The Parent Equation - with Ayesha Murray

Jacob Merkley is a doting dad and husband, entrepreneur and co-founder of Story Tyke. His goal is to help parents increase bonding time with their children through an easier storytime, which was music to my ears!  He is a proud husband to the girl he met in a lift and is the proud father of three kids under six! He freely admits that some of his previous ventures haven't worked out, but isn&a...

As a physician in the NICU (newborn intensive care unit), and working mum, Susan knows only too well how easy it is to burn out, physically and emotionally. Through her personal experience, suffering from burnout late in her career, Susan shares how she recovered by fostering her own mental health.  She is really honest about post natal depression, the challenges of raising teenagers how her busy...

Hayley is as passionate about being a mum as she is about supporting small businesses to succeed.   Her entrepreneurial spirit emerged at a young age and she was running her own company at 18, and is still going strong.  Chuck in two kids and you have one of the most organised mums you'll ever meet! We talk about family teamwork, kids independence and what it takes to be a successful business...

Han-Son is the founder of DaddiLife and personally led the research programmes into the modern day dad - The Dad Index and The Millennial Dad at Work . His work has been profiled in the likes of The Financial Times, Daily Telegraph and Huffington Post so it was an honour to chat to him on this episode of The Parent Equation. Shining a light on modern day parenthood is a shared mission and passion...

In this episode, Eva talks to me about how we can understand our values and use them to support our decision making both professionally and at home. As a global family, currently residing in Quito, Ecuador, she shares her experiences of bringing up a tri-lingual child, and how she hopes she will be a good role model based on her own travels and academic pursuits (namely as a  Professor of Structur...

Amy and Sue talk to me about how parental leave is evolving in the US and their mission to bring parental leave to the forefront of employer's minds. The Center for Parental Leave Leadership is the first consulting and coaching company devoted exclusively to helping US families, employees, employers, and companies improve their parental leave policy and practice. Would really appreciate you l...

Dr. Stephanie Ryan, Ph. D. is a chemist, mum to Charlie, and a social media influencer who enjoys using her background to create superior educational products and content.  Although an academic at heart, Stephanie is passionate about learning through play. She can be found helping young kids explore the fascinating world around them and in this podcast, she shares just some of her inspiring ideas!...

Lizzie is on a mission to help organisations retain their talent through coaching programmes designed to support mums coming back to work. She's passionate about instilling best practice from the top down so that we can make a step change in the way working parents are re-integrated after leave. Our shared passion comes through in our conversation - I loved every minute. Would really apprecia...

Jamie Brownlee, PR Director and father of two, shares his experiences of lockdown fatherhood, finding balance and how becoming a parent changes our perspective on life forever! Would really appreciate you leaving a review, and follow and share from wherever you get your podcasts! Find out more about Jamie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/-brownlee-00413018/ Find out more about me: www.ayeshamurray.com...

In 2020 Paul's childhood dream job was taken away from him when a major British airline collapsed at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Rather than sitting around waiting for the situation to improve, he wanted to take control and use his skills to help others. He set up The Cockpit Method™ to do just that, initially focusing on helping frontline workers manage stress and fatigue and now he...

In this episode, Delphine shares her story of how the hamster wheel of life became unsustainable, especially with growing family commitments and a daughter who needed extra support. As with most of us, she assumed that a change of job, but not career was the solution.  But redundancy gave her the impetus, and the buffer to look at something completely different and she ended up following her passi...

What's our purpose, our Why?  Sue talks to me about her long and successful career, from corporate to self-employed consultant, while navigating bringing up three children, some of that time as a single mum. I love that she talked to her children about their values, from an early age and how her values are still so pivotal in the decisions she makes in her career. We talk about the opportunit...

In this episode, Karen Taylor shares her journey, from corporate into starting her own business, Parent Cloud, supporting businesses to support their working parents. She saw a gap in the market where working parents like her were missing valuable support in all areas of parenting, from fertility to nutrition, career coaching to infant sleep. The Parent Cloud platform brings together a range of sp...

Scott Tharler is so honest and open about the tough decisions we all have to make when trying to keep relationships and family together. I'm so honoured he chose to share his story with me and I hope his candour gives others in similar situations the strength they need to make the right decisions for them. Find out more about Scott: www.linkedin.com/in/scotttharler/ https://thefamilycto.podbe...

Meet Daniel Spain, a working dad based in California, who talks candidly to me about anxiety, therapy and dealing with a high pressure career while raising a young family.  The US story is really interesting listening for a UK audience. Get 25 mins in and there's a lovely interlude from Daniel's son, a perfect example of the reality of being a working parent during a pandemic! Find out m...

Mark Fielding, aka The Apocalypse Daddy, lives in the glorious Alps, with his French wife and his two bi-lingual children.  During lockdown, Mark started to document family life and when it was so well received by family and friends, Apocalypse Daddy was born.   It's evolving into an alternative lifestyle blog, covering everything the modern parent needs to know! In this episode, he shares hi...

Rob did what so many of us are thinking of doing - he realised he was burnt out, realised that his family life was being compromised, so he took advantage of his redundancy and set up on his own. He set up Dads in Business to give fellow working fathers the support and space to share their challenges.  He's campaigning to engage more employers as well as giving dads the opportunity to have op...

Hayley shares her US perspective of being a working parent, which feels like a very different experience to the UK.  She chats to me about how stay at home dads are still very much in the minority in her circle, how much sooner mums go back to work in the US, after childbirth and how her company, like many others, are embracing the work life balance. She's a very centered, pragmatic woman, em...

In this episode, Cody and I discuss how building the foundations of a successful, balanced teenager starts in early childhood and it's our role as parents to create an environment where kids can flourish. What role does social media play in the the life of a modern teenager?  How can we, as parents, empower our kids to be the best they can be and carve out a life they're passionate about...

Emma founded Isabella & Us after her daughter was born, with a mission to support mums through the challenges we all face and often aren't prepared for.  She candidly shares her experience of post-natal depression, of managing her business alongside her full time teaching career and about rediscovering your identity after you've had kids. Another inspirational working mum with a grea...

Lynsay is a Podcast & Business Coach with over 20 years experience as an award winning trainer, coach and mentor.  She is the founder of the Podcasting for Business Awards which champions Indie podcasters from all over the world and is the host of the top ranking podcast, Podcasting for Business.  In particular, Lynsay is passionate about getting more female voices heard through the growing me...

In this fascinating episode, Carey and I talk about dealing with her son’s epilepsy and subsequent brain surgery, her passion for educating and coaching people around food and wellbeing and how we should all be confident to make changes in our lives, however difficult they might seem. An inspiring conversation with an amazing woman, if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow wherever you...

In this episode, Paul talks about supporting his son's mental health and wellbeing through a pandemic as well as how his connection with his daughter is changing as she starts her teenage years.  We also share our experiences of how our respective upbringings reflect the way we parent. We talk about projecting our own values on to our children, walking and talking to free ourselves of the con...

I love this episode as Ian and I have a shared mission to support working parents, in his case stressed dads.  We talk about how dads are still sidelined in the childcare equation, how easy it easy for men to be blindsided by everything they have to do and why he's so passionate about driving forward the gender equality conversation. His views on the parent equation are insightful, honest and...

Listen to this episode and you'll hear how Richard has taken the impact of the pandemic on his career, his kids and family in his stride and looked at the opportunities rather than the constraints. He's used the time to improve himself through study ( Mini MBA with Mark Ritson ) and to spend real quality time with his two boys, something which perhaps wouldn't have been possible had...