Parenting in Real Life

This is such a fun episode! We asked our listeners to share different Christmas and winter traditions that they have and since our audience is international, we were hoping for some traditions from a few different countries, and you delivered! We have traditions from China, the Netherlands, Chile, the USA, Portugal, Ireland, and Australia. We love sharing these traditions so that you can adopt one that you like or look into your own family history and find a tradition from your family's culture to incorporate in your family traditions. 

You can follow these friends here:

Christmas is around the corner and it can be hard to know what Christmas gifts to get your kids. Do you get them what they want? Do you get them what you think they actually want? Do you get them activities or toys or experiences? In this episode, we are sharing the best and worst gifts we have given our kids. We're still looking for a remote control car that doesn't break right away, so if you have found an amazing one, please let us know!

Knowing when to give your kids a phone and what kind is a common question we have as parents. This is something we often talk to family and friends about. There are so many different options, which one do you choose? And how do you manage your kids' phone use? We don't have all the answers, but we're sharing some stats that we've learned as well as what we do in our home. This is just what has worked for us. 

This episode was inspired by what Alan thought would be a fun call to Santa Claus on the Google that turned into a frightening moment for our 4 year old. This made us think about other mistakes we've made over the last few weeks. From the funny to the frustrating, we're sharing a few of the mistakes we've made recently. In parenting, you're always learning and making mistakes so we hope this episodes helps you know that you are not alone in parenting!

Podcast we recommend: On Boys Podcast with Janet Allison and Jennifer L.W. Fink. 

You can find their podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/on-boys-podcast/id135817170

In this episode we are talking about Halloween traditions, our favorite family costumes, America's least favorite candy, and sharing some of our favorite Halloween jokes. Share them with your kids or whoever loves a good dad joke. You can see the photos we talk about on our YouTube Channel or on Instagram. 

Tanner Fam Sugar Cookie Recipe: https://www.parentingirlpodcast.com/amazing-sugar-cookie-recipe/?swcfpc=1

Make sure to check us out on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHVc1_Kv8Ojb3HE9xI3Xoiw

When you want a fun treat with the family, fast food ice cream is one of our go tos. But where is the best ice cream? Which is the cheapest? Which is the easiest to feed a family? We're going to tell you our favorites and why and also share some fun tips about who created soft serve ice cream, which country eats the most, and we compare ice cream to cars. This is a fun episode you'll want to listen to with the whole family.

Here are the links to the websites we referred to throughout the episode.

Who eats the most ice cream

Do you feel frustrated by the TV shows your kids are watching? Do you want them to watch shows you feel good about them watching? In this episode we are sharing 5 questions to ask yourself to help you find the best TV shows for your kids. We also talk about our favorite kids TV shows as well as some habits to help parents be better about their own screen time.

This week’s Sponsor is Troomi. Use the promo code: PARENTING for $50 off your Troomi phone. Visit https://troomi.com/

Here are the links to the websites we referred to throughout the episode.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-makes-a-childrens-tv-show-good-for-kids_n_5bd305cce4b0d38b588281ab#:~:text=The%20messaging%20of%20a%20children's,to%20drink%20the%20green%20smoothie.%E2%80%9D

How's your summer routine going? We are half way through the summer in our home and we are in need of a reboot. So this episode is coming at the perfect time for us! In this episode, we have Alyssa Blask Campbell who is the founder of Seed and Sew which teaches the Collaborative Emotion Processing method that she co-created. Alyssa has 3 great tips to help with a summer routine which can help get some new ideas flowing if you seem to be in a bit of a rut like we are.

If you've ever created a bucket list with your family, you may have gotten a lot of answers from your kids. It may seem a bit overwhelming or it may be full of things you may not necessarily want to or are able to do. In this episode, Lori Beth Auldridge shares with us how to create a more meaningful and rich summer experience when creating a summer bucket list with your family. It's all about your family values! If you're looking for ways to be more intentional about what you do with your kids this summer, you'll definitely want to listen to this episode.

