, and her future classmates were coming into her space where she felt comfortable, and she was able to show show them around the museum that they were at. And so I would say that was that's one way that I addressed this idea of prevent in this parenting approach.
Mackenzie Johnson:Yes. Okay. And your example even reminds me of some of the other kind of more common, I was like, what do we prevent? One of our other things, I think, even like screen time, and so spotting, my daughter is kind of getting to the age where she gets to have some screen time a little more and not like only right in our lap kind of time. And so it's like, okay, so we need to learn spotting the potential of like, okay, you could go to something else that I don't want you in or, you know, and so spotting that potential problem. And then yeah, that our solution has been like, okay, setting clear guidance around this is what you can do right now on this screen. And the expectation of like, when we talk about this, if you'd like to change to something else, you need to ask us. And so kind of setting that guidance has been an important part. And then sometimes using tools like, you know, like apps that are timers or, you know, parental guidance, stuff like that. And so that's something we do to prevent a problem or risky behavior there on the screens.
Lori Korthals:So we do, definitely, Okay, so here's a little bit more research. This is talking about how we provide expectations, how we provide boundaries and communications before the problem occurs. So again, it's that word, anticipatory, or we anticipate those problems before they occur. And the American Academy of Pediatrics has specific topics, actually, that provide this kind of ahead of time information to parents. And so instead of reading all of the items, we're going to just kind of lump them into some categories. How about that?
Mackenzie Johnson:Yes, absolutely. So yeah, and Lori actually taught me this term, like in preparation for this episode. I was like, okay, we're talking about prevention. What is the like, there's that word, and she's like, anticipatory guidance, right. And I'm like, Yes, that is it!
Lori Korthals:The only thirteen 13 letter word I know, right?
Mackenzie Johnson:I know it's a term. We are guiding our kids by anticipating what's coming up. So yeah, some of the ways we do that. One, that the American Academy of Pediatrics's category of things they have talks about physical safety. So think about like driving a car, or riding a bike, crossing the street, car seats and seat belts, you know, poisoning prevention, gun safety, strangers, all that kind of stuff that keeps our kids physically safe, we can help prevent those kinds of risks.
Lori Korthals:And along with physical safety, we also think about physical health. So things about our physical health include movement, or injury, or sleep, or illness, those nutrition and wellness types of things. And as we talked about this word prevent in the model, this whole idea of physical safety and physical health were immediately where my brain went to. And so starting on some other categories that took us a little bit to think about.
Mackenzie Johnson:Yes, a big part of it is understanding development is kind of another. Language development, physical development, social emotional development, and how that relates to the kind of guidance and non physical discipline we give to our kids to keep them healthy, safe, appropriate behaviors, right? Yeah, that was another category where we kind of prevent problems and behaviors with our guidance, because we understand what our kids, you know, what we can expect of them. Mm hmm.
Lori Korthals:Another word we looked up was the word observe, and the word observe showed up in this category from the American Academy of Pediatrics, when it comes to family stress, and significant problems, like violence or family instability and observing for those types of problems and anticipating ahead of time how we might see family stresses and significant problems impacting our children.
Mackenzie Johnson:Absolutely. Which reminds me so much of there's a lot of research around this idea of resilience, right? So how do we have resilient kids that can handle family stress, and that are stronger, and all of these things, which is very closely tied to the next category related to substance abuse. So you know, witnessing it, preventing our kids from getting involved in it, those kinds of things also relate to preventing.
Lori Korthals:They do. And you shared a little bit about the last one, which is looking ahead and anticipating how TV and media might be impacting our children, and how do their ideas and thoughts about risky behaviors become formed through television media? And, you know, as we think, again, you mentioned the apps and ways that we can, you know, anticipate how to help our children navigate those waters of media. And when we're not around, we need to think ahead about how can they make good decisions when we're not there?
Mackenzie Johnson:I even recently have started talking to my preschooler about ads like that ads are actually trying to get you to do something, right. And that's a concept of like, they want you to want this toy or to they want you to do that thing. Like, it's not totally benign. They have an objective. But that kind of stuff of having those conversations and across lots of different ages with our kids related to media and TV and social media and apps and all of it. Yeah.
Lori Korthals:Absolutely. I am totally a product of Saturday morning breakfast ad material, right? Yeah, absolutely.
