Every parent hopes that their child will still come to them years from now to spend time together, share their victories and setbacks, and seek guidance.

As a conscious parenting researcher, I’ve studied more than 200 kids, and I’m a mother myself. This kind of lifelong closeness is built early on in the small, everyday moments that teach a child whether it’s safe to be fully themselves around their parents.

Here are the practices parents should start early on if they want a relationship that lasts well into adolescence and adulthood.

Children rise to the expectations we set for them. When kids are micromanaged or constantly overcorrected, they can slowly become more resentful or secretive.

Offer trust early and often. Try saying: “I trust you. If anything feels tough, you can come to me.” This trust becomes the foundation they rely on later, when life gets more complicated.

If you want your child to come to you as a teen, they need to learn early that their inner world is safe with you.

When you shut down crying, fear or frustration, your kids may just stop bringing them to you. Validation can sound like: “Everything you feel is allowed here.” Emotional safety now leads to emotional openness later.

I’ve seen so many kids pull away from their parents because they feel suffocated by expectations.

Give them space to be curious, loud and weird. Kids stay more connected to the people who allow them to be who they are as they grow older.

Acceptance isn’t the same as agreement. It’s the message: “Who you are is loved and welcome here.”

Children stay close to adults who make room for their whole identity, not just the parts that are easy to parent. When they feel accepted now, they’re less likely to hide themselves later.

The strongest parent-child relationships are built on repair. Replace “I’m sorry you feel that way” with: “I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that. I’m going to do better.”

When parents take responsibility, they teach children that mistakes don’t break the relationship.

Kids are more likely to shut down when they don’t feel heard. So when they share fears or frustrations, they’re usually asking for connection.

Instead of immediately trying to offer a solution, try saying: “Tell me more about that.” Listening builds the bridge they’ll keep crossing as the stakes get higher.

If a child learns early that disagreement leads to conflict, punishment, or withdrawal of your love, they’ll stop being honest later.

Healthy closeness requires emotional freedom, so when your child disagrees with you, respond with curiosity instead of control. Teach them that honesty is safe and that it will never threaten your bond.

Reem Raouda is a leading voice in conscious parenting and the creator of the BOUND and FOUNDATIONS journals, now offered together as her Holiday Emotional Safety Bundle. She is widely recognized for her expertise in children’s emotional well-being and for redefining what it means to raise emotionally healthy kids. Connect with her on Instagram.

Want to give your kids the ultimate advantage? Sign up for CNBC’s new online course, How to Raise Financially Smart Kids. Learn how to build healthy financial habits today to set your children up for greater success in the future. Use coupon code EARLYBIRD for 30% off. Offer valid from Dec. 8 to Dec. 22, 2025. Terms apply.

It’s important to build resilience, but how do we actually do it? I’ve spent 15 years researching happiness, and I’ve interviewed thousands of people about what makes it possible for them to thrive.

I’ve learned that resilience isn’t something you’re born with. It’s not even about bouncing back, a concept that often does more harm than good. Real resilience is about building specific habits that train your brain to weather difficulty without breaking.

Here are 9 habits that actually work:

If your heart is racing before your big meeting, your instinct might be to panic. Before you do, pause and tell yourself: “I’m excited about this.”

I know it sounds like toxic positivity. It’s not. Research shows that this simple reframing, shifting from a threat to a challenge, can change your physiological response. 

Your body doesn’t easily distinguish between anxiety and excitement. The only difference is your interpretation. 

When you constantly second-guess yourself, your brain learns that you can’t be trusted to handle outcomes. Confident micro-decisions can help rewire your brain and boost your trust in yourself.

So pick your lunch without researching five options. Commit to a movie in two minutes flat. Send the email without editing it 10 times. This teaches your brain: “I can decide and handle what comes next, even if it’s not perfect.” That’s the exact skill you need in a crisis. 

It’s extremely difficult to maintain deep relationships with hundreds of people. Research has found we can manage about 150 stable relationships, but only about five truly intimate ones. 

The most emotionally resilient people don’t spread their emotional energy thin or try to handle everything alone.

They invest in these core relationships. And when things do get hard, they have people in their corner who can help them carry the weight. 

