Parenting with PLAY!

This can be an incredibly overwhelming time! You’re home, with your kids 24/7 - trying to work, to help your older kids with school work, to entertain your younger kids, to stop sibling fights, to cook, keep the house in some sort of order, stay in contact with family & friends, etc, etc. The more overwhelmed you feel, the more your kids play up and the more overwhelmed you feel! So why do you...

How are you? How are your children in these uncertain times? Everyone is figuring out this new situation and it's easy for our children to be scared. So how can you best help them? Especially when your words of reassurance don't seem to be sinking in and your children are becoming afraid about death and everyday things. How are you feeling about the possibility of daycares and schools shutting dow...

Do you use Time Out with your children when they're being particularly difficult? It's a really common technique to manage behaviour. But is it ultimately helpful? In this week's episode I cover: the lens through which we view children's behaviour: the old vs the new way why Time Out doesn't address the reasons for your child's difficult behaviour why it can actually be detrimental what children n...

If you ever feel like you're "losing yourself" in motherhood and that the day to day reality is hard, then listen in to this conversation with Callie Brown to start to reframe what you're experiencing and discover how to experience more joy in the everyday reality of life with small children. Callie Brown Coach: Website: http://calliebrown.com.au/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/calliecoach/...

Do you sometimes feel like you're walking on eggshells with your child? Do you want to be quite relaxed with your child, and then end up getting frustrated, cross and being harsh in your limits? Or are you not quite sure the best way to foster your child's sense of independence, curiosity and freedom whilst also restoring sanity and order to your family? Knowing how to set a "Loving Limit" with my...

We're often told it's vital to be consistent in our responses to our children's behaviour so that they learn what's acceptable and what's not. But how helpful actually is it? Should it be your main approach when dealing with challenging behaviour? If we focus purely on 'being consistent' then how does that impact our intention to connect with our child and how does it actually help with their emot...

When your child starts school, it's a really big & important time - for your child and for you! So how can you best prepare and support them during this significant transition? And how can you help your child if they're anxious about going back for a new school year? Shelley Clarke from Embodied Therapies joins me this week to share how she is supporting her daughter before she starts school i...

January is obviously a really good time to think about what you really want. Because if you want to have more of what you want, you need to know what it is that you want. But are you clear about what you want? Spending 5 - 10 minutes reflecting and getting clear is so powerful. Listen this this episode to give yourself the nudge & inspiration to become intentional about your year ahead with yo...

In the face of the terrifying fires in Australia, and other scary events around the world, it can be hard to know how to best help your child with their feelings of fear, sadness or anxiety. So this episode gives you practical ways to help build your child's resilience, confidence & optimism.

Christmas & the holidays are great times for catching up with family - which can be really lovely and/or really stressful! Particularly if you're parenting a different way to your siblings and how your were raised. There can be judgements, comments & unwanted suggestions, which can cause you to be more stressed and, frustratingly, your children's behaviour to become more challenging. So ho...

Christmas can be a wonderful time, but it can also be stressful, overwhelming and challenging too. Particularly when your kids bicker, complain, appear to be ungrateful and start to meltdown after you've created a fantastic day. So how can you make it more enjoyable for everyone, including you?

It can be so infuriating when you know that your baby or child is tired and yet they just won't go to sleep! Maybe they become hyper at bedtime, or maybe they keep asking for more & more things to delay going to sleep, or maybe they become really challenging and get annoyed or upset over minor things. This episode is about what's going on for your baby or child: why they can find it hard to ea...

It's so understandable that you get annoyed with your child. We've ALL been there! There's really good reasons why you feel & behave in the way that you do. But, as you know, it's not ideal and often it ends up making the situation worse as your child's behaviour could escalate even more. Or they could become quiet & compliant, which initially seems great, but isn't ultimately helpful for...

How is your child when you collect them after school? Relaxed? Calm? Moody? Grumpy? Aggressive to you or their sibling? And how do you usually help your child in those moments? It's so easy to pop the TV on to distract them, or just tell them to play nice and get annoyed when they don't. But what is the most effective & helpful way of supporting our children when they come home feeling upset o...

Ever wondered why your child has the biggest upsets over the tiniest of things?! Why they become so fixated about a particular coloured plate, or a particular toy, or to have something in a particular way. Why they have a massive cry that's disproportionate to what's actually going on in the moment. And have you wondered about the best approach to dealing with this behaviour? Chances are you react...

Will they learn that if they behave in that way, they’ll get your loving attention? Will that lead them to deliberately behave in that way just to get your attention? Responding playfully is probably the completely opposite to how your parents responded to you. And it's the opposite of much advice that's out there. But when you really understand what your child is actually needing in those challen...

It's a hard thing to admit that you currently don't like your child. There can be a huge amount of shame associated with it, and strong feelings that you "shouldn't" feel that way. After all, you're their mum or dad - you're the one person in the world who "should" love & like them the most! Adding shame or self-judgement on top of your feelings of frustration and annoyance only makes things w...

Whether your child is 2 or 9, when they're saying rude or unpleasant things, it can be very hard to know how to make them stop because, unlike when they're hitting or lashing out, you can't physically restrain them. Most approaches, such as ignoring, explaining, reprimanding or banning, often don't work or actually makes the situation worse. So what can you do instead?! Play! Play is the most effe...

Play is a fantastic & highly effective way of responding to your child in challenging moments. But there are times when it isn't enough. When your child is clearly upset or being aggressive, you need to do something else. What your child needs in those moments is to offload their upset feelings with you nearby. But their response is to often shout at you to "go away". Which can then become con...

When your child is having a tantrum or an emotional outburst it's easy to feel irritated, frustrated, worried, embarrassed, overwhelmed or angry. But when you see just how beneficial tantrums can be, you can start to see them as healthy ways for your child to offload their stress & upset feelings with you. Because your child's behaviour is governed by their emotions, so when you effectively he...

Do you find yourself shouting and realising that you're not actually making the situation better, but you can't seem to stop yourself? Are there times when you feel completely justified in your anger & frustration at your kids? But then you realise that the whole situation is just getting worse rather than better. Do you wonder what you could do instead?! In this week's episode I share an inci...

Imagine if everyone felt loved unconditionally. No shame, no guilt. Less violence, less addiction. More love, more connection We'd all be free to be our true ourselves. So why is it so hard to feel that for ourselves? And why is it so hard to give that to our children? Our culture plays such a huge role in our beliefs and actions as parents. And the western one has shame, guilt & blame running...

My son George, 4, recently bashed his head against the coffee table and needed 4 stitches at the hospital. One week later, he needed to have those stitches taken out. Find out how I helped him throughout which led him to lying there calmly & relaxed whilst the stitches were removed Discover what you can do at the time of the injury to help strengthen your child's resilience, and how to prepare...

Do you feel valued as a mother? Why have you chosen to parent the way you do? What are you wanting for your children? What are you wanting for yourself? Big questions. Ones that are worth asking & considering. And ones that I spent time reflecting upon after my experience on Monday of being a witness at a Parliamentary Inquiry at the NSW State Parliament. For nearly the past 5 years I've been...

When your child is sad, angry or anxious, it's not enough to simply rationalise why they are feeling these things in order to make them feel better or to stop the unpleasant behaviour. Emotions are more than just intellectual thoughts - they cause physical responses. So the best way to help your child with their emotions is to allow them to physically express themselves with you. Crying, raging &a...