Should You Keep Pushing Your Child to Succeed or Back Off? with Kristin Mervich, LCSW
Ever wondered if you’re pushing too hard - or not enough? The tension between pushing your child to succeed and letting them lead with care can feel like a balancing act.
In our latest podcast episode, I sit down with therapist Kristin Mervich, LCSW, to explore when it's time to step in - and when it's time to trust autonomy in children.
We unpack the effects of parental pressure on a child to succeed, discuss how guiding a child sometimes means tapping the brakes, and share a clear framework to help you decide whether to push forward - or step aside.
Why Autonomy in Children Matters
Autonomy in children is the spark that fuels intrinsic motivation, confidence, and lifelong growth. When we offer guiding a child with space, we’re honoring their inner compass. But finding that balance is tricky - especially for high-achieving parents who pride themselves on nurturing success.
So it’s important to wisely navigate the balance of how to guide a child: knowing when to gently prompt and when to trust your kid to take the lead.
The Effects of Parental Pressure on a Child to Succeed: For Better or Worse
Push too hard, and you might trigger burnout or anxiety. Pull back too much, and your child may miss opportunities to stretch. In our conversation, we explored how the effects of parental pressure on a child to succeed can show up as:
Anxiety, perfectionism, or fear of failure
Loss of spark or love for the activity
Conversely, it can also spark resilience, skill-building, and growth - when done with care
Understanding those effects of parental pressure on a child to succeed helps you know when your push is helpful - and when it’s tipping into stress.
Guiding a Child: 4 Essential Questions to Ask Yourself
Kristin offers us a powerful 4-question framework to help decide whether to push your child to succeed, pause, or pivot:
1. What are the values at play - for you, for your child, and for your family?
If you value perseverance, you may lean into pushing harder.
If your child values creativity, perhaps supporting their own path is the best guide.
2. What’s behind their resistance?
Fear-based resistance? That’s a golden opportunity to push your child to succeed (with compassion).
Genuine dislike? That invites pivoting to a better fit.
3. Does this align with their personality or long-term goals?
If staying on team soccer moves them toward their dream, it might be worth navigating discomfort.
If it doesn’t serve their goals? It may be time to back off.
4. How high-stakes is this ask?
A travel soccer season demands time, energy, money - and commitment. Does the cost outweigh the benefit? Is there a middle ground?
By using these questions to guide your decision - not your anxiety - you’re guiding a child with intention, rather than defaulting to push or pull.
Autonomy in Children: When Backing Off is Powerful
Supporting autonomy in children means letting them experience choice and ownership - even if it means stepping back. When their resistance isn’t rooted in fear, it may reflect their deeper interests and sense of self.
Backing off when it’s right teaches them:
Self-trust (“My voice matters.”)
Decision-making (“I can choose what matters to me.”)
Responsibility (“I own the consequences.”)
In those cases, backing off isn’t stepping away - it’s extending trust and getting to witness your child’s growth.
Pushing Your Child to Succeed: When Courage Beats Complacency
If resistance is fear-based - like anxiety, stage fright, or discomfort - then pushing your child to succeed can be an act of courage coaching. We’re not bulldozing; we’re parenting with partnership:
Name the fear: “You seem nervous about this tryout.”
Reassure the effort: “It’s okay if you don’t make the team. I care you tried.”
Celebrate the brave: “I’m proud you showed up, even though it was scary.”
With this approach, pushing your child to succeed becomes a way to rewire fear into confidence - and that kind of growth lasts a lifetime.
Guiding a Child Means Finding the “Win-Win”
How often do we fall into extremes - either pushing relentlessly or stepping back completely? Guiding a child isn’t one or the other. It’s creating win-win solutions:
What about a less time-intensive group instead of travel team?
Can they try art class on rotation with soccer?
Can we pause for this season, and commit again next fall?
When you honor both your and your child’s preferences, you model thoughtful compromise - a life skill far beyond the field.
The Long Game: Trusting Autonomy in Children Even When You Can’t See the Future
We may never see the perfect outcome - whether they persist or step off the path. But the real gift is:
Empowering their self-trust
Demonstrating confident decision-making
Embracing complexity instead of forced compliance
The best legacy of your parenting? Helping your child grow from autonomy in children into autonomous adults.
