Why Does the College Admissions Scandal Bother Us So Much?

Why Does the College Admissions Scandal Bother Us So Much?

When I first heard the report on the radio I thought it was a hoax.

At least 50 people have been charged with participating in alleged conspiracy that involve cheating on college entrance exams, like the SAT and ACT. Some of their children were admitted to elite colleges, including Yale, Stanford, UCLA and the University of Texas, by bribing coaches.

NPR.org

I listened further and quickly realized it was no joke. I felt stunned then disgusted and outraged. Then I noticed I also felt surprised. These were quite strong feelings to have over something that didn’t involve me or anyone I knew personally. My heart ached because of the obvious social injustice that permeates every aspect of our society but there was more.

I realized that the story drew me in because — if I’m being honest with myself — I could genuinely relate to the motivation of those parents.

While for the most part I’ve resisted the urge to fix everything for my children the way these parents so blatantly did, I have, on several occasions, had a panicky sensation that  I’ve got to get ahead of this! One that’s accompanied by an intense fear that my child will feel badly … or even (gasp!) fail at something important.

Do these internal thoughts sound familiar?
  • If she finds out she’s not invited, she’ll be crushed by the social rejection.
  • I feel so sad for him that he wasn’t chosen for the team.
  • This learning disability will ruin his self esteem and likely his life.
  • She won’t be able to get over the experience of a serious illness or injury.
  • He’ll become depressed if I limit screen time or don’t get him a smartphone.
  • Why doesn’t she have more friends? What’s wrong with her?

These parental fears are more common than you think. The impulse to smooth it over and FIX IT for our kids is the norm these days.

What the Varsity Blues example makes so clear is that the short term fix leads to much bigger long term problems.

For our “little” issues its true, too. I recently heard a story of a mom who was distraught because her 13 yo daughter wasn’t being included in the activities of the popular girl clique. What that mom didn’t know is that her distress likely increased — and even created additional suffering for her daughter.

And, we’re mistaken if we think our unspoken fears won’t impact our children. Kids are  energetic sponges. They feel our doubt and it colors their confidence and resilience.

What we need to remember is that when we excessively worry about our child’s life and sometimes even move to “fix it,” we’re telling them:
  • You’re not enough just as you are,
  • There’s a narrow range of what’s acceptable,
  • What matters most is what others think,
  • You’re incapable of managing your own live.

Believing in your child’s unique capabilities, embracing who they are, just as they are, is by far the most important stance you can take as a parent.

I’m not suggesting that you ignore or deny their struggles, but we can choose faith over fear as our guide and take a grounded position with them. In Positive Discipline we use the metaphor of a tree, strong, balanced and flexible. When we bring these qualities to parenting, our children they have a sure place to rest.

What inspired me to write this post was what my 12 year old daughter shared after she read an article about the admissions scandal.

“Mom, you know what the worst part is? Let’s say I got into Harvard and then found out that you had paid them to get me in… the worst part would be knowing that you didn’t believe in me.

my 12 yo daughter

She’s right.

Believing in your child is a tremendous gift to them.

In Deborah McNamara’s article, Resilience: Embracing the Emotional Journey, she writes,

It is a parent’s belief in a child that helps them feel there is a way out of it all.

Deborah McNamara
Here are 4 specific ways you can show your child that you have faith in who they are:
  1. Give children of all ages opportunities to pitch in and be responsible. This often takes letting go of your expectations of how the task is completed. (The dishes may not be as sparkly as you make them!) Let them know their contribution makes a difference. More ideas.
  2. Pay attention to your child and get to know and appreciate them for all they are, not just the easy to love parts. Looking back now, I see I could have spent more time learning about and even playing video games with my son. More ideas….
  3. Love and connect with your child each day. While this sounds obvious, time gets away from us and it helps to be reminded to intentionally connecting. More and even more ideas….
  4. Learn to tolerate and even embrace feelings, both yours and your child’s. When hard stuff happens, resist the “fix and rescue” mode and instead practice letting go. In doing so, your child will have an opportunity to genuinely feel their disappointment, anger, sadness… you name it. When appropriate, help your child name their feelings. Research shows that when we label our emotions, we’re better able to integrate them.

My friend shared a mantra she uses to help her remember, in the most challenging moments, that her child’s path is just that, her child’s path:   

Love the child you have, her path may not be the one you imagined but it’s right for her.

The bottom line is, your child is going to be ok.

That doesn’t mean it’s always going to be fun or easy, but at a deeper level, she will be just fine, whether she’s reading by first grade or not, whether she goes to the prom or not, whether she attends college or not. She’ll always have a loving family and that’s the only part you can control.

