The Safe Community Coalition & The Potomac School present Julie Lythcott-Haims, NYT Best-Selling Author of How to Raise an Adult

Throw Out the Checklisted Childhood: Tips and Strategies for Raising Successful Kids

Drawing on research, on conversations with admissions officers, educators, and employers, and on her own insights as a mother and as a student dean, Julie highlights the ways in which overparenting harms children, their stressed-out parents, and society at large.

While empathizing with the parental hopes and, especially, fears that lead to overhelping, Julie offers practical strategies that underline the importance of allowing children to make their own mistakes and develop the resilience, resourcefulness, and inner determination necessary for success. 

Julie’s talk will be followed by a Q&A session and a book signing afterward. We will be selling books onsite (credit card only), but you are also welcome to bring your own to be signed.

We will be following Temple Rodef Shalom’s covid requirements for indoor events:

• Masks continue to be required at all times withint the Temple, regardless of vaccination status. In accordance with CDC guidelines, those who are fully vaccinated may choose to remove their masks outdoors.
• Regarding vaccination, the Temple provides us this guidance: If you are able to be vaccinated, we strongly encourage you to do so – not just for yourself but for all in our community, especially those who are most vulnerable and unable to be vaccinated. For those attending worship services or programs at Temple Rodef Shalom, we assume you have stepped up to this mitzvah.
• Click here for the Temple’s current policies. We will provide any updates closer to the event via email and the SCC website.

Temple Rodef Shalom will be livestreaming from their streaming site for those who cannot attend in person. 

About Julie

Julie Lythcott-Haims believes in humans and is deeply interested in what gets in our way. Her work encompasses writing, speaking, teaching, mentoring, and activism.

She is the New York Times bestselling author of How to Raise an Adult which gave rise to a popular TED Talk. Her second book is the critically-acclaimed and award-winning prose poetry memoir Real American, which illustrates her experience as a Black and biracial person in white spaces. Her third book, Your Turn: How to Be an Adult, has been called a “groundbreakingly frank” guide to adulthood. 

Julie holds degrees from Stanford, Harvard Law, and California College of the Arts. She currently serves on the boards of Common Sense Media, Black Women’s Health Imperative, Narrative Magazine, and on the Board of Trustees at California College of the Arts. She serves on the advisory boards of LeanIn.Org, Parents magazine and Baldwin For the Arts.  

She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her partner of over thirty years, their itinerant young adults, and her mother.