Final Takeaways
Autonomy in children builds internal drive, sense of self, and confidence
Know the effects of parental pressure on a child to succeed - positive when paired with empathy, detrimental when it becomes burden
Guiding a child means aligning with values, understanding resistance, considering long-term goals, and weighing stakes
Sometimes pushing your child to succeed is the loving path - other times backing off empowers autonomy
Want the full toolkit?
Dive into the episode with Kristin Mervich, where we unpack these questions and stories in detail. It’s your parenting GPS to navigate that tricky push/pause territory - with empathy, clarity, and confidence.
Listen to Should You Keep Pushing Your Child to Succeed or Back Off? now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Let’s guide - not dictate - our kids toward success, together.
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[00:00:00] Leah Clionsky: Welcome to the Educated Parent Podcast. I am your host, Dr. Leah Clionsky, and I'm so excited about the amazing guest I brought on today because we are going to solve a parenting problem. I know you have and I know you have it because I have it and so does my guest. So this is the situation. You wanna push your child to do something and they are pushing back and you're actually not sure what is better for them in this situation.
[00:00:28] Leah Clionsky: I. Do you push them to do that thing? Do you push them to stay on the soccer team? Do you push them to stay on the swim team, or do you pause and respect their autonomy? How do you even make this decision? You are listening to Educated Parent, the Parenting Podcast where I teach you. Realistic Expert Parenting Hacks to solve your everyday parenting problems so that you can reduce your stress, build your confidence as a parent, and raise thriving children.
[00:00:59] Leah Clionsky: My name is Dr. Leah Clionsky and I'm a licensed clinical psychologist, owner of Thriving Child Center and PCIT Experts, child Psychology Practices. A real life parent of two young children, I am the same as you. I am invested in being the best parent possible and raising thriving children. I also get overwhelmed.
[00:01:20] Leah Clionsky: I make mistakes and I forget what works. I do have three unique parenting advantages that you may not have. A PhD in child clinical psychology, over 15 years of clinical experience working with families and a network of other experts that I can text for parenting advice whenever I'm lost. I'm here to bring my expertise and my expert network to you so that we can solve your everyday parenting dilemmas together.
[00:01:46] Leah Clionsky: I am so glad you're here. So I have today Kristin Mervich on to talk about this. She is a licensed therapist and licensed clinical social worker in Arizona and Illinois. She specializes in complex anxiety. An obsessive compulsive disorder working with children, teens, adults, and their families. Kristen is the owner of a therapy practice in Phoenix, Arizona called Outsmarting Anxiety, and OCD and Co-founded a nonprofit for OCD.
[00:02:17] Leah Clionsky: More importantly, she's married and a mom of two toddlers with another baby on the way. Welcome, Kristen.
[00:02:23] Kristin Mervich: Thanks so much for having me Leah.
[00:02:25] Leah Clionsky: Oh, I'm so, so excited that you are here today and that you are going to help me. With the thought process about when to push a child to do think something and when to pause, because I think that's so hard.
[00:02:36] Kristin Mervich: I think it's so hard too, and it happens to every parent multiple times a day.
[00:02:40] Leah Clionsky: All the time. You're like, I don't know, am I gonna push you here? Am I gonna back off? Because you actually do have a point.
[00:02:46] Kristin Mervich: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:02:47] Leah Clionsky: This is the Educated Parent podcast. Do you wanna talk about how this plays out in your own parenting?
[00:02:52] Kristin Mervich: Yeah, I mean, I think about my toddlers and there are so many times where. I have an urge to push them. And there's like, you know, a couple different scenarios. Like in one scenario I have urges to push them and I think that it is appropriate for their development or their skills or for their personality, for like sleep hygiene, nutritional hygiene, whatever it might be.
[00:03:15] Kristin Mervich: And then there are times where I feel like, you know what? If I'm really putting myself in their shoes, I think I need to listen. And pause and back off a little bit and see how I can promote their autonomy by telling me no in this situation, whatever that might be. And then honestly, in other times, I have an urge to pause and to listen, but perhaps because of what I see other parents doing around me or what family members or friends, their thoughts might be about a, a certain situation.
[00:03:49] Kristin Mervich: I kind of have an urge to push when that's not my instinct necessarily. It's coming from an external place. And so I really have to kind of take the time to think about and be considerate of what do I actually want? How do I want a parent in this situation? What do I think is best for my kid?
[00:04:07] Leah Clionsky: Uh, it's a really complicated thing, right?
