Episode Highlights With Bryana

• What makes conscious parenting different from other approaches
• How focusing on ourselves and our own emotional reactions and behaviors as parents is a more effective long term approach and is relationship first
• Focusing on “how am I managing myself” as a marker of effective parenting
• The magic of taking a pause during heated emotional encounters with our kids
• How to understand what is getting in the way of being able to model these behaviors for our kids
• What to do when “my kids will only listen to me if I am screaming”
• Love withdrawal - what it is and why it is so painful to children, and how to break the pattern
• The importance of saying sorry to our kids when we mess up without needing to defend our behavior
• What a real apology and repair looks like
• Why conscious parenting isn’t just permissive parenting or falsely happy parenting
• No parent has an intention to hurt their child but the impact is outside our control and how to understand this dynamic
• How our relationship with our kids sets the stage for how they will exist in relationship for the rest of their lives
• What boundaries are and how to effectively communicate them
• Why if boundaries don’t come from a place of kindness, they are actually about control
• Phrases like “I can’t let you” and “show me another way” for boundaries with young children
• Why children need to understand the alternative when we put limits on their behavior
• When we withdraw love, children will default to loving and trusting the parent even at the expense of self love and self trust
• Trust is the first psychosocial milestone in a baby or toddler
• Parenting is the opportunity to re-parent and become the parent you never had
• “I am not raising you to be the person I want or expect you to be… I am raising you to be who you are”
• What it means to be a cycle breaker in our parenting
• Specific tips for bedtime struggles and reframing what this experience is like for kids
• Strategies for tantrums that actually work - and how to focus on actually being with the child so they learn this internal skill
• Approaching parenting struggles with curiosity instead of being critical

Resources We Mention

• Conscious Mommy - Website
• Consciously Managing Meltdowns - Course
• Conscious Mommy - Instagram
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• Untamed by Glennon Doyle