Most of us focus on what’s left undone. It’s a perpetual sense of failure. I want you to flip this.

Every day, write down what you actually accomplished, even the small stuff. Over time, your brain stops noticing gaps and starts noticing progress. That shift is where resilience lives.

When you deliberately pay attention to positive moments, you rewire neural pathways for happiness. Pick one moment a day worth savoring. A good conversation. A small win. Really good coffee. 

Spend 30 seconds actually noticing it. This practice counteracts your brain’s obsession with what’s wrong and builds psychological resilience, one moment at a time.

Be vulnerable with the people who matter to you. Tell someone about a real challenge. Ask for honest feedback, not just agreement. Have conversations where things might get uncomfortable.

The most resilient people feel safe to be themselves without fear of judgement. Being open with people who you trust can help build that muscle. 

This sounds counterintuitive until you realize that helping others is a powerful recharge practice. Plus, you’re building your support system for the future. You’re reinforcing your identity as capable and resourceful.

Most importantly, you remember that resilience is also about contributing and mattering to other people.

Most people avoid this question because they are afraid of the answer. But research shows that actually imagining the worst-case scenario can reduce anxiety, not increase it.

So after you ask yourself, “What’s the worst that could happen?” actually sit with the question. Then ask yourself, “Could I handle that?” The answer is usually yes. Maybe not easily, but yes.

The most resilient people understand that bad things can happen, but the most important thing is to be confident that you can handle them when they do.

Emotional resilience is a skill you can hone. It doesn’t require therapy, meditation retreats, or years of work.

Start with just one or two of these habits. Reframe stress when the stakes are low. Build your support relationships now, not when you’re desperate. Make confident decisions about small things, so you’re ready for big things.

Jessica Weiss is a keynote speaker and executive coach who teaches people and businesses how to find more happiness, fulfillment and satisfaction at work. With a background in positive psychology, she’s spent 15 years working with global brands like Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson and American Express. She is the author of ”Happiness Works: The Science of Thriving at Work.”

Want to give your kids the ultimate advantage? Sign up for CNBC’s new online course, How to Raise Financially Smart Kids. Learn how to build healthy financial habits today to set your children up for greater success in the future. Use coupon code EARLYBIRD for 30% off. Offer valid from Dec. 8 to Dec. 22, 2025. Terms apply.

Most parents know the frustration of dealing with a child’s unexpected public tantrum.

But parents are often too quick to call out their child’s negative behavior — chastising them for that unnecessary meltdown or even telling them to “cheer up” when they seem sad — while ignoring the underlying emotions behind those actions, according to parenting expert Reem Raouda.

Focusing solely on children’s behaviors, particularly bad behavior, rather than investigating and validating their emotions is a common parenting mistake that hinders your child’s ability to develop emotional intelligence, says Raouda, an author and certified conscious parenting coach.

“Stop focusing on their behavior and start focusing on their [well-being],” she says. “Children are not robots, and their emotions are being completely ignored, dismissed [or even] punished.”

Experts often link emotional intelligence to success, because it helps people manage the kinds of negative emotions that could otherwise lead to burnout, anxiety or depression, research shows.

“Your emotional well-being is your success,” says Raouda, adding that parents who ignore their kids’ emotional development are less likely to raise happy, successful adults. “Who cares about how much money you have, if you are anxiety-ridden, depressed, [and] don’t know who you are?”

DON’T MISS: The ultimate guide to teaching your kids about money

Parents do need to enforce boundaries, Raouda says, particularly when a child’s outburst involves mistreating other people. They also need to remind kids that their feelings — positive or negative — are normal, and that it’s healthy to express them constructively, she says.

Focus on “not making them feel bad for their anger [and] not telling them to cheer up when they’re sad,” says Raouda. “Letting them be in their feelings is No. 1.”

You might, for example, ask your child what they were feeling that led them to act out, break a rule or otherwise cross a previously established boundary. Helping your kids name their emotions is the first step toward them developing the ability to manage those emotions, Raouda says.

Some other experts agree: Children who feel heard and not shamed for their feelings typically become more open to avoiding negative behaviors, according to psychologist Caroline Fleck. “The point is to validate the emotion and then focus on what’s not valid, which is the behavior [and that’s] what needs to change,” Fleck told CNBC Make It in January.

