Precarious Parenting

Joy is in her sixties, she has three children and seven grandchildren, three of which she has raised herself as a single grandparent. One of Joy's children is a sex worker and, alongside her choice of industry, her parenting capacity has been compromised in numerous ways. Joy has stepped in each time to raise the children and guide the family. Joy has survived cancer and, with the news of a potent...

Danny Gough is a passionate man. Music has been a huge driver in his life and he's turned his passion into a method of enabling children to dream big, with a mindset to fly. He's the founder of Class Dynamix: an initiative working with schools in the UK and USA to promote pride in their assemblies; write, perform and produce their own school anthems; and tackle pertinent issues such as anti-bullyi...

Joe Chown is the Chair of the Hackney Foster Carers' Council and he's passionate about the raising the role of foster carers, so they are seen as co-parents; not just contract workers or babysitters. He wants to give all foster carers the voice they deserve. He's also dedicated to increasing the levels of collaboration between Childrens' Social Care, the Police and the Foster Carers' Council to en...

Recently Greg Fisher published a book called "Happy Hockey Dad: Tapping into what is already there". It's a book that takes a closer look at why parents of kids in any sport (not just ice hockey) can seem to lose their temper, behave inappropriately or just seem to feel the outcome of the game directly affects their own happiness and wellbeing. Does that sound like anyone you know? Greg is a husba...

Christian McNeill has been a coach and Three Principles Practitioner since 2012. Prior to that she was a lawyer, first as an advocate and later a tribunal judge. During her 20s she encountered some significant personal challenges, including an alcohol issue. And through this experience she became very interested in how the mind works. In 2010 she stumbled across a radically different understanding...

In this episode we meet Favour Oyelowo, a 23 year old Nigerian studying Aviation at a university in the Turkish Occupied Republic of Northern Cyprus. Favour is following his dream to become a pilot which has meant living away from his family since he was 16 years old. He funds all his living and studying expenses by working a number of jobs. Having not seen his parents or brothers for seven years,...

In her 15 year career as a Transformation Coach, Elaine Wright has worked with many parents seeking to enhance their connections with their children. These parents aspire to develop more fulfilling and loving relationships, fostering an anger-free environment for their family. Elaine wrote her book 'A Guide to Anger-Free Parenting: Calm your Triggers for Emotional Wellbeing and Strong, Resilient H...

Nicola Morgan is an international speaker and bestselling author of both fiction and non-fiction for teens. The book for which she is most well-known is Blame My Brain, The Amazing Teenage Brain. She's known as 'The Teenage Brain Woman'. Together, we chat about her fascination with the teen brain and her desire to share this information as widely as possible. Her skill is sharing this neuroscience...

Andy's children have grown up now but he acutely remembers how his drinking affected the whole family. He talks about using drink to dull the feelings he was afraid of such as fear and guilt; he calls it 'the shame cycle'. By following the 12 Step recovery programme, in which he began to understand his self-centred fear, Andy now lives life one day at a time. He feels more present to the world aro...

The wonderful Dicken Bettinger chats about the joy of being a grandparent; to show up, be present with warmth and common sense. This is a beautiful episode which I'm sure you'll love as much as I did recording it. Dicken is a clinical psychologist and author, and now sits as a Director on the Board of the 3 Principles Global Community site. In this podcast he shares the universal principles of Tho...

Elianne Elbaum is the Director of the Global Centre at UTEC University in Uruguay and, through this role, she supports tribes and first nation people within their communities. She discusses her experience as a new mother and how she felt 'so alone' and 'left behind' in her world. She compares this to how new mothers are treated within the communities she studies and how she sees parental wellbeing...

Lorina Troy shares her shocking story of having her children removed. A mis-diagnosis led to her children being fostered, their father being arrested under two felonies linked to this mis-diagnosis, losing their home, marriage break-down ... to proving the mis-diagnosis, fighting for her children to be returned, all the way to successfully having the law changed for the right to a second medical o...

