You sink down on the rug in tears and wonder how you can ever keep going. Then you see your daughter’s abandoned stuffie under the sofa, next to an overdue library book, so you scoop them out, tuck them on the shelf, shove your hair in a bun, and get started with the laundry.

What happened to your tears? You discarded them like your daughter did her stuffie.

Welcome to mom overwhelm.

Mom overwhelm is the science of feeling crushed by the weight of life and living it anyway!

This week, we’re making space for overwhelm and talking about the ways we can bust through it.

If you feel like a cog in a wheel of making breakfast and answering email and rushing to activities and getting laundry done and finding lost library books and washing bodies and reading story books and wait, when did you last really see your partner?

Listen in.

quick smart tips to conquer your mom overwhelm

Today we talk turning that overwhelm around…

• Why is overwhelm like eating a really hot curry
• Why modern life creates a perfect environment for overwhelm to flourish
• How to cultivate walk away moments
• Why you need to listen to warnings as whispers and see if they grow loud
• How redefining your mom role can create space and recognition
• Why urgent and important are not the same thing
• How to go to bed feeling happier you moved the needle

find your tribe School’s out and so are we

Summer enrolment for the Parent Club is closing soon. Check out our special summer offer…before it’s gone

Become Mother-Flipping-Awesome!

Join Abigail’s rocking new community and be mother-flipping-awesome. Go here to get registered now.

Stay connected

We’d love to hear about your parenting challenges. You can follow Hand in Hand on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Be sure to drop Elle and Abigail a message at [email protected]

• Listen on iTunes.
• Listen on Stitcher
• Don’t forget to subscribe!

Get weekly tips, ideas, and inspiration for your parenting in our newsletter

source http://handinhandparenting.libsyn.com/try-these-quick-smart-tips-to-conquer-your-parenting-overwhelm

Read on to learn why it pays to keep positive with your kids

“Last cookie,” you say, lightly.

“No.” Your son says. Then he stuffs the cookie into his mouth, grabs three more and runs from the room. 

You’re just about to charge from the kitchen in a chase when your eyes fall on another set of eyes.

Your younger son.

Wide-eyed and wondering. 

Who’s in charge here? his eyes seem to say.

How far can we push you? Are you going to…lose it? 

This week we’re talking the kid that pushes your buttons…and the brothers and sisters who are watching. 

How does what you say or do in the heat of the moment reflect on them?

Abigail shares a big win when she got her over-tired tween to bed early, despite his resistance at every opportunity. But what surprised her most was how her younger son responded.

Listen in and feel inspired if you:

• Struggle with keeping calm in Staylistening
• Feel like one of your kids is playing you or pushing your buttons
• Get sucked into debate and reasoning with your child when you set a limit
• You feel like one child takes up so much more of your energy than the other
• Power battles between you and one child results in your kids taking sides
• Feel like you always give in…

You’ll see how your responses can impacts everyone in your house – including you! And why it pays to keep positive with your children in ways you might not imagine. 

  find your tribe

School’s out and so are we

Summer enrolment for the Parent Club is closing soon. Check out our special summer offer…before it’s gone

Become Mother-Flipping-Awesome!

Join Abigail’s rocking new community and be mother-flipping-awesome. Go here to get registered now.

Stay connected

We’d love to hear about your parenting challenges. You can follow Hand in Hand on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Be sure to drop Elle and Abigail a message at [email protected]

• Listen on iTunes.
• Listen on Stitcher
• Don’t forget to subscribe!

Get weekly tips, ideas, and inspiration for your parenting in our newsletter

source http://handinhandparenting.libsyn.com/who-else-is-watching-your-power-struggles

The baby woke at 4am.

His brother just 45 minutes later.

Since then you’ve been puked on, drawn on, and changed three diapers. You burnt a bagel and your kid tipped his cereal over in a rage. Now the baby is screaming because he’s hungry and your son is pulling at your pants leg because he wants to play.

Oh yeah. And it’s only 7.53am.

Who you gonna call?

Ghostbuster’s won’t help. But there is someone else. A special person who will let you scream about how bad your morning has been, and gently tell you they understand. Who will nod sympathetically and not judge you when you say that you are Just.Too.Tired.To.Play!

Who will laugh with you when you admit, embarrassingly, that you just wanted to fling that dumped out cereal bowl across the living room, pick up your bag and walk out of there forever. (Or at least just until you’d had a mani-pedi/shopping binge/peace and quiet.)

