Change Your Brain Every Day - You’re Not Your Child’s Best Friend: How to Raise Responsible Children

Episode Date: March 9, 2021

We all want our children to be happy and avoid suffering, but sometimes that can run counter to your job as a parent - to raise responsible, prepared children ready to face the challenges the world will throw at them. In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel and Tana Amen discuss the ‘Children Dragon’ and how to keep your child’s voice in your head from manipulating you.   For more info on Dr. Daniel Amen's new book, "Your Brain is Always Listening", visit https://yourbrainisalwayslistening.com/  

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. In our podcast, we provide you with the tools you need to become a warrior for the health of your brain and body. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we have been transforming lives for 30 years using tools like brain spec imaging to personalize treatment to your brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com.

The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceuticals to support the health of your brain and body. To learn more, go to brainmd.com. Welcome back. We are talking about the they, them, and other dragons. We sort of introduced the birth order dragons in the last episode, and we're going to talk about children. Once you have children, children's voices are always in your head do you ever want to feel like you can't do anything right just have kids so well it's actually so funny because i was talking to someone the other day who um was going to get the vaccination and she was talking about wanting to be happy husband children and i'm like i'm sorry you want to be happy and those are the two things that could make you the most unhappy in the world well fortunately that's not true for me but and or us, but they say insanity is hereditary. You get it from your children. Becoming a parent, I have to say, is the most rewarding thing, the most challenging thing,

and the most frustrating thing all wrapped into one. It's also the thing that will help you grow the most and bring you the most love, but you will feel the most frustration you've ever felt. So in my first marriage, I married someone who had a two-year-old. She was my childhood sweetheart, and we separated, and she got married and had a child and then we got together right as i got into medical school and you adopted him and i adopted him because his biological father wasn't a responsible person and so i have not been without children since 1979 we all we all know that this is a thing for you having children around and it so talk about taming the insignificant dragon it's up

to that point my life had been all about me, which is not that satisfying to have a life that's all about you. And it just felt so good. While at the same time, I've never had such angry thoughts in my head before. Right. It's both. It can be frustrating and yet fulfilling. And yet when they succeed or you see them develop certain positive character traits, you just, you get this joy. I mean, it's like all of the above, right? Yeah. You get all of the above when you have children. Right. But they can, when they criticize you, when your kids criticize you, it hurts. Like it's, it's in your head.

Well, because it makes you feel like a failure. Criticizing the core of who you, it hurts. Like it's, it's in your head. Well, because it makes you feel like a failure criticizing the core of who you are. Right. So before we get into children, we will Marianne writes in I'm 71 years old and they used to call me skinny. I watched your show on Sunday and realized I was eating too much sugar that even juice has too much sugar. Absolutely. I mean, it's just sugar water. I also drink red wine daily, which has 14% alcohol. Is that too much alcohol for one day? And is it hurting my liver? I can feel that I'm overweight and don't like it. How long does it take to lose 10 pounds? Do you think this would happen to me? I look to you and Tana and you're both slender. What do I do to get rid of the cravings? The more carbs you eat, the more carbs you crave.

The more sugar you eat, the more sugar you will crave. If you cut out the sugar, especially starting with juice or sugar in the mornings, it's gonna set you up to crave stuff all day long. So what I would start with, Marianne, is eating some healthy fat and protein for breakfast. Eggs and avocado, something like that for breakfast. Or a smoothie with some kind of a really healthy, clean protein, a plant-based

protein is probably best. Um, start with some sort of a healthy protein in the morning. You can have greens with that would be great, but set yourself up to balance your blood sugar and not spike insulin, which is what carbs do. That's how you start. And then I've got all kinds of resources on my website, tanaayman.com, all kinds of great recipes for breakfast and the alcohol. Yes. I would limit it to two glasses a week. Max. Can I talk about the alcohol? Of course. So alcohol. Can I stop you? Yes. You have red hair. I don't want to stop you red hair red stop sign um alcohol increases cravings alcohol drops the dragon tamer your frontal lobes and you eat more you forget about the calories you eat um and i just, people saw me typing on my phone.