[00:04:09] Leah Clionsky: Because what I hear you talking about is sometimes developmentally. Kids need the push or they're not gonna try something, and it's our job to push. And then sometimes you're like, no, I'm gonna respect your autonomy here. I wanna teach you to say no. And then you have to solve whether the desire to push is even coming from you and your values, or whether it's coming from other people wanting you to push in order.
[00:04:31] Leah Clionsky: We're also stuck in these kinds of situations.
[00:04:34] Kristin Mervich: Yes, absolutely. I think there's lots of narratives that can be rolling through our minds as parents when it comes to that without us even really being able to realize that we don't know which narrative is being pushed onto us in that moment, and if it's ours or if it's coming from our childhood or if it's coming from society, whatever it might be.
[00:04:52] Leah Clionsky: Yeah. I see this also clinically happening a lot with teenagers. Where maybe they've been playing a sport for a while and now they're not sure if they wanna keep playing. And parents are like, well, I signed you up for this. Am I supposed to push them to complete it even though they say they didn't want to?
[00:05:08] Leah Clionsky: Am I gonna push them and they're gonna thank me later? Or like, am I being really unnecessarily pushy and like I should just respect what they want and I should stop pushing and let them do something else? And like if it's like almost two values are like at odds within that parent where it's like I value.
[00:05:26] Leah Clionsky: Commitment to what we say we're gonna do, but I also value like your own opinion, right? And I think like you can do either way and then feel like you made a mistake, honestly.
[00:05:37] Kristin Mervich: Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a really tough position that parents are put in and being able to like fast forward a few years and know what the right decision would have been, you know, because on one hand a child might be like, thanks mom and dad for keeping me in this sport, and now I'm excelling at this, or now I'm an athlete.
[00:05:57] Kristin Mervich: And then on the other hand, you might have a child who. I was like, I really wish you just would've let me quit and here's why. And we don't know until later.
[00:06:05] Leah Clionsky: Yeah. Well sometimes maybe you couldn't have won either way because whichever one you did, you don't know, maybe neither one would've satisfied your child.
[00:06:13] Leah Clionsky: Right. I'm thinking about when I was a kid, my brother, my mom made him do like this ski camp 'cause we're from the Northeast and he did not wanna do it and he'd like. Resisted so much and then he actually ended up having a really, really good time and was grateful. But another time she put us on, we were like at the beach and she made us do this sailing camp that none of us wanted to do and we hated it and we complained about it and like didn't let her forget it for years.
[00:06:40] Leah Clionsky: So. Being a parent is rough. 'cause sometimes you just like literally can't win no matter what you do.
[00:06:44] Kristin Mervich: No, totally. That actually just makes me think about, I have, I come from a family of four on one of the sides of my family and for myself, like I would always push back at my parents like, why didn't you make me stay in these sports?
[00:06:56] Kristin Mervich: You did that for. My siblings who are younger than me, you know, you've kind of pushed them and made them commit when sometimes like they didn't want to commit. But then for me, I kind of got to take a back seat. And so, but like at the time I didn't want to, I showed a lot of resistance. I am probably not as much of a natural athlete as my siblings are, and that's okay.
[00:07:18] Kristin Mervich: And so what were they supposed to do then? You know, they were gonna go off of what they thought was best for me in that scenario and not necessarily, you know, compare me to. How they would handle it for my sibling. So that's, I think the other side of the coin too is that even if you have a set of values, it's going to differ amongst each of your children because they're all unique people.
[00:07:39] Leah Clionsky: I guess Christian, what we're kind of saying is, sorry, parents listening to this, you can't win. Actually. You can't win, but, but what you can do is know why you're making the decision. You're deciding, right? Like you can feel okay with yourself. But it is really hard to parent, I think, in specifically this situation without a crystal ball, right?
[00:08:01] Leah Clionsky: Like the world is tough on us and sometimes we really. Can't win. So of course Kristen is gonna provide you with a magical formula to help you decide, right? You'll just plug this in and then you'll always make the right decision and we'll always work out in the future. Right. Isn't that what you're gonna do next?
[00:08:17] Kristin Mervich: Yeah. We hope so. Yes. I mean, I think it's so helpful to at least have some insight and kind of a step-by-step reflective tool so that you feel like you are making the decision. Based in your value system, based in your child's value system and not kind of just guessing. You feel like you are able to walk yourself through something that helps you feel confident at the end of the day about what your decision is now.
