Personal
“Stop Crying”
“Stop crying” was one of the most repeated things I heard in my childhood — definitely the most repeated “correction” I ever heard. I was constantly crying too much. And constantly in trouble for it. […]
personal
Personal
Positive Expectations
You may have heard the advice to tell your kids what they CAN do, and not what they CAN’T do. Or, to say your POSITIVE expectations, not your NEGATIVE expectations. An example of this might […]
Personal
Half Donut
When I was ten years old, my family was helping start a new church. This is something we did often when I was a kid. The church had a pastor and many of the other […]
Personal
Self Awareness
I think there are most likely exactly zero of us who received explicit, overt, interoceptive (inner body sense) instruction growing up. Maybe there are a few of us who did actually receive good instruction, but […]
Humor
Insult to Injury
Pro tip: Knee-sliding across the floor underneath an obstacle, in a footrace with a child, will just as surely split the knee of your pants when you’re an adult as it would have when you […]
Humor
Totally Legit OT Work
(as with any time I tell a story from work, some details are changed for privacy reasons) I have a teenager on my caseload with physical disabilities that make writing prohibitively hard. As part of […]
Personal
If The Sock Fits
I went to get dressed yesterday. We were going to be out walking outdoors for a few hours of the day. I put on some socks that I haven’t worn in a few months, since […]
Personal
Biting Nails
A really common sensory question that I get is “How can I stop my kid from biting/picking their nails or skin around their nails?” or sometimes even, “How can I stop doing it?” Ever since […]
Humor
Restaurant Review
This morning my kids invited me to a restaurant. Let’s start with the positive. The owners are clearly passionate about this restaurant, and even about personalizing it to their customers—as soon as I stepped up […]
Personal
Crunchy Needs
I noticed that I was struggling with eating the food that I had available for myself for lunch. When I thought about needing to get up and get my lunch, I would think of excuses […]