When I went to elementary school (a few years back), my parents had little to do or worry about when I headed out the door. In fact, they had little to worry about after school as well because I rode my bike wherever I wanted as long as I got home before dark. Mom made sure I knew who to call and how to call “just in case” I needed to call home. These days, it’s just a tad bit different!

Common Core, Home Schooling, Political Correct History, Politics in the classroom, No Tolerance, Self-Esteem, and EVERYONE gets a trophy is the new world of primary school. How do we parents navigate this “new world” if, GULP, we have values or concerns about life and, BIGGER GULP, even are religious?! What if we have a kid with “challenges” – can we count on the schools for help? Do we EVEN DARE to discuss the horrors of Middle and High School? That’s why we have noted clinical psychologist Margot Holloman and her husband, Andy Holloman, writer, father of three, and just coincidentally Margot’s husband as our co-hosts this Thursday, October 26 at 6:00 p.m. PT/9:00 p.m. ET.

Dr. Holloman is a Clinical Psychologist located in Apex, North Carolina. She attended the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio. She graduated from U.C. with Honors and received the Arthur G. Bills Award for Excellence in Research. She began graduate school at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in School Psychology. After making the decision she wanted to work primarily with therapy clients, she transferred to The University of North Carolina at Greensboro where she received her Masters and Doctoral Degrees in Clinical Psychology.

She has worked in private practice in the Raleigh area since 1997. She currently specializes in anxiety and depression across the lifespan. More recently, she has developed a strong interest in treatment methods for ADHD in children and adults. She has always loved positive psychology including how one develops resilience despite difficult childhoods or adversity in one’s current circumstances. Her research interests also primarily focused on developing and maintaining positive self-esteem.

She currently works full time with individual clients and is developing several workshops designed to facilitate the participant’s development of healthy habits for greater happiness and success. These workshops will focus on the ability to establish more authentic, meaningful, and satisfying paths throughout our lives.

Dr. Holloman is married and has three teen and preteen children. She loves dogs, gardening, reading, music, photography, scrapbooking and anything crafty or creative. She has recently discovered genealogy and may need an intervention to stay off of Ancestry.com. She is currently dabbling in woodworking and loves to decorate. She has recently learned how to use wordpress and first became confident about her computer skills through learning photoshop elements. Her guilty pleasures include spider solitaire, So You Think You Can Dance, and reading self-help books

Writer Andy Holloman has been scribbling stories since a young age. (According to reliable sources.) Shades of Gray is his first published novel and grew out of his experiences as a travel agency owner many moons ago. He was fascinated with the true story of a client of the business that was murdered. Suspecting her line of work was drug smuggling, a story sprouted in his over-active imagination – How far would a desperate person go to save their child and their business.

His 2nd novel When His Dreams Take Flight was published in Oct. 2013 and is a Suspense/Thriller novel set in present day North Carolina.

He is the father of three and happily married for 20 years. A graduate of UNC-CH, he lives in the Raleigh, NC area and is busy carpooling, keeping his wife happy, and attending his kids sporting events. He loves the great outdoors in NC, is an avid reader, and a social media goofball. Most evenings, he can be found tapping on his well-worn keyboard as he “births” his next novel. Andy website: www.AndyHolloman.com

Here are some tweets that you can send out to bring out YOUR friends and others to join our #DadChat community. Obviously, adjust to your own liking:

• #School – Why is it so complicated these days for our kids and US – #DadChat Thursday
• Common Core, Bullying, Self-Esteem, Trophies for everyone – this is #School today! Let’s discuss tomorrow at #DadChat
• How to navigate our kid’s school journey tonight at #DadChat

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