[00:08:45] Leah Clionsky: Yeah, so obviously no crystal ball, no magic formula, but. She's going to give you that. Unfortunately, no. Unfortunately, no. I've never promised you magic on the Educated Parent podcast. I'm sorry. Can't deliver that. Also, can't deliver you parent perfection for myself or anyone else. But yeah, Kristen's gonna give you four like real questions to ask yourself so that when you're making a decision like this.
[00:09:10] Leah Clionsky: You can really think through each of those steps and then come up with like a decision that you do feel confident in. Now, just as Kristen was saying something that feels very aligned to you, and so don't worry if you sign up for our newsletter, you will have a PDF with these questions on them that you can keep.
[00:09:30] Leah Clionsky: But otherwise, listen to the podcast. Take some notes and I'm personally literally gonna write these down and then use them myself when I'm trying to problem solve because it's so nuanced. I probably can't remember them all in the moment either.
[00:09:43] Kristin Mervich: Yeah. And so I think the basic question that we can kind of just keep in mind is when do I push my child?
[00:09:51] Kristin Mervich: When do I pause? Okay. And so when we're thinking about this, the first thing I want you to think about is what are the values at play? And this could be your values, it could be a family value, and it could also be, what are my child's values at play in this given situation? And it might help to just kind of explain.
[00:10:12] Kristin Mervich: Values a little bit more in depth. And the way I like to think about values, the way I teach it to my families in my practice is values are are one word, right? So we think about, like, sometimes we get it confused with what our goals are. And when we think about what our values are, we can kind of think about.
[00:10:32] Kristin Mervich: Let's say like creativity, kindness. You know, I think a lot of times like when we're out in the community and we're having a conversation about what your values are, I don't know about Yulia, but in conversations with my clients, when I ask them what their values are, a lot of times they might say like family, friends, and that.
[00:10:52] Kristin Mervich: Is of course like on the top of most people's list, but we wanna get a little bit more nuanced with that because values in my mind help us guide our decisions. And if we have a value of family, I. We kind of wanna know what is the value within family? Do you value loyalty within family? Do you value connection within family?
[00:11:14] Kristin Mervich: And you might value all these different words, these different concepts. But if you get a little bit more nuanced, then friends, family, work-life balance, or whatever the most common ones are, I think it can help really guide you in your decision making.
[00:11:28] Leah Clionsky: So it's like coming up with characteristics. Right.
[00:11:31] Leah Clionsky: So like if one of your values that's a core value for you is like perseverance. Like we always, always keep doing the thing. Then if, if the situation is your child wants to maybe quit soccer and your core value is perseverance, then that would encourage you to push them towards that. Versus if your value with something like deep rest, then maybe you're allowing them to stop.
[00:11:55] Leah Clionsky: So you're like really trying to identify like those core characteristics that you want your child to have and that that you they have and that your family has together.
[00:12:04] Kristin Mervich: Absolutely. And I think the other side of that is because that's your value in that circumstance. Do we then also know what your child's value is in that circumstance?
[00:12:15] Kristin Mervich: Right. And so with that being said, is your child's value in that circumstance? Also perseverance or is something else going on for them and maybe theirs is deep rest, for example. And how do we then further make that decision if we're at odds with what our child's values are? Because a lot of times in our parenthood we're wanting to model values so that they hopefully will take on values that we find to be very important in our lives.
[00:12:46] Kristin Mervich: And to help them become independent adults. But at the same time, we also wanna foster independent based values as well. And sometimes that's gonna look different than ours. And so again, that's where it gets a little bit nuanced with all that might be at play.
[00:13:00] Leah Clionsky: Mm-hmm. I imagine that it's also just helpful if you know what your value is that's striving the decision.
[00:13:06] Leah Clionsky: So you're like, the reason why this is important to me is that I believe in perseverance above all else. Like that's my, that's not actually my personal value, but like, if that were my value, you know, then it would be, that's why I'm insisting you do this. Right. And then you know why, you know why you're doing it.
[00:13:22] Leah Clionsky: Yeah. Alright, so the first thing to think about and ask yourself is what are our values? Mine, my child's, and the family that are affecting this decision? What's the second thing I should be thinking about when I'm deciding? Whether or not I'm going to insist my child take that AP math class that they're not sure they wanna take.
[00:13:41] Kristin Mervich: So the second question is, what's behind their resistance? Is it fear? Is it discomfort? Is it a genuine dislike of the situation or the circumstance at play? So, yeah. What is behind their resistance? You know, when we think about this, like for, if we're going with that example of am I gonna, you know, kind of like push onto my child taking this AP class, we wanna think about what is behind why they feel so resistant to it, and does that mean that they have the capability but they fear failure and.
