15-Minute Parenting.

In this episode Joanna answers the most common questions that arise when someone is living within a blended family unit. She covers everything from minding yourself, each other, the kids, the ex and the in-laws with practical clear advice

In this episode Joanna responds to a listeners question about how to better understand their child's feelings about climate change. She explains what Eco-Anxiety is and why we have to approach the scary reality of climate change through the lens of hope rather than fear

In this episode Joanna talks us through the impact of the trauma on war on those who are arriving into our Country. It can be hard to understand why our offers of help may not be received in the way we hoped they would or to understand the perspective of someone who is fleeing their Country in fear of their safety. Joanna talks us though the invisible scars of war.

Joanna speaks a lot about self-esteem and our young people but also parental-esteem. We know that self-esteem is something all children, regardless of gender, struggle with but now we have some deeper insights into our boys challenges with self-esteem. This episode explores boys struggles with self-esteem

In this episode Joanna is referring to a question posed to her by a parent concerned that their child withholds affection as they do not like hugs.  Joanna explores how affection can be shared and shown in a multitude of ways and why it is important to respect our children's preferences in this regard as a way of modelling respect for body boundaries and consent.  Joanna includes some playful ways to do this

What do you do when your child tells you that their friend in school said they can't be friends anymore or if your child declares that someone is not allowed to be their friend anymore? In this episode Joanna breaks down what is relational aggression even in very young children and how we should respond to this in these early years as it will shape how this relational aggression plays out in their older years too

Joanna is answering a question from a listener who is in a stand-off with their partner over what they should name their baby.  Joanna explores how our names form part of our identities and how the story of our name, and the story of how our name was chosen for us, shapes (in part) the stories we live by.  What's in a name? Quite a lot!

Are you raising a perfectionist child? Were you a perfectionist child? Perhaps you are a perfectionist parent or you were raised by one?  If any or all of these ring a bell for you then this episode will help you to explore where these perfectionistic tendencies come from, the impact perfectionism has on our lives and what we can do to change this

 This is the second part of our sensory discussion and this week Joanna is speaking about the lesser discussed senses of proprioception, Vestibular and Introception and offering playful ways to upward and downward regulate within each of these

In this episode Joanna talks us through 5 of our senses, the ones that we will all be most familiar with Touch, Taste, Smell, Sight, Hearing and will include some practical ways to use each sense to either calm or arouse ourselves/our children

This week Joanna is talking about how we parents can be our children's influencer in a sea of social media influencers.  This involves that all too fine a line between being interested in what interests our children versus being intrusive and being open to receive and respond to any questions and curiosity they might have

Joanna responds to recent tragic news events with some practical suggestions and guidance as to how we can find the words and means to explain difficult news stories to our children and how to support them (and ourselves) through it.

Joanna responds to a parents question about how much time their 1-year-old should be able to play alone by talking us through the phases of play in those very early years...this is one of those times a parental want (that our children play alone) clashes with our children's need (to check in with us) 

Joanna responds to a number of questions she has received about how best to encourage our children to share and why does it matter? She emphasises that fine line between encouraging sharing but never forcing it and talks us through why this matters

Joanna tables the touchy subject of self-touch in young children. She talks us through how body curiosity in children is both normal and healthy and how we might best respond to such behaviour in our children in a non-shaming way

Joanna takes 2 questions from parents to explore creative ways to slow down or structure the Christmas hype for children and also how to manage those endless Santa lists  

Joanna is taking a short break from recording so this episode is an excerpt from her 15-Minute Parenting series of books. Today's excerpt is from her Teenager Years  book and Joanna is reading to us about the transition into adulthood and being the adult child of aged parents. She also reads from some letters from parents on the advice they would give to their teenage selves and she invites you to bring to mind what advice you would whisper into the ear of your teenage self as you listen

Joanna is taking a short break from recording so this episode is an excerpt from her 15-Minute Parenting series of books.  Today's excerpt is from her 8-12 years book and Joanna is reading to us about homework and how to creatively and playfully support our children's learning

Joanna is taking a short break from recording so this episode is an excerpt from her 15-Minute Parenting series of books.  Today's excerpt is from her 0-7 years book and Joanna is reading to us about building our children's capacity for independence through chores and pocket money and of course, play

Joanna talks about why joy and the experience of shared joy isn't just a nice experience but is an essential one as we grow and develop throughout our lives.  She distinguishes between happiness and joy and helps us to understand why we must invest in joy and gives us suggestions of ways to find joy in the everyday stuff

In today's episode Joanna talks to us about how to reflect on what is getting triggered in us by our children's emotional expressions.  She gives us some reflective exercises that shine a light on how we were responded to versus how we wish we had been responded to and how to invest in our self-regulation so that we can co-regulate our children

In answering a listener's question about how to respond to their child's nightmares, Joanna helps us to distinguish between a nightmare and a night terror and offers suggestions of practical ways to respond to both

Joanna responds to a listener who doesn't feel she is even a good enough parent.  Joanna highlights effort over outcome, empathy over sympathy and practical ways to invest in our own parental-esteem

Joanna responds to a parents distress at having discovered her 11 year old has been stealing.  She helps us to reflect on what may be underpinning behaviour like this and the importance of responding rather than reacting to this behaviour

Joanna responds to a listener's question about the frustration and relational impact of parenting when not on the same page.  She highlights the importance of knowing your parental "preferences" from parenting essentials and offers a structure for making those uncomfortable parenting discussions more comfortable.

In this episode Joanna talks about changing our play content in line with the seasons and specifically how to play with the changing colours and textures of Autumn and how to find playful ways to bring the outdoors indoors, especially as the evenings are getting darker earlier

We may be only a few weeks back to school but this discussion on what school refusal really is, what it may be about and how to respond to your child if they are experiencing school refusal will resonate with many of you.