Resources:

We are a few weeks into summer and despite all the planning, things may not be going quite how you planned. But don't worry, today's episode with Lisa Sugarman will help you embrace the imperfectness of summer. Lisa is an advocate for encouraging parents to cut themselves some slack and give ourselves permission to show up for our kids exactly as we are without putting all kinds of crazy pressure or expectations on ourselves to live that perfect Instagram life.

Feeding kids during the summer is one of the hardest things for us. Kids want to eat all different foods all day long and if you're not careful, you could spend all day in the kitchen making food, putting together snacks, or cleaning up. Today we have Leah Grammar, a mom of 6, who has some great tips for keeping summer mealtimes under control and less overwhelming. You are going to love these tips from this experienced mom. We especially loved her tips on what to feed the neighbor kids and how to manage lunch time.

Summer can be so chaotic with all the kids home and people coming and going with friends and camps. But as parents, we still have our responsibilities too. That's why we are so excited to share this episode with Josephine Atluri with you. Josephine is a mindfulness coach, author, and podcaster who has 3 great tips on how to stay grounded and practice mindfulness during the summer chaotic months.

Our favorite quote from Josephine: "Mindfulness is just an awareness of yourself. How you're feeling physically, mentally, emotionally. An awareness of your environment and an awareness of your interactions with others."

One of the most common things that Money Coach Rachel Murphy hears from adults is that they wish they would have learned how to manage money as teenagers. I'm sure I'm not the only one who went to college with no money and no idea how to manage it. We want our kids to have a better understanding of financial skills and in this episode you're going to learn 3 ways to teach your kids how to manage money. 

We are super excited for this new podcast format we are doing this summer. We have asked experts in all kinds of fields to give us 10 minute videos of their best tips for parenting in summer. Our first guest is Ceri Payne who we've had on our podcast before. She is amazing! In this episode she talks about summer schedules. Should you have one? What should it look like? She asks her clients to ask themselves what their goals are and what they want the summer to feel like when determining how they should schedule their summer.

She also has some great suggestions for scheduling out your summer for families with kids of all ages. She breaks it into pre-school aged, elementary/middle school aged, and then high school and even young adult aged that may be still living at home. 

Our favorite thing she said was, "A schedule simply is writing down your choices ahead of time." You are going to love this episode with Ceri Payne.

The kids are about to all come home for the summer which is both fun and hectic. This is especially true if you're working from home for any amount of time. Now that we've been working from home for the past two years, we have some tips that have helped us. We're also trying some new things to help us make sure we add in some fun, quiet time, and learning time.

To learn more about the mom store, visit here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CLaaeVrAOx-/

Find my extra large Summer Calendar and Bucket List print here: https://www.parentingirlpodcast.com/product/summer-bucket-list/

We were on a podcast recently and were talking about dating your spouse. And although we have been far from perfect at this, we have found 3 ways to date your spouse that's on budget, doesn't take a ton of planning, and even ways you can do things to connect daily. We hope these simple tips can help you look for small ways to connect with your spouse.

This week’s Sponsor is Money Makers. I have been in Michelle Gifford’s Money Makers group for over 2 years and have been working for her for the last year. If you’re a business owner looking to take the next step or are ready to take your business more seriously, this is the program for you! For only $347 for a whole year, you get online courses, 2 monthly coaching calls with Michelle, and an amazing community of women who understand you! Just click this link to join!

https://michelle-gifford.mykajabi.com/a/2147510452/m2wtDjPe

We don't have the perfect work life balance. In fact, our schedules, desires, and lifestyle seem to be changing all the time. But we have learned a few things along the way that have helped us have a little more balance in our lives and make sure we keep our priorities. We all have different life circumstances, but we feel one of the most important things in having conversations with your spouse. Hopefully this episode helps you continue to find a bit more balance in your life.

This week’s Sponsor is KiwiCo. We have loved their Kiwi Crate STEAM boxes! These are the perfect kits to help keep your kids entertained this summer. Get 50% off your 1st month of any KiwiCo Subscription with the link below.

We recently read an article about how teenagers today are more depressed than ever. But it wasn't caused by the pandemic or any one thing. They narrowed it down to 4 main things that we discuss and share some of our ideas of how we're combatting them. We were surprised that one of the 4 main things is modern parenting! 

