Ep. 37: Parenting Middle and High Schoolers with Michelle Icard
For this episode of the Sunny Side Up Nutrition Podcast, Anna Lutz and Elizabeth Davenport are joined by Michelle Icard, a speaker, author, and educator who helps kids, parents, and teachers navigate the complicated social world of early adolescence.
We discuss:
- What parents need to understand about their children during the ages of 11-14
- The middle school construction project: the body, brain, and identity changes
- How parents can care for themselves if they struggle with perfectionism around parenting
- How the pandemic has changed and impacted teens and advice for parents
- What parents could do or say if their teen/tween states that they don’t like their body
- How parents can navigate if their teen/tween is sneaking food and how it relates to the idea of ownership over food and independence
- Michelle’s lifelong favorite food!
Links:
- Michelle Icard’s website
- Sunny Side Up Nutrition Podcast
- Lutz, Alexander & Associates Nutrition Therapy
- Pinney Davenport Nutrition
Michelle Icard (pronounced IKE-urd) is a speaker, author, and educator who helps kids, parents, and teachers navigate the complicated social world of early adolescence. Her latest book, Fourteen Talks by Age Fourteen (Harmony/Random House 2021) guides readers through the fourteen essential conversations parents need to have with their kids before they start high school. Her first book, Middle School Makeover: Improving the Way You and Your Child Experience the Middle School Years, is a primer for the social and emotional changes parents and kids navigate when mid-life meets middle school under one roof.
Michelle is a member of the TODAY Show parenting team and NBC News Learn. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, CNN, Time, and People Magazine. Her middle school leadership programs, Athena’s Path & Hero’s Pursuit, have been implemented at schools across the country and she speaks around the globe at schools and parenting events.