Parents who overemphasize obedience, which can require the suppression of big feelings, run the risk of raising people-pleasers who can’t advocate for themselves and are more likely to grow into anxious, unhappy adults, Raouda says.

A mother herself, Raouda says she’d practice emotion-naming exercises with her son even when he was too young to articulate how he was feeling on his own. That involved asking if he was angry or frustrated and, if so, having him rank the severity of his feelings on a scale of 1 to 10, she says.

And when parents feel emotional themselves, they can tell their children directly: I’m upset, or I’m sad. The idea is to show your children that you don’t have to suppress those negative feelings, says Raouda.

“Naming it takes away from the [negative] stigma,” she says. “It’s just, like, ‘Yeah, I was angry, I was embarrassed, I was sad, I was nervous’ … Feelings are normal and healthy and fine.”

Want to give your kids the ultimate advantage? Sign up for CNBC’s new online course, How to Raise Financially Smart Kids. Learn how to build healthy financial habits today to set your children up for greater success in the future. Use coupon code EARLYBIRD for 30% off. Offer valid from Dec. 8 to Dec. 22, 2025. Terms apply.

Between long office days, late dinners and endless to-dos, many working couples slip into a routine of coexisting instead of really connecting. The excuses feel valid: “We’re exhausted,” or, “We’ll catch up this weekend.” The problem is that they both end up missing the everyday moments that keep a relationship alive.

As a psychologist who studies couples and as a husband, I’ve found that people in the happiest, most resilient relationships treat their weeknights as opportunities that don’t go wasted.

Here are the seven things these couples consistently do before bedtime.

You can’t always expect your partner to walk through the door ready to cook, talk, or be cheerful. Healthy couples build in 15 to 30 minutes of guilt-free alone time for each partner — one decompresses while the other handles a light task, then they switch.

It’s not glamorous, but it’s a huge kindness. By protecting each other’s battery early in the evening, they preserve the bandwidth they’ll need to connect later on.

Some nights, even after a decompression session, you may still feel drained. Happy couples don’t force it. They start their evening together, but quietly: sitting on the balcony, lying side by side, taking a slow walk.

In psychological research, this is a form of co-regulation: the process of two people syncing up emotionally, allowing the emotions of the day to rise and fall until they feel like themselves again. A few minutes of shared quiet can reset your rhythm better than a forced conversation.

Not every weeknight has room for deep emotional check-ins. So the happiest couples keep it simple: each person shares one thing about their day, good or bad.

It could be venting some frustration, sharing a little win they had at the office or even just something funny that happened. No advice. No solutions. Just listening. This light, consistent sharing keeps them emotionally updated without draining what’s left of their workweek energy.

Even on nights when both partners want to zone out, they stick to one small shared ritual they never skip.

For most, it’s something ridiculously simple: eating dinner together without their phones, making a nightly cup of tea, or doing a word game together. The ritual becomes a daily anchor — something predictable, comforting, and theirs alone.

If I had to choose just one nightly habit to keep, this would be it. Research shows that partners who cuddle regularly report higher relationship satisfaction and commitment, even compared with couples who emphasize “quality time” together.

Cuddling triggers oxytocin (the bonding hormone) and lowers cortisol (the stress hormone). It’s the easiest, fastest biological boost your relationship can get.

Even the happiest couples feel the low-level resentment of uneven household work. That’s why they end the evening with 5 to 10 minutes of shared tidying, wiping counters, packing tomorrow’s lunches, loading the dishwasher.

The point isn’t actually about cleaning, but rather to prove that they’re committed to keeping things fair.

Instead of rehashing the day, heathy and happy couples look ahead. They share one small thing they’re looking forward to tomorrow, or even one small thing they’re dreading.

This is a brief, gentle way for working couples to stay in sync without needing to fully rehash the emotional weight of their day. You get a sense of what your partner might need tomorrow, whether it’s encouragement, space, or just a little extra support. And they get the same from you.

