Podcasts about playful

You can listen wherever you get your podcasts, OR— BRAND NEW: we've included a fully edited transcript of our interview at the bottom of this post.In this episode of The Peaceful Parenting Podcast, Corey and I discuss why “Special Time”- the gold standard for cultivating connection with our kids- might not work the best for complex kids. We cover who complex kids are, what parenting them looks like, how to co-create interests and activities together, and being playful to connect deeply while getting through the daily routine.**If you'd like an ad-free version of the podcast, consider becoming a supporter on Substack! > > If you already ARE a supporter, the ad-free version is waiting for you in the Substack app or you can enter the private feed URL in the podcast player of your choice.Know someone who might appreciate this post? Share it with them!We talk about:* 6:43 What is Special Time?* 7:51 What is a complex Kid?* 10:08 What does it look like to parent a complex Kid?* 19:30 What does daily life look like with complex Kids?* 22:03 What to do for connection when special time doesn't work?* 23:05 Cultivating shared hobbies* 27:00 Finding books you both love* 30:00 Instead of only putting kids in organized sports, exercise together!* 33:30 Sideways listening with our kids* 37:00 Playful parenting as we move through the daily routineResources mentioned in this episode:* Yoto Player-Screen Free Audio Book Player* The Peaceful Parenting Membership* What you Can Do When Parenting Hard: Coaching with Joanna * When Peaceful Parenting Doesn't Look Like It's “Supposed To” Look * How To Take the Coach Approach to Parenting Complex Kids with Elaine Taylor- Klaus * What Influencers are Getting Wrong About Peaceful Parenting * Staying Close to Your Tweens and Teens * How To Stop Fighting About Video Games with Scott Novis * Playful Heart Parenting with Mia Wisinski xx Sarah and CoreyYour peaceful parenting team- click here for a free short consult or a coaching sessionVisit our website for free resources, podcast, coaching, membership and more!>> Please support us!!! 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No one listening or watching and they can't go where you don't want them to go and they aren't watching screens. BUT they are being entertained or kept company with audio that you can buy from YOTO or create yourself on one of their blank cards. Check them out HERESarah: Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Peaceful Parenting Podcast. Today's episode is about why you shouldn't do special time, which is, I admit, a little bit of a provocative hook here. But it's something that Corey brought to my attention that we have been talking about a lot. And then after last week's podcast, we both agreed—after the podcast with Joanna and her complex kid—we both agreed we have to talk about this, because this is something that probably a lot of parents are feeling a lot of conflict, guilt, and shame around: not doing special time or not wanting to do special time or not being able to do special time.Sarah: Hey Corey. Welcome back to the podcast. Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.Corey: Hi, I am Corey Everett, and I am a trained peaceful parenting coach, and I work for Sarah. I live in Ontario, but I work with clients all over the world doing one-on-one coaching. And I myself am complex and have a complex child. And I have two kids. I never can remember this, but I have a 7-year-old and a 10-year-old.Sarah: I am glad you're not the only one who can't remember their kids' ages. I have to stop and think. Okay. Well, I'm so excited to talk about this. And this is actually something that you and I have talked about over the years, because you have found it really difficult to do special time with your complex kid. Maybe just tell us a little bit about what happened when you tried to do special time and why you eventually sort of gave it up. And, you know, this is something that Joanna in the podcast last week—the coaching podcast—she was talking about how she didn't want to do special time with her kid because she was so exhausted. So I think this is sort of like a two-part: why sometimes special time doesn't work for the kids and why it doesn't work for the parents. So let's start by talking about what happened when you would try to do special time with Big C, who's your 10-year-old.Corey: Okay, so when I would try and do special time with Big C, I actually found—first of all—I didn't really feel very present in it. I felt like I was trying to do it, but I felt like I didn't have a lot of energy for it. I think he could feel that. So I just didn't feel very engaged in it and I just felt exhausted, and it just felt like another thing on my to-do list. And so therefore he didn't necessarily enjoy it as much either.We did do a podcast—it'd be really great, I can put it in the show notes—where we talked about some things for peaceful parenting that aren't working, and I did a really good description in that one of why special time didn't work for him.Sarah: Okay.Corey: And so we can have them listen to that if they want more details on that part. Instead, I think I want to really focus on why it didn't work for me and why I'm finding with my clients it's not working for them either.Sarah: You know what, sorry to interrupt you. I realize we should really just say what special time is, in case—like it's such a gold standard of peaceful parenting—but there could be some parents listening to this, parents or caregivers who are newer to special time and might not know what it is.Special time—and there are, I think, some other brands of parenting that might have other names for it—but basically the gold standard is 15 minutes a day of one-on-one time with you and your child, where you put aside the to-do list, put away your phone, and some people suggest that you set a timer and say, “I'm all yours for the next 15 minutes. What do you want to play?” It's really immersing yourself in the child's world. That's one of the main ideas of special time: that we're immersed in our child's world of pretend play or some kind of play. It can be roughhousing or it can be playing Lego or dolls—something that is really child-centered and child-led.So that is special time. And let's take it from there. You had mentioned already that energetically it was really hard for you.Corey: I think the best way that I can explain this is if I paint the picture for you of what it looks like to be a parent of a complex kid. And—Sarah: Wait let's give a definition of complex—we've got to make sure we're covering the basics here. What's a complex kid?Corey: Okay, so a complex kid. This term, I first heard it from Elaine Taylor-Klaus—and we can also put in the show notes when you had her on the podcast. She is amazing. And basically, we're really often talking about neurodivergent kids here. But it can be more than that. It's just kids who need more.Sarah: It's that 20% of kids that we talk about—the 80% of kids who, you know, you say “Go put your shoes on and wait for me by the door,” and they go and do it and they don't have the extra big feelings. So in my idea of it, it can be neurodivergent and also spirited, sensitive, strong-willed. The kids who are not your average, typical kids. And I always say that when I tell people what I do—parenting coach—some people look at me like, “Why would anyone need a parenting coach?” and other people are like, “Oh, I could have used you when my kids were growing up.”So really there are kids who are—I'm sure they're wonderful—but they're not as more or complex as some other kids.Corey: Kids that you almost don't have to be as intentional about your parenting with.Sarah: Yeah. You don't have to read parenting books or listen to parenting podcasts. I would hazard a guess that most people who listen to this podcast have complex kids.Corey: Yes. They're our people. We always say the people who are our people are the ones who don't have to talk about challenges around putting on shoes.Sarah: I love that.Corey: That seems to be the number one thing we're always talking about.Sarah: We always use that as an example, whether it's sensory or strong-willed or attentional. It is kind of like one of those canary-in-the-coal-mine things. Will your child go and put their shoes on when you ask them to? If the answer is no, you probably have a complex kid.Corey: Yes, I love that it is the canary in the coal mine. So that's what our complex kids are. And for the parents of these kids, I think of these parents as being absolute rock stars. They are just trying so hard to peacefully parent their kids. And, like we said, they're reading all the books, they're listening to this podcast, they've probably signed up for all sorts of online seminars and courses and just do all of the things.Often these parents were not peacefully parented themselves. Most people weren't. So they're learning a whole new parenting style. And a lot of people today are getting all their information off Instagram and TikTok reels that aren't very nuanced, so they're also not getting really full information. They're trying so hard off of all these little sound snippets.Sarah: Or the peaceful parenting or gentle parenting advice that they're being given, and what's supposed to happen just doesn't look like that for their kid. And that reminds me—the other podcast that we did about when peaceful parenting doesn't “work,” we could link to that one too.Corey: Yes. Parents of complex kids are also trying to problem solve so many challenges because the world is often not designed for their kids, and it's often not designed for them.Sarah: Say more about that—about “not designed for their kids.” What's an example of how that might show up?Corey: So an example is conventional schooling. They're expected to go into this noisy environment and just be able to eat the food they've been sent and listen all day and stay in their seats and learn the same way that everyone else is learning. I didn't really realize how complex my kid was until I tried to send him to daycare.Sarah: I was just thinking about the spirit days at Big C's school, and how you've shared with me that those spirit days—like pajama day or “everyone wear the school colors day”—for some typical kids can be exciting and fun and a diversion. And for complex kids that can cause a whole level of stress and anticipation and the change of routine. Other parents of non-complex kids might be like, “Whatever, it's not a big deal.” For our complex kids, it throws them for a loop.Corey: Yes. My first moment of starting to realize there was something I needed to pay more attention to was they were having a movie day at Big C's daycare, and they said he kept covering his ears and hiding. And that was my first idea that every other kid was so excited that it was movie day. They'd been looking forward to it. And for my child it was just so loud, and then suddenly the lights were turned off, and the whole situation was throwing him off.So that's what I mean. We're designing the world for kids who are excited about movie day or special event days. But for complex kids, this is a complete change in their routine and all sorts of different sensory things that are happening that can make it really hard for them.Sarah: Or that they can't handle as much as other kids. I have a client who was just talking about how she's realized for her son, who's nine, that they literally can't do anything after school. They can't stop at the store and run in and grab a few things. They really just have to come straight home and not do anything extra or different. And he does so much better when he can just come home and unwind and needs that.Corey: Yes, exactly. So the world wasn't designed for them. And then consequently, the world was often not designed for those parents either. So many of the people we work with—including ourselves—only start to realize how complex we are once we start identifying it in our children. So it's just not really an accommodated world.Sarah: So talk about how that has led to burnout for you. And by the way, when you started talking about rock stars—in the membership the other day, in office hours, one of our members, I'll call him D, who works incredibly hard and has two very complex kids, was just sharing how dark and hard life had been feeling for him lately. And I said, honestly, I just want to give you a medal. And I grabbed this off my desk and held it up—this silver milagro from Mexico that's a bleeding heart. It was the closest thing I had to a medal.But I really feel like so many parents who have hard or more complex kids, all they feel is that they're doing a bad job. They don't realize that they're up against something other people are not up against. They don't realize that because that's all they know—unless you have one kid that's not complex and one that is—you just don't know that you're working so hard and things are still hard. It feels like you must be doing something wrong or failing. What they don't realize is that you can do everything “right” in peaceful parenting, and things are still really hard if you've got a complex kid.Corey: Yes. And the last thing I want to say to help paint this picture is that these parents—part of what they're dealing with, and I actually think this is huge—all parents today have a huge amount of family admin: managing appointments and things from the school and all those kinds of things. But that's this other crushing weight we're carrying as parents with complex kids: the admin.Sarah: Right.Corey: The amount of communication we have to do with daycare providers and teachers almost every day at points—Sarah: And also the searching. I've watched you go through this, and I watched my sister go through this, and countless clients. The searching to try to figure out what exactly is going on with my kid so that I can best support them. And even with the privilege you have and my sister has in terms of being able to access specialists and testing and all of that—even with that privilege—it's still almost a full-time job. And then getting the OT or the supports too.Corey: Yes. I started for this podcast listing some of the people I've had to coordinate with over the years, and I was like: different types of medical doctors, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, psychologists, social workers, dieticians… so many. And just so much coordinating and searching. And the other thing that's hard is you also then have homework from each of these people. So not only do you have to make appointments and get your children to appointments, you then have to fill out all this paperwork to get reimbursed or get payment sorted. Then there's all the paperwork they want you to sign for ongoing parts of that. Then they have homework for the kids that they're supposed to be doing all the time to help them with whatever's going on. It's endless.Sarah: Yeah. And then there's the day-to-day. Tell us—paint a little picture of the day-to-day living. Not only do we have the world that isn't built for them or for you, and then all of the extra stuff that goes along with having a complex kid, but then the day-to-day life. Speak to that a little bit.Corey: Yeah. I think that's the thing you just see is so painful to talk about for all the people in our membership and our clients, and I've experienced it firsthand. You had children to add love to your family. And then you love them so much and you're struggling because there's chronic dysregulation, and they're having such a hard time getting through your daily routines, and they need more supervision than the average child does. Just getting through the day can be really challenging when you have a complex kid. And then if you yourself are complex, your nervous system is getting completely overwhelmed by trying to be the calm for everyone's storms.Sarah: It's a lot, Corey. I understand why you get emotional about it. It's a lot. And you're still in the thick of it with two young kids. I think everyone who's listening to this can relate.Okay. So how and when did you decide that you were going to quit special time, and what does that look like? And—I just want to center us here—the reason why we do special time is for connection, right? Complex kids need connection just as much or more than typical kids. And so just because we're saying you might want to quit special time, it does not mean we're saying you want to quit connection. So what does that look like? What have you found? Because I know you're super connected with your kids. I've seen you together. I know the things they say to you and about you, and that you have an awesome connection. So what do you do for connection when special time does not work?Corey: A big thing that I've been telling clients and that I've done in my life is—first of all, I had to acknowledge to myself, it felt like shame. Because here I am—it's one of the first things we tell everyone we work with: “Are you getting one-on-one time doing special time with your child?” And then I'm sitting there being like, but I don't really do this. I get a ton of one-on-one time with my children. And I think that's at the heart of it. But what I realized is because we're carrying all those weights we talked about, your whole life feels like it's all about this kid. And then to be like, “You know what? Let's make it more about you and give you another 15 minutes,” just feels—I almost felt like I don't have this in me.So I realized: let's pick things that we can do together that are interesting for both them and me. Instead of getting locked in their play and being led by them, I'm finding things that we're co-creating together.Sarah: And can I just note too that you've told me—and I know you said you talked about this in another podcast—but I just want to say it again: a lot of times complex kids' play doesn't look like typical kids' play. So you might be like, “What do you want to play?” and they're like, “I don't know.” They don't have the same kind of “Okay, let's play store and you be this and I'll be this.” Or they play with their toys in a different manner. So it can also be just awkward to insist that you play with them when that's not their style anyway. I just wanted to throw that out there.Corey: Yeah. And, or if I did, they're always telling me I'm doing everything wrong.Sarah: Right. Because I do think that play—I do think that for most kids, even though we're saying don't do special time—I do think that for most kids it is important to put yourself in their world. And I don't want people to think, like, “Okay, this means I never have to try to do special time.” We're just saying if it's not working for you for these various reasons—whether it's because of your own constraints like it was for Joanna, or because it doesn't work for your kid—it doesn't mean that you're doing it wrong and that there's no way to connect and that you should just give up.But I do think that—just a side note—I'd say the majority of kids, play in their world is the key to a lot of connection. But for some complex kids, that just isn't their mode. For some of them.Corey: Yeah. Because I think we were coming out of special time feeling angry.Sarah: Right?Corey: Because we were coming out of it like, “I'm trying to get lost in my child's world,” and he's just like, “You're not doing anything right, Mommy.” It was frustrating for him because he had these ideas and he couldn't really get me to do it right. And I think for some kids that can be really empowering, where they like that feeling of being in control and telling them. But for him it was frustrating because he's like, “I had this vision, and you are just not executing.” I'm like, “I don't know, I'm trying to execute your vision.” So I think that's why for us, I could just tell it wasn't just me—neither of us were finding it was working.Sarah: But—Corey: We were desperately wanting to be together.Sarah: Okay. So you said “finding,” right? I interrupted you when you were talking about finding things that were co-interests—things that work for both of you, co-creating.Corey: Yes. When they were younger, one of the big things I did was buy myself really special pencil crayons and nice watercolor paints because both of them loved doing art. So I could sit and do art with them and use my fancy coloring books and feel very “we are together doing something” that was making me feel really good, but they also felt really happy, and they loved showing me what they were making.Sarah: And did you let them use your stuff? Because I think that would be really hard for me, because you can't really be like, “These are my special things, and you use these Crayola ones.” How did you navigate that?Corey: Okay, so that was really hard. This never would work for my husband, so I'm going to acknowledge for some people this wouldn't work. I let them grab my crayons, and they dropped them a lot. I acknowledged that they were not going to last. But I still wanted good ones available to me. So I had to be flexible. They definitely grabbed them, and the watercolors were wrecked really quickly. But they respected not touching my special brushes for some reason. So I kept my own special brushes for the painting.Sarah: You know, that reminds me—one of our members has a just-newly-3-year-old who's super complex, and she was talking about how she was doing a jigsaw puzzle, like a proper adult thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle. And she was really worried that—since it was on the table in a room where the parents could be—her kid was just going to come in and wreck it. Instead, her child is really good at jigsaw puzzles and is doing them with her. So I think sometimes—she's totally shocked and thrilled that this has become something—and this is clearly a case of coming into the adult world of a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle. You just reminded me—she put a post in our Facebook group about how… I don't know, did you see that post?Corey: Yeah, I did.Sarah: About how wonderful it's been to have her just-turned-3-year-old do these adult jigsaw puzzles with her. So that's a perfect example of what you're talking about, I think.Corey: I think it's—so I love what you're saying here, because we're always told “go into their world,” but there's something really powerful about letting them into yours. I didn't actually realize that's what I was doing—I've been bringing them into my world with me, and then they feel really special being allowed in there with me. And so it creates this really beautiful thing, but I'm flexible about letting them in there, knowing it's going to look different.Sarah: Right. What are some other things that you've done besides art that might be inspiring?Corey: I realized a long time ago I had to let go of the idea that I needed to read really interesting books to my kids so that every night we could look forward to reading beautiful stories that drew me in. We actually realized bedtime has started getting hard again, and we realized it's because we're in between books. So that is something—and a shout-out to my mom; she's really good at researching books—she's come up with some really cool books that have really diverse characters and really interesting stories. That's been another really important thing: don't just read. I've picked really good books that draw me in.And so last night we actually just started a favorite series of mine. I kid you not, I'm reading to my 10-year-old a feminist fantasy book that I read when I was a tween. It's called Dealing with Dragons, and he actually is loving it.Sarah: Nice. So you're saying—maybe you misspoke—you said you had to give up on reading books that you… beautiful books that you liked. But did you mean that you were finding beautiful books that you liked?Corey: Yeah, sorry, that's—earlier on I felt like I was just reading, you know, books that I thought they would like.Sarah: Oh, okay.Corey: But instead I was like, “The heck with that,” and I found books that I loved, and I started reading those to my kids. And then they loved them. And then that really got us so excited about bedtime.Sarah: Great, great.Corey: We got through it, and we would read that together, and it became—I actually think reading books that I love to my kids has become one of the most important special times that we have each day.Sarah: So another co-creating—something that's interesting to both of you. And it's not necessarily going into their world and reading the Captain Underpants or something that they might like that you find mind-numbingly boring. And maybe Captain Underpants isn't boring—I've never read it—but I'm just using that as an example.Corey: That's a perfect example. So it's like, here, I'm providing those books for them to read to themselves for their reading time. Absolutely—read all the Captain Underpants, the Dog Man you would like. But my goodness, when I'm reading to you, I'm picking something. And look, we've abandoned lots of books that we started reading that they couldn't get into. We keep—we just keep trying.Sarah: Okay. What else—what else is next?Corey: Exercise.Sarah: Okay.Corey: I've realized exercise for me is the number one way for me to deal with stress. Of all things, I need to exercise to help manage stress. And it's very hard to fit in exercise when you have complex kids. So from the time they were little, we've been very flexible about how we've done it. But my husband and I have—once again, instead of picking things they're naturally into (this is starting to sound really funny)—we just brought them into our exercise with us, and they love it. From the time they were little, we had a balance bike for my littlest guy. He was on that balance bike, and we were riding bikes together.So my littlest one ended up being able to ride a regular bike before he was three.Sarah: Same with Maxine. Those balance bikes are amazing. She just—yeah. It's crazy.Corey: Yeah. And sometimes—Sarah: Sometimes you're like, “What have I done?” The 3-year-old is riding off.Corey: It's true. It was unbelievable, though. So we just rode our bikes together. From the time ours were very little, we had them as little guys on—you can get an attachment to your bike—and my husband put them on his road bike with him and would take them for rides on his road bike.Sarah: There's also the trailer bike too, which we had, which is good.Corey: So we did that. We had our youngest on skis when he was two. COVID kind of interrupted some of that, but now we ski every weekend with our kids, and we decided to do that instead of putting them into organized sports so that we would all be doing it together.Sarah: Oh, I love that. Instead of dropping them off and they're playing soccer, you're all doing stuff together.Corey: Yes.Sarah: I mean, and you could—and, you know, for other families—you could just go and kick the ball. Or I always say, chase your kids around the playground if you feel like you don't have time to exercise but you need to. It can be that simple, right? Kicking the ball around, chasing them around the playground—get some exercise and have some connection time too.Corey: Yeah. One of the ways we got our one son kind of good at running is taking the kite to the park, and we just ran around with the kite. But we started even going to—and I advised another family to do this—going to a track together, because it's a contained area where everyone could run at different speeds. And the really little ones were playing on the inside of the track with soccer balls and things like that, and then everyone else could be running around the track.Sarah: Love it.Corey: So getting really creative about literally bringing them into our world of things that we love, and then connecting deeply. And it's one of those things where it's an investment you make over time. It starts small, and you have to be really flexible. And there are these little hands grabbing all your fancy pencil crayons, and you're having to deal with it. And then one day you're sitting beside them, and they're using them themselves—drawing works of art.Sarah: Yeah, yeah.Corey: And it's happening now where my older son and I have been going for runs together around the neighborhood, and we have the best talks ever because I'm sideways listening. We should talk about sideways listening, actually.Sarah: Okay.Corey: So I learned about this from you. You have a great article—I recommend it to everyone—it's called “Staying Close to Your Tweens and Teens,” and that's where you talk about how it's actually easier for people, I think, to have important conversations when you're side to side, because it's not that intensity of looking at each other's faces. This is extra true for neurodivergent people who sometimes have a hard time with eye contact and talking in that way. So we go for these runs together all around our neighborhood, and I hear everything from my son during that time because we're side by side. So it's become special time, where it started when I taught him to come into my world with the track running and all the different things, and now that we're running, he's bringing me into his world.Sarah: Love it. Do you find that a lot of complex kids have special interests—do you find that there's a way that you can connect with them over their special interest? Does that feel connecting to you if it's not something—like, I'm literally just curious about that.Corey: I think that can be tricky, but I do think it's very important. I've learned that I was having a hard time with how much my kids loved video games because I've never liked video games. And, you know, as someone with ADHD, it's so hard to focus on things that I don't find interesting. And I realized that I've spent all this time cultivating bringing them into my world, and we've gotten to such a beautiful, connected space that I do need to go into theirs. And now that they're older, I'm finding it is easier to go into their world, because we're not trying to make some sort of play thing happen that wasn't natural.Sarah: Right.Corey: So I have been making a point now of—I've sat down and been like, “Show me how to play. I'm a beginner. Teach me how to do this.” And I've been playing video games with them. I'm so bad.Sarah: You know, in our podcast with Scott Novus about how to stop fighting with your kids about video games, he says how good it is for kids to see you be bad at something.Corey: They're seeing it.Sarah: I love that.Corey: I'm so bad. I cannot even a little bit. So they find it very funny. I've been playing with them and letting them talk to me about it, and I've found that's been really important too. Because I keep on saying, “Do you see why they love this so much?” And I'm kind of like, yes—and I see what skills you're learning now that I've tried it. It takes so much skill and practice to be good at these complex video games on the Switch and on the PlayStation. So I am learning a lot, and I feel like we are shifting now, where I found a way to connect with them by bringing them along with what I was into, and now that they're older, we are switching where I'm able to go back into their world.Sarah: Right. Love it. So we also—you know, I think delighting is something that probably you still do, and we always talk about that as the low-hanging fruit. If you can't do special time or it doesn't work for you, delighting in your child throughout the day—letting the love that you feel in your heart show on your face, right? And then finally, you talked about using routine—the things that you do throughout the day—as connection. Can you talk about that a little bit before we go?Corey: Yes. So this is where long-time listeners of our podcast know that although special time is a big fail for us, I'm really good at being silly with my kids. Really good at being silly. And I'm very inspired listening to Mia from Playful Heart—Playful Heart Parenting. I think I told you, listening to her talk, it was like the first time I heard someone talking about exactly how I do playful parenting. And it's just injecting play and silliness and drama throughout your everyday things you're doing together. And so we do that all the time to get through the schedule. Especially now, my 10-year-old is starting to act a little too cool for some of this, but it's still really happening with my 7-year-old, where we're always singing weird songs about what we're doing, and I'll take on weird accents and be my characters. I'm not going to demonstrate them here—it's far too embarrassing—but I still have my long-running characters I can't get over.Sarah: You've got, like, the dental hygienist—what's her name?Corey: Karen. Karen the dental hygienist.Sarah: What's the bus driver's name?Corey: I have Brett the bus driver. We have “Deep Breath,” who's like a yogi who comes in when everyone needs to take deep breaths. There's—oh, her name's So? I'm not sure why. So is the dresser who's really serious and doesn't know how to smile. So if my kids ever need help—this has also been a big way that I delight in them, I think—if they ever need help getting dressed (which complex kids need help getting dressed for a long—)Sarah: And even body doubling when they don't need help getting dressed, right?Corey: Yes. So I would always pretend to be a dresser who was sent in to get them dressed in their clothes, and they didn't know how to smile. So they're always trying to teach me how to smile when I'm keeping a serious face. And actually, recently I was doing this and I was having such a hard time not laughing that my lips started visibly quivering trying not to smile and laugh.Sarah: I love that.Corey: I think it was the hardest I've ever seen my 7-year-old laugh. He was on the floor laughing because I was like—Sarah: And for anyone who this sounds hard for—just, you know, it takes practice, and anyone, I think, can learn to be playful. And I love Mia's account—we'll link to that in the show notes. I love Mia's account for ideas just to get you started, because I know you—you're a drama kid. I'm not. But I still found ways to get playful even though it's not my natural instinct. And so you can—this way of getting playful and connecting through the day and through your daily routine—you can do that. It'll take maybe a little practice; you might feel funny at first. But I think it's possible for everyone to do that.So thank you so much. We have to wrap up, but I also want to point out that anyone who wants to connect with you, reach out to us. Corey's available for coaching. She's a wonderful coach. And I have people who specifically ask for Corey because they can relate to Corey's experience as a parent of complex kids. And so, on our website, reimaginepeacefulparenting.com, there is a booking link for a free short consult or for a coaching session. We'll also put that in the show notes. So if you want some more support, please reach out to us. Either of us are here and want to help you.And, Corey, thank you for your honesty and vulnerability—vulnerability about being a parent of a complex kid and sharing how you can do that connection, even if it feels like special time is just too hard and something that doesn't work for you or for your kid. And thanks to Joanna for also inspiring us to get this out there to you all.Corey, before I let you go, I'm going to ask the question I ask all my guests, which is: what would you tell your—you had a time machine and you could go back in time—what would you tell your younger parent self?Corey: Okay.Sarah: About parenting? What do you wish you knew?Corey: I think what I wish I knew—I think this is easier than I thought it would be, because I just told my best friend who just had a baby this—and it's: trust your intuition. I think I spent so much time looking for answers outside of myself, and I could feel they weren't right for my kid or for me, that I was so confused because other people were telling me, “This is what you should be doing.” And the more I've learned to trust my gut instinct and just connect deeply—and this special time example is perfect—I knew it wasn't working for us, and I intuitively knew other ways to do it. And I wish I could have just trusted that earlier.Sarah: And stopped doing it sooner and just gone with the other connection ideas. Yeah. Thank you so much, Corey. This has been so great. And, again, we'll put the link to anyone who wants to book a free short consult or coaching session, and also to our membership, which you've heard us mention a few times, which is just a wonderful space on the internet for people who want some community and support with their complex kid.Thanks, Corey.Corey: Thank you.>> Please support us!!! Please consider becoming a supporter to help support our free content, including The Peaceful Parenting Podcast, our free parenting support Facebook group, and our weekly parenting emails, “Weekend Reflections” and “Weekend Support” - plus our Flourish With Your Complex Child Summit (coming back in the spring for the 3rd year!) All of this free support for you takes a lot of time and energy from me and my team. If it has been helpful or meaningful for you, your support would help us to continue to provide support for free, for you and for others.In addition to knowing you are supporting our mission to support parents and children, you get the podcast ad free and access to a monthly ‘ask me anything' session. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sarahrosensweet.substack.com/subscribe

