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Hi, I'm Dr. Carrie Mackensen
🧠 Helping parents raise resilient kids in a digital world.
🌟 Psychologist + Mom

11/06/2026

Ask your teen about their day and get a shrug? You’re not alone.

Teens often resist questions about themselves because they don’t want to disappoint us. It’s hard to admit they stayed up too late, or used AI on that English essay.

Instead, try one step removed: “What are your friends up to?” Talking about friends feels safer, and what they share is often a window into their own world.

Here’s the key: respond with compassion, even when their friends’ choices aren’t ideal. Your teen is watching how you react. When you show care toward their friends, they learn it’s safe to tell you what they’ve been up to, too.

More strategies for staying connected are in my book, Digitally Dysregulated. Pre-order at digitallydysregulated.com (link in bio) 📖

11/03/2026

A warm hug in the form of a love note, for the mom wearing 83 hats before noon, eating dinner out of takeout bags, and still showing up.

Maybe fried. Maybe frazzled. Too much on your plate. But still showing up and loving your kids, and that is enough. You are enough, no matter what your feed tells you.

Pause. Put your hand on your heart and feel how powerful the love you have for your child is. Own that.

Then share this with another mom doing the most important work there is. Let’s build each other up, high-five each other in the parking lot, and lighten each other’s load.

Because, mama, you’re doing a great job. 💛

Dads and partners, send this to the mom in your life.

“

11/01/2026

Your child’s meltdown is not proof that your boundary is wrong.

If your toddler ran toward a busy street, you’d swoop them up, even if they screamed and kicked. Their protest wouldn’t make you question whether keeping them safe was the right call.

Interactive screens are the busy street of today’s digital world, whether it’s an iPad, a video game console, or a smartphone. Screen time limits are the arms that swoop our kids up. It’s our job to hold those boundaries and keep them safe. You don’t have to say no to every screen, but you want to put up guardrails around harmful content and excessive screen time.

When your child pushes back, it means they heard you and the boundary matters. Their resistance is information, not a verdict. Your job isn’t to prevent them from feeling upset. It’s to stay steady through it. When you hold the line with warmth and love, your calm becomes theirs, and over time they learn to hold their own boundaries by watching you hold yours.

Which “no” is hardest to hold in your house right now? Tell me below. 👇

📖 Digitally Dysregulated is available for preorder. Comment BOOK and I’ll send you the link.

10/29/2026

What often starts as a homework helper can slowly become something more: your child’s emotional confidant. The one they turn to when they’re hurting.

Kids aren’t just turning to AI for quick answers. They’re turning to it for help with their distress.

And it’s not hard to understand why. The bot is always on, always available, always agreeable. It never gets frustrated. It never says, “Hold on, I’ve got to handle this other thing right now.”

But that friction, the messiness of relationships, isn’t a bad thing. It’s a human thing. Our kids need practice with real people, not perfect bots. The small misses, the rupture, and then the repair are how children build frustration tolerance, patience, and compassion for themselves and others. These moments lay the foundation for every relationship that follows.

A child turning to AI isn’t doing something wrong. They’re turning toward something without friction. Our job is to make sure they keep turning toward us.

You don’t have to be perfectly attuned. You just have to be real and come back to repair. Let them feel your care and your desire to help. No bot can do that.

Thank you, Jason and Cecilia Hilkey of Happily Family for having me at the Raising Kids in the Age of AI conference.

Save this, use it to start a conversation with your kid, and share it with another parent. We can’t put the AI genie back in the bottle, but we can protect what matters most: our connection with our kids.

10/28/2026

Two decades ago, I studied under Dr. Dan Siegel. The books he wrote with Dr. Tina Payne Bryson , The Whole-Brain Child, No-Drama Discipline, The Yes Brain, and The Power of Showing Up became my favorite parenting books. I didn’t just read them. I studied them, took notes, taught them to the families I worked with, and asked my husband to read them. A number of years ago, I had the privilege of joining a consultation group with Tina herself.

So when Tina read Digitally Dysregulated, gave it her endorsement, and told me she’s glad to have it as a resource, it was a full-circle moment for me as a clinician. She’s brilliant and one of the warmest people you’ll ever meet. To have someone I respect so deeply stand behind this book is such an honor.

Her words capture the heart of the book: our relationships with our children are our greatest resource for helping them thrive in a digital world.

Two years of research, writing, rewrites, and late nights went into this book. It was never about me. It’s for you and your kids.

A screen may hold your child’s attention. It will never love them back. You will. ❤️

Pre-order Digitally Dysregulated today and receive the Parenting in the Digital Age Virtual Summit ($297 value) as my gift to you. Comment BOOK and I’ll send you the link.

