Cara Natterson's Blog, page 3

Epiphanies

A year of pandemic has meant a long (loooong) period of self-reflection for most of us. Have you experienced any deep realizations? Had an epiphany or two?

If this past year has taught me anything about myself, it’s that I live to consolidate and pass along information… READ MORE

What is Knowable?

About once a week (okay, maybe every other week – but goals!) I run with a friend who is a particularly deep thinker. Worry not, some of our runs are superficial and silly, but I am ever grateful for the ones that leave me thinking for the next several days. Last week, she posed a version of this – exact quoting impossible given that it was the crack of dawn and my… READ MORE

It’s All In the Delivery

My phone will ring five minutes after sending out this newsletter because my mom is a voracious reader of anything I write (thanks, mom!), but today I am writing about her quest to get scheduled for a coronavirus vaccine (sorry, mom!). I simply have to air the story here, because it is not unique – undoubtedly, it’s replicated across the country – and also, it’s bananas.

The story takes place in LA county where seemingly nothing could top the stunning statistic uttered last week by public health officials that one in 10 Angelinos were potentially infected and… READ MORE

Parenting Through History

I had a regular newsletter ready to send – the first of the year! – so forgive me for holding it back. Sharing articles about vaccine distribution and returning to school simply felt tone deaf given that the pandemic was not the scariest part of the past 24-hours in America. I write this even as our country logged more than 250,000 new coronavirus… READ MORE

Our Favorite Parenting Books of 2020

Greater Good’s editors pick their favorite books to help parents and their kids thrive. For a lot of families, parenting has never been harder than it was this year. Many have been struggling for months trying to provide child care and schooling at home while simultaneously working either alongside their children or as essential workers in the community, if they haven’t already lost their jobs.

The theme that emerges across our favorite parenting books of the year is how important connection and communication are. Whether it’s sensory communication between parents and babies during cosleeping, conversations parents have with their young sons entering puberty, or talking about scary news, one major key to children’s social and emotional well-being is warm, open parent-child communication.

These 2020 books offer science-based practical tips and sample scripts to help you communicate better with your children, build closer relationships, and set them up for happiness and resilience in life. READ MORE

How Long Is the Tunnel?

Yesterday I was watching a midday press conference given by the LA County Department of Public Health – yeah, I do that now. The last time I turned on the TV this frequently smack dab in the middle of the day was as a high school senior with a serious penchant for General Hospital. My jaw almost hit the floor when I saw this. READ MORE

The Redundancy Issue… Again

Righteous anger has never been a particularly effective way of convincing people to act. Neither has fearmongering. Maybe a pleading approach will work? It’s worth a try, and so here goes.

Please

Please

PLEASE

Wear a mask and keep your distance. Wear a mask, basically always. READ MORE

Consistently Inconsistent

Here’s one of the best parenting strategies I know: always explain why. If you give the rationale behind a rule, your kid can understand its point. Better yet, that kid can take that rule beyond the walls of your home, implementing it in the outside world precisely because it makes sense.

So, a word of parenting advice to the LA County Department of Public Health. No, actually, to… READ MORE

The Case for Opening Schools… and Closing Lots of Other Stuff

About a month ago, I suddenly found myself a convert to the burgeoning movement to open schools. The people close to me reacted as if I had lost my mind. But the data is increasingly clear: because grade schools follow coronavirus safety protocols better than almost any other institution, cases don’t spread on these campuses. This is true across the globe, and as a result, all over Europe schools are open while everything else shuts down.

This ideological shift was nothing short of radical for me. Back in the spring, like every other pediatrician I knew, I was an active voice for shutting down… READ MORE

The Rising Tide

The news cycle took its eye off COVID last week for a very good reason, but COVID didn’t seem to care. In fact, like the child getting too little attention, it threw a tantrum that, despite our attempts to ignore it, refuses to go unnoticed. For the past eight days in a row, the U.S. has… READ MORE