Empowering our children: Navigating identity, worthiness and choices
Last night at dinner, my son shared with me that a few of the children at his school are self-harming frequently and one of the mums recently had to hide the paracetamol in the home for fear of her son taking an overdose.
5 things that set up children for life
After a decade of working with parents and a similar amount of time unlearning and healing myself on my own path to forging my best life, there are some fundamental pieces that have emerged that genuinely set children up for life. These are the themes I’ve discovered and a suggestion of one way you can lead your child to embed them.
Don't do this on Mother's Day
Mother’s Day can be one of the most intense days of the year as a mother, especially when you feel unappreciated. You have a picture of how you want Mother's Day to be and you want the rest of the family to deliver it.
The Weight Off Your Shoulders: Strategies for Reducing the Mental Load
There were times when my children were younger that I felt like I was doing most of the thinking about how they were playing with friends…were they being kind, were they being supportive, were they being treated fairly.
7 Things Parents have in Common with Leaders
I know it’s probably not your first thought when you become a parent.
“I’m a leader now”
But I wish it were…
As a society, in organisations we’ve accepted leadership development as the norm. You get some training and development so you can grow into your role.
To the parent that feels unhappy...
If you're feeling unhappy, know that there is nothing wrong with you.
You don’t have to be happy all of the time.. nor pretend that you are happy with your child, your partner, or to yourself.
How to Thrive When You’re Torn in Multiple Directions
I dropped off my parents at the airport yesterday morning. They were visiting from the UK. (If you’ve been following my mum’s miraculous journey through Covid, you can read about the latest blessing here).
Working Parents: How to Make Quality Time with Your Kids Count
Ever heard the phrase, take care of the pennies and the pounds take care of themselves (I’m English born and we say this often!)?
What if the same were true with taking care of the minutes with your child?
The Mental Load of Parenting: The 3 Biases That Exhaust Families
Ever wondered how some people seem so comfortable getting through the overwhelming, overloading number of tasks we have once we become parents? I’ve talked a lot about sharing mental load but today I want to talk about the biases that underlie the majority of the mental load in families. Specifically, three types of bias can operate unconsciously and contribute to how exhausted we feel on a day-to-day basis.
Finding Your Way Back to Each Other After Having Kids
Parents come to me for a myriad of reasons in relation to their parenting. Often the driver is their child is experiencing regular outbursts, not cooperating, constantly pushing back, and saying mean and hurtful things, and they’ve tried everything they can, and what they have tried has not worked.
The Importance of Self-Compassion in Parenting
There are some times in parenting when no one can do anything right by me.
Not me, not the kids, and not my partner.
How to Motivate Your Child - Spot and Nurture Their Natural Motivations
My husband and I stood in our back garden this morning looking at the lawn my youngest son (14) had mowed the day before.
My family review and the 3 most important questions to ask your child
We’re heading into the summer holidays here in Australia so we’ll be taking a few weeks to rest and recharge ahead of an epic 2023!
Thought provoking quotes about nurturing your child’s genius
This is another year where my other son will not receive an award from school. Not because he lacks excellence. But because his excellence in creativity is not measured within the school system.
The upside-down advice to raising a rebel
You may know this child. She may even be a part of your family.
She is determined to do the things that annoy you, again and again, and AGAIN.
The harsh reality about spirited children
Have you ever had a situation where your child lost emotional control and you feared for their safety (or the safety of others)?
Different Ways to Think About Work-Life Balance for Working Parents
The term work-life balance implies there is a holy grail way to live life and work in specified portions that will output a good quality of life. Whilst traditionally we looked at time spent at work versus outside of work.
4 Ways to Empower Your Child with the Power of Choice (Even if it’s against the crowd)
We need to build our children to be okay to meet their own feelings and needs from early age, especially with the degree to which they are influenced by the external environment, including the internet and social media.
There is nothing more important than your child’s mental health (TRIGGER WARNING)
What was really happening was I’d never learned how to bounce back from adversity. I had extremely low self-esteem and my perfectionism ran so deep that if I did something wrong, I couldn’t forgive myself.
How you parent may not be your fault but it is 100% your responsibility
Learning that how I parent was not my fault but 100% my responsibility was both empowering and terrifying in equal parts.