Zen Pop

Casserly had always been on the top tier soccer team only to find out from her coach that she was being moved down to the next level.  Her reaction to this gut punch might surprise you.  Casserly is going into 6th grade and graduated from our first “Be U Girls Club” in the fall of 2013. We asked Casserly and her mom Rita to share this story in an effort to remind us that children are h...

How do we introduce cell phones to our kids? It’s a big step into an adult world, and concerns such as these are common: Will they abuse it?, Will they turn into “phoneheads”?, What kind of phone is appropriate?, What are the expectations around use of the phone? A few years ago Janelle Hoffman wrote a blog about phone expectations that went viral. We used her blog as “bone...

In the second half of this 2 part interview, we continue the conversation between Aaron Krueger and Erin Kuhn-Krueger about their experience with multiple miscarriages and stillbirth. In this moving and inspiring interview they share their challenges, coping tools, and their strength and determination to become parents. This show is a must if you have experienced pregnancy or infant loss, or if yo...

Of course there are plenty of men who are not misogynists, but that doesn’t mean that women are not subjected to misognystic behavior. We have to take responsibility for ourselves and also recognize what we tolerate- our friends inappropriate jokes or behavior, the song lyrics we listen to, the movies we love, the people we idolize. And it’s not just men, women need to recognize how th...

We speak with Aaron Krueger and Erin Kuhn-Krueger about their experience with multiple miscarriages and stillbirth. In this moving and inspiring interview they share their challenges, coping tools, and their strength and determination to become parents. This show is a must if you have experienced pregnancy or infant loss, or if you know someone who is trying to navigate the grief associated with b...

Of course you are the parent and your role is important, but can you sometimes just drop the role and relate to your child as an individual? We break down the the role of parent to redefine what it means to support your child. When your child comes to you with a problem, do you deal with the internal or the external?  Most of us deal with the external – focus on how it looks and how to fix i...

Do you want to be happy? Guess what, you’ve got the tools to do it! Happiness can be cultivated regardless of your childhood or genes – you just need to make it a daily priority! Shawn Achor is a Harvard Professor who teaches a class on how to be happy –  research shows it comes from the INSIDE and has little to do with the external experiences. It’s not about waiting to be...

Did you know that May is Williams Syndrome Awareness Month? Williams syndrome is a genetic condition characterized by medical problems, including cardiovascular disease, developmental delays, and learning disabilities.  People with Williams Syndrome also tend to have enhanced verbal abilities, highly social personalities and an affinity for music.  It effects 1 in 10,000 people worldwide – an esti...

Todd and Cathy discuss their  disagreement over how “active” their kids should be in extracurricular activities. Keeping  kids “busy” is connected to our past experiences and our need for constant productivity. It is essential that we see ourselves and our motives clearly when creating expectations for our children. We also talk about some conscious parent foundational elem...

Mother do you think they’ll drop the bomb?  That’s the first line in this epic song.  We disect the lyrics and use it to help understand conscious parenting. Roger Water’s song (on the show we use the Natalie Maines version) points out that parents can have the best intentions when “protecting” their children, but if done unconsciously, or with lack of self awareness,...

In honor of Mother’s Day, we invited our moms to talk about what we were like as kids.  We also talk about the changes that have taken place from the time they were kids (a.k.a. the olden days) to  raising us in the 70’s – we also discuss how their grandchildren are being raised. We get nostalgic and we have a lot of laughs. We love our moms! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUkE9...

What’s the difference between punishment, discipline, and natural consequences?  We discuss a few different events that happened in our house that allowed for natural consequences.  Rather than using fear to punish, natural consequences help children understand and integrate a teaching. We also discuss cell phone usage – specifically: What is the correct age to give your access to a ph...

Most of us do.  Why do we sometimes feel like fakes at work, at home, in the world?  Why are we afraid that someone is going to figure out that we really don’t know what we are doing? We discuss how this feeling plays into our parenting and how we can practice feeling as “real” as possible. We play a clip (below) from Amy Cudder’s Ted Talk on self doubt and how to deal with...