Mackenzie Johnson:Yeah, so fortunately, we talked about all of these and you list them all out? Like, can I? Can I anticipate all of that? Yeah. And we have great news, right? One, so many of these things, we already have the skills and already are navigating. And there's a lot of things in our close society world that help us along the way. So like some resources that help us prevent these things, or if you have questions about certain concerns with these, that they're great resources you can tap into. So yeah, we have kind of a little list. I mean, informal, right, just our team thought of together, but I'll share those. Yeah, I was, like we talked about the American Academy of Pediatrics is a great resource for trustworthy information related to physical health and safety and locally, you know, like your family physician, your doctor, whoever you could see regularly as well child visits, all that kind of stuff. I don't know what else did we say. I've gotta find my list here.
Lori Korthals:We've got the Community Health Partners. We talked about local friends and family who are experts in those different areas. You have a lot of experience in terms of people who are working with entities who are involved in prevention in general, whether it's physical prevention of injuries, like you said, the poison control or to prevention of family stressors, whether they're counselors or therapists.
Mackenzie Johnson:Yes. Yep. A few more that we had were public health officials are a great help. They do tons of prevention work. Some community action agencies, you know, sometimes your nonprofits do that kind of work. There's a website called Common Sense Media, who just puts out unbiased information about media that's out there. So parents can learn about what their kids have access to. And then another really great one we had was school counselors are great help with great expertise on kids and risky behavior and challenges.
Lori Korthals:I have one more. And that is your local extension.
Mackenzie Johnson:How did we not? Your Iowa State University Extension and Outreach office, or if you're out of state, the state that you're in, you have access to extension, and our role is just to share research based information with you. And so you can always trust your extension.
Lori Korthals:You can. It's their job, research and information, right? So okay, let's talk about research again. We played this little game when we were talking about temperament in season three, and so what we did was we kind of separated out the topic we had by age. And so we're gonna do that again, when we talk specifically about this word prevent. So how do we anticipate and provide anticipatory guidance throughout the ages? I'm gonna let you start with infants and toddlers.
Mackenzie Johnson:Yeah, so I gave an example earlier, which I feel like is where my mind went when the word prevent comes up. I think of baby gates, child proofing, anchoring bookshelves, child locks on the cleaning cupboards. That's the kind of stuff that comes to mind right away. And it's important, right? That is an important way to keep our kids safe. So that's kind of the obvious one. But yeah, even things like helping our kids learn appropriate rules. Our infants and toddlers are brand new to the world. They're testing out all these skills they have, and they don't know what's safe and not safe. And so we have to teach them about appropriate, like, what's appropriate behavior and what's allowed, and why certain things aren't allowed. And so our rules and our expectations for our kid is another really important way that we help prevent those problems.
Lori Korthals:We do and as you better get a little older, oh, yeah, as you think about the kiddos that are a little older, like preschool or school agers where, you know, their development, at that time is all about mastering the tasks at hand. So how can they master riding a bike? And as you think about preventing problems or issues with that, what are things that we think about? Well, okay, we need a helmet. We need to talk about road, you know, the rules of the road in terms of crossing streets. We think about our elementary school kids who are trying to maybe master different types of skills, whether their educational skills, and we talk about, you know, listening to teachers, and how do you show respect to adults in school environments. And as we look at those things that they're doing, we also have to think about, you know, what are again, our rules and expectations around appropriate guidance and discipline. And because they're going to be on their own, that means that they have to understand their own rules and limits. Yeah, because they're in these public settings with other people, we're not there to always remind them of rules and limits. So they have to know what they are.
Mackenzie Johnson:Totally, yeah, they're gonna start using those rules and limits on their own without an adult there to remind them every time. Definitely need those rules and limits and need to have them memorized.
Lori Korthals:Yes.
Mackenzie Johnson:So that as we think about those kids, even our preteens and teenagers that are a little older. Things like teaching our kids to say no to peer pressure, you know, talking about ways to get out of an unsafe situation, or a situation where they feel uncomfortable, that kind of helps prevent them from being involved in some of those risky or problem behaviors. And then, you know, even things as simple as teaching them safe driving, right? How do we know that we wear our seatbelts? And how can we be safe when we have friends with us in the car who might distract us and all those things? So again, across all the ages, we see this part of parenting where we're preventing, we're spotting that behavior because we're preventing the problems from arising hopefully.