If you know Hand in Hand Parenting then you know that when the going gets tough we call…a listening partner.

There’s no other place that offers quite the same level of support, care and nurturing when you are at the end of your rope with parenting. It eases exhaustion, lightens the mental load and makes room for more energy and enjoyment with your kids.

But are you using your listening time to the max?

This week Abigail shares a powerful story about how listening rescued her when she hit rock bottom in parenting, and her and Elle discuss the ways you can boost your listening time to make it even more empowering, supportive and freeing.

And if you haven’t started a listening partnership, don’t worry! There’s plenty in the podcast for you – and some downloads below!

On How to Superboost Your Parent Support, you’ll find:

• Why making time honors your self-care and enhances the work and care you pour into your family
• The times a light clearing out of your feelings can be useful versus times to probe deeper
• Three ways to get more from your listening time and really boost your well-being
• Still journaling? That’s great – but why haven’t you started listening? Overcoming the obstacles and actually getting started with Listening Time

find your tribe

Never heard of Listening Time? You’ll find everything you need to know in this ebook.

Want to find a listening partner? Join our free Facebook community and post to get started.

Listen to our earlier podcast and discover how Listening Partnerships can sound.

Take the class!

Be the best listener you can be. Learn the art of connected active listening and discover how you like to be listened to. This in-depth online video course teaches steps to building your ideal listening partnership so you can change parenting for the better. Learn more.

Become Mother-Flipping-Awesome!

Join Abigail’s rocking new community and be mother- flipping-awesome. Go here to get registered now.

Stay connected

We’d love to hear about your parenting challenges. You can follow Hand in Hand on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Be sure to drop Elle and Abigail a message at [email protected]

• Listen on iTunes.
• Listen on Stitcher
• Don’t forget to subscribe!

Get weekly tips, ideas, and inspiration for your parenting in our newsletter

source http://handinhandparenting.libsyn.com/how-to-superboost-your-parent-support-today

The last time you asked them to tidy their crayons, they smashed the whole box on the floor and ripped up the color sheet.

You have to psyche yourself up when you need them to turn off the TV, because…BOOM! Epic meltdown.

Forget about asking for a hug. Your child wriggles away from your hand on his shoulder.

Does every request you make send your child into a raging meltdown?

You spend life walking on eggshells. (As well as Lego bricks.)

But, do you know what?

This is actually when your child needs you most of all.

But how do you get close when your child acts like a tiny tyrant, doing everything they can to push you away? When it’s hard to even be in a room with them?

you need to get close when your child pushes you away. here’s why.

This week, Abigail and Elle show you how to maximise a special tool you can use when you want to transform meltdowns into closeness and co-operation. Use it to stop power battles and turn your child’s difficult, defiant behaviors around.

On the podcast this week:

• Learn what your child’s ongoing acts of aggression and rage are showing you
• How to take shouting and screaming and turn then into smiles
• Maximise the tool so you two can laugh, play and actually enjoy each other again.

If you are exhausted or confused by your child’s rage and meltdowns, listen in now and get these simple solutions you can apply today.

get your guide to special time

New to Special Time? Here’s a free chapter from our book Listen. Learn all about this amazing tool.

find your tribe

Join Abigail’s rocking new community and be mother- flipping-awesome. Go here to get registered now.

Stay connected

We’d love to hear about your parenting challenges. You can follow Hand in Hand on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Be sure to drop Elle and Abigail a message at [email protected]

• Listen on iTunes.
• Listen on Stitcher
• Don’t forget to subscribe!

Get weekly tips, ideas, and inspiration for your parenting in our newsletter

source http://handinhandparenting.libsyn.com/do-you-know-when-your-child-needs-you-most-of-all

Do you know how bad your child feels when they mess up?

They may look angry. They may look amused. They may show bravado.

But in every kid that messes up is a pit of shame, sadness, confusion and doubt about their own self-worth.

How do we know? Because aren’t those the exact same feelings we adults feel when we mess up – when we really look inside?

And we parents often heap on that shame.

You get into blame and guilt, lectures and stand-offs. Just the way you were treated when you were little.

If you want to avoid the stand-offs, forced apologies, shame and humiliation we experienced when we messed up, we need new tools and new responses.

This week we share three ways to respond that will actually build trust and empathy with your child – whether mistakes are big or small!