Do we want our kids to be popular?  How important is this? What makes our kids popular? Is it athletic ability and physical stature or is it physical attractiveness and attention from the opposite sex? We share our perspective and discuss why parents play a role in how their children are perceived.  We also use great 80’s movies like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club, Pretty...

Typically pessimists respond to problems by believing these three things: It’s Personal – They blame themselves for an event that has occurred. It’s Permanent – They think it will never get better. It’s Pervasive – They assume failure in one area of life means failure in life as a whole and that failure is happening everywhere and can’t be stopped. Do we c...

In this compelling interview, our friend Katie Weiss shares her breast cancer experience, starting with the fact that she was diagnosed at 35.  Due to her age she is told her lump is probably nothing, but she walks us through the series of incidents that lead to the mind-numbing news that she indeed had breast cancer.  Recently separated and with a three-year-old daughter at home, Katie takes us f...

Is it manly to take paternity leave? When Daniel Murphy’s (a player on the New York Mets) wife had a baby, he utilized the paternity leave that is allowed under the collective bargaining agreement set forth by Major League Baseball.  But why is he being criticized?  Is it “man code” to get back to work as soon as the birth is over? If we are a nation of family values, why do we p...

We discuss 8 different ways to help your children be more mindful: 1. Mindful breathing 2. Past/present/future 3. Take in the joy 4. Quiet time 5. Practice listening 6. Emotional awareness – feeling – asking questions about feelings 7. Gratitude – don’t judge what they are grateful for – role model 8. Do it yourself We also discuss the idea of creeping separateness.  This is when we “ignore...

Our friends and neighbors Jeanne and Jeff Plaisted walk the walk.  They decided that on their 15th anniversary they were going to do something special.  Massages on the beach in Hawaii?  Nope.  A cruise through the Caribbean?  Try again. They decided to make a difference.  They stepped away from their day to day life and packed up for a two-week trip to Nicaragua.  They were inspired by Spark Vent...

We all know that most of us are overwhelmed.   The question is- what do we do about it?   Like most things- it begins with awareness.  We get into a discussion based on a book by Brigid Schulte titled – Overwhelmed- Work, Love, & Play When No One Has The Time.   We play some clips from an amazing interview she did with NPR’s Terry Gross.  Some of the highlights include: The idea of...

In this compelling interview, our friend Katie Weiss shares her breast cancer experience, starting with the fact that she was diagnosed at 35. Due to her age she is told her lump is probably nothing, but she walks us through the series of incidents that lead to the mind-numbing news that she indeed had breast cancer. Recently separated and with a three-year-old daughter at home, Katie takes us fro...

Todd confesses that he still feels intimidated by powerful women in our society, and he uses Oprah and Hillary Clinton as examples.  This leads to a discussion about the campaign created by Sheryl Sandberg called “ Banning Bossy ”  The campaign is designed to empower female leadership by making us more conscious of the words we use to describe young girls as they assert themselves. The...

Why do we get “triggered” by certain people or circumstances?  You could call it a “trigger”, or you could call it   a “thorn”.  A thorn is when you are disturbed because something you are experiencing feels similar to a negative (or uncomfortable, or unresolved, or painful) experience from the past. Instead of feeling/responding to something in present time, th...

“Leukemia messed with the wrong girl in November 2011 – my then almost two year old daughter, Maddy. That was when my family’s journey with leukemia began….”~Erin and Dan McCarthy Last month, Maddy became a SURVIVOR, after 2+ years of treatment. It was brutal – Maddy had 3 surgeries, over 50 rounds of outpatient chemotherapy (as well as hundreds of chemo meds at...

There are 5 attributes Google, Inc. currently looks for when hiring an employee and guess what?  The school you came from and your G.P.A. don’t mean that much.  In a New York Times article titled “How to Get a Job at Google”  Thomas Friedman interviewed Laszlo Bock, the Senior Vice President of People Operations for Google and asks what they look for when hiring employees.  Googl...