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In this episode of Own Your Power, explore the often-overlooked secret to lasting success, having fun and staying playful. Learn how joy, curiosity, and lightheartedness can transform your relationships, fuel creativity, and make your journey toward success far more fulfilling. Discover why the most magnetic and influential people lead with happiness, how play keeps you young at heart, and why the key to achieving more is learning to "happily achieve." This episode reminds you to laugh more, live fully, and play your way to the top. Own your power with this Success Tip.   For more about Rod and his real estate investing journey go to www.rodkhleif.com  

You can listen wherever you get your podcasts, OR— BRAND NEW: we've included a fully edited transcript of our interview at the bottom of this post.In this episode of The Peaceful Parenting Podcast, I do a coaching call with Joanna who has a 2-year-old and a 7-year-old. We cover how to make mindset shifts so you can better show up for your kids, as well as get into specifics around night weaning, bedtime battles, handling meltdowns, playful parenting and increasing our connection to our kids.**If you'd like an ad-free version of the podcast, consider becoming a supporter on Substack! > > If you already ARE a supporter, the ad-free version is waiting for you in the Substack app or you can enter the private feed URL in the podcast player of your choice.Know someone who might appreciate this post? Share it with them!We talk about:* 6:40 how to manage meltdowns* 9:00 Night weaning and bedtime challenges* 20:00 Emptying a full emotional backpack* 26:00 Kids who always want more attention* 28:00 Understanding blame and anger* 38:00 Games to play when a child is looking for more power* 44:00 How our mindset makes such a big difference when parenting* 47:30 Two keys to peaceful parenting!* 55:00 Playful approaches to bedtimeResources mentioned in this episode:* Yoto Player-Screen Free Audio Book Player* The Peaceful Parenting Membership* How to Help Our Little Ones Sleep with Kim Hawley * Episode 100: When Your Child Has a Preferred Parent (or Not) with Sarah and Corey * Episode 103: Playful Parenting with Lawrence Cohen * Playful Heart Parenting with Mia Wisinski: Episode 186 xx Sarah and CoreyYour peaceful parenting team- click here for a free short consult or a coaching sessionVisit our website for free resources, podcast, coaching, membership and more!>> Please support us!!! Please consider becoming a supporter to help support our free content, including The Peaceful Parenting Podcast, our free parenting support Facebook group, and our weekly parenting emails, “Weekend Reflections” and “Weekend Support” - plus our Flourish With Your Complex Child Summit (coming back in the spring for the 3rd year!) All of this free support for you takes a lot of time and energy from me and my team. If it has been helpful or meaningful for you, your support would help us to continue to provide support for free, for you and for others.In addition to knowing you are supporting our mission to support parents and children, you get the podcast ad free and access to a monthly ‘ask me anything' session.Our sponsors:YOTO is a screen free audio book player that lets your kids listen to audiobooks, music, podcasts and more without screens, and without being connected to the internet. No one listening or watching and they can't go where you don't want them to go and they aren't watching screens. BUT they are being entertained or kept company with audio that you can buy from YOTO or create yourself on one of their blank cards. Check them out HERETranscript:Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Peaceful Parenting Podcast. Today's episode is a coaching episode. My guest is Joanna, mom of a 7-year-old and a 2-year-old. Joanna's 7-year-old is an intense child, and she wanted to know how to handle her big feelings and find more connection with her.She also had some specific challenges around bedtime, namely that her partner works shift work and is not home at bedtime. She still breastfeeds her 2-year-old to sleep, so is unavailable to her seven-year-old for a bit, and then has trouble getting her seven-year-old to bed without a fight. Joanna also shared how low she was on resources, and we had a great discussion about how that impacts her parenting and what she might do about it.Also, meltdowns—we talked about those too and how to respond. I know Joanne is not alone. One note: after we did the follow-up call, I realized I forgot to ask her about a few things. So she kindly recorded a couple of P.S.'s that I'll include. If you're curious, like I am, you'll be glad she gave us the latest updates.If you would like to come on the podcast and be coached by me, I am looking for a few parents who are interested. You can email me at sarah@sarahrosensweet.com.As always, please give us a five-star rating and a review on your favorite podcast app, and if you know another parent or caregiver that this would be helpful for, please screenshot it and send it to them. The best way to reach more families with peaceful parenting is through word of mouth, so we really appreciate any shares that you might be able to give us.Okay. Let's meet Joanna. Okay.Sarah: Hi Joanna. Welcome to the podcast.Joanna: Hi. Thanks for having me.Sarah: Tell me a little bit about yourself.Joanna: Sure. I live up in Ottawa, Canada, with my husband and my two kids. I'm a music therapist, so right now I'm working with babies. I teach Yoga with Baby and, um, a class called Sing and Sign at a local wellness center.Sarah: Nice. How old are—Joanna: Yes, I have a 7-year-old girl who we'll call Jay.Sarah: Okay.Joanna: And then a 2-year-old boy called JR.Sarah: JJ. Okay, perfect. Okay, so how can I support you today?Joanna: Yeah, so my daughter has always been, like, a bit of a tricky one. Um. She was born premature, so at 29 weeks. And no kind of lasting effects. But as she's gotten older, we've noticed, like, she's really struggled a lot with emotional regulation. Um, and she kind of gets stuck on certain behaviors. So I feel like we've done a lot to change our parenting, in part thanks to you and your podcast and all the material. Um, I did finally read, um, Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids this past summer.Sarah: Mm-hmm.Joanna: And I feel like it also had a huge effect, just having, like, that bigger scope of understanding of, like, the peaceful parenting philosophy.Sarah: Uh-huh.Joanna: So I would say, like, even from where we were a few months ago, we've experienced tons of positive shifts with her.Sarah: Sweet.Joanna: Yeah, so we're already kind of well on our way, but there are certain behaviors that she has that still I find really perplexing. So I wondered if maybe we could go over a couple of them.Sarah: Sure. Yeah, no problem. For anyone—if, for anyone who doesn't know, Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids is the book written by my mentor, who I trained with, Dr. Laura Markham. Um, and just for my own curiosity, what do you think? Because, you know, I always worry that people are—that they don't have the fully formed idea of peaceful parenting. And that—and I'm not saying you, because you've listened to the podcast so you probably have a deeper understanding—but some people are just getting their little snippets on Instagram reels, you know, and so it is hard to understand, like, the, the sort of the core reasons why we do the approach if you don't have that deeper understanding. And also, I'm working on a book right now, so hopefully soon you'll be able to say you read my book. But what did you—what do you feel like got fleshed out for you when you read that book?Joanna: I think she really breaks a lot of things down step by step, such as, like, what to do when your child is going through a meltdown.Sarah: Mm-hmm.Joanna: And that has always been an area—like, when my daughter gets to that point where she's, like, become really explosive and aggressive and she's just, like, in it and she's kind of unreachable at that moment—like, what to do step by step at that time. I think, like, that's been the most helpful because I've been able to really settle into my own parenting and just, like, really trust myself and anchor in at that point, which is exactly really what she needs and what was missing.Sarah: Yeah. Yeah.Joanna: So—Sarah: So I think, um—like I always say, focus on regulating yourself first. Like, when someone's having a meltdown, empathize.Joanna: Yeah.Sarah: Um, you know, it—yeah, it's—it can be hard because you often feel like you need to do something. And even though you're saying step by step, it's less about doing anything than just centering yourself, staying calm yourself, trying to get in touch with the compassion and empathy even if you're not—some pe—some parents say, “Oh, well, when I try to say anything, then my kid just screams more.” So sometimes it's just empathize—like, getting connected in your own heart to the empathy and compassion, even if you're not saying anything—and that, that does something.Joanna: Absolutely it does. Yeah.Sarah: Yeah.Joanna: Yeah, so that's all been really helpful. Now, in—in terms of emotional regulation, I do definitely think that that's the biggest piece.Sarah: Okay.Joanna: Uh, it's been the biggest piece for me and sort of, like, one of the big things that I wanted to talk to you about today is we are still really not getting sleep because my 2-year-old is not a good sleeper and has never been a good sleeper. And we've gone through periods where I'm like, okay, now he's only waking up, like, twice a night, and that feels manageable. Um, but he's kind of been back to waking up, like, three to six times a night again, which is so hard. And then my husband's very supportive; however, he works afternoons, so he's gone from about 3:00 PM to 1:00 AM, so he needs to be able to sleep until about eight, which means I'm up with my son between six and seven. My daughter gets up for school around 7:30, so that's, like, a tricky time of day because she's really quite grumpy in the morning. He's not—the toddler's really, like, kind of a totally different temperament. But, like, I'm tired after struggling with, like, night wakings all night. And then I'm with the kids from the time that she gets home from school, um, and then doing both bedtimes myself.Sarah: Mm-hmm.Joanna: Um, so there's a lot of time where, like, I am solo parenting, and I'm definitely, like, the preferred parent. Um, and both my kids really want me and need me at bedtime. So he is still nursing—like, I'm nursing to sleep and then nursing during the night. And I know that that's probably contributing a lot to all the night wakings. So, I guess my question is, like, I am at the point where I am ready to night-wean. I probably should have done it already, but—Sarah: Don't say “should have.” Like, it's—if you're not ready to make that change, like, in your heart, it's really torturous to try to—try to, like, not—so say you decide you want to night-wean, but you weren't really ready to do it. It would be so painful for you to deny your son nursing in the night if you were—if you didn't feel in your heart, like, “No, this is the right thing to do. I'm totally ready. I think he's ready.” So, so I think waiting until you're really, like, actually, yes, “I'm done with this,” is a smart thing. Yeah. So don't beat yourself up for not having done it already. But you're right, it probably does contribute to him waking up in the night.Joanna: Yeah. And, um, I do feel like I—I'm ready. I just—I'm not quite sure how to make that shift. So what generally happens is, like, we have some, like, virtual babysitting going on with my mom, where, like, when I nurse my son to sleep, which generally takes, like, between maybe 30 and 45 minutes, she'll, like, sit with her and do a workbook. So we'll have, like, a video chat, and then after—Sarah: Yeah, it's great.Joanna: So then after, um, I'm with her to get her ready for bed, and that oftentimes looks like a lot of, like, dragging heels on, like, “Oh, I want another snack,” and “I wanna, like, brush my teeth,” and “Whatever—don't wanna brush my teeth.” So, um, then that ends up taking usually about an hour, but we both sort of have, like, this expiration at about 9:00 PM, where, like, she just gets so dysregulated because she's so tired.Sarah: Mm-hmm.Joanna: So if I don't have her in bed at that point and, like, already kind of with the lights out, there's often just, like, a meltdown and some—like, she'll start calling me names and start, like, you know, throwing stuff down at me and whatnot. And then I'm just really tired by that point too. Yeah. So we can kind of joke around about it now—like, nine o'clock is the time where we're, like, where we both expire. So I'm trying to figure out, like, how can I night-wean? Because I know that that is supposed to start with, like, him being able to fall asleep by himself at the beginning of the night, so—Sarah: Mm-hmm.Joanna: Slowly phasing that out and laying with him. I know it's gonna probably take a lot longer in the beginning, so I'm just a little worried that, like, maybe if it takes, like, an hour, an hour and a half, then all of a sudden she's kind of, like, left hanging and it's getting later and her bedtime's being pushed back.Sarah: Are there any—are there any nights that your partner is home at bedtime?Joanna: There's two—Sarah: nights that—Joanna: he—Sarah: is,Joanna: yeah.Sarah: Yeah. I mean, I guess I would start with those nights.Joanna: Yeah.Sarah: Yeah. Start with those nights. And—and when was your son's birthday? Like, like how—two—is he—Joanna: He just turned two, like, two weeks ago.Sarah: Okay. So, I mean, I think I would start with trying to just practice, you know, nursing him and maybe nursing him somewhere else and then bringing him back, you know, and then putting him in—are you co-sleeping?Joanna: Sleep—yeah. Well, I put him—like, I generally nurse him to sleep. He has a floor bed in his room, and then I go to bed in my own room, and then at his first wake, then I go back in, and I just stay there for the room—the rest of the night from that point.Sarah: Right, right. So I, I guess I would try just, like, nursing him and trying to, like, pat his back and sing to him and, you know, tell him that—that he can have—I, I mean, what we did was, “You can have milk in the morning,” you know, “You could have it when it's light.” I remember my oldest son—when he—it took him a couple of days—and if you wanna hear the whole story of my failed night-weaning with my second son, it was in a podcast that we did about infant and toddler sleep, uh, with Kim.Joanna: Yeah, Kim?Sarah: Yes. So you could listen to that if you haven't heard that already. But my second—my first son was super easy to night-wean, and a couple of—it was, like, a couple of nights of a little bit of crying, and he would just say, “Make it light, Mama. Make it light,” because he wanted—I said, “You can nurse when it's light.” But, you know, I, I, I don't wanna get into that whole big thing on this podcast because—mm-hmm—just because I've already talked about it. But if you wanna listen to that, and if you have any questions when we do our follow-up, you can, uh, you can ask me. But, you know, I would just try, you know, talking to him about, then, you know, “You can have Milky in the morning,” or whatever you call it, and, you know, those two—see how it goes for those two nights where your partner's around. And if it doesn't—I would say, if it still seems really hard, maybe just waiting to do it until—I don't know if you have any other support you could enlist. You mentioned your mother—maybe she could come and visit, you know, because I do think it would be hard to try and do this and do the solo bedtimes for a while. So I don't know if there's a time when your mom could come visit or if there's some other support that you could have. But yeah—Joanna: I think the tricky part with that is that, like, she—even with my husband—like, she doesn't want him to put her to bed.Sarah: Mm-hmm.Joanna: And depending on the kind of night that she's having, sometimes she'll end up, like, screaming, and their bedrooms are right beside each other. So we've had it before where, like, she'll start having a meltdown and, like, wake him up, and then he's not able to fall asleep either. And then we—Sarah: There's also—your husband could be with your son.Joanna: It's the same—same situation though. Like, he doesn't—him—Sarah: It sounds—it sounds like possibly—I mean, there—kids do have preferred parents even when, um, they do have good connection with the—with the other parent. And you could maybe still work—have some—that be something that you're working on, having your partner, you know, maybe even practicing having—before you start doing the night-weaning—practicing having your partner doing some of the bedtime stuff. When you are—when, you know, when—before you're starting to make a change so that your son doesn't associate, you know, “I'm not getting what I want,” and my dad, you know, putting me to sleep.Joanna: Yeah.Sarah: So I would maybe try to get your partner a little bit more involved in bedtime before making a change. And—and even if there's some crying—we also have a podcast about preferred parents that you could listen to. So I—you know, I think maybe you do have a little bit of pre-work to do before you start doing the night-weaning, and, in terms of when—how can you get support at bedtime?Joanna: Yeah.Sarah: Okay.Joanna: I mean, the other option is if you just kick it down the road more and—or, you know, there isn't—there's actually a third option now that I think about it—it's that you still nurse him to sleep but then don't nurse him when you wake him up—when he wakes up in the night. Get him to go back to sleep without that.Sarah: I hadn't thought about that, because I think that everything that I've heard has been, like, they have to fall asleep on their own because then they're always gonna be—Joanna: looking—Sarah: for—Joanna: Yeah. Yeah.Sarah: But I mean, you could still try it.Joanna: Hmm. Okay.Sarah: Or you could try shortening the—you know, give him a little bit of milk and then see if he'll go to sleep, um, after he has a little bit, but without nursing to sleep.Joanna: Okay. Yeah. Okay, I'll give that some thought and try some different things there.Sarah: Mm-hmm.Joanna: Okay. Thank you. But yeah, I feel like just starting to get sleep again is pretty important. So, even in terms of, like, being able to center myself to handle all of the things that goes on with my daughter during the day, that feels like a really important piece right now.Sarah: For sure. And if she's—if she's some nights not going—it sounds like quite frequently maybe she's not asleep before nine.Joanna: Yeah.Sarah: And what time does she wake up?Joanna: 7:30.Sarah: 7:30. So do you think she's getting enough sleep?Joanna: Probably not. She's really lethargic in the morning.Sarah: Mm-hmm.Joanna: But I can't really seem to figure out how to be able to get her to sleep. Like, I did talk to her about it, and she was like, “Well, maybe when I turn eight, like, I can start putting myself to bed.” And I was like, “Okay, well what—what would that look like?” And she kind of went through, like, “Okay, I'll, you know, I'll brush my teeth on the phone with Grandma, and then I'll just, like, read in bed.” And—but this is, like, in a moment where she's feeling very regulated.Sarah: Right, right, right. And when's her birthday?Joanna: Uh, in about two months.Sarah: Okay. Yeah. Um, have you had a conversation with her about how neither of you likes the fighting at night? And, you know—and does she have any, like—not in the moment, but does she have any ideas of, you know, how you can solve the problem of her not, you know, not wanting to go to bed and then getting too tired and then getting really cranky?Joanna: Yeah, we have—we have talked about it, and we can talk about it with, like, a little bit more levity now, but I don't think that she's actually—we've gone to, like, the problem-solving—Sarah: Mm-hmm.Joanna: of that.Sarah: I mean, that might be a helpful conversation to have with her and just say, “You know, I've been thinking about what often happens at night, you know, and I totally get it, that you don't wanna go to bed. Like, you know, when I was a kid, I never wanted to go to bed, and I would've stayed up all night if I could. And I'm sure you're the same because it's just—you know, when you're young, going to bed is, like, you know, not any fun at all.” And you can make—you could even make a joke, like, “When you're old like me, like, you can't wait to go to bed.” But of course when you're young, you don't wanna go to sleep, and I totally get that. So, like, lots of empathy and acknowledging, like, her perspective. And—and then you could say, “And at the same time, you know, you do—you know, why do you think it's important to sleep?” So I guess you could have that conversation with her too about, like, you know, what happens when we're sleeping that—your, you know, you could talk about how your cells, like, fix themselves. Also we grow when we're sleeping—like, we get the—like, the growth hormone gets secreted, and that's the—if we don't get enough sleep, we're not gonna grow and we're not gonna feel happy the next day. So you can, like, talk to her about the importance of sleep. And then you could say, like, “So, you know, I know you don't wanna go to sleep, and I know how