On our last survey, we had a few people ask for some tips on some parenting headaches. We decided to do a speed round and answer 4 of those parenting topics with things that have worked for our kids. We are not parenting experts, so these are just tips you can try (if you want). In this episode we talk about stopping the whining, how to deal with night time potty training especially when kids are getting a little older than the "norm," setting boundaries and freedoms, and how to entertain your baby and yourself. 

We would love to know your best tips too. Make sure to comment on our Instagram posts!

We had a great discussion in this episode with Sandra Payne! We talk about giving children space to feel emotions and how to have conversations about emotion in your family and we talk about self-love and self-worth. We are our children's greatest examples of how to treat ourselves. As we become more emotionally intelligent as well as find ways to love ourselves, then we can be better parents and show our kids how to do it for themselves too.

You can find Sandra Payne on her website: https://www.sandrapaynecoach.com/ and her book The Perfect Snowflake here: https://www.sandrapaynecoach.com/the-perfect-snowflake-book/

Do you like hiking? Does your family like hiking? Are your kids small so it sounds super daunting? 

We have been hiking with our kids since our oldest were toddlers and we love hiking as a family, especially to National Parks. We are sharing our 3 best tips, as well as some bonus tips, on how we make hiking something that our kids love to do too. And don't worry, we have some stories where things didn't work out how we thought so if you're still in the ups and downs of getting kids to like hiking, we're right there with you. 

In this episode, we interviewed Kimball Lewis who is the CEO of empoweringparents.com. He talked to us about difficult behavior in children, what to do when your kids don't like you, and how to give consequences that are going to result in good behavior. Our biggest take away was learning to give consequences that result in our kids learning a skill rather than just doing time. We've definitely gotten some eye rolls in the process, but it helps our kids learn what to do better next time. 

Do you want to know the secret to fixing your kids? We all do, right? Turns out, it's fixing yourself! (I'm sure that's not what you wanted to hear). But you're going to want to listen to this episode to find out why. We spoke with Crystal Haitsma who is a life coach and homeschooling mom of 4. We talk about creating emotional intelligence in ourselves and our kids, we talk about shame - what it is and how to work through it, and we talk about the 4 biggest parenting problems that Crystal sees in her coaching and how to work through them. There are so many great tips in this episode, you don't want to miss it!

Where you can find Crystal Haitsma:

Her Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-freedom-moms-podcast/id1555361139  

Find your parenting personality quiz: https://coachcrystal.involve.me/parents-organic  

Work with Crystal: http://www.coachcrystal.ca/work-with-me

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.parenting.coach/

Back by popular demand, we are doing another Tanner update. We are sharing what life is looking like for us right now as well as a challenge we are starting in March. Join us for the No Screens challenge from March 7-31 and see what changes you see in your family when you have less screen time. We are still going to do our Friday night movie night and let the kids do screens on Saturdays, but Sunday through Friday night, no screens! If you want to try this experiment with you family, sign up for our newsletter on our website to get all the details, some tips, things to do instead of screens, and to learn about our giveaways! https://www.parentingirlpodcast.com/

We are also starting to think about summer and what that will look like with all the kids home. On Instagram, let us know what the hardest thing is about summer, what resources you wish you had, and what has worked well for you. We would love to help you have a fun and simple summer.

You've probably heard of patient parenting and maybe even gentle parenting. But sometimes just being patient with your kids doesn't lead to behavior changes and so you become impatient and think that patient parenting must not work for your kids. If this is you, then you need to listen to this episode! We interviewed Marcela Collier from High Impact Club and she talks about going beyond patient parenting to becoming an understanding parent. She shares the 5 basic needs that all humans have and how their needs are what fuel your kids misbehavior. Once we know these 5 basic needs, we can better detect them and learn how to be an actionable patient parent. 

Do you have a really stubborn child? How about a super argumentative child? Or maybe a very anxious child? Or maybe all of those?? (We do!) But those are all negative terms and when we use negative terms to describe our children, it just creates a negative cycle. So how can you see your child's negative behaviors as positive? And could they actually be a good trait? Yes they can! 

Today we are talking about how the negative behaviors our children have could actually be their super power especially as we guide them and help them use those powers. We've had a lot of the parenting experts on our podcast talk about reframing so we're going to dive into that a bit deeper and learn how to change the negative to something positive. 