10/27/2026

Years from now, when your kids look back on the limits you put around addictive tech, they won’t remember the arguments or the screen timer on the kitchen counter. Instead, what they’ll carry is the unshakable knowledge that when something mattered, you showed up.

That line gets me every time.

That’s what we’re giving our kids when we put boundaries around screens. Not a restriction. A foundation.

We know this technology was built to be addictive. We know addictive design is harming brain development, mental health, and the parent-child relationship. So saying no to screens isn’t mean. It’s protective. It’s loving.

That’s the paradigm shift. It’s not about what we’re taking away from our kids. It’s about what we’re giving back: a childhood protected from the pull of addictive design. Turning down the digital noise to turn up the connection, starting with the parent-child bond, the attachment relationship that lays the foundation for their sense of self, emotional regulation, and every relationship that follows.

We’re not saying no tech. We’re saying use tech as a tool, not the center of family life. Park tech in its place, and prioritize real life and real relationships in your home.

That’s what Digitally Dysregulated is really about: parents reclaiming their role as the hub of their child’s healthy development. Screens and addictive design have taken over much of our kids’ attention, but we can take it back. This book shows you how, in a way that doesn’t just protect your relationship with your child but strengthens it.

Your kids may not thank you now for the guardrails you put around tech. But someday they’ll look back grateful that you stepped in to protect them from something they didn’t yet have the ability to put down.

Digitally Dysregulated: How Screens Hijack Kids’ Brains and What Parents Can Do About It is now available for pre-order.

10/25/2026

“Teach kids to think and I guarantee they’ll be able to tech. Teach kids to tech and there’s no guarantee they’ll be able to think.”

That quote from Jared Cooney Horvath Horvath came up in my summit conversation with Nicki Petrossi, and it’s exactly what I tell parents in my practice.

I was recently invited to consult for a high-end private school in Southern California on how they plan to introduce AI. I walked in expecting a friendly room. Instead, I found a school going full force on AI, and I found myself pushing back.

Here’s why. Children need to build thinking and problem-solving skills in the 3D world first. That’s how the brain develops the neural pathways for creative thought. Once that foundation is in place, AI can be a helpful tool for research or explaining a concept a child is stuck on.

But that’s not what’s happening. Kids are going to AI for quick answers and skipping the process of learning how to think things through for themselves. We’re raising a generation that can pull up an answer on their phone but struggles to solve their own problems. Without tech, they’re lost.

Your child doesn’t need a head start on AI. They need a head start on thinking. The tech skills will come.

📚 If this resonates, pick up Jared Cooney Horvath’s book The Digital Delusion. It’s a must-read on how classroom tech affects how kids actually learn.

10/24/2026

A note before you swipe: this includes the story of a sixteen-year-old who died after months of conversations with a chatbot.

Your child is already using AI, or will be soon. The question isn’t whether. It’s what role you want it to play in their life, and what role you don’t.

There are three developmental tasks AI can disrupt: cognitive development, identity development, and the parent-child attachment bond.

Swipe through for what to allow at every age, the two questions to ask before your child uses AI, and the one boundary that is non-negotiable.

We gave our kids social media before we understood the risks or how to guard against them, and we are still cleaning that up. We have a chance to get ahead of AI use among children. To talk with your kids about it now, and set boundaries now, before it takes over.
Save this one. Then send it to a parent who needs it.

My book, Digitally Dysregulated: How Screens Hijack Kids’ Brains and What Parents Can Do About It, is available for pre-order now. Link in bio.

If you or someone you love is struggling, the 988 Su***de and Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours a day. Call or text 988.

10/22/2026

Tech is a tool, not a toy. 💻

Kids are not getting addicted to their homework. In my practice, when a parent tells me their child can’t put a device down, it’s never because of a math assignment or a research project. It’s because the screen has become entertainment, an escape, and it blocks out the real-world experiences that help them grow. The device is the same. The purpose is what changes everything.

That’s why I encourage families to set clear structure at home. Schoolwork happens in common spaces, not behind a closed bedroom door. The device has a specific job, and when that job is done, it gets put away. Kids ask before browsing so curiosity doesn’t turn into hours online. And when they want to explore something fun, like exploring a digital globe to learn about the world...go for it! Just set a timer and stick to it.

None of this is about saying no to technology. It’s about teaching our kids that they control the device, not the other way around.

10/04/2026

Most parents I talk to have some version of the same question right now: is it a problem that my kid’s using AI for schoolwork?

Good news, we finally have real data on this.

And here’s the thing: it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Tech is required, but healthy boundaries around it? That part’s on us.

You’ve got this 🤍

New here? Part 1, all about where the device lives and the router that actually guards it, scroll a few posts back.

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https://www.successfulparent.com/, https://digitalparentingsummit.com/

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