Discover 3 Responses You Can Use To Build Trust and Avoid Shame

On this week’s podcast, we’re talking mistakes – when you make them and when your kid makes them. Listen in for:

• Why confrontation and blame only builds kids shame and self-loathing
• Why empathy isn’t a soft response when it comes to mistakes
• Why sharing your own mistakes maybe the best thing you can do when your child messes up
• Three different approaches you can use to build trust when your child messes up (or feels like they have)
• How to show your child that mistakes can be teachable moments

When mistakes happen in your house, these tools and ideas will guide and support your child and boost trust.

Join us this week for How to Respond to Your Kid’s Mistakes in a Way You Can Be Proud Of

Here’s the download Elle mentions. Reduce the stress of parenting! Get now

Find Your Tribe

Get ready to join Abigail’s rocking new community and be mother- flipping-awesome. Go here to get registered now.

Stay connected

We’d love to hear about your parenting challenges. You can follow Hand in Hand on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Be sure to drop Elle and Abigail a message at [email protected]

• Listen on iTunes.
• Listen on Stitcher
• Don’t forget to subscribe!

Get weekly tips, ideas, and inspiration for your parenting in our newsletter

source http://handinhandparenting.libsyn.com/how-to-respond-to-your-kids-mistakes-in-a-way-you-can-be-proud-of

How do you make like Meghan Markle and stand strong when you face loud and opposing opinions on how you *should be* raising your child?

Meghan and Harry have broken many a protocol since bringing royal baby Archie into the world, from not using the royal family’s preferred hospital to Harry holding Archie at a (delayed) press call.

No-one is telling them how to raise a prince, not even the queen!

How About You?

How can you get the same support from your family when your ideas about parenting differ from theirs?

How you can avoid endless confrontations and feuds?

How can you stand strong when their feelings rock you and you face indecision and uncertainty about your parenting style?

Hand in Hand Parenting can seem very different to an older generation, and even younger friends and family that find mainstream parenting practices successful for them. So, how can we show the differences in a positive light without alienating anyone?

Listen to this episode and find out how to own your parenting when your family wants to rule over you.

• Why your parenting ideas rub moms and mom-in-laws up the wrong way and how you can ease this
• One easy tip for keeping everyone happy when your child moves offtrack and everyone expects you to act (and no, you won’t need to time-out)
• How to see the good in their criticism and ways to handle their opinions

Get More Support and Resources for Times Family is Judgmental

• Try these five tips for responding when you feel judged about your parenting
• Get the book Listen, to hear the 100s of stories from families using these tools. 

Find Your Tribe

Don’t go it alone!

The Hand in Hand Parent Club offers daily support from instructors, with free access to our Setting Limits class, and monthly Q&A Sessions with Hand in Hand’s Founder Patty Wipfler.

We’re re-opening in the summer. Drop us an email at [email protected] and we’ll be in touch about dates.

Get ready to join Abigail’s rocking new community and be mother- flipping-awesome. Go here to get registered now.

source http://handinhandparenting.libsyn.com/what-to-do-when-your-family-wants-to-rule-your-parenting-0

How do you make like Meghan Markle and stand strong when you face loud and opposing opinions on how you *should be* raising your child?

Meghan and Harry have broken many a protocol since bringing royal baby Archie into the world, from not using the royal family’s preferred hospital to Harry holding Archie at a (delayed) press call.

No-one is telling them how to raise a prince, not even the queen!

How About You?

How can you get the same support from your family when your ideas about parenting differ from theirs?

How you can avoid endless confrontations and feuds?

How can you stand strong when their feelings rock you and you face indecision and uncertainty about your parenting style?

Hand in Hand Parenting can seem very different to an older generation, and even younger friends and family that find mainstream parenting practices successful for them. So, how can we show the differences in a positive light without alienating anyone?

Listen to this episode and find out how to own your parenting when your family wants to rule over you.

• Why your parenting ideas rub moms and mom-in-laws up the wrong way and how you can ease this
• One easy tip for keeping everyone happy when your child moves offtrack and everyone expects you to act (and no, you won’t need to time-out)
• How to see the good in their criticism and ways to handle their opinions

Get More Support and Resources for Times Family is Judgmental

• Try these five tips for responding when you feel judged about your parenting
• Get the book Listen, to hear the 100s of stories from families using these tools. 

Find Your Tribe

Don’t go it alone!