Here are the links to the websites we referred to throughout the episode:

Are you afraid of the teenage years? Are they about to come your way, but you don't know how you're going to get through them? Whether you're about to have teenagers or are a few years out, you need to listen to this podcast episode! Today we are interviewing Darla Trendler from the Spiritually Minded Women Podcast. She is a mother to 4 kids - 2 teenagers and 2 adult children. One of our favorite things about Darla is that she loves her teenagers. She gives us three tips that really helped her in her parenthood learn how to manage teenager behavior and create a loving relationship with her kids.

Darla Trendler:

Are you feeling alone? Are you far from family? Is your spouse working long hours or in school? We learned a lot by going to a graduate school away from family and away from where we both grew up. It was hard, but worth it. And we learned a lot along the way. In this episode, we're sharing our best tips and the things we wished we would have done differently during our 3 years away from family.

There often aren't big wins in parenting, but there are small daily wins that often go unnoticed or uncelebrated. Today we interviewed Jason Harwood from the Happily Ever Habits Podcast. Jason has 7 habits that he works on each year, one of which is self-control. And he shares 3 steps to not only get better at self-control, but also at any habit you want to create. The three steps are make it small, make it easy, and celebrate small wins. We also talk about managing your self-control through meditation and tracking to help you celebrate the small wins of the day. 

It's January, which is a great time to plan for the year. Resolutions are great, and we loves those, but it's also a great time to figure out family trips for the year and couple and family goals so you can plan them. It takes time and money to do fun trips with your family and when you plan it at the beginning of the year, you're more likely to make it happen and have the money to do it. Sit down tonight with you spouse, grab your calendar, and start planning. But don't worry, we'll tell you how in this episode!

All our kids have behavioral problems in some time or another. Knowing how to help our kids can often be a mystery. In this episode with Franki Bagdade, she teaches how to discover the root cause of behavior and how to figure out why our kids are behaving the way that they are. If you aren't sure what to do with your kids right now, this is the episode for you!

With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, we thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite Christmas stories so you can listen as a family as you are driving to recitals, programs, and family events. This story is Christmas From Heaven - The True Story of the Berlin Candy Bomber. We love that this story is based on true events! And we hope it inspires you to find some small way to give to others this Christmas.

With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, we thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite Christmas stories so you can listen as a family as you are driving to recitals, programs, and family events. This story is Sam's Christmas Wish. We were introduced to this book a few years ago and it instantly became a favorite. It's a sweet story that always makes both Alan and I cry! I had to edit out Alan's tears/sniffles, but left a few at the end. :-)

Whether we know it or not, we all have a morning routine. Maybe it's hitting the snooze button 5 times or grabbing your phone first thing and scrolling social media. When we are intentional about our morning routine, it can set the tone for our day and give us more patience as parents. We interviewed Chanelle Neilson who is a life coach and morning routine guru that has great ideas and tips for parents at any stage of life - including parents with babies that wake up at night. Hint, she doesn't say wake up before your baby - that's just crazy!

We took Chanelle's tips to the test and each created our own morning routine that we love and it really helps shape our day. As you create your morning routine, let us know on Instagram what it looks like!

We are celebrating our 100th episode on the week of our 12 year wedding anniversary! So to celebrate the two, we decided to talk about our 6 most REAL parenting moments and our 6 favorite parenting moments. We hope this is an episode that will help you feel heard when parenting is hard, but also smile when parenting is the best. 

We also recently sent out a survey about our podcast! We would love for you to fill it out. Everyone who fills it out will be entered to win a $20 Amazon gift card! We'll contact the winner Monday, November 22nd, but if you see this after that, we would still love for you to fill it out! Thanks so much!

Survey:

The holidays can be a stressful time for parents. Gifts need to be bought, holiday traditions need to be done, school and family activities, friend gatherings, and the list goes on. Sometimes prepping and doing all the things can make the holidays feel stressful and suck the fun out of it. Today we're chatting with Diana Ballard from Mom Training and she has 3 tips for us to help us stress less during the holiday season. 

