Reflective Parenting Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Anna Skates is taking over the Curious Neuron podcast! Anna shares her wisdom with us and teaches us 3 important tips that will help make transitions easier for our kids. Transitions are hard! When your child protests transitions, it can make it difficult for parents to see the reason behind it, the why. Zooming out, as we have mentioned before, doesn't seem to work during tr...

Send us Fan Mail The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends NO screen time younger than 18 months and very little screen time (<1hr/day) from 18-24 months unless it’s video-chatting with family members. Have you ever wondered why? The Curious Neuron team decided to dig deep into the research and see if certain claims about screen time in toddlers were true. You might be surprised by the resu...

Send us Fan Mail Today's episode is a solo episode with Cindy Hovington, Ph. D. founder of Curious Neuron. With the new school year approaching, you might be wondering if your child is ready to either start school for the first time or to return. I walk you through 5 important skills you work on with your child (through play or conversation). These 5 skills have been suggested by research to...

Send us Fan Mail Trigger warning: pregnancy loss   In today’s episode we meet with parents Bret Shuford and Stephen Hanna, Broadway husbands, who started a family by choosing surrogacy. We start with learning a bit about the couple and how they decided to use surrogacy over other methods of conceiving. We talk about building a connection with the surrogate and the newborn. We also chat about the p...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, we chat with Susie Allison, M. Ed., a former teacher and creator of Busy Toddler (1.8 million followers!). We discuss boredom, what it is, why it’s important for our children’s development and how to respond to a bored child. We discuss how to introduce boredom to a child that is currently constantly engaged in a realistic way. Susie explains what child-led pla...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode Dr. Rani Banik is here to discuss everything about the visual system and the brain. First, we focus on the development of the visual system, then speak about our children’s screen time and how to best initiate their visual development. We touch upon the types of light, whether blue light blockers are necessary and the dangers and/or benefits of sun gazing. Liste...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode Dr. Vanessa Lapointe, registered psychologist, joins us to discuss aggressive behavior in children and how to mediate it. We discuss how to be curious about your child’s behavior – zooming out can be informative about why your child is being aggressive. Dr. Lapointe answers important questions like: How do parents play a part in their child’s aggressive behavior...

Send us Fan Mail In today's episode, I unpack a viral post on social media stating that Cocomelon is addictive. I know I am covering screen time for a second week in a row but when I posted about screen time on Instagram and used Cocomelon as an example of a TV that fit the criteria for quality TV shows, my DMs blew up! I address screen time for children under the age of 2 and answer these qu...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, we chat with Cheryl Gotthelf, educator by trade and TV child development consultant. Cheryl shares her years of experience in terms of deciding whether a show is developmentally appropriate for a child. We discuss the criteria television channels evaluate to decide what age category to place a show. Take out your Curious Neuron notebooks because Cheryl gives us...

Send us Fan Mail 3 tips or conversations I wish someone would have told me when I was expecting my first child. In today's episode, our host, Dr. Cindy Hovington, discusses some tips she wishes she would have received when she was expecting her first child. We often get advice as new parents. How should we hold our baby? How should we feed them? Where should they sleep? However, in today&apos...

Send us Fan Mail Trigger warning: physical and sexual abuse In today’s episode, we speak with two dads and men's mental health advocates Emmanuel Flores and therapist Travis Goodman, LMFT. We cover so many important topics, I think this is one of my favorite episodes. We talk about how men are often told to push their emotions under the carpet and be strong, while also being told they need to...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode we chat with two experts about burnout. Dr. Jaclyn Margolis, PhD explains how to manage and prevent burnout in the workplace. Meanwhile Shelley Kemmerer, PA-C, sheds light on parental burnout and how to maintain wellbeing at home when demand is higher than your resources. We learn about the main symptoms of this syndrome and how to recognize when your stress has...

Send us Fan Mail I think that being a parent is similar to being a CEO of a company. You need to be a great leader, you need to understand the members of your team and communicate goals and strategies you want them to execute. Listen to today's episode to get 3 tips that will change how you feel and think as a parent. Take out your Curious Neuron notebooks! Thank you to our supporter the Tane...

Send us Fan Mail Trigger warning: early life stress, child abuse, spousal abuse. In today’s episode, we speak to Dr. Erin Dunn, social and psychiatric epidemiologist at Harvard University. We discuss the difference between stress, early life adversity, and childhood trauma. We learn about the long-term effects of adversity and what parents can do to mediate or buffer them. Dr. Dunn answers questio...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, we are joined by Julie Bogart, author of Raising Critical Thinkers and The Brave Learner. We all know the story of the three little pigs, but have you heard it from the wolf’s perspective? Every story has two sides, Julie explains how we can use simple storytelling and poems to introduce the concept of critical thinking to our young children. She urges parents...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, we are joined by Megan Champion M. Ed. Teacher, and mother of 3. She shares with us her journey being a mother to a neurodivergent child and we learn the difference between tantrums and meltdowns and define what sensory sensitivities are. Megan sheds light on how she would like mothers of neurodivergent and neurotypical children to support each other and explai...

Send us Fan Mail In today's solo episode with Cindy, she helps you view your child's behavior in a way that will help you be more compassionate. It is easy to see whining, tantrums, hitting, yelling, and talking back as disruptive or bad behaviors, but when you add the word "because" after you describe their behavior....it sheds light on something very important.  Listen to thi...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, we chat with Alyson Schafer, one of Canada’s leading parenting experts. Have you ever heard of Adlerian or democratic parenting? If not, this episode will teach you all about Alfred Adler’s parenting strategies founded on mutual respect. Alyson discusses how important it is to regulate your own emotions and learn to be uncomfortable so you can better parent you...

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 today’s episode, I am solo and I discuss an article I found that explains how to teach children about gratitude. Reminding our children to say thank you when they receive a gift isn’t as impactful as we might think! We also need to keep in mind a child's development, we can’t expect a 3-year-old to say thank you every time! Take out your note pads because at the end of thi...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode, we speak with Anna Skates, a child and family advocate, parent coach, and founder of Otterly. In a world where our kids are rarely considered, we need to take a step back and see them as human beings experiencing life. Why is my kid reacting this way? How is my kid experiencing this moment? Anna gives us some important mantras that can be repeated daily to impr...

Send us Fan Mail In today's episode Dr. Michele Kambolis, mind-body specialist and author of When Women Rise, joins us to discuss how parents need to support themselves in order to take care of their children. Dr. Kambolis speaks about how self-care can be as simple as adding small daily doses of intentional pauses and breathing, no guilt necessary. Join us to learn about how 4-4-6-2 breathin...

Send us Fan Mail I know this is a topic that might cause some controversy, but I think this is an important one to have. When it comes to parenting, I always suggest we follow our gut and trust ourselves, however, given the strong evidence that suggests we should avoid using physical punishment with our children, not spanking our children is something that I stand firmly behind. In today's so...

Send us Fan Mail In today's episode, I discuss a conversation I had with my mother. She said that "our generation is too sensitive" when it comes to parenting. Let's just say that it was an interesting conversation! I think there is a misunderstanding about what positive parenting is. In this episode, I discuss the various types of parenting styles and the impact they each have...

Send us Fan Mail Please Note: Today's podcast covers childhood trauma that may be difficult for some listeners. For today's episode, we are joined by Claudia Belliveau, a Ph. D. candidate, and researcher at McGill University in Montreal. She is conducting research on the physical changes to the brain after it has undergone trauma. We will discuss the observations that Ms. Belliveau has d...