[00:14:15] Kristin Mervich: Again, that's where those values come into play in terms of that we wanna help our children become resilient and knowing that mistakes are a part of life and it's okay if we don't do things perfectly, and so I'm not, you know, if we then are able to have a conversation of, I'm not asking you to get a perfect grade from this, a AP class.
[00:14:33] Kristin Mervich: If you get, you know, a C, if you've just tried your best in this AP class, then that's. That's okay. And that's a win in my book. And I want you to know that as your mom, as your dad.
[00:14:43] Leah Clionsky: So it sounds like we're trying to figure out why they're resisting. And it sounds like if it's anxiety based, maybe that's actually where we push them to do it, because we want to overcome anxiety.
[00:14:53] Leah Clionsky: But if it's dislike, if they're like, I truly hate math and I would be rather dedicating my time to AP art, right? Like this is like so not interesting to me that if I'm gonna spend hours doing homework, I would rather pick a class. That's more aligned, then maybe you shift based on that.
[00:15:12] Kristin Mervich: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:15:13] Kristin Mervich: And then if you are shifting on that, then perhaps the reason that you wanted to push them to take an AP class in the beginning, you still get that fulfilled, right? That that's still something that can happen in terms of what they might learn or get out of it taking an AP class. But it's just shifting to something that is of interest to them so they feel like they can shine in that area.
[00:15:34] Leah Clionsky: Yeah. I mean, as we're talking about it, I'm thinking if I found out it was fear, then I would push harder.
[00:15:39] Kristin Mervich: Mm-hmm. That's what I would say too, especially as, uh, what I do, you know, in my, in my practice as an anxiety therapist, I would lean into pushing them a little bit more if it was coming from fear or anxiety.
[00:15:50] Leah Clionsky: Yeah. And if you're listening to us say that by the way, and you're reacting, you should go back and listen to the episode. Called is anxiety good for you? With IV res where we talk about why you should push your kids in anxiety provoking situations. But anyway, that's a whole other podcast episode. So what is the third thing we should be considering?
[00:16:08] Leah Clionsky: Yes.
[00:16:09] Kristin Mervich: So the third thing is, is this aligned with their personality or long-term goals? So let's say for example, they were wanting to quit a sport or a commitment prematurely. But that particular commitment will help them move towards their goals of getting into a particular college or of making it as a college athlete in X, Y, or Z school.
[00:16:35] Kristin Mervich: Then. Perhaps like that would be a reason to push them a little bit on their decision.
[00:16:41] Leah Clionsky: Oh, that makes a lot of sense. So you're kind of also trying to think ahead, like sometimes it's worth doing something that you don't really wanna do, if it's leading you towards something you really want and in like the kid or teen brain where.
[00:16:53] Leah Clionsky: You can't really think too far ahead. Sometimes you can miss out on that in the moment you're like, I would've like, I would rather be having fun. But it's like, no, no, no. If you stick with this piano lesson, like you wanna be a music major, like you actually need to stay and commit to this in order to move forward.
[00:17:09] Kristin Mervich: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:17:10] Leah Clionsky: Yeah. And I could also see it being the opposite. If you're like, well, you don't wanna be a music major, why are we playing the piano?
[00:17:15] Kristin Mervich: Right, ex. Yep. I know I myself have quit piano lessons for that very reason of. Just for fun. And in that vein I was able to just say, this is not for me anymore, and I would rather spend my time doing something else that isn't helping me inch towards a goal that is really important to me.
[00:17:32] Leah Clionsky: Yeah. That's so powerful
[00:17:34] Kristin Mervich: to think about.
[00:17:34] Leah Clionsky: Okay. What's our final one? I
[00:17:36] Kristin Mervich: know there are four. Mm-hmm. How intense or high stakes is what I'm asking? So like. Is this something that is going to heavily impact them? If they do or if they don't?
[00:17:48] Leah Clionsky: Oh wow. Like in terms of like, like time. So like is it like a travel soccer team and you have to practice every single day and spend all weekends at matches?
[00:17:57] Leah Clionsky: Is that what you're thinking?
[00:17:58] Kristin Mervich: Right. I think that's absolutely an example of one where we wanna think about, like in that example in particular, thinking about the time commitment that's at play, are there other commitments? How do they genuinely like. Being able to spend their time knowing that if they do commit to this thing, that they are giving up X, Y, and Z thing much of that season.