Sue Atkins helps us see that raising happy, confident kids can be hard, but the good news is that when the going gets tough, we're not alone! With over 15 years experience as a parenting coach and teacher, Sue is the Parenting Expert for ITV's 'This Morning', BBC Radio, Disney Junior, Good Morning Britain and India's Education and Parenting World. She guides parents to overcome their challenges an...

Tom Kreffer has diarised his experience from the moment he found out he was going to become a dad and he now writes books in the format of daily journal entries: (Dear Dory: Journal of a Soon-to-be First-time Dad) is about pregnancy from a soon-to-be dad's perspective. His second book (Dear Arlo: Adventures in Dadding) covers the first year (newborn to one-year-old) and his third, about to be rele...

Debbie Ausburn is a social worker turned lawyer, former foster parent, and current stepparent, and she written a book titled, 'Raising Other People's Children: What Foster Parenting Taught Me about Bringing Together a Blended Family.' Debbie has spent decades working with traumatised children and this fascinating chat looks at the journey to writing her book. DebbieAusburn.com raisingotherpeoplesc...

Hans Kullberg's 10-month-old daughter, Aviva, passed away in November 2020 and he takes time in this podcast to explain how he has grieved, and still grieves. He is building a legacy in Aviva's name through a series of children's illustrated books: Baby Aviva Orangutan Diva, and by encouraging others to take a closer look at grief and the grieving process. Contact Hans on IG @avivasdad or via www....

Mavis Karn, LSW, MA, is an incredibly wise woman. She works in private practice offering coaching, counselling, teaching, education and consulting services. Here she discusses an important lesson she has offered her clients for more than 40 years. Deep listening gives people the opportunity to begin changing their lives, restore hope, and greatly increase their ability to experience peace and joy...

Ali Fanshawe is a parenting language specialist and founder of Fzzykids. In this podcast she shares her personal experience of adopting two children with educational learning needs, plus emotional and behavioural issues - what Ali refers to as being fizzy! Once she had understood and accepted that that things aren't always how we think they should be, Ali now feels able to share her journey and, t...

Jack Pransky is a Three Principles author, trainer and practitioner: a coach of coaches and a counsellor of counsellors. He is a national and international consultant, speaker, and author who has worked in the field of prevention and community organising since 1968. He has written a range of books for children and adults. In this podcast we discuss his book: Parenting From The Heart. Jack talks ab...

SF Banks is a man on a mission; he's full of energy and positivity, even though a traumatic event at the age of 16 could have meant things may have turned out very differently. SF sees his vocation as supporting teens. He feels the pandemic has opened up opportunities for the future of younger people and says it's a great time to be inspired. Find SF on www.ychiamag.com and @sfdreamsbig

In the summer of 2021 I chatted with Theresa Mitchell, executive producer at Jhene Productions, who was finalising her documentary programme 'Life After Loss'. The aim of the documentary is to empower and give voice to many unnoticed women who struggle with infertility, pregnancy and infant loss. We talk about the differences in the UK and US healthcare services, grieving for miscarried or sleepin...

Marita Nizam is the author of 'Little Rabbit and the Grumpy Poos'. We had a great chat about why she felt moved to write this book and the powerful message behind it, which points to children being able to self-validate and know they are good enough no matter what anyone around them (like a Grumpy Poo) tells them. You can find out more at https://maritanizam.ca/

Sonia Worthington is the Director of Parenting Solutions Devon. We chatted about how families and parents can find themselves in really challenging situations and what can be done to support them. This is a UK based episode but the discussion may spark ideas for support options in other countries. Find out more at www.parentingsolutions.co.uk

Jonnie Jensen is the founder of Team Super Dad and the Hero Academy. He chats about his personal journey through a failed marriage, where he speaks candidly about how he worked to become the man he wanted to be, and the dad his children needed him to be. You can find out more at https://www.teamsuperdad.com/

Cassandra Lane is a mum, an editor and the author of the award winning historical non-fiction novel We Are Bridges, where she shares the story of her family past in the Deep South of America. We chat about how this journey led her to realise it was time for her to become a parent, plus how we should all value our own stories and remain true to ourselves, because that's what out kids need us to be....