Connected Parenting

My guest this week Dr Friedemann has for more than 20 years been helping people overcome fear and anxiety without medication --- ultimately supporting them in their break through of both their mental and emotional blocks to eventually become the empowered leaders of their lives. Dr. Friedman is the author of the award winning book the Fear and Anxiety Solution. His newest book, The Empowerment Sol...

As a parent, it's heart-wrenching to see your child starting school without a social safety net, left feeling alone and disconnected. It's natural to feel helpless and overwhelmed by the situation, but there are actionable steps you can take to empower your child and navigate through this trying experience. Together, let's explore the best ways to support your child during this difficult time, whi...

The college acceptance season is upon us and emotions are running high for both students and parents. Some are elated with the news of acceptance, while others are crushed by rejection. Whether you have a college-bound kid or not, helping them navigate the turbulence of rejection can be challenging. In this episode, we’ll explore ways to connect with and support your child through the rollercoaste...

Get ready for an exhilarating journey today as we launch into our first-ever interview series that will take us through the awe-inspiring lives of phenomenal individuals with powerful stories, wisdom to share, and tips to elevate our lives – and parenting game! It is with immense pleasure that I welcome our first guest and real-life superhero, my good friend, Jimmy May. A retired Navy SEAL Command...

Today, I'm going to do a bit of a deep dive into the importance of play, especially in terms of children's psychosocial development and how unstructured, non-guided play is absolutely critical to good mental health in children. Jennifer Takeaways: Children Work Life Out In Play (1:57) Noticing Themes (5:09) Playing Alone Is Healthy (7:16) Kids Have Amazing Imaginations (8:49) The Importance Of Pla...

As a parent of teens, you might be familiar with what I like to call the dreaded "screaming hair fit," caused by everything from finding the perfect outfit before an important event, a haircut gone wrong or even just a pimple on their face. Transition times with teens can be especially turbulent; and leave you feeling pulled you into their emotional "vortex" with no way to get yourself out of it....

As parents we have all heard the same messaging about – making sure our teens talk to us face-to-face and spend less time on their screens. However, when it comes to texting with them this may not always be the hard and fast rule.   So why on earth would I tell you to text your teen?   Tune into today’s episode and discover how texting your teen can make having conversations easier while also aidi...

Making mistakes is guaranteed in life. But they’re also an inevitable and intricate part of learning and growth. This means how we react to those mistakes, especially in front of our kids, really teaches them how to respond to errors and perfection. Our kids are always watching us, and we are always teaching them — is the message clear?   VALENTINE’S SALE | HAPPENING NOW | It’s time for a revoluti...

February is the perfect month to explore the science behind love and its impact on parenting. Discover how dopamine and oxytocin, aka ‘happy hormones’, can help you better understand yourself, build stronger relationships with your family, and foster meaningful connection through deeper insight of emotions.. Join us for an in-depth journey into the neurobiology of love.   Have you seen my latest c...

Ever feel like you are stuck in this never ending loop of back and forth with your kids? In today’s episode, I’m talking about “the protest”. When it comes to strong-will kids or “Gladiators” as I lovingly call them you will often see this sort of pushing back, or automatic no to almost any new idea and or transition. They just have a very powerful counter to whatever it is you say, that they hold...

What is a gladiator child?   I realized I referenced that term a lot in some of my podcast episodes but I haven’t actually done an episode that speaks specifically on what a gladiator child is like, who they are and what their incredible qualities are.   So join me this week to explore what it means to have a “gladiator child” and learn just how much they really do bring to our lives and the world...

Having older children now has made me very much aware of time and pace at which it moves. Everyone warns you of this fact when you first become a parent and it isn’t until, you look back you realize how fast time actually went. For many of you who have little ones who are exhausted, and it just seems like it’s never going to end. Instead every day, gets harder and harder and truth is sometimes it...

