71: Who Are You Calling a Misfit? | Dr. Mona Delahooke

Mona Delahooke, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist with more than 30 years of experience caring for children and their families. Mona and Emily talk about reclaiming the term “misfit” and redefining what it means to be “typical”.

Quotes:

• “There isn’t such a thing as typical. And if you’re going on a standardized test and if your child’s scored off of a certain test, that’s an outdated philosophy.” – Mona Delahooke
• “I don’t believe there are any misfits nor do I believe that it should be a pejorative label. I think we should celebrate our differences.” – Mona Delahooke
• “In our quest to maybe even very innocently create categories, we create good or bad, we create better or less than, and that’s just not what it’s like.” – Mona Delahooke
• “It’s hard to be the first person, but if we all commit to doing our small part in talking about the goods, the bads, and the uglies of being human and being a parent and all that goes with it, I think we’re going to get to a better place in terms of here’s what’s narrowly accepted and here’s everything else.” – Emily Melious
• “What we really want to do for our kids is help them to feel like they have a passion and they’re good at something. And they’re interested in it, whether that’s beekeeping or drawing pictures or illustrating or singing songs or writing poetry, or simply just being who they are and blessing the world with their uniqueness. It’s really awesome to take a step back and reconsider what we think success is.” – Mona Delahooke

Highlights:

• 1:32 – What being a misfit really means
• 5:53 – Autism
• 14:11 – Celebrating the imperfect
• 23:02 – Matching your parenting style to your child’s nervous system
• 27:00 – Parenting with the nervous system in mind
• 29:45 – Top down vs. bottom up behaviors
• 33:31 – Mona Delahooke’s books