The Balanced Parent Podcast

Hey, my dears! We are going to do something a little bit different for today's episode. I'm going to let you listen in on one of the group coaching calls that I had recently in my membership, Balancing U. You may have been following along with the Reactivity to Responsiveness Challenge and if you have, then you know that I have decided to move all of my courses and programs into my membership. And...

Every year in the month after school starts back up here in the States, I get flooded with questions from parents about how to ease their child's transition back to school and how to navigate an educational environment that is not always grounded in the same principles of respect that we focus on at home. And I know from personal experience that big transitions are never easy, especially for those...

For this week's episode, we are going to talk about speech development and how to go about getting your children's support. To help me in this conversation, I brought in a speech pathologist and therapist, Leanne Sherred. She is currently the President and Founder of Expressable - online speech therapy, a company that envisions a modern and affordable way for anyone who needs speech therapy to acc...

I hear a lot of parents who want to help their kids make transitions a little bit easier, but transition can be difficult for us, adults, too! Like when you come in from a grocery store run and you'd like to just unload in peace but everyone needs something! Whether you've just been gone for luxurious solo Target run, a relaxing yoga class, a lovely nature walk, or even a night away, the chaos of...

I truly believe that the way for us to teach kids the values we really want to pass on, is to do our best to embody and model them in our daily lives. But it's hard because sometimes these double standards are so sneaky, and are cloaked in our cultural conditioning that can make us prejudiced against kids so that we can feel justified in saying, "my kids can't do this but I can since I am an adult...

Mainstream parenting (aka the parenting most of us received, and that most of us are trying to move away from) often relies solely on power currencies that are inherently damaging to relationships: fear, control, and hierarchy. If any of those are present in a romantic relationship, we know (even if we can't always see it from the inside) that it's not ok, not healthy. Yet they tend to be the defa...

If you were able to listen to the bonus episode last week, let me know if it helped you in dealing with a spirited child who is stuck in their big feelings ( if you have one ), I always love hearing from you! To continue the conversation around this topic, we will talk about how parenting a challenging, strong-willed kiddo can be seen as a spiritual practice and a journey. ​ I know that raising a...

Listen in to this coaching session with a wonderful mom from my BalancingU Membership community as I help her problem solve how to help her spirited kiddo who is struggling to move past his strong feelings. ​ Free (anonymous if you prefer) coaching on the podcast is a perk of being in my BalancingU membership.

In this episode I am joined by a special guest, Jennifer Szeghi. She is a parenting expert and the founder of Successful Parenting. Here's a summary of our conversation: What we can do as parents to keep our kids safe Having a conversation with kids on developing a healthy relationship with their bodies Protecting Your Child from unsafe adults (and who is responsible for their safety) Keeping our...

If you are a parent to a kiddo who is struggling with behavior issues, anxiety, or ADHD, my heart goes out to all of you. Please know that you are not alone. There is support available to you and that is why for this week's episode, we are going to talk about what we can do when one of our kids need help. This is something I have coached a few moms through in my membership, and if you'd like to li...

For this week's episode on The Balanced Parent Podcast, we are going to dig in into childhood anxiety and specifically delve into the most common missteps that well-meaning parents of anxious kids make that actually end up increasing anxiety in the long run. As a parent to an anxious kiddo, I've found myself caught in a few of these traps and I think my conversation with Dawn Friedman, therapist a...

I know we all want a better world for our children, that's a big part of why you're on this respectful parenting journey with me, right? At some level, most of us believe that by raising our children with dignity, respect, and emotional intelligence, we will send out emotionally healthy, whole children who know how to stand up for themselves, what healthy relationships look like, and how to advoca...

ADHD is getting a lot of buzz out there in the world recently, and many adults, especially woman (who as girls perhaps had their symptoms overlooked) are getting diagnosed, sometimes alongside their kids. I've spoken to quite a few of you who have gone through this process and so many of you have expressed initial feelings of relief, that there is a real, true reason that things have always seemed...

This week's episode is the final installment of our College or Not Series. I've heard from so many of you that you've been enjoying the series, even those of you with littles, and I'm so glad to hear that! When I was navigating decisions about my future as a child and teen, college was the *only* option presented to me by my family full of teachers and while that was the right choice for me and I'...

I hope that the first episode of our College or Not Series helped you find resources in supporting your child in determining their passion in life. For this week, we will have the second installment of the series which will tackle figuring out if college is the right path for your child and supporting your child in finding careers that are fulfilling for them (and not what we think is right for th...

For the next couple of weeks, we are going to be having a conversation around college and careers for our kids. I will be bringing in colleagues and experts to discuss how we can support our children as they grow and find their passion and career that is fulfilling for them. When I meet with a family for the first time, or they sit down to do one of my courses, one of the first things we do is sta...

For this week's episode on The Balanced Parent Podcast, we are going to talk about something a little different: how to keep the fire of our relationship with our partner burning. To help me in this conversation, I have my dear friend (truly, we are besties!) and colleague Janna Denton-Howes. She is a women's Desire Coach and she's going to talk to us all about how we can stay connected and enjoy...

I don't know about you, but as a mom and a wife, I often get the message that I need simply need to stop being a martyr and ask for what I need if I want a more balanced or fulfilling life. Seriously, the biggest hurdle most of the moms and couples that I work run into is NOT that they don't ask for what they need, and it's NOT that they don't have a partner who is actively looking to support them...

Hey, my dears! For this bonus episode, I will be doing a live coaching session from one of BalancingU members (free coaching on the podcast is a member's only perk!) about how to handle sensitive kids who can't take correction. And in our conversation, I have recommended books to help them navigate this topic. I want to share it with you, too (you can find it in the show notes).

For this week’s episode, we are going to talk more about raising complex kids. And to help me in this conversation, I am joined by Elaine Taylor-Klaus. She is the co-founder and CEO of ImpactParents.com , an online support resource for parents of complex kids in the world, serving parents on six continents and more than a hundred countries. She is the author of 2 books including The Essential Guid...

One of the things I teach the parents in my community (which is you!), is to be more present in the moment and be fully aware of our thoughts and emotions so that we can fully understand our needs. In this way, we can better address what we need to be more balanced as a parent and as an individual as well. It is so easy to get stuck in a feeling or a narrative of ourselves and our lives, and we ca...

The past few weeks have been a brutal reminder for me that prioritizing my own health and well-being is absolutely critical, not only for parenting and partnering consciously, but just for living a purposeful, meaningful life! So often when self-care is taught to parents, especially moms, we get "sold" on it by highlighting the benefits of taking good, gentle care of yourself for your family: You'...

For this week's episode on The Balanced Parent Podcast, we will have the second installment for the motherhood series. And in this episode, we are going to dive deep into the mother-daughter relationship and figure out how we can have a healthy relationship between us and our daughters, and our Moms too!  To help me in this conversation, I am joined by Ann Dillard who is a Licensed Marriage a...

For the rest of this month, we will be talking all about motherhood starting with an interview with Zelmira Crespi, author of Happy Mom, Happy Kid We will be talking about the transition to motherhood and how to find ourselves, happiness, and joy in this journey, including Managing stress levels and find ways to live motherhood on a positive note Managing expectations that we have of ourselves as...

When it comes to parenting and especially motherhood, there are so many things that we hide or gloss over, dirty little secrets that shame and fear and judgment tell us to keep to ourselves. Sometimes it's the small stuff (like how each of my kids have had YEARS long stretches of sleeping in their clothes the next day to avoid the morning getting dressed battles) and then sometimes it's the big st...