Simple Acts with Natalie Silverstein

Dr. Dan welcomes author Natalie Silverstein. Beyond the homework, screen-time, and endless activities, there are bigger challenges for modern parents: figuring out how to raise compassionate, generous, civic-minded children. In her new book Simple Acts: The Busy Family's Guide to Giving Back, Natalie Silverstein offers hundreds of practical ideas for incorporating service and the spirit of giving into your family life. Today’s show (and Natalie’s book) is a call to action for all parents to model good values, teach volunteerism, and ultimately help those in need.

Natalie Silverstein is the New York volunteer coordinator of Doing Good Together in New York City. She believes it’s never too early to get kids in the habit of service and Dr. Dan enthusiastically agrees.

In today’s interview, Dr. Dan and Natalie discuss:

• Living your values

• Making service a priority

• Volunteering — how we teach our children compassion by modeling it

• How to choose community-service options that are right for your family

• How to create easy kindness project (at the kitchen table)

• Ideas for integrating volunteerism into your jam-packed schedule

• How to talk to children about inequality and suffering in an age-appropriate way

  And much more!

Dr. Dan explains how saying yes to service means we are saying no to something else. It is important that we prioritize living our values every single day—remember our kids are always watching. As parents we are creating our children’s foundation of lifelong giving and service. At the end of the interview in her Parent Footprint moment Natalie gives listeners a terrific lesson about how sometimes parents miss the mark but that life lessons can be learned in almost any situation.

Natalie Silverstein, MPH, is the volunteer coordinator of Doing Good Together in New York City. She is a frequent consultant and presenter to parents, faculty, students, and community groups on the topic of family service, and is a contributor to parenting blogs GrownAndFlown and MommyPoppins. She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health from Yale University. She and her family regularly make time to volunteer in their community.