The Hand in Hand Parent Club offers daily support from instructors, with free access to our Setting Limits class, and monthly Q&A Sessions with Hand in Hand’s Founder Patty Wipfler.

We’re re-opening in the summer. Drop us an email at [email protected] and we’ll be in touch about dates.

Get ready to join Abigail’s rocking new community and be mother- flipping-awesome. Go here to get registered now.

source http://handinhandparenting.libsyn.com/what-to-do-when-your-family-wants-to-rule-your-parenting

Elle confesses that she really sucks at setting limits with her kids – and together she and Abigail suss out ways to make rules, boundaries and enforcing them a whole lot easier.

Join us this week if you’ve ever battled with yourself about when to set limits, or found that whenever you do set limits your kids just don’t seem to listen.

Listen to the podcast this week and learn

• Top 3 reasons why limit setting is failing you
• Ways you can reframe what it means to set limits
• Why backchat isn’t all bad
• Why determining what matters for you and your family really helps you set limits more effectively.

If you want to stop yelling and start setting calm limits, or you are sick of your buttons and boundaries getting pushed, join us for this podcast.

More Resources for Setting Limits with your Kids

Discover Hand in Hand’s 3-Step Approach to Setting Limits in this free ebook

Take our online Setting Limits class and get proven tools to set healthy limits that fosters closeness and cooperation in your family. Sign up here, or register for the Hand in Hand Parent Club and get this class free with your membership.

Stay Connected

We’d love to hear about your parenting challenges. You can follow Hand in Hand on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Be sure to drop Elle and Abigail a message at [email protected]

• Listen on iTunes.
• Listen on Stitcher
• Don’t forget to subscribe!

Get weekly tips, ideas, and inspiration for your parenting in our newsletter

source http://handinhandparenting.libsyn.com/3-reasons-parents-suck-at-setting-limits-0

We know we love our kids, but that doesn’t stop them being hard to like sometimes.

This podcast is for you if you ever wondered how you were going to get through the next few hours with your kids close by.

We talk about how we get to the point where the dread feels real and we share things you can do when parenting feels this hard.

Listen to What To Do When You Aren’t So Psyched To See Your Kids and

• Find the hidden power in giving in to a bad day
• Get play ideas and ideas for when play seems just too hard
• Learn how to hold off on constant control and mommy managing
• Why it’s vital to have your own time to whine and tantrum sometimes

We also wanted to take a moment to thank you for being here and seeking ways for happier days with your family – you are amazing for all the caring you do.

More Resources For Help for Hard Times in Parenting

This is the Listening Partnerships online class we mention. Don’t forget you can get it for 25% off when you join the Hand in Hand Parent Club.

Stay Connected

We’d love to hear about your parenting challenges. You can follow Hand in Hand on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Be sure to drop Elle and Abigail a message at [email protected]

source http://handinhandparenting.libsyn.com/what-to-do-when-you-arent-so-psyched-to-see-your-kids

You know about setting warm limits: Moving in calmly when you need to stop a behavior, but what happens when it feels like there is no chance to keep calm?

Like, your child is about to stick their finger in the power socket. Or dashes out across a busy street. Then how do you set a warm limit then?

On the podcast this week, we talk about the Hard No. And why no is hard! When no means no – and those times you aren’t even sure your no needs to be hard.

• Discover how Abigail handles a hard – and fast – no when there is no doubt a quick, firm limit needs to be set.
• How to evaluate if a no needs to be hard.
• What happens when your no is hard and then you realise it doesn’t need to be.

Join us this week for Setting Limits: The Hard No, and figure out how to stay firm and keep cool.

For more resources on Setting Limits, try these:

Do you know what or why you are setting a limit? It can really help to know. Here’s four limits kids need and why to set them.

Read Abigail’s post about how to connect before you set limits in One thing to do Before Setting Limits

Want more on Setting Limits? There’s 3 days left of our Setting Limits challenge. You get daily ideas for setting limits plus access to our online class on the weekend. You can join here.

Stay connected

We’d love to hear about your parenting challenges. You can follow Hand in Hand on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Be sure to drop Elle and Abigail a message at [email protected]

• Listen on iTunes.
• Listen on Stitcher
• Don’t forget to subscribe!

Get weekly tips, ideas, and inspiration for your parenting in our Newsletter

source http://handinhandparenting.libsyn.com/setting-limits-the-hard-no