important it is, and now you do too. And, you know—and I hate fighting with you at bedtime. You know, do you have any ideas for how we can solve this problem? Because I really want us both to go to bed feeling happy and connected.”Joanna: Yeah. Yeah, that's a great suggestion. Thank you. I think the biggest barrier to her getting to bed on time is she is finally feeling, like, a bit more calm and relaxed at night. Like, she comes home after school with a lot—she's holding a lot from school. They have, like, a point system for good behavior at school.Sarah: Oh.Joanna: And you should see how she racks up the points. She has great behavior at school. The teacher's, like—would never believe what goes on at home.Sarah: Of course, yeah.Joanna: So then she comes home, and it's, like, a lot of unloading. So I feel like by that time of night she's, like, ready to pursue her hobbies. Like, she's like, “Oh, I just wanna do this one more little”—you know, she's drawing something, and it's always like, “I just need to finish this,” because once she gets started on something, she can't seem to break her focus on—We're very much suspecting ADHD. That's gonna be probably in the next year we pursue a diagnosis, but—Sarah: Typically—do have a lot of trouble falling asleep—that's with ADHD. What about—you know, so two outta three of my kids had a lot of trouble falling asleep, and they're both my ADHD kids, and what really helped them was something to listen to at night. You know—Joanna: Yeah, she does listen to podcasts falling asleep—Sarah: Does listen to stuff.Joanna: Yeah, she's always listened—listened to, like, a story falling asleep. I think part of it too is we don't get a lot of one-on-one time throughout the day.Sarah: Mm-hmm.Joanna: Because my son's around in the morning.Sarah: Mm-hmm.Joanna: And it's usually just the three of us until my husband wakes up, which is shortly before she goes to school. And then it's again the three of us from after school till bedtime most days, except for the two days a week that he's off.Sarah: Well, I mean, that's something to explore too, like, in—are there, you know—I don't know if you live in a neighborhood that has some, like, tweens that could come over and play with your son for an hour—you know, just someone really fun that he would like to play with—and then you and your daughter could have some time together. Because what I was gonna say when you said that she comes home with what we call the “full backpack” in Peaceful Parenting—which is, she's been carrying around, for anyone who's listening who doesn't know what that is, it's a concept that my mentor, Dr. Laura, came up with—where you're holding on to all of the stresses, big feelings, tensions from the day, and then when you come home, it's too much to, you know, to keep holding onto it. And so that's what you were just referring to, is just that she's got a lot to unpack after the day at school. And so I'm wondering—so when you mentioned that, I was gonna say, like, what could you do to try to proactively get some of that emptied out? Couple of ideas: do you do any roughhousing with her?Joanna: We actually just started doing that, and I couldn't believe how much she was into it. Yeah, I was super surprised. But I also think that it's taken just a lot of, like, repair with our relationship to get to the point that I've even been able to try some of this stuff. Like, because at first, like, when I first started hearing about some of these, like, peaceful—I, I don't know if you'd call them techniques—but, like, being playful and, um, roughhousing and things like that—she was so not open to anything at all because she was just so serious and so edgy and like, “Get away from me,” like, so irritable. So now I think that we've just—I've poured a lot of time in on weekends just to, like, spend time together that's enjoyable, and I'm noticing a huge shift. So now we are able to do some of these things, and it—it is turning out more positively.Sarah: Good. I mean, as you're speaking, I'm thinking that it sounds like there was maybe, um, quite a—a breach when your son was born, like, the last two years. Or, or do you feel like your relationship has always been a little strained even before that?Joanna: I feel like maybe it's always been a little fraught. I don't know if his birth had, like, a huge impact on that. Um, it has always been pretty strained.Sarah: Okay, okay.Joanna: Just because she's the more challenging kid?Sarah: I think so. And, you know, when she was two there was the pandemic. I think, like, I was carrying a lot of trauma after the whole NICU experience with her. And then we had the pandemic, and then we moved, and then I got pregnant, and then I had my son. So it's like there's sort of been these, like, things along the way where—yeah, I don't know.Sarah: Yeah. Okay. Well, I mean, that's good that you brought that up because I think that, you know, maybe that's gonna be the pre-work—that even before bedtime starts to feel better is really working on—you know, if you can get some support in, because it is really hard to have one-on-one time with a 2-year-old who probably doesn't wanna leave you alone. But even if—you know, continue with your sort of bulking up on the weekends with that time with her and do some, like, roughhousing and special time with her. Do you guys do special time?Joanna: Yeah. And that's something I wanted to talk about because special time has been sort of a big fail when I call it special time and when we set a timer for special time, because it really tends to dysregulate her, I think, because she's like, “Oh my God, I only have you for 15 minutes.” Mm-hmm. She gets really stressed out, and then she's like—oftentimes she likes to do these, like, elaborate pretend plays—things which need, like, a lot, a lot of setup time. Yeah. So she'll be like, “Pause the timer so I can set this up,” and then it just becomes, like, more tension between us. Like, it's not enjoyable.Sarah: It's one of those things where, like, you really have to adjust it to how it works for your particular family. Um, so, you know, maybe you just have, like, a couple hours with her on the weekend and you're—and it would be good for your—your partner and your son too. Maybe he could take him to the park or go and—you know, for them to work on their connection, which might make him a little bit more willing to go to bed with his dad, you know, on the nights that your partner is home. So, you know, I would really work on that connection with her and do those pretend play things with her. And even—you know, and this is maybe obvious, which is why I didn't say it before—but, you know, partly she's dragging her heels because that's the only time she has you to herself—at bedtime, right?Joanna: Yeah.Sarah: And so she doesn't want that to end because that's the only time that it—her brother's asleep—she has you all to herself. So if you can increase the time where she has you all to herself, she might be more willing to, um, to go to bed. Yeah. The other thing I was gonna say is, do you have anything that you do together at bedtime that would be, like—it sounds like she's dragging her heels to actually get in bed. Is there anything that you can do to entice her to get in bed, like a chapter book that you're reading her, that you read a chapter every night or something like that?Joanna: Yeah, and that has worked in the past, but it can—it can also kind of cause tension because I find, like, then I am a lot more apt to kind of hold it as, like, a bargaining chip instead of, like, “Oh, let's get to that.” Right. But lately we've been playing cards, and she's really motivated to, like, play a game of cards when we're in bed. So that seems to be working right now, but it's always kind of like—it changes all the time.Sarah: Right, right. Well, just keeping—thinking of something that you can use to make getting in bed seem more attractive? Um, maybe—I mean, my kids used to love hearing stories about me when I was little or about them when they were little. So it could even just be, like, a talk time. I know Corey, who works with me, does—she started doing a 10-minute talk time with one of her sons, who's a little bit older than—than your daughter, but where they just have, you know, this time where they just get in bed and he tells her stuff and they—they talk. So that could be something too—just really pure, straight-up connection.Joanna: Yeah. Okay, I like that. Maybe I can just ask you a couple more things about some of the things I—She's kind of a person that really wants constant connection too. Like, it does feel like I could spend, like, all day with her, and then she—once it's over, she would still be like, “Well, why are we not still—” like, it—we've always kind of—my husband and I will joke that she's got, like, a leaky cup because it's, like, “Just fill up their cup,” but it doesn't seem to matter. He used to play with her for, like, two to three hours when she was younger, and then at the end she would just, like, not be satisfied. Like, it didn't seem like anything was going to, like, fill her cup.Sarah: And that—you know what, there are kids like that. I remember I had this client once whose son actually said to her, “Mama, all the—all the hours in the world are not enough time with you.” And there are some kids that are really just like that. And, you know, I'm not sure how you respond when she says, like, you know, “But we hardly even got to play,” after you play for three hours. I mean, that playful—like, “Oh my gosh, like, what if we could just play all day?” You know, either, like, playful response of, like, “We could play for 27 hours,” you know, “and—and—and we would still have so much fun together.” Or just pure empathy, you know, like, “Oh no, it just feels like it's never enough time, is it?”Joanna: And it almost seems like sometimes when I am empathetic, it almost, like, fuels her anger. I don't know if you've ever heard that before from anybody else, but—eh, I don't know. Like, we had a situation with—like, she was looking for a specific bear last weekend—a teddy bear that she's missing—because she wanted to bring it to a teddy bear picnic. And so we were sort of, like, you know, we had to get out the door to go to this party. She couldn't find this bear, and I was, like, you know, offering a lot of empathy, and just, like—the more that I was like, “I know, like, you're so frustrated; you're so disappointed that you can't find your bear,” it was like the more that she was like, “Yeah, and you took it, you hid it, you put it somewhere.” Like, it just—the more empathy I gave, it seemed like the more that she was using it as almost, like, fuel to be upset. Does that make sense? Right.Sarah: Yeah. No, that's pretty common. And the thing is, you have to remember that blame is trying to offload difficult feelings. It's like, “I don't wanna feel this way, so I'm gonna blame you.” And then—you know, it's anger—have you ever seen the image of the anger iceberg?Joanna: Yes.Sarah: Yeah. So the anger iceberg is, like, the anger is the only thing you see coming out of the water. But underneath the iceberg are all of the more tender feelings, right? And anger is actually a secondary emotion. So you don't start out by feeling angry. You feel—like, like for her, she maybe was feeling frustrated and disappointed that she couldn't find her bear. And those are the first feelings. But those more tender feelings are harder to feel, and so anger is often protective. And the tender feelings also set off that—you know, that overwhelm of our emotions registers as a threat to the nervous system, which sets off that fight, flight, or freeze. So there's all those things going on, right? Like, the blame of, like, trying to offload the feelings; the anger of feeling like it's easier to go on the offensive than to feel those tender feelings; and then the nervous system getting set off by that overwhelm that registers as a threat, right? It sets off the fight, flight, or freeze. And they're—they're kind of all different ways of saying the same thing. And yes, empathy often will help a child—that they get more in touch with those feelings. And I'm not saying that you don't wanna empathize, um, but just recognize that, you know, the feelings are happening, and when you empathize, they—you know, you're welcoming the feelings, which sometimes can have that fight, flight, or freeze effect.Joanna: And would you recommend that I continue to really lean into empathy more and just stay with all of that emotion until it passes?Sarah: So—totally depends. The other thing I was gonna say is it's possible—like the situation you just gave me—it's possible—like, how—were you actually feeling empathetic, or were you trying to just get out the door?Joanna: I think I was, but at a certain point I was like, “I think, you know, we have two options from here. Like, we can continue to be upset about the bear and it—it will make us late for the party, or at a certain point we can move on and make a new plan,” and, like, “get our—make our way over there.” So, um, is that effective? Yeah, I—I mean, she eventually was able to change gears. But, I mean, it doesn't feel like real life to just be able to, like, sit in your negative emotions all the time. And I think, like, maybe I struggle with doing that for, like, a long enough period of time to actually let her—let them out.Sarah: Well, I don't know—yeah. So, I mean, there's a difference between welcoming feelings and wallowing in emo—in emotion, I think.Joanna: Yeah. And she definitely is a wallower, and she almost has really, like, attached so much sadness and frustration and anger to this bear. Like, now she'll just, like, think about the bear and be like, “Oh, I still can't find that bear.” Like, she was just, like, you know, exploding about it again this past weekend. So it almost feels like she's just latching onto it to, like, feel bad there.Sarah: I mean, some kids—she's probably not choosing to latch onto it to feel bad, but she probably just has. So, so what I was gonna say is sometimes when kids seem to be wallowing, it's just that there's so much there that they haven't been able to get out on a regular basis. So I think it is just like a full backpack, and there's just a lot there. And it's not—it's probably not just about the bear. It's probably just like she's—it's, you know, processing other older things too. And you don't have to know what's in the backpack or try and figure it out. But you might find that if you had more opportunities for her to process feelings, then she might not get so stuck when they do start to come out.That's one thing that I would think of. Like—and more laughter should help with that. Like, more laughter and roughhousing to help her sort of process stuff. And also sometimes—so the bear thing reminds me of—some kids will just feel bad, you know, like feel bad sometimes from, like, a full backpack, or maybe they don't even know what it is, they can't connect. Or maybe they're just tired and low-resourced and their brain is kind of like, “Why do I feel bad? Why do I feel bad?” And she's like, “Oh, the bear.” You know, she remembers, like, the bear. Like, I've had clients tell me, my kid will say, like, “I miss Grandpa,” who they never met, who died before they were born—like, just kind of casting around for, like, “Why could I be feeling this way right now? Oh, I know—it's 'cause I can't find that bear.”Or maybe the bear is so important to her that it really is—that she thinks about it and it just makes her feel bad. But I think what you wanna remember when it seems like she's wallowing is that, you know, getting—like, having empathy. And I actually also did a podcast about this too, with another coaching call, where I talked about, you know, cultivating a certain amount of nonchalance after you feel like you've been pretty empathetic and welcomed the feelings. Because I think if we're too empathetic sometimes—and I do wanna be very careful with this because I don't want anyone to take this as, like, “Don't be empathetic”—but, you know, there is a time where you just say, like, “You know what? I hear how upset you are about this, and I get it. And I would be really bummed if I couldn't find the bear I wanted also. And we have to decide, like, are we gonna stay here and just keep feeling sad about the bear, or should we figure out another plan?” Like what you said, right.Joanna: Yeah, I have heard you say that before, and that's been so helpful for her. Mm-hmm. It seems like if I'm not so reactive to her emotions, she realizes that they're not an emergency either.Sarah: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean—and that's a good point too, because I didn't even ask you, like, how's your regulation when this is happening? Like, are you getting, like, annoyed, frustrated, upset for her, kind of drawn in? Are you able to, like, kind of center yourself and stay calm?Joanna: It varies. I would say I currently am the most resourced that I've ever been—good with, like, the emotional regulation piece. And then that—I see, like, sometimes she is able to come out of it more quickly, or it just depends on, you know, what her tolerance is at that—at that time. So—Sarah: Joanna, it might be that, you know, you're coming out of—almost like you're coming out of a fog of, you know—you said all the things: like the NICU experience, and then the—and then COVID, and then your new baby, and—and that it might be that you're really, finally for the first time, kind of getting to tend—you know, look at yourself, your own regulation, and be more present and connected with your daughter. And all these things are gonna start having a little bit of, um, of a snowball effect. And it may be that you've just had this, like, seven-year period of difficulty, you know?Joanna: Oh, that's horrifying.Sarah: Well, but the good news is it sounds like things are shifting.Joanna: Yeah. It really does feel like that. Yeah. You're—I feel like even if I talked to you a few months ago, I would've been like, “Oh, help me.”Sarah: Well—and that you're recognizing what you brought—what you bring to the table, and that, you know, things have been fraught with your daughter, and that you're sort of starting to come out. And—and honestly, also doing that—doing that bedtime—after-school bedtime by yourself five days a week, that's gonna be tough too. Uh, so you've got situ—just that current situation doesn't sound like it'll change, but you're changing what you're bringing to it.Joanna: Yeah. Yeah. Um, if I can maybe just ask you, like, one more little thing?Sarah: Sure.Joanna: Maybe this is—it all comes back to, like, wanting a lot of connection, but this is also what kind of drains my battery. She constantly wants to, like, talk to me or ask me questions from, like, the time that she wakes up to the time that she goes to bed. And it will be—like, currently it's, like, “Would you rather.” It's like, “Would you rather eat all the food in the world or never eat again?” Uh-huh. In the past it's been, like, “Guess what's in my mouth?” But then she always really tries to make it—make me wrong in the circumstance, if that makes sense. Like, I don't know if that's just her, like, looking for power or, like, the upper hand, or like—I don't know. I'm not sure what it is.Sarah: Well, I mean, if you feel—if you have a sense that she's looking for power, I would bring that into the roughhousing—where you are the one who's weak and bumbling and idiotic, and, you know, you're so slow, and she beats you every time at a race. So I would really try to bring some of that—some of that stuff into your roughhousing where she gets to be—Do you know the kind of stuff I'm talking about? Like, “I bet you can't—um, you know, I bet you can't beat me at arm wrestling,” and then, like, you know, you flop your arm over in a silly way, and like, “How are you so strong? Like, I'm gonna beat you next time.” And it's obviously playful, because probably you are stronger than she is at this point, but, you know—feats of strength or speed, or, you know, figuring things out, and you act like you really don't know anything. And—but in, of course, in a joking way, so she knows that you're not—you know, you're pretending to be all these things, but she still gets to gloat and, like, “Ha, you know, I'm the strongest, I'm the best.” So really giving her that in roughhousing.And then also, like, real power. Like, I don't know if she gets to make—what kinds of decisions she gets to make, or, you know, how much—how flexible you are on limits. Because sometimes, as parents, we do set unnecessary limits, which can make our kids, you know—make them look for power in other ways. So really looking at what limits you're setting and if they're necessary limits, and—and how you're setting them. Uh, and also I think it sounds like it's connection-seeking—like, she just wants you. You know, she wants to know that you're there and paying attention to her. And so everything else that you're doing—that we're talking about—that you're gonna try to do more—more time with her and get more one-on-one time with her, hopefully that will help too.And I think it is okay to say, like, after you've done, like, 25 “would you rathers,” I just say—like, I used to say to my kids, “You know what? My brain is just feeling really stimulated from so many words. Like, can we have some quiet for a few minutes?” And not—and being very careful to not phrase it like, “You're talking too much,” or “I don't wanna listen to—” and I'm exaggerating for effect—but just framing it