Mark Travers, PhD, is a psychologist who specializes in relationships. He holds degrees from Cornell University and the University of Colorado Boulder. He is the lead psychologist at Awake Therapy, a telehealth company that provides online psychotherapy, counseling, and coaching. He is also the curator of the popular mental health and wellness website, Therapytips.org.

Want to give your kids the ultimate advantage? Sign up for CNBC’s new online course, How to Raise Financially Smart Kids. Learn how to build healthy financial habits today to set your children up for greater success in the future. Use coupon code EARLYBIRD for 30% off. Offer valid from Dec. 8 to Dec. 22, 2025. Terms apply.

Neither of my parents had corporate jobs. I didn’t absorb the unwritten rules of the workplace at family dinners. But I did have a relentless curiosity about how influence actually works. 

That led me to become a licensed therapist and executive coach, research human behavior, and write my book, “Managing Up: How to Get What You Need From the People in Charge.” 

What I’ve discovered from coaching thousands of top performers is that you can be 10, 15 or even 20 years into your career and still feel like you’re missing the handbook on how to be taken seriously.  

If you want to be seen as operating at the next level, even before you have the title, here are the six things you need to do that 99% of people miss.

These principles of influence apply whether you’re navigating the office, family dynamics, or personal relationships. The ability to package your ideas and communicate decisively changes how people perceive and respond to you in every setting.

You might have the best insights. But if you don’t frame them in terms decision-makers care about most, your message will fall flat. 

Stop communicating about the tasks you’ve accomplished and instead focus on outcomes. For instance, “We analyzed the data and updated the slides,” can become, “The numbers show that if we go with option B, we’ll see a 15% return on investment.” 

When you over-explain, you think you’re being thorough, but to everyone else, it sounds like rambling. More information doesn’t always add value. 

Being concise shows command of the topic. If you can’t boil a topic down to its essence, then you don’t understand it well enough. 

Saying, “We have three key areas to cover: customer engagement, product positioning, and go-to-market strategy,” and encapsulating each in a few crisp sentences sounds more credible than a 15-minute explanation that buries your point. 

The time to get buy-in is in the days leading up to an important conversation, not during it.

Savvy professionals preview their ideas one-on-one beforehand. They reach out privately and say, “I’m thinking about proposing [X] during Friday’s check-in. What concerns do you have?” Or: “Before I bring this to the group, I want to answer your questions first.” 

By the time the formal meeting happens, you’ve cleared objections, built trust, and turned potentially adversaries into advocates. 

Waffling kills credibility faster than being wrong.

An executive told me recently that she’d let go of three very smart, capable people. “Every time I asked for their input, I got, ‘It depends,’ or, ‘There are many factors,’” she said. “I needed them to tell me what they thought we should do, not hand decisions back to me.”

Leaders would rather get a clear recommendation they can debate than hear you hedge. Give them something to react to, even if it’s not “right.”

When you’re the only one who can execute certain responsibilities, your manager panics at the thought of you leaving or advancing. You’ve accidentally locked yourself into your current role by being too good at it. 

Make yourself promotable by making yourself replaceable. Document your processes. Train a second-in-command. Show you can build systems so the team can operate without you. 

You’re absolutely entitled to set boundaries and protect your time. But if all your colleagues hear is, “No, that isn’t possible,” you’ll quickly get labeled as “difficult” or “not a team player.” 

Focus on what you can do instead. For instance: 

• Don’t say: “I’m not able to meet at that time” 
  Instead try: “I’m available at 2 p.m. or 4 p.m. What works for you?”

• Don’t say: “I can’t stay late to finish this.“
  Instead try: “I can give this another hour today and pick back up in the morning.” 

You teach people how to treat you in the workplace and beyond. Start communicating like someone who deserves to be taken seriously and others will follow suit. 

Melody Wilding, LMSW is an executive coach, human behavior professor, and author of ”Managing Up: How to Get What You Need from the People in Charge.” Get her free training, 5 Steps to Speak Like a Senior Leader, here. 

Want to give your kids the ultimate advantage? Sign up for CNBC’s new online course, How to Raise Financially Smart Kids. Learn how to build healthy financial habits today to set your children up for greater success in the future. Use coupon code EARLYBIRD for 30% off. Offer valid from Dec. 8 to Dec. 22, 2025. Terms apply.