After writing this post I listened to a discussion on the radio program, Fresh Air, addressing this very topic. I was struck by the guest’s advice for parents supporting their older teens:

Your child is the expert on himself or herself. We are 20th-century parents giving advice to 21st-century kids. They’ve inherited a brave new world that we never lived in.

Dr. B. Janet Hibbs

I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

How do you show your child you believe in him/her? How do you keep perspective? What’s hard? Know that you comments in the section below will support someone who shares your concerns and questions.
Why DO you want your child to develop grit?

Why DO you want your child to develop grit?

by Victoria Thorp

gritbookimageIn recent weeks, a new book called Grit,” by Dr. Angela Duckworth has made quite a splash, with coverage in news outlets from CBS News to NPR to the New York Times (even David Brooks loved it).

Maybe you’ve read these stories or perhaps bought a copy of the book yourself.  Or maybe, because it’s spring and you can barely manage the onslaught of graduations, science fair projects and final exams, you’ve been in a media blackout. Either way, I have good news: this post will explain what ‘grit’ means and why it matters to you as a parent.

Angela and I in San Francisco, May 2016

Angela and I in San Francisco, May 2016

Full disclosure: Dr. Duckworth is a friend and former colleague of mine, so I’m not new to the topic of grit, nor am I fully objective about Angela. But here’s the thing about Angela: besides winning a MacArthur ‘genius’ grant and working as psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, she’s also the mom of two middle school girls.

And I know from a recent conversation with Angela that she’s just as humbled by the challenges of parenting as we are, despite a best-selling book and her professional success.

Here’s my attempt to boil down her brilliant book into one page…

What does ‘grit’ mean?

Dr. Duckworth (hereafter to be described as Angela) defines ‘grit’ as a combination of passion, effort, and persistence applied toward a goal over a prolonged period of time.

Why does grit matter?

According to Angela’s extensive research, grit appears to be a strong predictor of life-long success and happiness — perhaps more so than innate talent or IQ.  “Our potential is one thing,” she writes. “What we do with it is quite another.”

As a parent, I appreciate this definition because it breaks down the ‘talent myth’ that seems to dominate our popular understanding of why people are able to accomplish their goals. Whether it’s looking at athletes, artists, or even entrepreneurs, stories of victories and accomplishments are usually told as if these winners were born with a particular gift that made their dominance  inevitable .

What’s different about grit?

Angela’s explanation of grit provides another narrative for understanding these stories, too. One that examines the persistence that these champions applied towards their goals, their ability to not give up even in the face of failure, and the specific, difficult and prolonged practice they applied to the craft/sport/skill they were trying to improve.

Here in the Bay Area, Steph Curry is the most famous example of an athlete who wasn’t considered to have much potential as a youngster, but who’s risen to the top of the game through his determination, endless practice, and dedication.

So how can we find our passion (or help our kids find theirs)?

FullSizeRender (8)

Never discount the power of the chart to motivate kids to reach a goal- especially charts they make themselves (note that goal has yet to be met but working on it!)

At least where I live (Palo Alto, California, U.S.A.), passion is the newest element that kids are supposed to add to their dazzling college resumes. It’s not enough to have great grades and do varsity sports, now teens are supposed to also have a “passion,” whether it’s global warming or raising foster dogs.

That’s why I loved the part of Angela’s book where she explains in detail what it means to have a passion and explores exactly how people stumble upon the “thing” that they end up pursuing with so much grit.

Angela has some experience with trying to find a passion because she spent time as a neurology grad student, management consultant, high school teacher, and tech COO before realizing that her true path lay in the study of psychology (she entered the PhD program at Penn when she was pregnant with her first daughter).

Why it’s hard to find a passion

Some people may realize like a bolt of lightening that they want to study sharks or cure childhood obesity, but most of us won’t have the luxury of this sort of epiphany.

We’re more likely to figure out what we love through multiple exposures and prolonged engagement with something that we might ‘sort of’ like or be ‘kind of’ interested in.

In fact, it may take longer than you’d imagine before you realize what it is that you must pursue.

The reason it takes so long is because of how our brains work.

When people are bored, they know right away. Researchers can ask people if they’re bored when doing a task and they will be very clear if the answer is yes.

It’s much harder to ascertain if a person is truly interested in a task.

When researchers ask people, “Are you interested in what you’re doing?” the answer is often, “Not really.” But these same people will manifest behavior that looks a lot like interest — continuing to do the task, not wanting to break away from it, etc.

It takes lots of exposure to something for kids to develop an interest in it…

For parents, this means that we have to keep exposing our kids — over and over again — to activities, ideas, and pursuits that they may not express a ton of interest in.