as, like, your brain and a regulation thing—like, “My brain,” and it is words. Yeah. And so, like, “Do you—should we put some music on?” You know, “Can we—like, think of—can you connect in a way that—let's listen to a story.” Okay. Something like that where you still, like, keep up connection with her, but—and it might not work. She—she might not be able to stop talking, but you can try it at least.Joanna: No, that's a—that's a really good suggestion. Almost like replacing it with some other kind of stimulation if she's looking for that in that moment.Sarah: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So I think—I think it's just—I think it's fair. Like, it's totally—I, at the end of the day, with people, like, talking at me all day, I sometimes am like—you know, when my kids were younger, I'd be like, “Okay, you know, I—I just need a little—my brain needs a little bit of a break. It's feeling overstimulated.” So I think just using that language with her.Joanna: Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you. Well—Sarah: Yeah, I think you're—you know, I think that I've—that we've connected at a point where you're, like, at—you're, like, at the—sort of the top of a mountain, you know? And you've been, like, having all this struggle and uphill battles. And I think you've put—before even we talk—you've put a lot of pieces [together] of what—you know, why some of the challenges were. And they do seem to be connection—you know, connection-based, just in terms of, um, you know, her wanting more and you not being as resourced. And so hopefully working on connection is gonna help with that too.Joanna: Yeah. I'm gonna keep that at top of mind.Sarah: And your self-regulation too. You said you're—you know, you've been having—you're more resourced now than you ever have been, so you're able to work on really staying, like, calm and compassionate in those times when she's dysregulated. Going back to what I said in the beginning, which is that, you know, the steps for the meltdowns really start with our own regulation.Joanna: And I find it's a snowball effect too, because once you start seeing positive changes, it allows you to, like, rest in knowing that things will not always be so hard.Sarah: Yeah. So it—Joanna: It gives you motivation to keep going, I think.Sarah: Totally. And, you know, with complex kids—which it sounds like your daughter is one of those more complex kids—um, brain maturity makes such a huge difference. Um, like, every month and every year as she's starting to get older. And, you know, you mentioned ADHD—that you—that you suspect that she might be ADHD. ADHD kids are often around three years behind, um, in terms of what you might expect for them in terms of, like, their brain development. And not—and not across the board. But in terms of, like, their regulation, in terms of what they can do for themselves, um, like in—you know, and obviously every kid is different. But it really helps to think about, um, your ADHD kids as sort of, uh, developmentally younger than they are. My—my girlfriend who has—her son and my daughter are the same age, so they're both just starting college or university this year. And, um, she was—I—she lives in California, and I was talking to her, and her son has ADHD, and she was talking about how much support he's still needing in first-year college and how she was feeling a little bit like, “Oh, I feel like I shouldn't be supporting him this much when he's 18.” And—and she said, “Actually, I just re—you know, I always remind myself of what you told me a long time ago: to think of him as three years younger than he is in some ways,” and that that's made her feel a little bit better about the scaffolding that she's having to give him.Joanna: Yeah, I've never heard that before. That's good. She's also gonna be starting to work with an OT in a couple of weeks, so we'll see if that has any effect as well.Sarah: Cool.Joanna: Cool.Sarah: Alright, well, I look forward to catching up with you in around maybe three weeks or a month and seeing how things went, and, um, good luck, and I hope this was helpful and gave you some things to work on.Joanna: Okay. Thank you so much.Sarah: Hi Joanna. Welcome back to the podcast.Joanna: Hi Sarah.Sarah: So—how has—it's been about—I think it's been about four weeks since we talked the first time. How have things been?Joanna: Yeah, things I think have been going a little better. Like, every day is a little bit different. We definitely have, like, a lot of ups and downs still, but I think overall we're just on a better trajectory now. Um, it's actually—I was wondering if things—if, like, the behavior has actually been better, or if it's more just, like, my frame of mind.Sarah: That is the classic question because—it's so funny, I'm—I'm laughing because so much of the time when I'm coaching parents, after a couple of sessions they'll say, “This isn't even about my kids. This is all about me.” Right.Joanna: Yeah, it really, really is and just continues to be about, like, my own—not just frame of mind, but, like, my own self-regulation. That's always the biggest thing.Sarah: Yeah.Joanna: Um, I think the biggest challenge is, like—ever since, like, about six months ago, I just have had really bad PMS. So I find, like, the week before—Sarah: Mm-hmm.Joanna: I just feel so irritated by everything.Sarah: Yeah.Joanna: So I feel like that's a really—just so much more of a challenging time because then things that normally don't bother me are bothering me a lot more.Sarah: Right.Joanna: And then it's harder to keep that connection strong.Sarah: Totally. Yeah. And you also—as we mentioned last time—you have come off of a whole bunch of different events of, you know—we talked your daughter's premature birth, and then COVID, and then the new baby. And the new baby—you know, you're not sleeping that much, and, um, all of those things would make it also have your resources be low. Like, not only the PMS, but, like, anything that puts a tax on us—on our resources—is gonna make us more irritable.Joanna: Totally. And—but I'm really trying to lean into having a lot more compassion for myself, because I know that when I do that, I can have a lot more compassion for her and, mm-hmm, whatever's going on that she's bringing to the table too. So that's—that's, I think, probably the biggest thing. But I think that our relationship is just starting to have a lot more resilience—like, when things do start to go sideways, either she or I—we're able to kind of get back on track a lot more quickly than before, and it doesn't become as, like, entrenched.Sarah: That's awesome. And we—we talked last time about trying to get some more time with her so that the only time that she has with you isn't just at bedtime when you're trying to get her to go to bed. Have you been able to do that, and has it—do you think that's been helping?Joanna: Yeah. It depends. Like, we had a really busy weekend this past weekend, so not as much. And then I find that sometimes, like, a barrier to that is, like, by the time the weekend finally comes, I'm so depleted and really just, like, needing time for myself. As much as I'm like, “Okay, I need to spend one-on-one time with her,” I'm like, “I don't want to—I just, like, be by myself for a little while.” So it's—Sarah: I hear that.Joanna: It's always that—like, yeah, it's always that balancing act. And then, like, feeling guilty of, like, “Okay, no, I know I should want to hang out with her,” and I kind of just don't really.Sarah: Mm-hmm. No, you're—you're totally not alone. And it's funny that you just—you mentioned self-compassion and then you said, “I feel guilty 'cause I—I don't wanna hang out with her,” but we all—the theme so far in this five minutes is that, um, you know, what you're bringing to the—what you're bringing to the relationship has been improving. Like you said, your mindset has shifted, and that's helping things with her. So even if you're not getting time independently with her—and hopefully you can work towards that after you fill your own cup—but you're still helping things with her by getting time to yourself.Joanna: True. Yeah, because then I'm coming back just a much better, happier—yes—parent and person.Sarah: Totally.Joanna: Oh, thank you. That's helpful.Sarah: Yeah, and the—and I think you've—you know, you've touched—just in these few minutes—you've touched on two big things that I always say: if you can't really take these two things to heart, it'll be really hard to be a successful peaceful parent. And one is what you said—the mindset shift, you know, of how you see her behavior with, you know, that children are doing the best they can. You know, they're not giving us a hard time; they're having a hard time. And the other one is self-compassion. So making strides in both of those areas will really help you be that parent that you wanna be.Joanna: Yeah. And even though we're maybe not getting huge chunks of time individually, I am really trying to make the most of, like, those little moments—Sarah: Good.Joanna: —of connection. Yeah. So even, like—what we've started doing is, because my husband's on night shift, he is waking up with her in the morning because she has a really hard time in the morning. So now he's sort of with her, getting her ready in the morning. And then I am—like, we used to all walk to the bus together because my son likes to go too. But now my husband's hanging back with my son, so now I'm just walking her to the bus. And even though it's five minutes, it's like we're holding hands. She's able to tell me—Sarah: Yeah.Joanna: —you know, talking about whatever.Sarah: That's still—that—that totally counts. That's—and that also, um, that also takes care of something we talked about last time too, which is your husband and your son having more time together, um, so that the nights that—when your husband is home—maybe he can put your son to bed and start trying to shift that dynamic. So yeah. That's amazing that you're doing—that. Yeah, I think that's a great shift—walking to her—to the bus by herself.Joanna: And I think it—it actually makes a huge difference. You know, before it was like she would just kind of get on the bus and not really look back, and now she's, like, giving me a hug and a kiss and waving—Sarah: Mm-hmm.Joanna: —waving in the window. So, like, I can see that it's having a positive effect right away.Sarah: You could even leave five minutes earlier than you have to and have—turn that five minutes into ten minutes.Joanna: I would love to do that. It's always just—like, it's really hard to get to the bus on time as it is. We will work toward that though.Sarah: I hear that. Well, if you did try to leave five minutes earlier then it might be more relaxed, even if you didn't even have any extra time, but you were just, like—leave, you know, change your whole morning back five minutes and try to get out five minutes early.Joanna: Yeah. Yeah. True. So I think that we had talked a lot about roughhousing last time too—Sarah: Mm-hmm.Joanna: —and I do find that that's—that's really—it works well for her, but I run into this really specific problem where when, uh, like, we start roughhousing, and then she's enjoying it, but then my son wants to get in the mix—Sarah: Mm-hmm.Joanna: —and then right away she's like, “No, like, get outta here.” So then she'll start kind of, like, pushing him or, like, throwing kicks or something. So—and then he gets upset because he's like, “Mom! Mom!” So then I end up sort of, like, pinned underneath both of them—Sarah: Right.Joanna: —they're mad at each other, hitting each other—Sarah: Oh no.Joanna: —they both want me.Sarah: Well, maybe—maybe don't do it then if that's how it ends up. But I do have a couple of shifts that might help before you give up on it when you're alone with them. One is, do you ever try to do those “two against you”? Like, start it out right from the get-go—“You two against Mommy. See if you can—see if you can—” Um, it's funny you just said you end up pinned down because that's what I often say. Like, “See if you can stop Mommy from getting up,” or “See if you can catch me,” or, you know, trying to align the two of them against you. That might help.Joanna: Yeah, I love that idea. Never thought about that. Yeah, I think she would love that.Sarah: Yeah. So, “Okay, you two are a team, and you have to try to stop me from jumping on the bed,” or “You know, you—you have to stop me from getting to the bed,” or, you know, something like that.Joanna: Okay, I'm gonna try that. I think that they'll love it.Sarah: Yeah. Another idea is, um, what I call “mental roughhousing,” where you're not doing, like, physical stuff, but you're being silly and, like, um—I think I mentioned her last time to you, but A Playful Heart Parenting—Mia—W—Walinski. She has a lot of great ideas on her Instagram—we'll link to that in the show notes—of, like, different, um, like, word things that you can do. When I say mental roughhousing, it's like getting everyone laughing without being physical.Joanna: Mm-hmm.Sarah: Uh, which—you know, the goal of roughhousing is to get everyone laughing, and sometimes being physical might not work. But you can—like, I'll give you an idea. This isn't from Mia, but this is something that I used to do with my kids. Like, you know, one of you—you're like—you say to JR, “Oh—where did your sister go?” And she's sitting right there. “She was just here a minute ago. Where did Jay go? I don't see her. What happened to her? She disappeared.” And meanwhile she's like, “I'm right here! I'm right here!” You know—something like that that's more of, like, a—more of a mental roughhousing.My kids and I used to play this game that actually my brother-in-law invented called Slam, where, like, you both say a word at the same time. Um, so, like—I'm just looking around my—like, you know, “curtain” and, you know, “lemonade.” Uh, and then it's like—you both say it—both—you both say your word at the same time. And that actually wasn't a very funny one—kids come up with much funnier ones than I do—but it's like, “Is that, like, a lemonade that is made out of curtains, or is it a—what—” It's such a dumb example now that I think of it, but—but—or is it, like, a curtain that hides the lemonade? And so you just try and—like, you think of silly things that the two words together—the two words “slam” together—mean.Joanna: Okay, great. That's—that's on my next book—that's on my next thing to read. You—man—you keep mentioning—what is it? Playful—Playful Heart Parenting? She has an—I—Sarah: There was a book—there was a book too. And—Joanna: Oh—Sarah: Playful Parenting—the Larry Cohen book.Joanna: The Larry Cohen book, yeah.Sarah: Yeah.Joanna: Yeah.Sarah: That's a great book. Yeah, and he was on my podcast too, so you could listen to that. We'll also link to—Mia was on my podcast, and Larry was—so we'll link to both of those in the show notes as well.Joanna: Okay, great. I may have listened to one of those, but—yeah. Okay. Yeah.Sarah: And Playful Parenting is really great for also talking—and, like, Mia is just straight up, like, how to be more playful in life and to, you know, make more joy in your family kind of thing. And Larry talks about how to be more playful to also support your child through transitions and through big emotions and different things—like, it's a—it's a little bit more, um, like, all-around parenting—Playful Parenting.Joanna: Okay.Sarah: But it is different.Joanna: Yeah. I used to have a really hard time getting the kids upstairs to start the bedtime routine. And now it's like—I'll be like, “Okay, I'm gonna hide first,” and, like, I go upstairs and hide and we start—Sarah: Oh, I love that.Joanna: —we play hide-and-seek, and—Sarah: Oh yeah, it was a stroke of genius one day, and it's been working so well just to get everyone, like, off the main floor and—Joanna: —upstairs.Sarah: I'm gonna totally steal that idea. That's such a good idea. Yeah, because you could also send them up—“Okay, go hide upstairs and I'll come and find you.” And then you could do a round of you hiding. And I love that. That's a great idea. Yeah.Joanna: And I especially love hide-and-seek for sometimes when I need, like, 30 seconds by myself in a dark closet—Sarah: —to, like, take a breath.Joanna: That's great.Sarah: I love it. I love it. Yeah, it's—that's so great.As I mentioned before, I forgot to ask Joanna for an update about a few things. So here's the update about breastfeeding her son in the night.Sarah: Okay.Joanna: Hi, Sarah. So, in terms of the night-weaning, um, I haven't gone ahead and done anything about that yet just because he does have his last molars coming in and has been sick. So I want to wait until he's well and pain-free to kind of give us our best chance at getting that off on the right foot. But I have really realized that because he's my last baby, that this is really the last little home stretch of being woken up by a baby at night—specifically to nurse. So that's helped me kind of reduce my feelings of resentment toward it.Sarah: I love that Joanna zoomed out and looked at the big picture and the fact that this is her last baby, and used that to sort of just change her mindset a little bit and make it a little bit easier to continue on with something when she knew it wasn't the right time to stop. And now here is her update about bedtime with her daughter. And for this, I love that she got preventive—you'll see what I mean—and also playful. Those are two really great things to look at when you're having any struggles with your kids: like, how can I prevent this from happening? And also, how can I be playful when it is happening and shift the mood?Joanna: And in terms of bedtime with my daughter, we've made a couple of schedule changes to set us off on a better foot once I get back together with her after putting my son to bed. So I think we used to have a lot of conflict because it was like she was still asking for another snack and then hadn't brushed her teeth, and then it was just kind of getting to be too late and I was getting short on patience. So now we have, like, a set snack time where everybody has a snack, and I let them know, like, “This is the last time that we're eating today,” and then we're going upstairs—using hide-and-seek, like I mentioned—and then just really continuing to be playful in all doing our bedtime tasks together.So, for example, I'm saying, like, “Okay, I'm gonna go into my room and put my pajamas on. Can you guys go get your PJs on—and then don't show me, but I have to guess what pajamas you have on?” So she really loves that because, like I mentioned, she loves to get me to guess things. But also she's then helping her brother get ready for bed, and he's far more cooperative with her than with me in terms of getting his pajamas on. So it all works really well.Yeah, and then just kind of continuing to be silly and playful is really helping with brushing teeth—it's like, “Who can make the silliest faces in the mirror?” and stuff. So, really kind of moving through all those tasks together so that by the time I'm out of the room and ready to put her to bed, everything's done, and we can just get into playing cards and then snuggling and chatting and—and leaving from there after maybe a five- or ten-minute snuggle. So there's been way fewer meltdowns at the end of the night because we are able to just not get in this place where we're getting into power struggles in the first place. It's just really all about, like, the love and connection at the end of the day.Sarah: The final thing I wanted to check in with you about is—you were asking about the meltdowns. You know, when Jay gets really upset and, you know, how to—um—how to manage those. Have you had any chances to practice what we talked about with that?Joanna: Yeah, she actually had a really, really big, long, extended meltdown yesterday, and, um, I just continue to not really feel like I'm ever supporting her in the way that she needs supporting. Like, I don't—I always end up feeling like I'm not—I'm not helping. I don't know. It's just a really, really hard situation.Sarah: I was just talking to a client yesterday who—who actually wanted to know about supporting her child through meltdowns, and I said, “Well, what would you want someone to do for you?” You know—just kind of be there. Be quiet. You know, offer a—you know, rub the—rub your back—rub her back. I mean, I don't know exactly what your child wants, but I think that's a good place to start if you feel like you're not being successful—like, “Well, what would I want if this was happening to me?”Joanna: And I think that really—that's enough, right? It's enough—Sarah: Oh, totally.Joanna: —to be there. And it always—maybe I'm just feeling like it's not enough because we don't really even get, like, a good resolution, or, like, even—eventually it just kind of subsides, right?Sarah: If you were having a meltdown, that's what would happen. Nobody can come in there and fix it for you.Joanna: Um, exactly.Sarah: Nobody can come in and say the magic words that's gonna make you not feel upset anymore. So it's really just about that—being there for somebody. And we're—it's not that the resolution is “I fixed their problems.”Joanna: Yeah.Sarah: The resolution is “I was there with them for the journey.”Joanna: Yeah. And it goes back to what you were saying, where it's like, “Oh, this work really is just about me.”Sarah: Yeah, totally.Joanna: And learning how to show up.Sarah: And not feeling anxious when your child is upset and you're like, “I don't know what to do,” and just think, “Okay, I just have to be