We just went through a major house renovation that we started in January 2020! With the craziness of the economy and working with a million different contractors, we are finally about done with our house. We learned A TON and wanted to share the things we wished we would have known before we started. If you're considering a home renovation or even hiring out projects in your home, you're going to want to listen to this episode!

We just went on a 4 day trip to Disneyland and California Adventure with our kids. It was our first time going as a family. As a Southern California native, Alexis grew up going as a kid so she was excited. But Alan only went a handful of times and hates crowds and was feeling pessimistic about it. Overall, we were glad we did it and it was a really fun vacation, but we're planning to wait a bit before we go again.

Today we’re diving into the dos and don'ts of Disneyland. What worked for us and what we think is overrated. If you’re going to Disneyland with your family or would like to soon, you are going to want to listen to this episode!

Siblings fighting is normal, but when does it go too far? When do you need to step in and make sure that your kids aren’t starting to bully each other? In this episode, we’re talking about the difference between sibling rivalry and sibling bullying. Then, if you are starting to see some bullying, what you can do about it to make your home a more harmonious place.

Here are the links to the websites we referred to throughout the episode.

Have you ever had a dream or passion, but haven't pursued it yet because of parenting? Then this episode is for you! As moms and dads, we sometimes sacrifice our own dreams because of time, money, or even guilt. In this episode, we are talking with Ceri Payne who is a life coach who helps women in motherhood and their business and helps them figure out how to accomplish their goals without sacrificing the things they value most. We talk about money, finding time, and knowing if something is a desire to pursue or just a distraction. You can still pursue dreams at any stage of life and sometimes that looks a little different in different seasons, but finding what creates those feelings of fulfillment helps you be a better parent overall. 

Ceri was Alexis' life coach for a while and she is fantastic. So if you're looking for a life coach, then definitely look Ceri up!

Should kids share a room? We did an episode on this 4 years ago (episode 21) and found there are a lot of good things that come from kids sharing rooms, but we recently found that sharing a room in our family wasn't working out very well.  In this episode we talk about the pros and cons of kids having their own rooms, how to make sharing or not sharing work (if it's an option for you), and we end the episode with some funny sleep stories.

What did you love to do before you had kids? Do you still do that thing? It can be easy to get lost in parenthood and put things we love on the back burner as we put our family first, but you may have found that can take the joy out of life. So how do we bring those joys back into our life? We loved this interview with Michelle McGuire. She is an artist and mom of 5 who has been on a journey to bring creativity back into her life since having kids. This is an excellent episode all about bringing curiosity, creativity, and/or passions back into your life as a parent in any stage.

Michelle also has a journal available for purchase September 27th! Her Seek Light Share Light journal helps people not only look for the good around them, but to share it with others.

How much extracurriculars should you kids be doing? How much is enough or too much? Unfortunately, there isn't one answer here, but we discuss the different ways to know if your kid has too much going on in their life. We share the pros and cons of extracurriculars and 4 questions to ask yourself to see if you have a good family balance.

I did lots of research for this episode, so here are the articles I read if you would like to read them too. 

Is your child showing signs of ADHD? Do you know what that might look like? If they do have ADHD, what do you do now? All excellent questions. In this episode, we’re interviewing Dr. Norrine Russell, an academic and ADHD coaching expert. She talks to us about what ADHD looks like, what ADHD really is, what we can do as parents to help our children, and how to set your child up for success.  Whether your child has ADHD or not, this is a great episode that will help you with any child that struggles to focus.

In this episode, we thought it would be fun to interview our two oldest daughters, Kamryn and Chloe. They are starting the tween years so we wanted to ask them things like: what's cool, slang words they hear, how they feel about COVID, popular styles, etc. So dive in with us as we talk to tweens of 2021.

This week’s Products That Makes Parenting Stink Less are tools to teach your kids about sex.

A Better Way to Teach Kids About Sex - https://amzn.to/3BqRtML

30 Days of Sex Talks for Ages 8-11: Empowering Your Child with Knowledge of Sexual Intimacy - https://amzn.to/3mQwXRu

Maturation & Sexual Reproduction Lesson Plans - https://www.goodandbeautiful.com/products/pre-k-8-maturation-sexual-reproduction/