Lori Korthals:And I remember a conversation that we had with our writer, Barb Dunn Swanson, and she talked about, think about all the experience and knowledge that you have as the adult and how we just listed off everything by age. But we made this assumption that okay, well, they know. The kids know, they know right? She's like, but they don't know. Remember that we need to share the reason why behind some of these anticipatory and preventing types of guidances. Because our kids need to know that why. And when they know the why, they might be more apt to listen to it, right?
Mackenzie Johnson:Absolutely. Well, and you know, like I said, the word preventing does make me think of like physical safety, like injuries and stuff like that. And so to me, it's easier, this preventing part, is easier with our little kids, right, like infant, toddler, and preschool because you can kind of get by with, because I said so. You're in charge of what happens in their day when they're that young, that it is kind of easy to just, because I said so. But yeah, then what happens when they become school aged kids riding their bike by themselves to school or preteens making decisions with their friends without an adult with them, or teenagers driving by themselves? If they don't know why those rules are in place.
Lori Korthals:Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And as you think about that why, also, that why gives them words for when their friends say, why, why do we have to do this? And that your child can't just say, well, because mom said so. Right? Because they they need that why essentially as their own tool in their own toolbox to prevent some of that peer pressure? Or, you know, buying into that peer pressure because I have a tool that is strong enough to help me not do that. I know the why behind it. Yes.
Mackenzie Johnson:I even think of when my friends would get in my car in high school, I was always like, seatbelt. Have to wear a seatbelt. I mean, even to the point that they're like, we're in the back my parents don't care. You're in my car, you wear your seatbelt. But because I believed the reason, right? I believed like, okay, I'm a young driver, I could, you know, I could get in an accident. Like, I could hurt my friend in the backseat if I get an accident. And but like that reason why was why I had a strong belief about it. Exactly. Yes, exactly. Reasons are important. So we've got some great tips from this publication we're kind of basing this season on. And just some general ideas about, okay, when we think about preventing, you kind of tiptoed into this first one that Barb shared with us that we have to, we have to bring it up. When it comes to these conversations around preventing. You have that knowledge and life experience that we have like, Okay, I know there's risk with you having your friends in the car when you're a new driver, or I know there's risk of my newly walking toddler falling down the stairs. And so but they don't see that risk necessarily. So we have to bring it up, we have to anticipate it. Because crossing the street might not look like a scary thing to my young kid. So we bring up those conversations. And we need to be clear, like we said, the reason why but just like a clear expectation of what you do to stay safe or healthy or all those kinds of things.
Lori Korthals:Exactly. And you know, that kind of leads into the next tip, which is allowing them an opportunity to express their emotions around those whys. Because when you have emotions around things, it often provides a glue to stick to your memory. Actually, that's a little sciency on you. But yes, we can create, yes, sciency. But emotions create glues, they create memory. They give us clues and reminders. And so if we can help children express ways, express healthy ways to share their emotions. And we need to let them know that all emotions are acceptable and teach them healthy ways to cope, in general with things that in life are, you know, really stressing them out? Totally. And that can help prevent some of those risky behaviors that might be unhealthy, right, ways we don't want them to cope. So that's kind of like the two for one there. Exactly. And another really important one is kind of being that active and attentive parent, that when we're engaged with our kids, familiar with what's going on with them, it does give us a chance to notice when things start to change. And so again, that's part of anticipating because we want to see it before it's a full fledged problem. And so noticing some of those subtle changes does require us to be active and attentive. So we can prevent. Prevent, anticipate, observe, absolutely. And then what we can do is recognize how important it is for us to set realistic limits, realistic limits not you know, 1000 limits with 65 steps. Each realistic limits, I expect you and then be clear about it. And we had a word last week we talked about, be consistent. If we select boundaries that are age appropriate for our children, make sure we're clear and communicating them and then be consistent that when our children go beyond that limit, we have a consequence. And they know what that consequence is. Nothing is harder for parents to then to try to impose consequences, two thirds of the time, or like, on Wednesdays of the days of the month, those are the times we have consequences, right?
Mackenzie Johnson:Yes. So that enforcing consistently, which is I'll be honest, sometimes inconvenient as a parent. Sometimes my life would be easier if I didn't, but I want my child to know what to expect. That if you make this choice, this is what happens. I will do what I say, yes, they can trust those things and know, okay, if I make this choice, this is what will happen. That's actually a good thing for them.