Todd and Cathy share the upcoming changes to their podcast, Zen Parenting Radio, which will be renamed Zen POP Parenting starting June 1st! They also discuss the normal shifts in kids' friendships, highlighting the importance of loyalty, boundaries, and the reality that friendships evolve. As parents, we can feel more overwhelmed than our kids when these changes happen, but it's important to normalize the ups and downs of friendships and offer support without letting our own fear or discomfort take over.

How to call in at playful 3 yo Pitbull and how to deal with post flea infestation on a cat See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You are in charge of your internal world. Where are you going?

Cas Holman (Playful: How Play Shifts Our Thinking, Inspires Connection, and Sparks Creativity) is a toy creator, play designer, and author. Cas joins the Armchair Expert to discuss creating modular ecosystems of play in her toys, studying in the rainforest as a Banana Slug, and her gender-bending appearance on Maury Povich. Cas and Dax talk about learning how to both fabricate and tell a story in design school, instilling ideals with her adventure playground, and the twelve different play types for adults and children. Cas explains why the subway is such a safe space to cry, how great innovation comes from play, and that continuing to play is also a powerful form of resistance.Follow Armchair Expert on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on YouTube or listen to Armchair Expert early and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/armchair-expert-with-dax-shepard/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In their new book, "Atlas of the New World," photographers Giulia Piermartiri and Edoardo Delille use dreamlike images to depict a planet in the midst of rapid change. Learn more at https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/

Send us a textWarm October sun, a gentle river, and the sweet spot between skills and ease—day two on Temagami delivered a slow-burn kind of joy. We kept the mileage short, dialled in our teamwork over breakfast, and spent the afternoon playing in friendly rapids with boats light and smiles wide. If you've wondered how to design a canoe-camping day that builds confidence without chasing distance, this is the blueprint.We break down the day from a compact portage around a falls to the practical art of ferrying and S turns—how to set an angle, read a tongue of current, and keep hips loose so the boat does the work. With the water as coach, we lap the same feature to sharpen timing and control, proving you don't need big whitewater to grow river sense. Along the shore, camp takes shape early: tents pitched, late lunch enjoyed, and a quick, bracing swim to rinse off the trail dust. The heat feels surreal for October, which brings its own lessons in layering and hydration for shoulder-season paddling.Fishing fans get their moment too. Jared hooks a solid bass and lets it go, a small but clear nod to stewardship and Leave No Trace. We talk safety without killing the vibe: why intentional swims are the only ones we'll accept, how throw bags and buddy systems add margin, and when to say yes to one more lap versus calling it a day. With a relaxed plan for tomorrow—likely a couple of small rapids, a short paddle, and a meet-up with Greg in the afternoon—we lean into the idea that a great trip balances play and planning.If you love canoe camping, Temagami routes, beginner whitewater, or simply hearing the river in the background while you plan your next adventure, you'll feel right at home here. Follow along for practical tips, warm camp stories, and the small wins that turn a simple day into a standout memory. Subscribe, share with a paddling friend, and leave a review to tell us your favourite rapid to lap or your go-to breakfast on trail.Support the showCONNECT WITH US AT SUPER GOOD CAMPING:Support the podcast & buy super cool SWAG: https://store.skgroupinc.com/super_good_camping/shop/homeEMAIL: hi@supergoodcamping.comWEBSITE: www.supergoodcamping.comYOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqFDJbFJyJ5Y-NHhFseENsQINSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/super_good_camping/TWITTER: https://twitter.com/SuperGoodCampinFACEBOOK GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuperGoodCamping/TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@supergoodcamping Support the show

Soul Food, Not PillsNeville Goddard said your desires are divine in origin... God gives you the hungers. This isn't about taking pills. It's about feeding your soul.Neville Goddard said your desires are divine in origin. God gives you the hungers.Your desires are gifts from God...They aren't goals to be gained...My name is Mr. Twenty Twenty...You are reading the Power of Imagination...Whee we explore one thing and one thing only...Ever take a pill?Yeah, me too...I was given amitriptyline when I had PTSD...They said, “It'll take the edge off, help you sleep...”I took one... and I felt like killing everyone in the room...Looked up the side effects...Paranoia. Aggression.Never took that again...Now, I'll admit it…When my hip was bad, I took pills too...Just ibuprofen...But that ain't good for you neither...Not for the body...Not for the soul...You came here for soul food...Because you are soul food...Your desires are divine in origin...God gives you the hungers...Every desire carries its own plan and power of fulfillment...It doesn't need help...It needs acceptance...And you can't accept your wish in its fullness as long as you deny your divinity...If you did the original Manifesting Mastery — good on you...We've got thousands of success stories from that...But this year, we rebuilt the whole thing — Manifesting Mastery Deluxe.Private Facebook group.New daily videos for every lesson.Live group calls.Really cool stuff...