Sounds hard, right? Likely it’s a process we’re all familiar with at the dinner table. You’re tempted to never make broccoli again after your kids reject it a few times. But you know their tastes keep changing and experts recommend that you bring back foods that were previously rejected or your kids will eat nothing but white rice for the rest of their lives.

So when it comes to interests and passions, it’s most beneficial to our kids if we give them multiple exposures to a variety of different pursuits … that we not have a fixed mindset about what may interest them as they grow and change.

So if kids try lots of things and quit, what then?

This photo links to Angela's TED Talk

This photo links to Angela’s TED Talk

Angela has a rule in her house — never quit on a rainy day. In other words, never quit because of having to play in bad weather or striking out, or experiencing some other adverse situation.

Instead, encourage your kids to get through the season and to not quit until there’s a natural stopping place (could be the last session you paid for, etc.)

What if kids have a passion for something that you find less than inspiring?

From Minecraft to marijuana legalization, kids can get fixated on pursuing interests that feel less than ideal. So what to do?

That’s a tough one and Angela has not addressed it directly. But she does have another rule in her house I thought was a good: everyone has to do one ‘hard thing.’  

On CBS news she said, choosing the ‘hard thing’ is not an open-ended question — it’s multiple choice.

While her teen girls might be passionate about Instagram, Angela is clear that they can’t choose that as their ‘hard thing.’ Instead, it has to be a sport or musical instrument.

Sports or musical instruments may not be right for your family, but the idea is to encourage your kids to pick something they have enough interest in to pursue and get them to stick with it long enough to make progress.

Can grit be taught or is it just a trait you’re born with?

There’s a lot of debate about this question. Angela gives some ideas for how to ‘grow grit’ but they are more anecdotal, perhaps because the research here is a bit less clear.

I have two girls and one is definitely more naturally gritty in the way Angela defines it. She sets goals and tends to stick to them, and loves to practice and get better — she’s inspired to improve (flute and soccer are her main areas of focus).

My other daughter has lots of big ideas, but often abandons her plans before they’re fully realized, and isn’t particularly driven to practice. So my tiny data set would lead me to the conclusion that there is some innate element to grit.

While you can’t teach your kids to have innate drive, by setting clear expectations around commitment and practice, you increase the likelihood that they’ll experience the relationship between effort, time and progress.

My daughter worked for a year to over come her fear of running hurtles.

My daughter worked for a year to over come her fear of running hurtles.

My less gritty daughter’s found a track program that she loves. She’s kept running for several years. She’s motivated to train with her team; and while she doesn’t do much practice on her own, she’s made noticeable improvement. The findings in Grit support the idea that sustained practice is best done with a coach — and that it’s tough to independently figure out where and how to improve.

I have no idea if my girls will pursue these interests for their whole lives, but I’m trying to encourage them to keep going long enough to feel competent, as I do believe competence builds confidence. And you can’t get to competence without putting in the time.

One big thing that ‘gritty’ people have: purpose

And finally, one of the most compelling parts of Angela’s exploration of grit is the connection she makes to purpose.

From her many conversations with gritty people, she discovered that beyond perseverance, persistence, and prolonged practice, they all shared a belief that what they do is important, valuable or makes a difference in the world in some way.

This was true for musicians, athletes, business people, and even one sanitation worker she interviewed. And she has some great tips for trying to find purpose. (Read the book!)

So now you’re wondering…how gritty are you?

You can take the ‘grit scale’ and find out how you rank on Angela’s assessment.

I’m in the mid range in terms of grit — I bounce around from interest to interest and have never had a laser focus on one thing. It’s a good personality for a writer! But reading Angela’s book gave me new inspiration to look hard at the things I dabble in and try and commit more deeply so I can continue to grow and learn. Even an old dog can get gritty…or so I’d like to believe!

Are you getting gritty with your kids? Or skeptical that grit is yet another parenting fad? Post a comment and let us know!

Victoria is the founder of Palo Alto Pulse, a website that shines a light on the people and ideas that make Palo Alto such a cool place to live. She is also a senior contributing writer for the Doris and Donald Fisher Fund in San Francisco, where she supports the work of KIPP charter schools and other innovative educational organizations. Victoria lives in Palo Alto with her two teenage daughters, her husband and, the grittiest member of her family, her dog Abby.

How to Cope When Your Kid Feels Miserable

How to Cope When Your Kid Feels Miserable

We want our kids to be happy and feel good about themselves — knowing they’re struggling can feel unbearable.