What I did just to show you. So 14 ounces of alcohol is about 200 calories. If you do that every day, multiply that times 365 days a year. She said one glass. So 14 ounces. But 14 ounces is two. She said 14%. Oh, I also drink. Yeah. She's having one glass. So 14 ounces. But 14 ounces is two. She said 14%.

Oh, I also drink. Yeah. She's having one glass a day. Oh, 14% alcohol. So one glass is 100 calories. Right. Times 365 is 36,000 calories divided by 3,500 calories to make a pound. Every year, just from the alcohol,

you're putting 10 and a half pounds of fat on your body. And now if you take out the juice, if you're having that daily, it's the same thing. So replace the juice and the alcohol. And if you're going to have wine, no more than two glasses a week, you'll do much better. But cut the wine, I mean, cut the juice and the alcohol. And if you're going to have wine, no more than two glasses a week, you'll do much better. But cut the wine, I mean, cut the juice out and you just did the same thing. You just reduced your caloric intake drastically.

Not to mention, it's not just the calories. It's spiking your insulin. So every time you spike insulin, you can't burn fat with insulin present. So juice sugar, especially when it's simple sugar like like juice it's going to spike your insulin quickly and then you've got this insulin present and you're not burning fat there you go you're so smart i love that about you if you want more help we have the brain warriors way i've got the brainwaresway cookbook we've got i've got the omni diet course at human university that's a great course um you can actually spend 26 hours right with tana and i um and i go into great detail about insulin and fat burning and calories and juice and sugar in the omni diet as well. All right. Children dragons.

Your brain is always listening to what your children think of you, what they say to you, and they know that may use it to manipulate you. So Chloe was, that's not fair. There was a lot of, that's not fair. So my suggestion to you is have, so I love love and logic parenting. It freed me. So I had a very, very, very strong willed, difficult child when she was young, but fortunately I'm fairly intelligent. And I came to the conclusion and realization that it's not her job. It's mine to figure it out. And so love and logic really helped me and freed me.

So that was really important, but you know, have these standard responses and be a broken record when your kids do these crazy things that drive you nuts. She, it's not fair and throwing the temper tantrum. And I'm like, life isn't fair. It's a place with bad food and farm animals, which would completely confuse her. She had no idea what I was talking about. A steak fair is what she's talking about. Right. But I, but I would look at her and had no idea what i was talking about but i but i would look at her and like it's not about being fair it's about what you do to make it better what are you doing to make a difference and i put the responsibility back in her court and i don't do things for children who treat me that way for children that don't treat me with respect and i would tell and i would tell her i don't do things for people who treat me that way neither should you so i was teaching her to expect people to treat you with respect. And I would tell her, I don't do things for people who treat me that way, neither should you. So I was teaching her to expect people to treat you with respect.

I was modeling how to draw boundaries and expect people to treat you with respect. One of the biggest mistakes, and I've made this mistake as a parent, is you love kids so much, you don't want them to suffer like you suffered. Except, and this was a huge, this was another lesson I learned, entitled people can never be happy. So if you take away all of their learning lessons and you make life so easy for them that they never have to experience challenges because you don't want them to suffer the way you did, you just robbed them of not only opportunities to grow, you've created entitlement and entitled people can never be happy. And the minute I learned that I was like, Whoa, and I literally, maybe I went a little extreme, but it was like, I stopped taking forgotten

homework to school. I stopped taking forgotten sweaters to school, forgotten lunches to school. It's your responsibility. It's like, this is your responsibility. And so I already did second grade. I already did third grade. I already did third grade. It's up to you. And so- And you only have to do that a couple of times. And then they learn the lesson that they're responsible for how their life turns out, which is the number one hallmark of self-defeating behavior.

Blaming other people for how your life is turning out. But if you don't teach children to be responsible, whose fault is it? And it won't stop when they're 18. I mean, you'll end up taking care of them when they're 40. And if you're constantly worried about like, oh, they forgot their sweater, they're going to be cold. Well, they're not going to forget their sweater again. And is it going to be the end of the world if they have to sit inside the classroom at lunchtime so they don't go outside and play because it's cold? It's not going to be the end of the world. It's going to be a learning lesson. So what did you learn? Write us about your experience with your children. Write it down, post it at any of your social media sites, hashtag BrainWarriorsWayPodcast.

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