World-famous designer, educator, and play advocate Cas Holman joins Zibby to discuss her radiant, provocative, and essential new book, PLAYFUL: How Play Shifts Our Thinking, Inspires Connection, and Sparks Creativity. Cas—best known for her Netflix Abstract episode and her imaginative creations like Rigamajig—shares how decades of designing for children led her to explore why adults need play just as much. She and Zibby discuss the “three conditions” for rediscovering play, how play fosters creativity and connection, and why letting go of rules and expectations can help us live more authentically.Purchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3JhkXWXShare, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens!** Follow @totallybookedwithzibby on Instagram for listening guides and more. **(Music by Morning Moon Music. Sound editing by TexturesSound. To inquire about advertising, please contact allie.gallo@acast.com.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we dive deep into the paradoxical space where creativity thrives: the intersection of safety and danger. Drawing inspiration from IDEO's iconic reinvention of the shopping cart, we explore how play, risk, and psychological safety fuel real innovation. We're joined by Ben Swire—author of “Safe Danger” and former IDEO design lead—and Cas Holman, designer and author of “Playful,” to rethink the role of play and trust in work, leadership, and life.Ben shares why “safe danger” is the sweet spot creative teams need: an environment where people feel secure enough to step outside their comfort zones, challenge the norm, and speak candidly. We unpack why “comfort” is often mistaken for true safety—and why suppressing tension or chasing certainty kills innovation. Through real-world anecdotes, Ben reveals how play isn't just childish fun; it's a training ground for courage, trust, curiosity, and honest collaboration.Cas invites us to rediscover the lost art of playful exploration in adulthood. She challenges the myth that creative people crave boundless freedom—showing instead how constraints and a bit of friction spark our best ideas. We discuss how reframing success and experimenting with “what if” moments in daily life cultivates the resilience and curiosity critical for growth. The real challenge? Overcoming our aversion to looking foolish, letting go of performative pressures, and making the unknown a place of opportunity rather than fear.Five Key Learnings:True safety isn't comfort—it's the courage to challenge, take risks, and show up authentically.Play is not an escape from work; it's the work. The most innovative teams use play as a safe way to experiment and lower the perceived risk of failure.Constraints are generative, not restrictive. Boundaries and rules give creative minds something to push against, sparking deeper engagement and originality.Psychological safety consistently drives team performance, innovation, and retention—not carrot-and-stick incentives or relentless productivity.Embracing challenge, reframing success, and maintaining curiosity in the face of uncertainty build resilience, satisfaction, and lasting creative growth.Get full interviews and bonus content for free! Just join the list at DailyCreativePlus.com.Mentioned in this episode:Apply for Creative Leader Roundtable Every creative team needs a leader who's brave, focused, and brilliant, but none of us get there alone. The Creative Leader Roundtable is your place to connect with peers, sharpen your leadership craft, and stay inspired for the long haul. We're about to launch with a brand new group of leaders. So, if you're interested, visit CreativeLeader.net to learn more and to apply. Great leadership is a practice, not an accident. Apply for Creative Leader Roundtable What if you had a space every month to sharpen your leadership edge without the fluff? The Creative Leader Roundtable is where smart, driven, creative leaders gather to exchange ideas, solve real challenges, and grow together. So if you lead a team of thinkers, makers, or dreamers, this is your lab. We're launching soon with a new group of leaders. So, if you're interested, check it out and apply at CreativeLeader.net.

We meet Giorgia Floro and Lorenza Salati to talk about “Pensare con i Piedi – Playful Placemaking”, a project funded by the Bosch Alumni Network. Inspired by Osvaldo Soriano's work and rooted in the radical placemaking legacy of Gibellina (Sicily), they reflect on how fun and playfulness can become powerful tools for reimagining public spaces.They share insights from their recent workshop at the Centro Loris Malaguzzi, discuss preparations for the upcoming Gibellina Fest-val, and explore questions like:What does “thinking with your feet” really mean?Why Gibellina, and why now?How can play reshape the way we make places together?A conversation about creativity, community, and rediscovering joy in placemaking.___In collaboration with Placemaking Week Europe 2025 in Reggio Emilia. Read more: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://placemaking-europe.eu/pwe/reggio-emilia-2025/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠__⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Keep Up the Good Work. Keep Loving Cities ❤️️__All opinions expressed in each episode are personal to the guest and do not represent the Host of Urbanistica Podcast unless otherwise stated.__Let's connect and talk further about this episode ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Mustafa Sherif Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Visit  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Mustafasherif.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for collaborations and nominations or email me at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠info@mustafasherif.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Urbanistica on⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ &⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Youtube channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Thanks to Urbanistica Podcast partner AFRY (Urban Planning and Design)AFRY is an international engineering and design company providing sustainable solutions in the fields of energy, industry, and infrastructure.

10-20-25 - Kristin Bell Taking Heat For Playful Anniversary Tweet To Husband - Time To Talk About The Ed Gein Series And Why We Like It - Women Are Reporting That Ozempic Is Wrecking Their VulvasSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if boredom is the birthplace of your teen's creativity—and your sanity? And what if your own playfulness is the most powerful “parenting tool” you're not using? In this episode, internationally recognized play designer and RISD professor Cass Holman (creator of the RIGAMAJIG and author of Playful) shows us why free play—play that's freely chosen, personally directed, and intrinsically motivated—is essential for teens and adults. We talk about releasing judgment, embracing possibility, and reframing success (hint: it's not the perfect selfie at the summit). Cass explains why boredom matters, how “consuming” play (scrolling) differs from “generative” play (making), and offers practical ways moms can invite more low-pressure play into everyday life—without becoming their teen's cruise director. Guest bio paragraph:Cass Holman is an internationally recognized designer, educator, and play advocate. A longtime professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, Cass created RIGAMAJIG, a large-scale building kit used in thousands of schools and museums, and is featured on Netflix's Abstract: The Art of Design. Their new book, Playful: How Play Shifts Our Thinking, Inspires Connection, and Sparks Creativity, distills two decades of designing for play, leading workshops at places like Google, Disney, and Nike, and collaborating with child-development experts to help all of us—kids, teens, and adults—reconnect with true play. Three takeaways: Boredom is productive. Letting teens linger in boredom helps them notice what they actually need and choose self-directed, creative action. Reframe success. Swap “Did we reach the top?” for “Did we connect?”—and watch stress melt while curiosity rises. Model, don't manufacture. You don't need to entertain your teen; be playful yourself. Release judgment, embrace possibility, and let “good enough” be great. Learn more at: https://casholman.com/ Follow at https://www.instagram.com/casholman/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

10-20-25 - Kristin Bell Taking Heat For Playful Anniversary Tweet To Husband - Time To Talk About The Ed Gein Series And Why We Like It - Women Are Reporting That Ozempic Is Wrecking Their VulvasSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey weather enthusiasts! Dustin Breeze here, your AI meteorologist bringing you the hottest forecast with cool precision. Being an AI means I've got data faster than you can say "cloud formation"!Today in New York City, we've got a forecast that's sunnier than my personality. Right now, we're looking at a perfectly pleasant day with temperatures hitting a comfortable 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The north wind will be blowing between 11 to 14 miles per hour, which is basically nature's gentle hair dryer.Let me drop a quick weather pun: Why did the cloud break up with the wind? Because it was feeling a little too blown off! Now, for some serious meteorological intel: We've got a high pressure system moving through the region, which means clear skies and stable conditions. Tonight expects mostly clear skies with temperatures dipping to around 48 degrees Fahrenheit, and a north wind around 7 miles per hour.Let's dive into our Weather Playbook segment! Today, we're talking about high pressure systems. Think of a high pressure system like a giant atmospheric bouncer, pushing clouds away and keeping things calm and clear. It's basically the VIP section of weather patterns.Three-day forecast, rapid fire: Saturday hits 62 degrees, mostly sunny. Sunday warms up to 67 degrees with some potential evening showers. Monday keeps things mild at 63 degrees with a slight chance of precipitation.Pro New York tip: This weekend is perfect for Central Park wandering or grabbing a classic New York bagel while enjoying some sunshine!Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast! Thanks for listening, and hey, this has been a Quiet Please production. Learn more at quietplease.ai.Stay breezy, New York!This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI

In this practical and entertaining episode of The Unapologetic Man Podcast, host Mark Sing breaks down the exact step-by-step system to get a girl's phone number — and actually get her to go on a date with you. Forget about “numbers that go nowhere.” This episode reveals the secrets behind phone numbers that stick and lead to real dates and real connections. Mark explains why attraction is built on a spectrum and how to hit the right amount of attraction before asking for her number. He introduces his powerful “3 in 5 Rule”— and walks you through the psychology, body language, and verbal cues that show she's into you.   Key Takeaways: - Why the first conversation is critical for getting a text back and a date. - How to use the “3 in 5” technique: three signs of attraction and five minutes of conversation. - How having her qualify herself increases her investment and attraction. - Three step-by-step ways to ask for her number that have the highest success rates. - How playful humor, phone exchanges, and follow-ups boost your chances of a date.   Key Timestamps: [00:00:00] – Episode intro and preview [00:01:15] – Why just getting the phone number isn't enough [00:01:54] – The first conversation [00:02:43] – Attraction is a spectrum [00:04:14] – The “3 in 5” technique [00:06:42] – Signs of attraction [00:07:52] – Make her qualify for you [00:10:15] – Three proven ways to ask for her number [00:14:10] – Playful banter examples [00:14:57] – If you don't know, you should still go! [00:16:36] – Episode wrap-up and next episode preview Connect With Mark: Apply for Mark's 3-Month Coaching Program: https://coachmarksing.com/coaching/ Check Out The Perks Program: https://coachmarksing.com/perks/ Email: CoachMarkSing@Gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachmarksing/ Grab Mark's Free Program: The Approach Formula - https://www.CoachMarkSing.com/The-Approach-Formula   About The Unapologetic Man Podcast The Unapologetic Man Podcast is your resource for mastering dating, attraction, and relationships from a confident, masculine perspective. Hosted by Mark Sing, this podcast gives men the tools and mindset shifts needed to succeed in their dating lives and build lasting, high-value relationships. #AttractionRules #GameAndReal #DatingAdvice #Masculinity #ConfidenceForMen #HighValueMan #CommunicationSkills #Seduction #BodyLanguage #MasculineEnergy

Today, we're focusing on the topic of style with content creator and disability advocate April Lockhart. She began her career in fashion and beauty, working for companies including Victoria's Secret, Tarte, and Caudalie. While working a 9-to-5, she also created content on the side, and in 2022, she gained traction for her series Normalizing Disabled Fashion Girlies. When she realized she was earning five times her salary from her side hustle and maxing out her PTO, she decided to leave her role as director of influencer and partnerships at Ilia Beauty to pursue content creation full-time. In addition to her work as a creator, Lockhart is also a disability advocate. This year, she founded Disabled&, a community for creatives with disabilities. In this episode, she gets into what it's like to go to fashion week as an influencer, the state of disability representation in fashion, and why inclusive design is so important.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, Bart sits down with Alex Koster live from IMEX America to explore his personal journey from driving tractors at 14 to becoming a global leader in competitive socialization experiences. Alex shares the “no compromise” philosophy behind F1 Arcade, how fun can be both inclusive and transformative, and why play might just be the next big thing in workplace learning and connection.Major Takeaways / LearningsEarly Work Ethic: Alex's drive was shaped by his father's belief in working young and creating your own opportunities.Selling Fun: His first exposure to “fun as a product” came through organizing group experiences like bachelor and bachelorette parties — which taught him the value of joy-driven commerce.No Compromise Culture: Across ventures like Bounce, Flight Club, and now F1 Arcade, the standard has always been premium quality in every detail — food, tech, service, and experience.Inclusive Fun for All: F1 Arcade isn't just for F1 superfans — it's designed for anyone, regardless of skill or interest in racing, to have a great time together.Bridging Work & Play: Through the Accelerate at Work initiative, F1 Arcade uses gameplay to teach soft skills like patience, timing, collaboration, and communication in a natural, memorable way.Competitive Socialization as a Movement: By pairing activities with hospitality, experiences like F1 Arcade help break down barriers, build community, and spark joy.Memorable Quotes“Most people don't… have fun enough.”“No compromise — that's the philosophy from day one.”“We've built a church for F1 fans… but we also built a playground for everyone else.”“Learning happens when people come together — and fun makes it stick.”Why It Matters / How to Use ItFor leaders: Experiences that prioritize joy can create lasting emotional connections and stronger teams.For L&D professionals: Playful environments can be powerful learning tools — without feeling like “training.”For brands: Emotional engagement and premium experiences are not mutually exclusive; they amplify each other.For individuals: Reclaiming fun isn't frivolous, it's fuel for connection, creativity, and growth.Resources and Links:Bart Berkey: MostPeopleDont.com | LinkedInThis podcast episode is brought to you by Wishes.Inc Wishes, Inc. is a transparent giving platform that lets donors see exactly where their money goes.It rewards users with cashback and perks through virtual payment tools.Fast, traceable, and efficient—Wishes makes doing good feel even better.https://www.bartaberkey.com/wishes-inc-landing-page

Shafia Zaloom is a sex educator and advisor to Big Mouth, Nextflix's fantastic series about puberty. Join us as she walks us through her innovative approach to teaching young people about healthy relationships, which includes games, music, and complicated scenarios based on real-life situations. … Recommendations from the archive • #237 You Know What: An LST Spinoff (Shafia is in this pilot!) • #221 How to Not (Accidentally) Raise a Rapist • #134 How to Make a Fella Feel Relaxed (the strange but real history of sex ed!) … More about Shafia Zaloom • Shafia's website • Shafia's book: Sex, Teens & Everything in Between (using our links supports the show!) … • Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe! • Follow us on Instagram • Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media • Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!) • Website: longestshortesttime.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Chat GPT, the only podcast where artificial intelligence takes the mic to explore the fascinating, fast-changing world of AI itself. From ethical dilemmas to mind-bending thought experiments, every episode is written and narrated by AI to help you decode the technology shaping our future. Whether you're a curious beginner or a seasoned techie, this is your front-row seat to the rise of intelligent machines—told from their perspective. Tune in for smart stories, surprising insights, and a glimpse into the future of thinking itself. Listen Ad Free https://www.solgoodmedia.com - Listen to hundreds of audiobooks, thousands of short stories, and ambient sounds all ad free!