The holidays can be wonderful, warm and lovely but they can also be really stressful. Kids are tired, they’re sugared up and full of excitement. Unfortunately, excitement doesn’t always feel great in a child’s body. Sometimes it just feels like excess energy that they have to diffuse. With this level of excitement during the holiday season comes a lot of expectations and worry about, are my kids g...

Today I have my favorite guest, Natalie Syrmopoulos, joining me, and we’re talking about how to invest in play even when you’ve had a really stressful day. Like most parents just hearing that probably sounds exhausting, and it not like something that you really want to do. If you can relate, this episode is just what you need. Join us to hear our top tips for how to keep it fun even when you’ve ha...

Today I want to talk about teenage angst and in particular, the age of 15. 15 is a tough age for teenagers that I call that the ‘existential year’. Whether you have a teen this age or one upcoming join me and together let’s figure out what’s going on in their teenager brain, and learn what it is you can do to help comfort and soothe them all while forging a deeper connection. Have you seen my late...

It is unbelievably challenging to parent a master procrastinator. Your days are filled with worry, and an ever-growing pit in your stomach as you watch them play video games, or sit on their phone amidst looming homework due dates and projects that haven’t even been started yet. Often leading you to parent from a place of fear, where nagging, begging, pleading, threatening and the removal of their...

Today I'm going to talk about baby play, also known as limbic bonding. This is one of the pillars of Connected Parenting that includes moments where you deeply connect with your child, look in their eyes, rub noses, put your hands on their cheeks, or play with and tickle them. In those precious moments, incredible things are happening... You're bonding You're building emotional resilience You're s...

Today's an interesting topic --------- I'm going to talk about self-heckling and the broken self esteem that comes as a result of it. Self-heckling is that constant voice inside our head, that says things like... "of course, you couldn't do that", "someone else would do it better than you" "you're a failure" This leaves us or our children and us feeling less than, like we don't matter or that ever...

Today I want to talk about sleep as it is certainly a big issue for not only kids in general but more specifically gladiator kids and even us as parents. This can be especially true right after a high anxiety holiday like Halloween and or the upcoming time change that happens at the beginning of November. Sleep patterns get thrown off or completely tossed out the window. The good news is that if y...

For most kids Halloween and the time leading up to it can be really fun and they love it. But for a lot of very sensitive children the feelings and reactions can be quite the opposite and extremely anxiety provoking. Everywhere they look they are seeing scary images on every lawn, and on every commercial on television, there's images of witches, ghouls and ghosts. If this is something you are faci...

The teen dating scene, has become extremely complicated both for them and us as parents. In fact by the time you listen to this, the scene may have even morphed and changed a little bit again. Social media of course has played a huge part in really complicating things for sure because teens have been given the ability to talk to a number of different people all at the same time. The novelty of the...

Childhood is a time where kids are trying to figure out how to be heard, how to make an impact, when to back off, and when to step forward. They do this by making a lot of mistakes, bumping up against things and learning sometimes the hard, experiential way, what does and doesn't work. Today I want to talk about socially aggressive behavior and bullying, how to help your children if they are victi...

Your kids have been at school all day and then they've probably had after school programs, so by the time they sit down to do their homework at night, they are fried, they are tired, and they don't want to do it. The odd child already has their homework done and is bringing it to you to sign off on but that's very rare. Most kids procrastinate, drag their heels and refuse to do it. Some kids in fa...

Anxiety and worrying get a bad rap. We are taught to think of them as a bad thing and something we have to fight against. This is why it is vital that we help our kids understand the important role anxiety plays in our lives. For instance if we didn't have anxiety, then we wouldn't look twice when we cross the street and that could end very badly for us. The reality is a healthy amount of anxiety...

Sometimes your kid will say things like, I keep thinking of this, or every time I hold a glass, I think about smashing it and they get worried about what they see as troublesome thoughts better known as intrusive thoughts. So today I want to talk about these weird thoughts that come up for all of us at one point or another in different ways, what they are and how we should handle them. The truth i...