I know not everyone loves karaoke, but for those of us who do, here's a fun thing you can do if you go with a group of people. Each round, have someone generate a random number or letter for everyone else (a number if the karaoke bar uses paper song sheets or a letter if it's all digital). Whatever number or letter you are assigned, you have to pick a song either from that page, or from the song list or artist list with that letter! it forces you to pick some really ridiculous or creative things you would otherwise not choose. Has anyone else done this? What did you sing? Or do is this like most other parties where people hate karaoke ?🤣

Take a minute and swing with your kid. Those meetings can wait.

Years ago, in my family, a cardboard box became “Boxy.” Not a fort, not a spaceship. Just Boxy. A four-year-old decided that was enough, and for weeks, it was. Unplugged time doesn’t usually look like the picture in your head. It’s messier and smaller and stranger than that. Long weekend or not, what does unplugged family time actually look like right now? Not the ideal version. The real one. What does it actually look like this week? Tell us what you’re doing in the comments.

As I watch my grandson begin to navigate the world, one of the hardest things for me is watching him struggle with something I could fix in ten seconds. He’s learning to walk and to navigate his space, my daughter is doing great at letting him struggle, while grandmama, who knows better, wants to rush in and help! I have to remind myself that in my hurry to make the frustration disappear, I’m also taking away the moment of growth. Think about this, resilience is not built by keeping children from ever feeling disappointed, irritated, embarrassed, or stuck. It is built in the small moments when they meet a manageable challenge, feel the discomfort of not getting it right immediately, and discover that frustration does not have to end the experience. They may need a breath, a different approach, or a short break before trying again. What matters is that struggle is not automatically treated as proof that someone else needs to take over. Play gives children a remarkably safe place to practice that. A lost round of a card game is not the same as a serious life setback. A marble run that collapses is not a crisis. But the emotions that rise in those moments are real. So is the chance to recover. When we treat every frustration as something to erase, children may learn that discomfort means something has gone wrong and someone else should step in. When we stay close without immediately taking over, they have a chance to learn something more powerful: I can feel frustrated and still be okay. I can struggle and decide what happens next. Now, this doesn’t mean we ignore tears or leave children alone in distress. It means we begin to tell the difference between a child who needs comfort and a child who needs a little room to wrestle with the problem before we solve it for them. This week, we are stepping into The Resilience Playground: the everyday spaces where play, frustration, and growth collide. We will look at how to support children without rescuing too quickly, how to help them reset after a fumble, how to turn mistakes into useful information, and why being bad at something can be part of becoming strong.

Grab your favorite beverage and turn frustration into a psychological superpower. We will explore the Resilience Playground, and discover how play builds a high-capacity stress response system. Think about the last time you watched your child try to tie a shoe, build a Lego set, or work through a difficult video game level. They start to huff. Their breathing changes. Maybe they throw a piece across the room, or maybe they slam their laptop shut and declare, 'I’m terrible at this.' What does your brain do in that exact millisecond? It enters rescue mode. We want to smooth it over. We fix the Lego tower, we solve the problem, or we say, 'It’s okay, you don't have to play that game anymore.' But this week, we are making a massive shift. We are moving from shielding them from friction to scaffolding the recovery. Play is the only safe environment where the human brain can simulate failure without survival-level consequences. When we rescue them from the frustration of play, we accidentally steal the exact reps they need to handle the frustration of life. If they don't have Ownership over their struggle, they can never have ownership over their resilience." Join us for a coffee chat this Sunday at 8:30 a.m. EST New York. Bring your questions and let's bounce back.