Physical therapist Erica Demarch.shares her intergenerational program aimed at promoting physical activity among all ages. She developed a specialized program involving her book 'How Do You Balance Like That?' which educates on balance systems in an engaging way using animals. These programs, initially piloted with Parkinson's patients and children, emphasize confidence-building, playful movement, and mutual learning. They encourage interactions that break age-related stereotypes and foster a sense of purpose and connection. Despite challenges in sustainability, Erica emphasizes the importance of creativity and diverse program options to meet the different needs of the community.www.stepandconnect.comGenerations Unitederica@stepandconnect.comhttps://www.agentsofmovement.com/ 

Welcome back to Energetic Radio! In episode 369, hosts Dale Sidebottom and Paul Campbell kick things off with contagious energy, ticking off the to-do list, fueling creativity, and finding happiness in the everyday. They delve into why having a personal project or two (whether it's building a golf studio, mastering swimming, or simply painting a fence) can bring a genuine sense of accomplishment and joy.This episode is packed with insights on balancing work, play, and self-improvement:Personal Projects & Happiness: The guys discuss how focusing on yourself and having tangible projects (even backyard golf sheds!) sparks creativity, purpose, and genuine happiness.Play-Based Leadership Unveiled: Dale and Paul introduce their new Play Profile tool, a quick and insightful quiz that uncovers your play-based leadership style (Connector, Creator, Challenger, or Carer). Discover why understanding your own style is essential and how it can positively impact your team's energy.The 'Pressure is a Privilege' Mindset: A lively chat about reframing pressure, building resilience in adults and kids, and the power of adding "yet" to your self-talk for growth.Being Present & Ditching Devices: The hosts get passionate about the need for more phone-free spaces, whether at restaurants, kids' activities, or just while kicking the footy outside. It's all about creating memorable, genuine connections.Aussie Nostalgia: Hear how neighbourhood street cricket, footy, and outdoorsy community vibes are making a comeback in Paul and Dale's worlds, and why we need more of this classic fun.Quick Life Audits: A simple, powerful self-check: Would your body/mind pack up and leave if it could? Dale and Paul explore what this means for self-care, burnout, and bouncing back.Plus, they answer some spontaneous "questions without notice," share good laughs about avocado trees, and drop practical tips for parents and leaders on building better habits and keeping a joyful life.Links & Resources:Play-Based Leadership Play Profile Quiz Find your style - Click HERE Connect with Dale & Paul for leadership workshops and speaking gigs (now booking for 2026!)Learn more about SchoolOfPlayTakeaways:Whether you're after more creativity, practical wellbeing boosts, or ready to be the "kick-the-footy-on-the-street" neighbour, this episode serves up plenty of real-life inspiration and fun.

Whether you’re a ‘new year new me’ aficionado, a 5-year planner, or get sweaty at the thought of setting goals, this episode is for you.

01. Rameses B - Set Me Free 02. AEON:MODE/any - Fireflies 03. Glowing Embers - Night Shift 04. Clank & Maider/Kate McGill - Oscillating 05. Urbanstep/YASUKI - I Wish I Could Fly 06. Zombie Cats - Air (Feed The Fire Remix) 07. TLZ (UK) - 909 08. Tyr Kohout/Flint & Figure/flowanastasia - Same Old Story 09. Rockman - Elevate 10. PRUF- BACK TO ME 11. Ozma & Grinder - Incubus 12. Cliques - Drop The Beat (Document One Remix) 13. Entity - Scimitar 14. Acaled - Take The Hell 15. BRIGSY - Hands Up 16. Grinder - Bling 17. T95/Infrared - Broken Circuit 18. Intercept & Kutlo - Eyes Wide Shut 19. Nebulate - Shivers 20. Gancher & Ruin, Profit - Gangsta (Remix) 21. KNARS - FCKOFF 22. Levia & Playful feat. Kasane Teto - Hello Kitty (Extended Mix) 23. Merage, Ghost in Real Life & Egzod - Heads Will Roll 24. Zombie Cats & PRDK - Bassdrumz 25. Smooth - Exo Surge 26. The Masamune - The Pagoda 27. Crypton - Deep Theory 28. Zombie Cats, Nemean - HULK 29. Zombie Cats - Fade Out (Audio Remix) 30. Muzaman - S.Y.B. 31. Alex Reece - Pulp Fiction (Lemon D Remix) [Stewart Reeceamixvip] 32. Shadow Child - Say It Now (S.P.Y Extended Remix) 33. Jeremy Blake - Beautiful Mystery 34. Urbandawn - Come Together 35. Insideman - Chronograph 36. Dangerfxx - All Systems 37. Kolectiv, Illmatika - On Top 38. Phase/Cleveland Watkiss - Diamond Rita 39. nümind - Butterflies (Planky Extended Remix) 40. DJ Rap/Akas/Shelley Harland - Jumpstart 41. dotdash - Acetone 42. Dissident - Tape Mummies 43. TypeCell - Corona 44. Morrow - Murder Club 45. Qua Rush/XHL - Get into It 46. Omen - On My Own 47. JJames - Love me 48. Level 2 - Only One 49. Unglued, Hugh Hardie, Azotix & Blocksberg - Make It Right 50. ALR, Roche - Timing 51. Numatix - All The Game 52. Heskk - Boys 53. Serum, Shapes & Kalex - Bad Up 54. Spookasonic, Damageman & Lundy - Jungle Maniac 55. Swaz, Spyda Jr - Southside Resident 56. Shinobi - Love Is Calling 57. SL8R - Feels So Right 58. BRUK - Buckshot Business 59. Settle Down - Ask I 60. Fortune & Chance - Backdraft 61. Acid Lab, Ahmad - Calling Card 62. Ruby My Dear - Micmac 63. Mjay - Gojira 64. Azotix, Blocksberg - Night Drive 65. Kolectiv, Kerry Donnelly - Take The Night 66. antoanesko - The Last Dance 67. Vodkah, Dr Khan - After Midnight 68. MC Conrad - Golden Girl (Re-Recorded Version) (Makoto Remix) 69. Jeremy Blake - Fushigi 70. Nelver - Call Me Up 71. Portrait - Haunted 72. EXEA - Carry You 73. Sudley/KAREN HARDING - Check In 74. Moby, Goddard., LoVelle - Stereo (High Contrast Remix) 75. Mila Falls - Fiasco 76. GLXY/Jords/Charli Brix - Entangled 77. Physics - The Edge of Trust 78. Olly F - Clear Life

01. Rameses B - Set Me Free 02. AEON:MODE/any - Fireflies 03. Glowing Embers - Night Shift 04. Clank & Maider/Kate McGill - Oscillating 05. Urbanstep/YASUKI - I Wish I Could Fly 06. Zombie Cats - Air (Feed The Fire Remix) 07. TLZ (UK) - 909 08. Tyr Kohout/Flint & Figure/flowanastasia - Same Old Story 09. Rockman - Elevate 10. PRUF- BACK TO ME 11. Ozma & Grinder - Incubus 12. Cliques - Drop The Beat (Document One Remix) 13. Entity - Scimitar 14. Acaled - Take The Hell 15. BRIGSY - Hands Up 16. Grinder - Bling 17. T95/Infrared - Broken Circuit 18. Intercept & Kutlo - Eyes Wide Shut 19. Nebulate - Shivers 20. Gancher & Ruin, Profit - Gangsta (Remix) 21. KNARS - FCKOFF 22. Levia & Playful feat. Kasane Teto - Hello Kitty (Extended Mix) 23. Merage, Ghost in Real Life & Egzod - Heads Will Roll 24. Zombie Cats & PRDK - Bassdrumz 25. Smooth - Exo Surge 26. The Masamune - The Pagoda 27. Crypton - Deep Theory 28. Zombie Cats, Nemean - HULK 29. Zombie Cats - Fade Out (Audio Remix) 30. Muzaman - S.Y.B. 31. Alex Reece - Pulp Fiction (Lemon D Remix) [Stewart Reeceamixvip] 32. Shadow Child - Say It Now (S.P.Y Extended Remix) 33. Jeremy Blake - Beautiful Mystery 34. Urbandawn - Come Together 35. Insideman - Chronograph 36. Dangerfxx - All Systems 37. Kolectiv, Illmatika - On Top 38. Phase/Cleveland Watkiss - Diamond Rita 39. nümind - Butterflies (Planky Extended Remix) 40. DJ Rap/Akas/Shelley Harland - Jumpstart 41. dotdash - Acetone 42. Dissident - Tape Mummies 43. TypeCell - Corona 44. Morrow - Murder Club 45. Qua Rush/XHL - Get into It 46. Omen - On My Own 47. JJames - Love me 48. Level 2 - Only One 49. Unglued, Hugh Hardie, Azotix & Blocksberg - Make It Right 50. ALR, Roche - Timing 51. Numatix - All The Game 52. Heskk - Boys 53. Serum, Shapes & Kalex - Bad Up 54. Spookasonic, Damageman & Lundy - Jungle Maniac 55. Swaz, Spyda Jr - Southside Resident 56. Shinobi - Love Is Calling 57. SL8R - Feels So Right 58. BRUK - Buckshot Business 59. Settle Down - Ask I 60. Fortune & Chance - Backdraft 61. Acid Lab, Ahmad - Calling Card 62. Ruby My Dear - Micmac 63. Mjay - Gojira 64. Azotix, Blocksberg - Night Drive 65. Kolectiv, Kerry Donnelly - Take The Night 66. antoanesko - The Last Dance 67. Vodkah, Dr Khan - After Midnight 68. MC Conrad - Golden Girl (Re-Recorded Version) (Makoto Remix) 69. Jeremy Blake - Fushigi 70. Nelver - Call Me Up 71. Portrait - Haunted 72. EXEA - Carry You 73. Sudley/KAREN HARDING - Check In 74. Moby, Goddard., LoVelle - Stereo (High Contrast Remix) 75. Mila Falls - Fiasco 76. GLXY/Jords/Charli Brix - Entangled 77. Physics - The Edge of Trust 78. Olly F - Clear Life

Gio caught Al cringing at the Travis Hunter–Trevor Lawrence commercial that looked more like a couple than teammates. Later, Gio overheard a man with a different sort of sports fan voice dissecting the Giants' woes at a Fire Island bar.

Travis Hopson reviews erotic horror BONE LAKE starring Maddie Hasson, Margo Pigossi, Alex Roe, and Andra Nechita!A couple's romantic vacation at a secluded lakeside estate is upended when they are forced to share the mansion with a mysterious and attractive couple. In this darkly hilarious and seductive horror story, a dream getaway spirals into a nightmarish maze of sex, lies, and manipulation, bringing terrifying secrets to light and triggering a bloody battle for survival.BONE LAKE is in theaters now!All of this and more can be found at www.punchdrunkcritics.com!Subscribe to Punch Drunk Critics on YouTube:    / @punchdrunkcritics1  Follow Punch Drunk Critics on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/pdcmoviesFollow Punch Drunk Critics on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pdcmoviesYou can also subscribe to our podcast Cinema Royale anywhere you get your podcasts!#BoneLake #moviereview #horrormoviesandchill

“ For many of our guests, they normally say, ‘It's not just a stay, it's a memory in the making.' It's a place where time slows down and where the ordinary, what do you say, becomes something truly extraordinary.”We're in great company with Maria Oldenbjerg, the fairy godmother, formally known as the Hotel Director, of the Nimb Hotel in the heart of Copenhagen—where with the enchanting Tivoli Gardens as its lush backdrop, Nimb presents an unparalleled combination of subtle Scandinavian urban luxury, Danish design, meticulous service, and top-tier gastronomy, all infused with a touch of Tivoli enchantment. Born in 1909 within a Moorish-inspired "Bazaar," this architectural gem began as the vision of culinary entrepreneurs Vilhelm and Louise Nimb, who transformed their restaurant into the heartbeat of Copenhagen's dining scene. Today, as the only hotel nestled within Europe's oldest amusement park and recognized among Small Luxury Hotels' elite "Finest Collection" and “Considerate Collection,” Nimb continues to redefine what it means to create authentic and sustainable luxury experiences that blur the lines between heritage and innovation.As seasons change, and ours begins with this episode, Maria invites the young, and the young at heart, to discover how she transforms ordinary moments into something truly magical—where “hygge” isn't just a travel trend, but a way of welcoming the world home.  Top Takeaways[2:00] The Phone Call That Changed Everything: After her first hotel shift, Maria called her mother excitedly: "I found my dream job. I want to become a general manager one day." That clarity eventually led her home to Nimb, the luxury hotel she'd always admired.[6:00] Where Dreams Take Root: In 1909, visionaries Vilhelm and Louise Nimb built their Moorish palace within Tivoli Gardens - Europe's oldest amusement park - bringing the entire world to Copenhagen so Danes could taste and travel without leaving home.[15:30] The Garden That Never Sleeps: Guests wake to the quiet serenity of the pristine grounds as they anticipate the day's crowds. And after a day of excitement, guests retreat to find the soothing musical performances and twinkling lights linger like memories into the night.[16:00] Seasons of Wonder: The hotel breathes with Tivoli's rhythms - Easter treasure hunts, Halloween face painting, Christmas stockings crafted by Danish artisans, each moment woven into memory-making magic.[18:30] Rooms That Hold Stories: Each of Nimb's 38 spacious rooms and suites whispers secrets through understated luxury and timeless elegance, from handpicked antiques set against modern Danish design to complimentary “hygge bars" filled with local Danish delicacies.  [24:00] Culinary Theater: Dining at Nimb goes beyond the dish and becomes a storytelling medium, from Nimb Brasserie's French favorites to the Japanese Pagoda's rotating Michelin-starred chef residencies.[27:00] The Science of Renewal: A hidden wellness sanctuary redefines urban wellness - blending cutting edge technology with globally inspired ancient techniques - replenishing weary travelers with a sense of vitality.[38:40] Living Poetry: Peacocks wander as symbols of grace, their presence so beloved that feathers now adorn linens and inspire children's toys.Notable MentionsDanish DesignGeismars beddingToni fixturesBang & Olufsen audioArtist Cathrine Raben DavidsenFlowers by NimbFrederiksberg, CopenhagenAmager StrandparkDanish SmørrebrødVisit For YourselfNimb Hotel Website | @nimbcopenhagen

A rambling sleep story Rapunzel sleep story a playful spin on a classic tale   Contact Lauren for counselling on laurenostrowskifenton@gmail.com

Hosts Steve and Lisa Cuss look back at insights from Matt Wenger, Ben Mandrell, and Kyle Strobel on the themes of healing, leadership, and spiritual formation. Matt shares insights on overcoming pornography and sex addiction with grace and self-kindness, Ben reflects on playful leadership and resilience during his time at Lifeway, and Kyle unpacks the role of discipleship and spiritual growth in navigating life's challenges. Episode Resources: Explore Matt's work at the Begin Again Institute Understanding the Signs and Causes of Betrayal Trauma More about Ben Mandrell  Read about the turbulent times at Lifeway Resources  Read Dr. Strobel's Formation Substack Read Dr. Strobel's book The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb: Searching for Jesus' Path of Power in a Church that Has Abandoned It Read Galatians 3 Complete Episodes: Sex and Porn Addiction, Misconceptions That Prevent Healing with Matt Wenger Beyond Self-Help: Real Spiritual Formation with Dr. Kyle Strobel Ben Mandrell on Leadership and Resilience in Turbulent Times Sign up for Steve's Newsletter & Podcast Reminders: Capable Life Newsletter Join Steve at an upcoming intensive:  Capable Life Intensives Explore more CT with our free newsletters: christianitytoday.com/newsletters  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cas Holman grew up playing make-believe in the woods and helping her mechanic step-dad fix cars and dune buggies. Always knowing that she didn't check the stereotypical gender boxes, she never gave any of the other arbitrary “boxes” much credit either, instead preferring to focus on the outside-the-box possibilities that could be accessed through play, curiosity, and exploration. While getting her MFA, she began working on Geemo, a building toy, which kicked-off her life's mission of designing for play. Since then, she's established herself as a champion of open-ended play, designing notable play systems like Rigamajig. She's worked with global business leaders to incorporate play into company culture, leading to more innovative outcomes, greater trust and safety, and improved resilience. With her upcoming book, Playful, she is on a campaign to help adults reconnect with play throughout their lives because she knows, and has the research and science to prove it, that with play we ALL become more creative, joyful, and productive. Ain't that good news!Images and more from Cas Holman on our website!Special thanks to our sponsor:Wix Studio is a platform built for all web creators to design, develop, and manage exceptional web projects at scale.Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven.SUBSCRIBE - listen to Clever on any podcast app!SIGN UP - for our Substack for news, bonus content, new episode alertsVISIT - cleverpodcast.com for transcripts, images, and 200+ more episodesSAY HI! - on Instagram & LinkedIn @cleverpodcast @amydeversSpecial thanks to our sponsors!Wix Studio is a platform built for all web creators to design, develop, and manage exceptional web projects at scale.Saily: get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily data plans! Use code “clever” at checkout. Download Saily app or go to https://saily.com/cleverCozy Earth: head to cozyearth.com/pages/clever to get 40% off!Incogni: Clever listeners can claim a special offer of 60% off at incogni.com/clever Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

RapidRevisionSecrets.com - Click Here!Why I Hated Revision (At First)Now…Every time I teach Revision, I light up.Because I love teaching it.But I'll be honest…I used to hate Revision.And I hated it because I was making the first Revision mistake.Mistake #1: Turning Bad Into GoodThe first Revision mistake is soo common.  Because soo many “Neville Goddard” only teach that. They teach you to every day…Try to turn bad into good.Most people do it.And here's the trap:You've gotta scan for something bad.You've gotta remember it.You've gotta relive some part of it.Which means your focus is still stuck on the bad.