Today’s post is about how to deal with your emotions around your child’s disappointment — a question that Michelle so eloquently asked last time. Here’s my own poignant parenting story….

Years ago when my son, I’ll call him Sunny, was 11 or 12, baseball season had ended and he wanted, with all his heart, to make the all-star team so that he could continue to play. He’d been chosen in years past but knew it was competitive. Being Sunny, he was optimistic and it was clear that playing more baseball was the most important thing in the world to him — hands down. A perfect recipe for parental anxiety.

Each day he’d come home and ask, mom, did the coach call? A look of hopeful anticipation in his eyes.

My heart broke as I had to tell him, 3 or 4 days in a row that no one had called. Silence. Are you sure? Ouch.

Sunny was the kid who went through life, like a duck, letting harsh things that happened to him roll right off. So when he uncharacteristically invested himself in this outcome, it was all the more painful to witness.

At the time I knew that a rescue attempt was ill advised. I felt helpless and didn’t know what to do. While it sounds like a minor letdown now, this disappointment was HUGE in his life, and I was at a loss for how to support him.

Looking back I think his dad or I could have shared our own painful experience if only to join him in that dark space.

I doubt it would have made him feel better but company always helps.

As the parent, I needed to also take a stance that would help me better cope with the urge to jump in and make things better.

As a coach, I often help clients find alternate points of view on an area of their life where they feel stuck.

Below is an example of different perspectives you can step into to shift YOUR experience when your child goes through their inevitable disappointments.

GRITTY VIEW:  The research is clear that children who’re able to persevere through trials and tribulations have an essential characteristic for success – grit.

While they’ll remember epic disappointments, if they’re able to weather them with a sense of grounded security, your kids will more likely learn to forge ahead, a quality that will undoubtedly serve them well in life.

Parental fixing (or on the flip-side, shaming) blocks your child from learning this valuable lesson. Fixing and shaming, while they look different, convey the same message to your kid — I don’t believe in you.

[tweetthis hidden_hashtags=”#parenting”]Don’t treat your son like a prince unless his father’s the King, if you do, life will be a rude awakening.[/tweetthis]

I don’t remember where I heard this but I love its clear wisdom.

POETIC VIEW:  “For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.”  ―Henry W. Longfellow  

Broadening your perspective through poetry and philosophy can be just the tonic you need to pull you out of the painful, cramped feeling of “not enough” that tends to overwhelm you when your
child feels badly.

Andrew.Khalil.GibranMINDFUL VIEW: Practicing mindfulness strengthens your ability to have boundaries.

The Quick Calm Technique created by Andy Smithson of truparenting.net is a tool that when practiced can move you from heated to less heated 🙂

Here it is in a nutshell:

Click to learn about the entire Quick Calm Toolkit

Click above to learn more about the entire Quick Calm Toolkit

Use this technique to bring yourself down from anger, anxiety, sadness… these steps enable you to respond more proactively — more mindfully — to any situation you find yourself caught up in. You have power over how you feel.

PASSIONATE VIEW:  When you take time to nurture your own passions, you get less tied up in knots about the minutiae of your child’s life. This helps you avoid the unwitting substitution of your child’s experiences for your own.

Here are some examples of activities (outside of work and parenting) that parents have shared with me that bring meaning and passion to their lives:

  • join an adult sports team
  • volunteer in an underserved school
  • write a blog or novel
  • coach a team (outside of your child’s)
  • volunteer at a hospital
  • train for a triathlon

If you don’t want to do it for yourself, then you’ve got to do it for the sake of your kid. Only when you nourish yourself and cultivate your own interests will your child see a way to do this for herself.

MY VIEW: One of the gifts I’ve found through using Positive Discipline is a path to keep things simple.

If I’m bending over backward to make something happen for my kid, I hear that voice inside warning me something’s off or as Michelle put it — “THAT’s INSANITY — DON’T DO IT!”

Still the impulse and overwhelming sadness remains.

Don’t push it away. Rather, let yourself feel sad and have a chance to heal from your own old wound. When you get triggered by your child’s disappointments — take that step back from your kid and look inside — work on your own or with a therapist to experience your not so buried feelings so that you can move on rather than continuing to stuff it down or overreact to events in your child’s life. Be real and feel your feelings.

When you feel stuck in your own or your child’s disappointment, try one of these perspectives or cultivate a view of your own. Standing in a different place could be just the reset you need to reorient yourself and move forward in the direction you want to go.

If you haven’t already done so, join me on this journey!

Wanna talk? Schedule a time here.

