P2P Presents - Keeping your kids engaged and responsible in the summer.

What happened when Coach Carrie sat down with Dr. Tania Farran to talk about keeping kids engaged and responsible all summer long.June 1, 2026 | Coach Carrie WillisTonight I had the pleasure of joining Dr. Tania Farran live on P2P Presents for a conversation every parent with kids at home this summer needed to hear.Dr. Tania Farran is the author of Raising the Well-Adjusted Child, A Parent’s Manual and the host of Parent2Parent. She is also someone I connected with a few months ago over a coffee chat and we hit it off immediately. So when she invited me to come on and talk about keeping kids engaged and responsible in the summer, I said yes without hesitation.Here is what we talked about.STRUCTURE DOES NOT TAKE A VACATIONThe first question Dr. Farran asked me was how I handle summer with my son. My answer was simple.Structure does not take a vacation just because school does.In my house, the routine changes but the expectations do not. Free time is earned, not assumed. And one of the things I love most about our summers is that we plan them together. My son has input. We agree on the plan. And then we hold each other accountable to what we said we would do.When kids have a say in the plan, they show up differently for it. That is what I have seen firsthand.RESPONSIBILITY IS A PRACTICE, NOT A LECTUREWe talked about how responsibility gets built in a home. My answer was that it is not built through conversations. It is built through doing.In my house, everyone has a role. Real contributions and not just busy work. My son makes his bed. He does laundry. He takes out the trash. And now that he is older, he has time in the kitchen too. He tells me what is on the menu and I step aside.When a child sees that the household runs because of their effort, they internalize something important: their actions matter.THE MOST POWERFUL PARENTING TOOL YOU HAVEDr. Farran ended our time together by asking for one tip for parents. Here is what I said.Make the expectation clear and make it theirs.Sit down with your kids before summer starts. Ask them what kind of summer they want to have. Help them build the plan. When they own the goal, they show up for it differently.And then hold the line. Love them enough to mean what you say. Because consistency is the most powerful parenting tool we have.CHILDREN REMEMBER TIME, NOT MONEYWe also talked about fun. And this was one of my favorite parts of the conversation. The best memories my son and I have are not the expensive ones. They are the ones we did not plan.One morning we decided at 10am we were done sitting at home. We filled up the tank, grabbed some snacks, and drove to Atlanta. Just like that. No agenda. Just us.Children remember the time you give them. Not the money you spent.IF YOUR KID IS GOING TO WORK THIS SUMMER, READ THIS FIRSTDr. Farran referenced an article I recently published on Substack about work from home opportunities and financial moves for teens. If you have a teen who wants to earn money this summer, that article covers the real income streams available to teens 16 and older, the scams to watch out for, and the one financial move most families never make but absolutely should.You can read the full article here: Worthy Wednesday: Your Teen Wants to Work From Home This SummerThe short version: any teen with documented earned income this summer is eligible to open a custodial Roth IRA. One summer of work. Decades of compounding. That is the conversation most families are not having and it is the one that changes everything. I can open these accounts for you.WE ARE COMING BACKAt the close of the show, Dr. Farran said something I am holding onto.We need to talk about money and kids. We need to have you back.And we will. The next conversation will go deeper into financial strategies for families and what parents can do right now to set their kids up before the window closes. Stay tuned for that date.In the meantime, follow Dr. Tania Farran and Parent2Parent on YouTube, Spotify, and TikTok. She is doing real work for parents and the community she has built around it is worth being a part of.If tonight’s conversation sparked something for your family and you want to talk about what your next financial move looks like, I have time for you. Book a Confidential Financial Clarity Session at calendly.com/gr8finances/clarity. Both spouses or financial partners need to be present. No cost. No obligation. Just clarity.Confusion is expensive. Clarity pays for life.Coach Carrie Willis | @gr8finances | gr8finances.com#CarrieConnects #P2PPresents #SummerParenting #CoachCarrieWillis #Gr8Finances #WorthyWednesday #TeenFinances #ParentingWithPurpose #ClarityPaysForLifeThank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. Get full access to Clarity from the Heart™ at gr8finances.substack.com/subscribe