Parenting Your Sensitive Child

Sleep has never been easy for us. It's been one of my biggest challenges as a parent, and it's a challenge for so many of us parenting sensitive children. This week, I'm sharing our sleep journey and the mindset that has helped us get to a place where we're sleeping well more often than not. To be clear, I'm not sharing answers here. Every child is different, and every family has different comfort...

In today's episode, we're discussing rhythms, with particular attention to the way our family rhythms are influenced by the seasons, the environment, and our own personal rhythms. Creating a predictable rhythm for your family gives your child the structure that they need to feel secure and prepared for what's coming next, without the rigidity of a traditional schedule. A rhythm allows for so much...

Do you ever find yourself avoiding hard conversations because you don't want to rock the boat? Or asking your kids to share their toys because you feel pressured and you just want to keep the peace? In this episode, we're looking at what happens when you prioritize other people's emotions and work hard to keep the peace, particularly the reasons why we do this in the first place, how it impacts yo...

Over the past few weeks, I've been sharing some of the topics I coach my clients on that seem like they have nothing to do with parenting (but actually impact the way we parent A TON). This week we're looking at time management. Time management is another one of those things that sounds separate from parenting. But if it's not becoming clear through this series, the way we do one thing is the way...

This episode is part of a series about topics I frequently coach my clients on that seem like they have nothing to do with parenting. In the last episode, we talked about people-pleasing. If that episode resonated with you, you definitely want to listen to this one, too, because boundaries can be quite challenging if you have any people-pleasing tendencies. It's not uncommon to hear parents talk a...

Over the next few weeks, I'm doing a series on some of the challenges my clients face that seem like they have nothing to do with parenting, but actually have a huge impact on the relationship you have with your child and the parenting legacy you're creating. We're starting off this week with people-pleasing: what is it, and how does it affect the way you show up with and for your child? --- Suppo...

Last week we talked about what it means to be parenting in the gap. We talked about signs you can look for to help you recognize when you're living in the gap between the way people parented when you were young, and the way you want to be parenting your child. We even talked a bit about what you can do to start closing that gap, to start stepping into the vision you hold for your family. In this e...

It is possible to love your child deeply and still feel disappointed from time to time. Parenting a highly sensitive child doesn't always look the way you imagined it would, and it's easy to fall back on old patterns. In this episode, we're talking about feeling stuck in the gap between the way you parented and the way you WANT to parent your child, three signs that you're living in this gap, and...

After three days of 115-degree (F) weather here in the Pacific Northwest, I found myself more tired than usual. This week I'm talking about what you can do to get past the guilt that wells up when you slow down so you can actually get some rest. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/julia-mcgarey/support Get full access to The Blackbird Chronicles at juliamcgarey.substa...

No matter how much we may want to, we can't control our kids. We can't control their emotions, their development, their preferences, or their choices. This week, I'm sharing my experience moving through the heat bubble that record high temperatures to the Pacific Northwest and the two questions that helped me reframe my mindset and actually enjoy the weekend. Asking yourself these questions is a h...

It's normal to feel disconnected from your children at times. With that said, it's also very possible to build stronger connections with your children. This episode focuses on how you can create more consistent connection, and what misconceptions may be standing in your way. All in less than ten minutes, so you can listen while you drink your coffee and then get on with your day. --- Support this...

I've got a bit of a different spin on power struggles than we tend to hear. Most advice out there focuses on how to handle power struggles: give them warnings, give them choices, offer incentives or consequences to get them to comply. Did you catch that? Most advice about handling or avoiding power struggles is built on the assumption that the goal is compliance. We want to get them doing what the...

We place so much pressure on ourselves as parents to live up to a certain standard. We also want to do right by our kids. and we certainly don't want to be that family - you know the one - their kids are running all over the restaurant, screaming and throwing things, and losing it when it's time to leave the park. Their kids never get along and aren't speaking to each other by the time they're adu...

So far we've been talking about what it means to be highly sensitive, and what your child's sensitivity might require from you as a parent. This episode is a big one because we're going to dive into overstimulation and big emotions. Many of my clients come to me because they are dealing with one of these two challenges, and they're feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. Understanding what to do when y...

Dr. Elaine Aron defines four core traits of highly sensitive people: Depth of Processing, Overstimulation, Emotional Reactivity, and Sensing the Subtle. Over the next two episodes, we're going to dig into each one of these, look at what it means, and talk about the challenges it can create for you and your HSC. For this episode, we're going to focus on the first and last traits: depth of processin...

Welcome to the Partnered Path Podcast! My name is Julia McGarey, and I'm a life coach for parents of highly sensitive children. It took me several years after I first heard the term "highly sensitive" to realize that I am a highly sensitive person, and while it's a term that is becoming more mainstream, there are still a lot of misunderstandings and misconceptions when it comes to sensitivity. In...