How to Bite Your Tongue all the Way to True Empathy

How to Bite Your Tongue all the Way to True Empathy

In my last post, I shared how I missed an opportunity to practice empathy. Today’s story is the unexpected follow-up:

Songbird, my eight year old daughter, was at her cousin’s house.  I texted my mom who was in charge, “When’s a good time for pick up?”

Mom texted back, “one hour.”

Five minutes later I receive another text, “Make that 30 minutes.”  Then another message shot back “NOW.”

I head over to find Songbird curled up on the couch weeping – big sad boo hoo tears rolling down her cheeks.  Mom starts to explain that cousin doesn’t want to share her new modeling clay – I hear a well-known refrain from across the room –

“It’s too special.”

Meanwhile, steady crying from Songbird.

Now comes the tongue biting as I work to keep these thoughts from tumbling out my mouth:

  •      It’s okay, you can put that on your Christmas list.
  •      I’m sure she’ll let you play with it, once she’s had it for a while.
  •      You’re really tired – it’s not a big deal.  Now stop crying.
  •      Now don’t be that way Songbird, you know you can’t get everything you want.

Instead, having recently steeped myself in what empathy is and is not  I wait, refrain from the above garden variety of knee jerk reactions.

Screen Shot Animated Empathy1Then, consciously I say, you look sad.

Songbird:  Yes, I’m really sad!

Me:  It seems like your heart hurts.

Songbird:  Yes, (boo hooo) it hurts a lot.

Me:  I’m sorry sweetie.  Let’s say goodbye and go home.

Songbird:  (Weep weep)  Okay.

Wailing and sobbing continue as we head out to the car – they continue as we drive.

When we arrive home, 10 minutes later, Songbird gets out of the car, singing (makes sense), she skips her way to the door.

All of the usual responses we might use (those I listed above) diminish trust. When we use empathy — in this case, simply acknowledging and naming Songbird’s sadness — we build trust.

Expressing empathy in this situation was simple but not necessarily natural or easy – my bloody tongue is proof!  

Simple, how? – all I did was genuinely acknowledge her emotion – naming it and finding a soft place in myself that has known that feeling too.

Not easy, how?  I’ll put myself out there and say that although I’ve been teaching Positive Discipline classes for 10 years, empathy is a conscious practice, one that I only feel I’ve recently come to more fully understand.

So, today I’ve made a commitment to myself to practice deliberate empathy – and to expect I’ll make mistakes along the way. I’ll comeback around when I’ve missed the mark and attempt connection through empathy again and again.

According to the work of Theresa Wiseman and Kristin Neff, these five attributes of empathy are key.  (You can see the animated video depicting these attributes, narrated by Brené Brown, by clicking the photo above.)

In this list, I’ve included examples of:

1.  How I practiced this attribute in my story and

2.  Common responses that act as barriers to empathy.

  • Staying out of judgment:

    1. Keeping my mouth closed about any internal evaluation I’m making as opposed to saying,
    2. “I don’t know why your cousin hasn’t learned how to share yet – at least you’re a good girl.”
  •   Taking the other person’s perspective.  What’s that experience like for you?

    1.   “You look like your heart hurts.” instead of…
    2.    “Why are you making it such a big deal?  Buck up and move on!”
  •    Understanding the emotion you’re hearing.  How can I touch within myself something that feels like what my child may be feeling? Check in for clarity by asking questions.

    1.    “You seem really sad.” as opposed to…
    2.    “You really shouldn’t feel that way – you can put modeling clay on your Christmas list.”
  • Communicating our understanding about the emotion. (This seems like overkill for this example, but you might say…

    1. “Oh I know I feel sad when I don’t get to explore something I’m really curious about” as opposed to…
    2. Not understanding that emotion… “It’s really aggravating when people don’t share.”
  •    Practicing mindfulness.:  Rather than pushing away an emotion because it’s uncomfortable, feel it and move through it.  If we get stuck in the emotion we don’t actually support the other person– boundaries are key to empathy.

    1.    “Your heart really hurts.”
    2.    “It’s very upsetting that your cousin won’t share with you.  I’m pissed about it and will talk to her mom as soon as I can.”

Can you feel how the #2 responses edge out the space needed for empathy?  Kids need a safe space to have their feelings so they can move through them and eventually let them go.

Thank you for joining me in exploring the complex nature of empathy.

The two big takeaways:

  1. Empathy takes conscious awareness – it isn’t natural, especially with your loved one.

  2. Empathy is not about perfection but rather a practice that you can come back to again and again – it takes being open to being vulnerable to do it.

Take a moment to share your empathy hit or miss in the comments below.

Wanna dig deep into empathy and other powerful tools?  Contact me for one on one coaching!

If you haven’t already done so, join me on this journey!