Positive Discipline Parenting Blog
Sproutable’s Positive Discipline blog for parents and caregivers of children tweens to teens.
Real tips. Real talk. Read & grow.
Latest post
Empowering Encouragement: The Power of Trusting Your Teen’s Journey
Parenting a teen can feel like an emotional rollercoaster. As they navigate the ups and downs of adolescence, it's easy to feel the urge to fix things, to rush them through the tough moments, and[...]By Casey O'Roarty
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Empowering Encouragement: The Power of Trusting Your Teen’s Journey
Parenting a teen can feel like an emotional rollercoaster. As they navigate the ups and downs of adolescence, it’s easy to feel the urge to fix things, to rush them through the tough moments, and to offer solutions to their problems. But what if the best thing we can do for our teens isn’t to […]By Casey O'Roarty
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Shifting from Worst Case Scenario to Trusting the Process With Our Teens
I say this a lot, but this season of parenting is messy. The terrain of adolescence is rough. It is the nature of the path, it is the nature of the season. Even when we are practicing our tools and setting up agreements and doing family meetings, it's still a rough season. I always get excited when I get to say that to people because I think there's a certain level of relief when you're reminded, "Hey, this isn’t necessarily you not being enough, this isn’t necessarily your kids having issues. This is the terrain. This is how adolescence feels." Granted, you might think, "Yeah, but this doesn’t look like what’s going on at my neighbor’s or my sister doesn’t seem to be having these issues with her teens." It’s all relative. It’s hard and every single thing that happens, including the challenges that show up with our teens, are an opportunity for us to… learn, to grow, to expand, and to get curious.By Casey O'Roarty
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Why Teens Lie and What Parents Can Do About It
Parenting teens is a journey of growth—both for them and for us as parents. It’s often said that raising teenagers is like signing up for a personal growth workshop you didn’t realize you’d need, and it’s true. The challenges teens present push us to examine ourselves, our beliefs, and our responses. One of the trickiest and most triggering issues for parents is when their teens lie. But here’s the thing: lying, while frustrating, is not necessarily a reflection of a bad kid or poor parenting. It’s part of the messy terrain of adolescence.By Casey O'Roarty
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Shielding Your Children: Navigating High-Conflict Co-Parenting
Parenting is full of surprises—some that make your heart swell, others that test your patience in ways you never imagined. Co-parenting with a high-conflict ex can amplify those challenges, turning everyday situations into hurdles that feel overwhelming. The tension, disagreements, and constant back-and-forth can drain you. Yet, through it all, one thing remains clear: your […]By Guest
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How to Help Your Teen Quit Vaping: A Compassionate Approach
When talking about vaping or nicotine use, it’s important to recognize that addiction isn’t just physical — it’s mental, too. The brain becomes accustomed to the release of dopamine when using nicotine, and soon, it craves that reward. This "mental brainwashing" can make it incredibly difficult for your teen to quit, even if they know the health risks and the consequences. So, how do we help our kids break free from this cycle?By Casey O'Roarty
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When your teenager shuts you out
Parenting teens can sometimes feel like a constant balancing act. One moment, you might feel close to your child, only to be met with resistance, frustration, or distance in the next. This was exactly what one parent shared recently. Their 13-year-old daughter, while generally a good kid, was shutting them out—silent treatments, ignored texts, and […]By Casey O'Roarty
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How to Stop Negative Interaction Cycles in Relationships
We all fall into repetitive patterns of relating to our partner or our children. This is normal. I call them cycles of interaction, or cycles for short. These cycles can be positive and promote connection. These cycles can also feel like negative ruts that prevent connection, and leave us feeling frustrated with ourselves, with the other person, with the situation, or all of the above!By Guest
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Opening Up to Your Resistance
When I work with parents, lots of families resonate with the idea of letting go and being open & present with their children. But in reality, we spend so much of our time resisting in parenting. We hold onto a vision that we’ve created for our children - a narrative, an expectation, an attitude about how things should play out. This isn’t even in our consciousness; we often don’t even realize we’re holding onto these ideas.By Casey O'Roarty
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Dealing with our Parenting Triggers
What is a trigger? Trigger. There’s a difference between being uncomfortable and being triggered. Some people say triggers have to be very traumatic, like PTSD. I’m going to use trigger in a broader sense here. We talk about being triggered by content, by media, by each other, by our children. I really appreciate this definition from […]By Casey O'Roarty
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Empowering Teens: The path from enabling to positive parenting
Parenting is a journey filled with ups and downs, and navigating the teenage years can be particularly challenging. Many parents strive to raise responsible, confident, and accountable young adults. However, one common pitfall in parenting is falling into the trap of enabling rather than empowering our teens. In this blog post, we'll explore the transition from enabling to positive parenting and how it can benefit both you and your teenagers.By Casey O'Roarty
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