Joanna talks us through the importance of developing an intergenerational self, for ourselves but also for our children.  She talks about how, in our storied world, our storied lives start in the generations that came before us and while they play out in our lives today we can start to author new life chapters to change the stories we live by    

Following on from last week's episode Joanna shares a variety of fun activities we can use while we are sitting waiting, be that in a queue or a waiting room.  She tells us how to compile a simple but effective on-the-go play-kit and how to adapt this play while driving a car or stuck in traffic

In this episode Joanna shares a variety of fun family activities we can start playing with our 0-7 year olds, 8-12 year olds and teenagers.  If you feel you need to flex your play muscles and inject some more playfulness into your relationships, this episode is for you

In this episode Joanna responds to questions from parents about how to handle their toddlers' behaviour in the lead up to a new baby coming home.  Joanna takes us into the mind of the toddler so that we can empathically feel how they experience this huge change in their young lives and gives us practical tips and tools to ease the transition for all

Joanna gives us practical tips and tools for getting back to school ready with an emphasis on preparing our younger children for big school in a mask wearing environment. Joanna also mentions how our teens still need our support as they (re)adjust back into the school environment.

What do you do when your capable child takes a step backwards behaviourally?  What about when your "big child" starts behaving like a "little child" again? Joanna responds to listeners questions about behavioural regression in children and how this regression typically goes hand-in-hand with progression

As our societies (re)open Joanna responds to rising queries from parents about social anxiety in their children.  What do we do when social engagement has become the source for anxiety?  Joanna talks us through practical ways to soothe the socially anxious child

What is a family holiday all about for you?  Did you know that the change of environment, increased time together as  afamily can support your child's brain development? Joanna talks us through how to structure our family holidays to ensure that play, flexibility and fun are at the centre of our holidays this summer  

Joanna answers a listeners question about their 11 year olds behaviour on social media by giving us insight as to why it is so hard for this age group to self-regulate on these platforms and providing us with some practical tips to gradually introduce social media to our children in a more structured and supportive way when that time is right.

Joanna helps us to better understand the healthy (albeit challenging) role that ego-centrism plays in our pre-adolescents behaviour and how we can reflect and respond to these behaviour patterns rather than getting pulled into the dynamic in a reactive way.  

Joanna answers a question from a listener that came in after last weeks episode on sensitive children to help us think about the "self-holding" child, that is the child who finds it difficult to share their emotional experiences with others and tends to hold onto them in an attempt to work it out on their own rather than reaching out to others for help with it.

Joanna explains what it is like to feel the world in such a deep way and how emotional sensitivity can amplify our emotional states.  She provides us with practical ways to parent our emotionally sensitive children in an attuned way that values sensitivity for the emotional super-power it can be.

Joanna talks about self-esteem in our children and teenagers and how we can practically parent with esteem.  She draws on research conducted by the Dove Self esteem Project in Ireland as she highlights where we are with self-esteem and how we can practically address the issue as a matter of priority

Following on from a past episode where Joanna advised how to avoid jumping in with a fix/change agenda today she responds to a question from a listener who asked how we ensure our children have practical problem solving skills to work such situations out.  She addresses this through a 6-step problem solving formula that you can put into practice at home.

This week Joanna responds to your questions and comments on the topic of teen aggression and addresses the question of how the recent pandemic circumstances have contributed to a rise in aggressive behaviour or not. Joanna explains the difference between ager, conflict, aggression and violence and what to do when a situation is out of control along with playful ways to work with more mild levels of anger.

Joanna reflects on the findings of recent research that highlights the role of emotional connections between teachers and students to enhance learning outcomes.  She talks us through how emotion is not the opposite to reasoning but is actually essential to reasoning.  She raises the question as to how we can better support our teachers to support our children and offers playful activities that can be done at home and in the classroom.

In this episode Joanna responds to a question from a parent who is wondering how to tell their children that their parents are separating.  She talks us through the ideal approach and how to handle the less than ideal reality by staying grounded in what we will always have in common, our shared love for our children.

Friendships are very important in adolescence.  In this episode Joanna talks us through how the patterns of friendship change during adolescence and the role of ego in that.  She spotlights a situation of a teenager who struggles to make friends and what their worried parent can do about this.

In this episode Joanna talks us through the psychological process of mentalisation and how we use this process to fill in the gaps of stories/life events when we don't actually know all of the details. She relates this to parents trying to read the minds of their teenagers when not a lot is being shared and the potential pitfalls of this. This episode is about embracing curiosity over certainty.

You are used to hearing Joanna speak about the importance of play in children's lives, well in this episode she is spotlighting the value of play in adult lives too.  This episode is for any adult, not just parents! Joanna promotes growing the opportunities for playfulness in line with our own growing adult responsibilities and highlights how healthy a playful state of mind is in adult relationships.

Joanna refers to a parenting event she did where she spoke about why our older children still need and benefit from imaginative play after which she received a flurry of questions as to how parents can achieve this. In this episode she talks us through how to keep imaginative play alive throughout childhood.

In this episode Joanna talks about eating disorders and disordered thinking around food. She focuses in this episode on the impact an eating disorder can have, not only on the person living with the disorder but on relationships, especially the parent-child relationship.

Joanna has received many questions from parents about the fears and phobias their children have developed in recent months. In this episode she differentiates between a fear and a phobia and talks us through how to work through each with our children. 

Joanna responds to a question from a grossed out parent of a dedicated nose picker while reflecting on the pro-social benefits of habit formation and how we can support our children in moving from some less desirable habits to more positive ones.