Lori Korthals:I remember having a little practice session about that with my toddler, young preschooler at the time thinking, okay, we're really struggling in this area. And so, you know, I knew I had some time and this particular area involved, when we would be outside of the house in public, and, you know, the meltdowns would occur. And I thought, okay, we're gonna practice me giving the consequence and being consistent, because I really don't have anything to get at the store today. But I'm gonna take that toddler to the store. I know she's going to ask for something. And I'm going to be able to leave my cart and walk out the door, because I've anticipated that this is going to happen. And it's amazing how if you have the opportunity to observe, anticipate, and then set that boundary, and be consistent with the consequence. We had really very limited meltdowns in the store after I literally was consistent. Mm hmm.
Mackenzie Johnson:Yes, if this happens, we will leave and then we left when had happened.
Lori Korthals:And there were parents in the background raising their fists like yeah, yeah, yeah. My chest is all puffed up. Child screaming, right? All the parents behind me cheering, yes.
Mackenzie Johnson:Oh, well, and setting those expectations and kind of our rules and consequences and those kinds of things is our specific tip for this week. So when we were talking about responding last week, is different than reacting. We talked about using Stop. Breathe. Talk. as our specific technique. When it comes to preventing, I actually have a little formula. Is that the same thing as a framework?
Lori Korthals:I think they're two different words.
Mackenzie Johnson:But so it's kind of these words and guidance, a phrasing that we can use to be clear about our expectation, our reason, and why. Right, so my example that I have is I expect, blank. Okay, so then you're gonna put like, I expect this behavior, or I expect this rule. I expect blank. Because...insert your reason. And then the second sentence is simple. It's important to me that you are blank. Okay. So there's kind of like a value component there. Like, right, like, it's important to me that you are safe, that you are healthy. That you're respectful, right? So I expect blank behavior, because blank reason. It's important to me that you are blank. Yes. All right. So we're explaining that why. We're being very clear about exactly what we expect, right. And so this isn't I expect you to be safe. It's more specific than that. I expect you to look both ways before you cross the road. I expect you to pay attention to the road when you have friends in the car. All these things. I expect you to ask me if you would like to download a new app. So getting very specific about what it is that we expect and why. And so yeah, I expect blank because blank. It's important to me that you are blank. Because almost all the rules, especially when it comes to preventing right, spotting that risky behavior, that problem, that concern. It does come down to what we really want for our kids. You know? The value of being safe, being healthy, you know, being respectful, or whatever it is. And so explaining that to them clearly. That's kind of my specific tip for today.
Lori Korthals:I have one. I expect you to let me know if you're going to be late tonight. This is my teenager, right? I expect you to let me know if you're going to be late because if you're not home when you said you would be, I will worry about you. And it's important to me to know that you're safe.
Mackenzie Johnson:It works!
Lori Korthals:That was spontaneous.
Mackenzie Johnson:On the spot. Yeah. And I do I think of the screen time, that's something new in our family. And so I expect you to ask me if you would like to use whatever device? Because I need to know that you're using it so I can supervise you because it's important to me that you're safe. Yes. Yes, we can do this. All right. Yes, I would say. So we've talked through what preventing is, examples of the different kinds of things we prevent, resources, what it looks like, across different ages, some tips for doing it. And then now we bring in our producer, Mackenzie DeJong, who asks us an off the cuff question. We don't know what she's going to ask or what topic.
Mackenzie DeJong:Hello.
Mackenzie Johnson:Do our little Stop. Breathe. Talk. space here.
Mackenzie DeJong:Yes, it is time for Stop. Breathe. Talk. when we stop, take a breath and we talk about something. And today, I'm going a little bit of a left turn from the conversation you've been having. As I was talking to our writer today about what question I could ask you, I think the recommendation she gave me hit a little too close to home with something that really applies to me, honestly. And so the question is we talk about risk. And yes, obviously, prevention is the whole point of this whole podcast, right? But some kids aren't the kids that will go out and run across the street and do this and do that. Some kids are like me that, like they're scared of everything. And they're scared of doing something wrong, and the fear of like doing something wrong is there. So how can we teach caution to our kids, while also teaching them to not live in fear? So teach them? Yes. How do we teach them that? How can you teach me that?
