How to Parent Peacefully. With the Hand in Hand Parenting approach.

Welcome to today’s episode where we’re diving into a topic many parents wrestle with: setting limits the gentle parenting way . It’s a balancing act, finding that sweet spot of setting appropriate limits - am I being too strict and controlling or am I being too permissive? Today I explore how to navigate walking the tightrope of limits with intention and connection. I talk about:  Understanding Yo...

Attunement is a super important concept in parenting, where your brain's limbic system tunes in and syncs up with the emotional energy of your child. Of course, we deeply love our children and attunement is how children know they are loved.  Children’s brains develop through relationships with caring, attuned adults. By being present, noticing their emotions, and responding thoughtfully, we help c...

You haven't seen your child all day, you are excited to reconnect with them and find out all about their day - but you are met with one word answers at best or even a full on meltdown. Why do other people's kids seem to be chatty and full of zest at school pickup and your kid is taking a huff and refusing to get in the car! Or maybe your children fight relentlessly all the way home and you...

Here we are in September and many of us are back to school. Or maybe you’re beginning a new term. Wherever you are in the school year, if you’re having a few challenges you aren’t alone and I’m here to help.  Your child might be struggling with some aspect of school such as:  Separation anxiety Getting out the door in the morning Behaviour or friendship dynamics in school After school issues - mel...

Today I talk about how you can keep on parenting to the best of your abilities when life gets challenging. And let’s face it - life seems to continuously throw us huge curve balls.  Just surviving in this world is tough enough - and then parenting on top of that - wow, it’s not easy.  I’ve had a year of ups and downs and huge transitions but the one thing that hasn’t changed is parenting - we stil...

Does it infuriate you when people talk about self-care and it feels totally out of your reach? You are stressed, your kids are fighting and some expert is telling you to take a bath?? Before we can even think about self-care, we need to do this first... And that is checking in with our nervous systems, noticing whether we are in fight, flight or freeze and then finding ways to bring ourselves back...

This week's episode is an Ask Me Anything episode, where parents in my community submit their questions and I answer them on the pod.  I have some wonderful questions to answer this week which I think will be relevant to so many of you. A teacher and grandmother asks about the challenges of introducing connection-based approaches to children into the preschool setting. I answer a question abou...

Today on the podcast I talk about the small interactions with your child that happen many times a day but often don’t go so smoothly. A simple request from you turns into a standoff or an argument - and you just want your child to listen without all the drama.  This is something parents ask me about all the time:“I don’t want to respond harshly to my children but I don’t want to be permissive eith...

Today I talk about why parents get angry in the heat of the moment with their children and what you can do in the moment when you feel the anger rising in you.   This is a re-record of the very first episode of the podcast. The sound quality is poor in the original but it is such a great topic so I wanted to put it out there again in better quality. And we need to hear this information over and ov...

In today's episode I talk about that dreaded scenario when you have your day planned out with work or other commitments and your child says (directly or indirectly) "I don't want to go to school today". Your heart sinks. You might panic or try to persuade them that they do really want to go. When we act from a place of panic or frustration, it usually leads to upset and conflict...

In this week’s episode I talk about a super quick, super effective way to connect with your little ones after you’ve all had a busy day apart.  Often asking them about their day leads to one word answers or can make your child irritable with you.  Despite their reluctance to talk to you, they want to reconnect, they want to feel close to you but asking them questions is rarely the best way.  Inste...

Happy new year! Today I want to talk about the only new year’s resolution you need to make to get your parenting back on track.  It is one of my favourite practices and it is probably the most effective and most important parenting strategy that you can start using straight away.  January is a great time of year to reassess your parenting, to notice what needs to go and what you need to get back o...

Oh no, Christmas is almost upon us! We all know that Christmas with small children doesn't always go smoothly. The mix of excitement, lack of routine and excessive amounts of sugar doesn't always make for a peaceful holiday. But fear not, I am your Christmas elf and I’m going to help you make it through the festive season with your sanity intact - and hopefully you will also be able to hav...

The last thing exhausted parents want to hear is that they should be playing with their kids more - right? Perhaps the thought of rough and tumble play fills you with dread, perhaps you have tried it and it all ended in tears, or perhaps you are curious about it but you aren't quite sure how to go about it. This week I'm here to inspire you to give physical play a go with your kids. In as...

When parenting is hard, when we lose patience with our kids or we don’t have the motivation to give them the attention they need, we almost always blame ourselves.  Parent’s ask me all the time what they can do in these tricky situations. They presume the fault lies with them, if only they responded differently, tried harder, did more, then things would be better.  But what if none of it was your...

Today is an Ask Me Anything episode. I have lots of juicy questions about a whole range of topics including children running away in carparks, responding to a child who always wants a new toy in the shops, helping a child who doesn’t like to say hello or goodbye, a child who often interrupts, impulse control with hitting and sibling rivalry.  I love the Ask Me Anything episodes because I think it...

Today I am talking about self-forgiveness in parenting and why it is so very, very important as we all strive to be more gentle parents. In fact, I will go as far to say that it is difficult to be a gentle parent without extending that same empathy towards yourself. Empathy is at the very heart of gentle parenting but it is often considered something we offer mainly to our children. But it is hard...

It is great to be back with season 3 of the podcast! And today I’m talking about After-school Restraint Collapse. You may not have heard this term - if you haven’t, it simply refers to the phenomenon of kids holding it together all day and then after-school they fall apart. They might have a meltdown in the car on the way home or they might be grumpy and short-tempered for the rest of the day, mak...

This week on the podcast I am talking about boundaries and limits. Boundaries in parenting are about understanding our own comfort levels and needs in a given moment with our children. They are internal and help us establish limits with our kids. These limits don't have to be harsh or controlling; they can be set in a gentle, loving, and warm manner. Boundaries and limits are not about trying...

This week on the podcast I am talking about how to help our children with frustration.  I think frustration is one of the most difficult emotions to be with - because so often we end up frustrated ourselves. We quickly get frustrated with our children’s frustration.  So this week I’m talking about how we can break out of that cycle of frustration and deal with it in a more emotionally mature way s...

This week’s topic is prompted from a question in my  Facebook group  about parenting from afar.  This parent is working away for 3 weeks and wants to know how to help her child with the separation.  Separations do affect children, but there is so much we can do to support them with separation - whether it's dropping your child to school or daycare every day or longer separations when you are a...

The podcast is back! Today I’m asking when is a consequence actually a punishment? And how can I swap consequences for connection and still get my kids to bed on time??! This episode was inspired by a parent who asked me about her child who was reluctant to get ready for bed. “If you don’t put on your pyjamas we won’t have time to read your bedtime story” Is this a consequence or a punishment? Lis...

Welcome back to Part 2 of my parent q&a. In this episode I answer even more of your parenting questions from sibling rivalry, to teaching consent to helping children with aggression and much more. The first question is about sibling rivalry and how you can set the foundations of a great sibling relationship between your children. For more on sibling rivalry check our Episode 6 of the podcast #...

Welcome to Episode 65 of the podcast where I answer questions from parents in my free Facebook Group: Peacefully Parenting Under 8s . First up we have a question about how to navigate sleepovers safely and with confidence.  Then I answer a question about dealing with  a school where teachers are shouting at children - how can you advocate for your child whilst modelling a gentle and resp...

This week I share with you my six simple steps to help you stay calm in the chaos.  This is a recording of a live workshop I delivered online last week.  I share my six step RETURN process and lots of practical strategies you can put into place straight away to support you on your journey to becoming a peaceful parent. I also share some big perspective shifts that I have learned along th...