Gritty Girl Mom
Raising resilient girls while dealing with our own issues 10 Tips for teaching grittiness in kids
How am I the right one for the job?
Raising girls has proven to be one of the most challenging, emotionally taxing and insightful journeys I have ever embarked on. My girls are my mirrors, shining back to me all of the raw parts that I was trying to hide for so many years. I continued to question how I could raise strong, confident, gritty females while I didn’t feel strong, confident or capable 99% of the time. It was time to start doing my own work. Come alongside me as I write through my journey, pull scientific-based research on grit and ask the hard questions about parenting from a place of knowledge and self-compassion.
A Little About Me
Hello, I’m Tiffany. I’m a work-in-progress perfectionist, business owner, dog-mom, traveler, scuba diver, wife, mother, friend, Jesus-follower, kitchen-dancer and lover of laughter.
Daughters
years married
New puppy
blog posts
Recent Blog Posts
Gathering stories, learning through living and sharing my obsession with self-help books and articles on grit to help encourage one another as moms.
Healing the Kid Inside of You
A guest blog written by my friend, whom I met through Hope*Writers, Sarah Giove. “You have to heal the girl to become the woman you want to be.”-thebookofsarah.com Guest Blogger, Sarah Giove from Sincerely, Sarah Do you ever wake up in a sweat at 3am from a strange...
The Battle for Independence: How to Let your Kids Create the Family Rules
My children have called me the strictest parent they know, so I've come up with a new plan. My kids are going to create the family rules this summer. As a self-proclaimed control freak and an Enneagram 1 (where everything is my way or the wrong way), my house may be...
A Series: How to Teach Your Child to Have Grit
As a parent, I've done quite a bit of research on how to set my kids up for success. What can I teach them? How can I shape them into fine human? What ideals can I instill in them? In my me-search I've compiled a list of 10 helpful tips in how to teach your child to...
How to Get Unstuck by Using One Word
I have discovered about myself that I am a very binary thinker - which means I usually think in either/or terms. This tendency often takes me to the extremes, to the polar opposites. I am either doing great, or I'm failing miserably. As I've written about before, I...
Life Is Not a Test: The Struggle of Doing it “Right”
As we lean into the messiness of life a little more, we realize there is no one right way to happiness, purpose and fulfillment. Life is not a test, and we can relinquish the struggle of doing it "right." I'm learning to undo some of the negative traits of...
Three Ways to Re-Think Mistakes
I am a continual work-in-progress, and the proof is showing up in my parenting. I've been working on quite a few self-love/compassion techniques for myself and for my kids, but one of the most profound is the mind shift from mistakes = bad to mistakes = growth. This...
Get Your Own Hype Man
Mine comes in the form of my 7 year old. As I was changing shirts she looked at me admiringly, just as I was pulling my top over my squishy pale tummy and says, "mommy, you're so pretty." Or that one time when she asked how many followers I had on my new Gritty...
When Perfectionism Turns to Never Good Enough
Whether you've known me my whole life or just started reading my inner thoughts a couple of weeks ago, you probably have pieced it together that I am a perfectionist. Sometimes that can be a positive trait, but recently perfectionism is being thrown around as a term...
Parenting in the Midst of Fear
I was going to post about a different topic today, but events of this week have lead me to write from where we are as parents right now. Parenting through a pandemic is hard. Parenting through racial division and teaching our kids that oppression has been happening...
Why Reflection Eases our Stress
And How to See 2020 Wasn't All Bad I know that many of us would like to leave 2020 in the DISTANT past. As in a don't-turn-around, I-never-want-to-speak-of-this-moment-again kind of past. But did you know there is actual science that proves recalling good...
This One Wild and Precious Life
I've been spending a lot of time thinking. And a lot of time zoning out. One feels extremely productive. The other feels rather unfulfilling. I'm fairly new to Instagram (shh...don't tell people at work. They all think I'm the social...
Creating Magic or Spreading Lies?
Pre-reading alert: This is not a post for children. And this topic is almost as polarizing as the elections! But I'm here to have a little fun with it and share a few sides of the perspective. When I was growing up, I learned really early who bought...
I wanted more. So I asked for it
Sometimes in life we are so afraid to ask for what we want. What if we hurt someone's feelings or come off as selfish? What if we don't get it, so saying it out loud will be embarrassing (and make us feel like more of a failure)? In hindsight, I've been...
How to Physically Prepare for Holiday Stress
It's the day after Thanksgiving. Even for traditionalists who didn't put up their Christmas tree in early November, today starts the official "holiday season." I can't wait for my regular anxiety and my pandemic anxiety to meet my holiday anxiety! We know...
Thank You Coach Amy
We just wrapped up our outdoor fall soccer season for both girls. Our oldest, on a team of U11's (meaning they are all 10 year olds) has had one heck of a season. This girl has been a part of the team since she was 5, and until this season, she just went...
I’m Not who I Think I am
Have you ever started down a path with visions and dreams and full confidence, and then stopped yourself down in your tracks with doubt? You start asking yourself - who am I to think that this will actually work out? Who am I to do the same thing that...
The Messy Middle
I am smack dab in the middle of the mess. The mess of hearing a calling but making a living. The mess of feeling stuck and wanting more. The mess of not knowing what the ending looks like. (And I HATE that!) The mess of mid life. In...
The Gritty Girl Story
I am a big-time researcher of topics that cause me to worry. I research: how to make your first grader sleep in her own room? Answer: you can't make anyone sleep, but she may be more comfortable if you let her sleep with her younger sister. Research:...
Fear of Other People’s Opinions
You may have heard of FOMO. Fear of missing out. I had a pretty awful case of FOMO in my 20s. But have you heard of FOPO? Fear of other people’s opinions? This is one I've had some very personal experience with. When you can address why you’re stuck, or...
I’m not Bossy. But I’m Teaching My Girls To Be.
I’m not bossy. I just have leadership skills. Don’t some words just make people sound a bit nicer, kinder even? Especially when the labels come from others. But I think it’s important to make the distinction for our girls as much as ourselves.
A Series – Part 2: How to Teach Your Kids to Have Grit
In the first part of our series, we discussed what grit is and introduced the first of ten teachable actions you can take in your own family to teach your kids grit. Need a quick review? Grit can be defined as “strength of character” or “courage and resolve”. Angela...
Tiffany's Top 10 Ways to Help Instill Grit in Our Kids
Raising gritty kids is not about trying to toughen them up. It’s about teaching them how to tap into their own grit. This downloadable and printable PDF will help by providing ten proven strategies to help teach kids how to be more resilient. It also includes sample activities to try at home with your own kids. The activities range from pre-school to pre-teen but can be modified to fit your family.
