Reflective Parenting Podcast

Send us Fan Mail What questions should I ask myself to raise a more conscious human being? What if a family member is teaching my child values that I don't agree with? My child is older, is it too late to start having such conversations? What if the conversation is uncomfortable to me? What are the gender stereotypes in my home? Where is the line between pushing an agenda and raising an open-...

Send us Fan Mail Does anybody have an inner voice? What to do when your inner voice becomes a source of anxiety, rumination, and negativity? What strategies can we use to calm the negative inner chatter when we are in distress?  How does a child's inner voice develop, and how can parents help them to develop a positive inner voice? Join us as we chat about inner voice, chatter, and self-regul...

Send us Fan Mail What are executive functions skills, and how can parents support their child's executive skills development? How to identify a problem in your child's executive skills development? How can you help them overcome challenging skills if they are struggling? How can parent's own challenges with executive functions affect their child? Does becoming a parent affect your e...

Send us Fan Mail How do we teach body safety and consent to young children? How soon should we start? How to find the balance between teaching socially expected physical interactions while respecting the child's right to consent? How do we talk about private parts? What are the best terms to use? How to decide who is part of the safety network in which a child can trust to tell if abuse happe...

Send us Fan Mail Have you asked yourself how you are doing today? Have your doctor asked about your mental health during your baby check-ups? How do you know if your mood is being affected by the pregnancy/postpartum hormone changes, or if what you're feeling are symptoms of depression or anxiety? Can dads have postpartum depression? How does self-care look like as a new parent? Join us as we...

Send us Fan Mail What does "eat well" during pregnancy really mean? What is the difference between micro and macronutrients, and how to make sure my body is getting everything it needs to make sure my baby is developing well? What are the best foods, and what to avoid, according to recent research? Can I trust the conventional prenatal guidelines when it comes to nutrition? I am getting...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Marion shares what it’s like to be a neuroscientist studying developmental neuroplasticity.  She obtained her Ph. D. in Neurophysiology from McGill University and is currently a postdoc researcher at the Montreal Neurological Institute, where she studies the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying developmental neuroplasticity. She studies how external factor...

Send us Fan Mail We are re-launching the Curious Neuron Podcast! New episodes every Friday! We will keep them short and sweet because we know you are short on time. We will return our focus to summarizing research focused on parenting and child development.  I have never taken the time to chat about myself and how Curious Neuron was created. Today, my new co-host, Marion Van Horn, interviews me! W...

Send us Fan Mail Which type of parenting do you follow? Positive parenting, conscious parenting, attachment parenting, authoritative parenting, authoritarian parenting...is your head spinning yet? There are many types of parenting described on social media but what do they mean? Are they backed by science? Which one should we be following? Join us as we chat with the psychologists behind Helping F...

Send us Fan Mail This past week, we hit the 1-year mark for the pandemic. It has been a long and difficult year for many parents. Many are exhausted and overwhelmed with having to balance so much every single day without getting a break. This level of stress for prolonged periods of time can lead to burnout. This is a relatively new topic in the field of parenting. In today’s episode, I chat with...

Send us Fan Mail Our automatic response to our child acting out or having a tantrum might be to yell. Then, we fall into a cycle of guilt and tell ourselves that we won’t do it again. Hello spilled milk and cue yelling! Sound familiar?  There are ways to work on ourselves to help regulate our own emotions and according to research, regulating ourselves is one of the best ways to help our children...

Send us Fan Mail If we want to learn more about people we share this planet with, we need to start listening to each other. Whether it is mental health or Autism, our journey to reduce stigma around these starts by listening to those who are living with these conditions. I wanted to interview an Autism person for the topic of neurodiversity so that we could begin to listen and learn. What is neuro...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever wondered, “How do I know if I am providing secure attachment?”.  This episode is for you if you have ever asked yourself, “Why does my child cry when I leave?” or “Am I giving her too much attention?”. Does this mean you do not have a good attachment?  Dr. Tina Payne Bryson and I dig deep into this topic and dispel the misconceptions of attachment. We also highlight...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode we discuss the connection between our brain and our gut. Have you ever had a “gut feeling” or butterflies in your stomach? Ever had an upset stomach when you were nervous? There really is a connection between our gut and our brain. In this episode we discuss whether probiotics are helpful to boost our gut health, how our microbiota is formed as infants, the link...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Suzanne King, a scientific researcher from McGill University in Montreal. We discussed stress during pregnancy. Given the pandemic, many expecting moms might be going through lots of stress. Although it might be worrisome to think of what this stress can lead to, the take-home message of this episode is that we need to lo...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, I chat with Jen about homeschooling. Many of us have been homeschooling our children because of Covid. We might have the idea that homeschooling means sitting at a desk for hours and hours on end. We might feel that a child doesn’t socialize enough if they are homeschooling. Jen and I chat about some of these misconceptions around homeschooling and we dive into...

Send us Fan Mail (missing intro from previous version has been added!) When we think of disciplining our children, we often think of punishing them for their bad behavior. However, this doesn't teach our child what to do when they are frustrated or which behaviour is appropriate when they are mad. My guest today, Yehudis Smith (Author of Rethinking Discipline) teaches us about conscious paren...

Send us Fan Mail Fathers play an important role in a child’s development. Some are similar to a mother’s such that research shows that when a father is sensitive to their child’s needs, it helps a child build their emotional skills and even helps them with academics later on. The roles are different such that when a father plays in a more risky way with their child. it helps build their confidence...

Send us Fan Mail Boundaries (also called limits or rules) are more important than we might think. They give children a sense of security, even if might think so given that they love to push boundaries! In today’s episode, I chat with Jess, a therapist and founder of Our Mama Village. She provides examples of boundaries, how to set them, reinforce them and how to control our own emotions when bound...

Send us Fan Mail Is your child about to start Kindergarten? Have you ever wondered if they are ready to begin school? Which skills do they need to succeed not only in Kindergarten, but throughout their academic life? This week’s guest is Rebecca Weiner. She is an educational consultant and specializes in play-based learning. Rebecca and I discuss important brain skills that have been suggested, ac...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, we are talking about motor milestones in babies! Why is tummy time important? Why is it important for a baby not to skip crawling? What are some head-shape abnormalities? When should a baby start turning, crawling, or walking? What is W-sitting? Visit us at curiousneuron.com for more info about child development and learning! Join us on Instagram @curious_neuro...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, we talk about play!  There are so many opportunities for play with items around our home and Emma from @play_ at_home_ mummy has an Instagram account that beautifully illustrates this. We chat about setting up a playroom, different types of play, what to do when siblings argue, sensory bins, risky play, development, and more! Support the show More ways to becom...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, I chat with Jenny and Carrie about their advice to new parents. We talk about the importance of a stimulating environment, which doesn’t mean having a lot around your baby, but rather being present, getting down on the floor with them during tummy time, and having zero screen time. We might not realize the importance of tummy time, skin-to-skin and the environm...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we discuss childhood anxiety. How do we differentiate between worry and symptoms of anxiety in a child? Symptoms of childhood anxiety can often manifest as challenging behavior or tantrums in young children. Dr. Yee explains the importance of providing children with a safe space to talk and express their emotions. Given that most of us are experiencing some level...

Send us Fan Mail When we hear the term “positive reinforcement” we might get an image of giving a child candy or chocolate to get them to do what we want them to. However, in this episode, Courtney, a behavior analyst, explains that there is a lot more to it. She explains that praise and positive reinforcement are not the same. She describes how we need to assess our child’s behavior and determine...