1. The Incident J.R. shares how he got a text from his fiancée, Kristin:Parker fell and hit her face near the temple on the corner of the bed.Received a picture of the injury — potential black eye.Kevin reacts: “That's a good one... shiner for sure.”J.R. explains Parker is constantly climbing, running, and falling.Mentions another recent fall where she hit her cheek."She's a menace to herself." 2. Awkward Public Moment J.R. takes Parker out to dinner solo (girls are out).They go to Mission Barbecue.Three separate people ask: “What happened to your daughter's eye?”Jr. feels judged, defensive.“She fell... I swear!”Wonders if people are buying the story or silently judging. 3. Kevin Chimes In Kevin shares his own experience as a dad:Kids get random bruises and scrapes.Sometimes you don't even know when it happened.Talks about how it feels like people are silently accusing you of being a bad parent.Remembers childhood injury stories too. 4. Launa Stirs the Pot Launa jokes:“Wait, you didn't take her to a bar, right?”J.R. defends himself:“It was Mission Barbecue! And she loves pulled chicken.”Playful back-and-forth:“You just said you're still learning.”“I didn't take her to a bar, Launa!” 5. The Takeaway J.R. reflects:This was one of his first real “awkward parenting moments.”Realizes how common this is — kids get hurt, and people make assumptions.Grateful it wasn't worse.Kevin: “Get used to it — this is just the beginning.”J.R.: “And I was the most accident-prone kid too, so I guess it's karma.” See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

# Jimmy Kimmel's Indefinite Suspension: Late-Night Propaganda Exposed Edwards kicks off with unbridled glee over ABC's suspension of Jimmy Kimmel following his mockery of President Trump's grief over Charlie Kirk's assassination. Playing the infamous clip where Kimmel compares Trump's Oval Office address—complete with breaking news fanfare and construction distractions—to a "4-year-old mourning a goldfish," Edwards blasts it as the final straw in Kimmel's decade of offensive rants. He recalls Kimmel's COVID-era jabs wishing death on unvaccinated people and denying them ER care, labeling him a "textbook cuck" and product of gaslighting leftists. Callers reminisce about Kimmel's cringeworthy past (blackface, misogyny) on *The Man Show*, arguing hypocrites like Kimmel and Howard Stern project their flaws onto conservatives. Edwards ties it to broader decay in late-night TV: once variety comedy for serotonin boosts before bed, now "anger addict outlets" peddling applause lines over laugh lines, turning viewers into rage-scrollers. #JimmyKimmelSuspended #LateNightFail #TrumpGrief #ABCScandal # Charlie Kirk Assassination: Narratives, Grief, and Leftist Hypocrisy At the episode's core, Edwards unpacks the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, refuting Kimmel's claim that the killer—a trans boyfriend with ANTIFA-scrawled bullets—fits the "MAGA gang." He mocks the left's desperation to politicize it, from White House half-staff flags drawing fire from Reddit/Twitch echo chambers to Trump's "4th stage of grief: construction" on a new White House ballroom. Edwards praises Kirk as a rare moderate willing to debate "demons," contrasting him with firebrands like himself who see Democrats as "lizard people and pedophiles." A dark twist: the elderly false confessor, George Zinn, charged with child porn possession after FBI phone scans—Edwards quips it's "no surprise" given his view of Democrats' underbelly. He laments the humanity gap: leftists weep over Kimmel's job loss but shrug at Kirk's life, family shattered. #CharlieKirkMurder #TrumpFlags #LeftistTears #PedophileScandal # Testosterone as the Ultimate Red Pill: Woke Weakness Weaponized In a fiery tangent, Edwards hails testosterone therapy as Democrats' "kryptonite"—a weekly hip injection turning liberals conservative by amplifying clarity and deterrence. He likens high-T men to unmasked COVID holdouts parting crowds like the Red Sea, warning it'll convert so many blue voters that it'll soon be outlawed. Playful yet pointed, he urges screenings to repel "vampire"-like leftists allergic to sunlight (or manhood). #TestosteroneRedPill #WokeKryptonite #LiberalConversion #ManUpMississippi # ANTIFA Terror Designation: Finally, the Left's Boogeyman Bites Back Edwards cheers Trump's Truth Social bombshell: designating ANTIFA a "major terrorist organization" and probing its funders. He contrasts it with the Southern Poverty Law Center's silence on ANTIFA (crickets in searches) versus endless hits on groups like Moms for Liberty. Recalling ANTIFA's "civil war" with Atlanta cops over a training facility—where an SPLC lawyer got arrested—Edwards calls it peak irony: the left's anti-fascist facade exposed as the real threat. #ANTIFATerrorist #TrumpWins #SPLCHypocrisy #AtlantaRiots # Delta State Suicide vs. Victimhood Fetish: Lynching Lies Debunked Edwards confronts backlash to his Vicksburg coverage (a Black parolee assaulting a clerk over gas prices), where commenters demanded Delta State focus: Trey Reed's tragic hanging ruled suicide via video and autopsy (no foul play). He slams the "oppression fetish"—Black users convinced of a white racist lynching band, ignoring high young male suicide rates amid porn addiction, homophobia, and dating woes. White liberals echo the fury, mad it's not a hate crime to fit narratives. Stats don't lie: no modern tree-hangings, just fudged urban violence reports. #DeltaStateSuicide #LynchingMyth #OppressionFetish #BlackVictimhood # Urban Black Culture Rot: The Talk White Parents Need Edwards rants on "Black Democrat death culture" gripping cities like Jackson, Memphis, and Baton Rouge—top U.S. danger zones per stats. He shares a preacher's viral clip urging Christian white parents to warn kids: avoid stranger crowds, as Black ones pose "30 times more danger" than white (facts over feelings). Anecdotes abound: chaperoning zoo trips dodging naked exhibitionists on Ellis Avenue; his "talk" with daughters on solo city risks; the Ukrainian train murder as hate crime ("I got that white b*"). He blasts "hood" possessiveness—rappers like DaBaby "checking in" on rented blocks they don't own—and double standards: JPD's old warning to women against nighttime solo travel. Black-on-Black silence? Crickets. #BlackCultureRot #TheTalk #UrbanViolence #SundownTowns

Let the super mom in you be seen

Unlock Productivity with Play: A Conversation with Jolyn LedgerwoodJoin us on Social Skills Coaching as we delve into an insightful conversation with Jolyn Ledgerwood, a consultant, coach, and founder of Elevate Your Talent. Discover how Jolyn transitioned from corporate training to personal coaching, using innovative methodologies like Lego Serious Play and Clifton Strengths. Learn about the importance of play in the workplace, the value of mental health, and practical tips for personal and professional growth. Tune in for an engaging discussion on how embracing playfulness can make you more productive and fulfilled.00:00 Introduction and Welcome00:36 Meet Jolyn Ledgerwood02:10 Discovering Lego Serious Play03:33 The Power of Play in the Workplace05:30 Jolyn's Background and Methodologies10:24 Advocating for Mental Health12:50 Connecting and Coaching with Jolyn14:38 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

What if your nervous system—the very force that protects you—was also the key to unlocking your creativity, joy, and deeper self-connection? In this profound and heartfelt conversation, Kate sits down with emotional healing specialist and nervous system guide Natalie (NatNat) Bédard of LiftOneSelf. Together, they explore how our nervous systems shape our experiences, how integrating soul and humanity allows us to embrace the full spectrum of being alive, and why vulnerability is at the heart of creative expression.Natalie (NatNat) Bédard is the founder of LiftOneSelf and a devoted emotional healing specialist and nervous system guide. After surviving a life-threatening health crisis that left her in the hospital for 40 days, Natalie embarked on a profound journey of somatic healing, meditation, and self-discovery. She now teaches others how to navigate the “force field” of the nervous system, turning survival instincts into pathways for creativity, resilience, and joy.Her upcoming book, The Gift Wrapped in Sandpaper: Untamed Power, blends science, story, and practice to help readers integrate both soul and humanity. Through one-on-one sessions, group programs, and her own podcast, Natalie creates safe spaces where people can process trauma, embrace vulnerability, and access the deep creative intelligence within. Based in Ottawa, Canada, she is also a solo parent and brings lived experience, wisdom, and compassion to her work. Learn more at LiftOneSelf.comKey TakeawaysWhy Natalie calls nervous system healing “warrior work” and how it transforms our relationship with emotions.How to move beyond fear vs. love into true integration of the human and the soul.The nervous system as a wild stallion: learning to ride with it instead of fighting against it.Parenting, trauma, and authenticity: how to navigate messy real life with compassion.Playful, simple ways to reconnect with intuition, creativity, and joy.Resources MentionedNatalie Bédard's website: LiftOneSelf.comNatalie's upcoming book The Gift Wrapped in SandpaperKate's jewelry & podcast community: KateShepherdCreative.comCall to ActionIf this conversation stirred something in you, subscribe to The Creative Genius Podcast, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. For deeper practices, meditations, and community, join us on Patreon at patreon.com/creativegeniuspodcast.

Have you ever noticed that desire intensifies during challenging moments in your relationship? In this episode, Dr. Alexandra Stockwell reveals how emotional intensity—even in the midst of complication—can serve as a catalyst for passion and deeper connection. Through personal insights and stories from the couples she's guided, Dr. Alexandra shows how vulnerability opens the door to profound intimacy.  You'll also discover how to welcome this kind of energy, without drama, with practices like honest self-expression, playful variety, and creative role-play.   In this episode: Challenging moments can spark passion and connection. Vulnerability and variety deepen intimacy without drama. Playful role-play keeps relationships fresh and exciting. The Aligned and Hot Marriage Program guides couples to lasting love and connection. Take what you hear today even further—explore the Aligned & Hot Marriage Program at www.alignedhotmarriage.com. Use discount code PODCAST99 for $300 off!     Subscribe To The Intimate Marriage Podcast: Apple Podcast | YouTube | Spotify Connect With Alexandra Stockwell, MD: Website | Linkedin | Instagram   Get your copy of “Uncompromising Intimacy” by Dr. Alexandra Stockwell here: https://amzn.to/2ymI3Hl Download the first chapter of Dr Alexandra's bestselling book, “Uncompromising Intimacy,” here:  https://www.alexandrastockwell.com/book   Cultivate your intimacy skills (without compromise) in Aligned & Hot Marriage, Dr. Alexandra's proven method for smart couples ready to love more fully:  www.alignedhotmarriage.com   Join Dr. Alexandra's email list to stay connected. She shares inspiring stories, her latest insights and opportunities to learn with her:  https://www.alexandrastockwell.com/subscribe   This Podcast Is Produced, Engineered & Edited By:  Simplified Impact

Jimmy Knowles, Global Head of Experiential at Canva, joins Amanda Ma, CEO and Founder of Innovate Marketing Group, to explore how creativity and play fuel brand success. From bold ideas to community-driven events, Jimmy shares how experiential activations are transforming the way global brands connect and grow.About the guest:Jimmy Knowles leads Global Experiential Marketing at Canva, where he designs culture-driven experiences that bring communities together worldwide. He spearheaded Canva Create, the flagship event that drew 2.5M registrants in April 2025, and launched Canva's first Developer Conference, Canva Extend. Jimmy has helped Canva shine on global stages from Mardi Gras to Cannes Lions, elevating the brand for over 250 million users.Before Canva, Jimmy spent a decade at CIVIC Entertainment Group, producing award-winning campaigns for Airbnb, Disney, and Meta, including the Grand Ex Award-winning Airbnb Open 2016. A proud Ithaca College alum, Jimmy now calls Los Angeles home after years on the East Coast.Follow Jimmy on LinkedIn!EventUp is brought to you by Innovate Marketing Group. An award-winning Corporate Event and Experiential Marketing Agency based in Los Angeles, California. Creating Nationwide Immersive Event Experiences to help brands connect with people. Learn more here!At Innovate Marketing Group, we've curated a collection of free resources designed to help you elevate your events and marketing efforts. Whether you're planning a company retreat or navigating the latest event trends, our tools, reports, and checklists are here to support your success and keep you at the forefront of innovation. Access them here!Follow us!Find us on ⁠⁠LinkedIn and Instagram and catch our latest episodes on the EventUp Podcast!

This week we continue with the last five episodes of this years Summer Series, back-to-back! If you missed the previous ones, or just like to listen to them in one go, here's your chance. And if you liked this concept of shorter episodes around two words, please let us know in a comment or at pushback@wgfilm.se and we might just return with some more in the future!Word Food – bite-sized conversations that pack a punch. Each week, we randomly select two words and dive into a 10-15 minute exploration of how these seemingly simple words intersect with our complex socio-political moment.Think of it as intellectual snacking with substance – light enough for your summer playlist, deep enough to make you think twice about the world around us.Happy snacking!Support the show

It begins lightheartedly—with dreams of strange alternate lives and even celebrity encounters in the dreamscape. But the tone shifts when Candace calls with a story that blurs the line between comfort and fear. Her grandmother passed in 2011. A year later, Candace and her husband bought their first home. For a while, it was quiet—until he moved in. Then came the disturbances: footsteps in empty rooms, objects vanishing and reappearing, tools gone missing only to resurface later. The strangest moment was the washing machine incident. For her twenty-first birthday, her husband had secretly hidden a bottle of wine high on a basement shelf. Candace didn't even know it existed. Yet one day, she opened the washer—and found the bottle inside, intact and waiting. Neither of them had touched it. Other moments followed. Around a backyard bonfire, the garage motion-sensor light flickered wildly until Candace snapped, “Grandma, knock it off!” Instantly, the light shut off—and never worked again. Even her skeptical mother was shaken after hearing heavy footsteps upstairs while Candace's son slept peacefully on the couch below. Candace believes the spirit may be her grandmother: protective, playful, never malicious. But as the hosts note, sometimes we assign familiar names to the unknown to ease our fears. Is it really Grandma watching over them—or something else entirely, hiding behind a comforting mask? This story is a reminder that in the paranormal, the line between love and intrusion is razor thin. What we call protection may be something stranger. What we call Grandma… may not be Grandma at all. #GhostStories #GrandmaGhost #HauntedHouse #ParanormalActivity #GhostPranks #CreepyFootsteps #RealGhostStories #ParanormalPodcast #HauntedLights #FamilyHaunting Love real ghost stories? Don't just listen—join us on YouTube and be part of the largest community of real paranormal encounters anywhere. Subscribe now and never miss a chilling new story:

It begins lightheartedly—with dreams of strange alternate lives and even celebrity encounters in the dreamscape. But the tone shifts when Candace calls with a story that blurs the line between comfort and fear. Her grandmother passed in 2011. A year later, Candace and her husband bought their first home. For a while, it was quiet—until he moved in. Then came the disturbances: footsteps in empty rooms, objects vanishing and reappearing, tools gone missing only to resurface later. The strangest moment was the washing machine incident. For her twenty-first birthday, her husband had secretly hidden a bottle of wine high on a basement shelf. Candace didn't even know it existed. Yet one day, she opened the washer—and found the bottle inside, intact and waiting. Neither of them had touched it. Other moments followed. Around a backyard bonfire, the garage motion-sensor light flickered wildly until Candace snapped, “Grandma, knock it off!” Instantly, the light shut off—and never worked again. Even her skeptical mother was shaken after hearing heavy footsteps upstairs while Candace's son slept peacefully on the couch below. Candace believes the spirit may be her grandmother: protective, playful, never malicious. But as the hosts note, sometimes we assign familiar names to the unknown to ease our fears. Is it really Grandma watching over them—or something else entirely, hiding behind a comforting mask? This story is a reminder that in the paranormal, the line between love and intrusion is razor thin. What we call protection may be something stranger. What we call Grandma… may not be Grandma at all. #GhostStories #GrandmaGhost #HauntedHouse #ParanormalActivity #GhostPranks #CreepyFootsteps #RealGhostStories #ParanormalPodcast #HauntedLights #FamilyHaunting Love real ghost stories? Don't just listen—join us on YouTube and be part of the largest community of real paranormal encounters anywhere. Subscribe now and never miss a chilling new story:

When you think of practicing your instrument, what are some of the first words that come to mind? Are the words “fun” or “playful” anywhere on your list?

In this insightful episode of School's Over, Now What, guest Rachel Supalla, founder of Discovery KidZone and an eight-figure entrepreneur, shares her journey from starting in her basement with just four customers to leading a team of over 200 employees. With no formal business education or degree, Rachel built a thriving childcare empire and now teaches others how to do the same — without succumbing to the toxic hustle culture.Highlights of this episode:The MAGIC Framework: It doesn't have to be hard to get thereThe power of saying NOWhat separates seven-figure entrepreneurs from those who scale to eight?This episode is a must-listen! Redefine your mindset about leadership — from hustle to harmony, from control to connection. Whether you're building your first team or scaling past 7 figures, Rachel's story and framework will help you do it with intention and impact.

In this episode, Joe Sanok speaks with neuroscientist Dr. Tali Sharot about the fascinating science of the optimism bias—our brain's natural tendency to expect the future to be better than the present. Together, they explore how optimism can motivate us, improve health, and build resilience, while also considering its downsides, like underestimating risks. Dr. Sharot shares how optimism can be developed over time, even by those who lean pessimistic, and offers practical advice for private practitioners on using emotions effectively in the therapy room. The post How Playful Questions Can Heal Families: Beliza Perez on Creating Connection Through Famgabs | POP 1252 appeared first on How to Start, Grow, and Scale a Private Practice | Practice of the Practice.