[00:18:18] Kristin Mervich: Because ultimately they have made a commitment. Right? And so when it comes to, like for example, if we were, I. To go a little bit younger, and our example is like your five-year-old is refusing to say hi to a neighbor. In this situation, it might be a little bit of lower stakes. They're still building their social skills, and we can work on that relational development over time.
[00:18:41] Kristin Mervich: And so we might not have to push them in that moment to say hi right then and there. That might be a time where we pause, whereas again, if we kind of go back to this is a goal of yours long term and we know that you wanna play soccer in college, then it might be worth it to know that ahead of time we're gonna be giving up things that are fun and relaxing to us so that we can really practice and potentially.
[00:19:08] Kristin Mervich: Make it to that college field.
[00:19:10] Leah Clionsky: Well, I mean the soccer example in the college, if like there were an in the middle option, then maybe you were like, let's not do this travel team, but let's still stay on this other team. So there are sometimes in-betweens and I think when we're like really getting to like, do I push or pause?
[00:19:25] Leah Clionsky: Do I push, push, push? We're always like, I'm gonna ask you to do the most advanced high intensity thing. And it's like there are sometimes in the middles that will be more acceptable, that are kind of a win-win for each of you. And I think we forget that those exist 'cause we get, at least I can get very narrow-minded if I'm pushing someone to do something.
[00:19:43] Kristin Mervich: Yeah. And that's kind of what came to mind too, is like that win-win. Like how can, if it's possible, how can we make this a win-win for both parent and kid?
[00:19:52] Leah Clionsky: Yeah. Kristen, I think these are. Really powerful questions that parents can ask themselves. I'm definitely going to like literally sit down and write the answers down the next time I run into this, which like, let's be realistic.
[00:20:03] Leah Clionsky: Probably be tomorrow.
[00:20:06] Kristin Mervich: I know that'll happen for me.
[00:20:08] Leah Clionsky: Oh yeah, it will totally happen. Yeah. I'm so glad though that you joined me on the podcast. Where can people find you if they want to reach out and get help with their OCD or anxiety?
[00:20:17] Kristin Mervich: Yes, thank you. Well, so I own a private group practice in Phoenix, Arizona.
[00:20:23] Kristin Mervich: So we're local to anybody who is within the Phoenix area to do in-person therapy, and then also virtual throughout Arizona. And you can find us@outsmartingocd.com. And our specialty really is within. Both anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder. So if you think about anxiety, we're thinking more on the complex side of anxiety where we're, you know, for kids especially, we're talking about social anxiety, separation anxiety, having phobia.
[00:20:54] Kristin Mervich: So a lot of times our kids who come in have if phobia of throwing up, for example, or a phobia of a particular animal. Sometimes they're coming in with trauma driven separation anxiety, and then. All things OCD related, which I think, you know, oftentimes we'll get calls that they'll ask. What kind of OCD like do you deal with this kind of OCD and to us, OCD is OCD.
[00:21:18] Kristin Mervich: And so if it is a particular kind of OCD, we, we know how to work with any and all kinds of themes of topics that enter the equation when OCD is at play for you or your child.
[00:21:30] Leah Clionsky: It's so powerful. Kristen's clinic is amazing. We have the website on the show notes. We also have in her Instagram in the show notes as well.
[00:21:38] Leah Clionsky: So you'll definitely be able to reach out to her. But thank you for coming on and helping us decide when to push and when to pause 'cause we all needed it.
[00:21:45] Kristin Mervich: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Oh,
[00:21:48] Leah Clionsky: it's my pleasure. Thanks again for spending time with me on Educated Parent. If this episode helped you feel more confident and handling those parent curve balls.
[00:21:59] Leah Clionsky: Hit follow. So you never miss an episode. Know a parent who's stuck in the endless cycle of conflicting advice. Send this their way because we all deserve parenting strategies we can actually trust.
[00:22:12] Kristin Mervich: And
[00:22:12] Leah Clionsky: hey, if you have a minute, leave a review. I. Your support helps other parents find real expert backed solutions instead of just another opinion online.
[00:22:21] Leah Clionsky: One last quick reminder. This podcast offers general advice, but every family is different. The advice offered in this podcast is not medical advice. And is not appropriate for every family. If you need personalized parenting support, connect with an experienced clinician at Thriving Child Center or PCIT experts.
[00:22:43] Leah Clionsky: That's it for today. Thanks for listening, and I'll talk to you next time.