The Innovative Dad
A psychologist’s blog about raising and educating children through the lens innovation.
Comfort Foods You Can Make: Diner Food Edition
I love diner food. Growing up in South Jersey, the diner was a ubiquitous part of my childhood. Every community had at least one diner, often two. Naturally, you developed a favorite diner or at least one that you would never walk into. As a teenager, almost every...
Meatless Monday: Vegetarian Main Dishes
When we think about meal planning, one recent trend has been the idea of meatless Mondays. Essentially, this means skipping a meat-based main course in favor of a vegetarian entree. Thankfully vegetarian food no longer means bland veggie burgers or the ubiquitous...
Redefining Socialization and Friendship for Kids in the Age of COVID
A school administrator that I recently spoke with jokingly shared that at least the school isn't worried about lice spreading anymore since the kids aren't allowed to be close enough for lice to spread. While this might be a silver lining (and I've organized enough...
Yes, Soup for You!
Our house has been chilly all week. The thermostat settings haven't changed; it's more like our bodies hadn't adjusted to the drop in temperature from a weekend of 50 degrees plus weather to a week with two snow days, delayed school openings, and below-freezing...
Surface Pressure: The “Not So Hidden Psychology of Encanto”
This past weekend, we watched the latest release on Disney+, Encanto. It's a spectacular story of a family's fight to survive mixed with a sweet coming of age story for an adolescent who just isn't sure of her place. With music by Lin Manuel Miranda, it's both funny...
More Than Just Lettuce: 10 Salads You Will Want to Eat
A New Year means New Year's resolutions. Many of the most common New Year's resolutions are related to our health: losing weight, improving diet, and exercising more. Simply making a resolution may improve your chance of succeeding, but it isn't going to be enough on...
Parenting Help for 2021: Our Top 10 Posts
2020 was rough and while 2021 entered with a lot of hope, it brought its own parenting challenges as we struggled to return to something that felt like normal. Instead of a smooth exit from the pandemic, life has been more like a roller coaster ride where you aren't...
End of Year Round-up: Top 10 Recipes for 2021
2021 is coming to a close. I've been sharing meal plans now for six months. I've enjoyed hearing about how meal planning works in your home and I'm looking forward to sharing more ways that I keep the cooking interesting and my family of six fed as we move into 2022....
Oh Omicron: 25 Stay at Home Activities for Winter Break during a COVID Surge
As we got ready for winter break, we had yet another cold weather, outdoor playdate over the weekend. It lasted longer than expected but still ended the same way that most of these outdoor playdates have, with chattering teeth and complaints of being too cold. Yet,...