Lori Korthals:I think that the most important thing that you can do is go along beside them. So that instead of pushing them out the door with a brand new friend that they don't know about, you obviously know about this friend, but you go with them. So I think about the times that you and I have interacted and I'm taking you someplace new as a fellow coworker. The way that I prevented anxiety or fear from bubbling up was to be that buffer in between you and whatever it was that was new. Your security blanket, your blankie. But we become that person, we become that buffer in that space, so that we are challenging and encouraging them to try new and different things, while at the same time acknowledging and recognizing that fear and fearfulness is really a thing.
Mackenzie Johnson:Yeah. And I think back to, of course, some of our season three conversations about temperament. In particular, Rob Copeland, who reminded us about this concept of baby steps. And so I think, semi-recently, my daughter and I were playing outside and in this public space, and there was this really nifty tree. And she was kind of kind of interested in climbing it, but she basically just like sat in the middle of the trunk, right at the ground. And I was like, okay, so what if we kind of like climbed up this branch, like if you put your foot here, and maybe you could hold on here, and that was where we started, right? Like getting a little higher. And then we walked around a little while. We came back to the tree. And by the end of the day, we were walking through, she was about as high as I could reach, you know, to catch her, you know, to be right below her. And so those little baby steps of kind of teaching and supporting what the next step is and helping them celebrate the success along the way. And literally when her foot would slip, I was right there, right? Yes, right. I was there supporting and kind of coaching and so I do, I think of that process of baby steps and also reflecting on your own level of like, concern, safety, healthy risk, and that if you are a very, very cautious parent, and that's kind of your natural temperament to kind of keep in check that like, okay, it's not risky for them to cross the street with me, right? It's not risky. Finding those safe and healthy risks and baby steps to teach them along the way, I think.
Mackenzie DeJong:Baby steps as the adult. If you're the one that's cautious, because I can see this, like, I've translated this to say, my nephews who live on a farm and they'll go out and play. And I'm like, oh, and my sisters say, they know where they can go. They're okay. They can go to the chicken coop. They're all right. And I'm like, ooohhh. Yeah, baby steps for me, you know, and maybe then I step outside and watch them do it. But yeah, it kind of also brought up that like analyzing the risk versus the reward of a situation. I guess my question was, how can you teach? How can you teach people like me to to find that risk and reward balance, and also teach people like me to help kids find that balance?
Lori Korthals:We'll take you tree climbing.
Mackenzie Johnson:We'll take you tree climbing. And I also think of the concept of finding the risk that does feel okay. Yeah, if you're a more cautious parent, like, okay, I'm not ready for this yet. But like, but my child could do this. Like they could try this other thing. So yeah. It's different for everybody but baby steps, and thinking through Lori's, too.
Mackenzie DeJong:Well, thank you. I needed that.
Mackenzie Johnson:Awesome, thanks, Kenz. It's a great way like we didn't even think about, it's different for every parent and the level of concern, safety, where you live, and all of those things are factors and how we prevent and keep our kids safe and spot those problems and know how to handle them. Right. That's the two parts of preventing.
Lori Korthals:Absolutely. So what's next?
Mackenzie Johnson:Well, so we've made it through the R and the P, respond and prevent. And so then there's these three M's, monitor, mentor and model that are still coming. Next week is monitor. All right, so very similar to prevent, but a little bit different. So you have to come hear about, what is this monitoring and how do we do that?
Lori Korthals:Awesome. Well, thanks for joining us today on The Science of Parenting podcast. And remember, subscribe to our weekly audio podcasts on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast app. You can watch the show on video each week on social media and then join us again on social media, Facebook or Twitter at Science of Parents to see us in your content feed.
Mackenzie Johnson:Yes, please do come along with us as we tackle the ups and downs, the ins and outs and the research and reality all around The Science of Parenting.
Anthony Santiago:The Science of Parenting is a research based education program hosted by Lori Hayungs and Mackenzie Johnson, produced by Mackenzie DeJong, with research and writing by Barbara Dunn Swanson. Send in questions and comments to parenting@iastate.edu and connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. This program is brought to you by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. This institution is an equal opportunity provider. For the full nondiscrimination statement or accommodation inquiries go to www.extension.iastate.edu/diversity/ext