Welcome back to Gaining Mom-entum! This week, Abi & Meghan are joined by guests, Megan and Gray, to talk about parenting children who are neurodiverse. The conversation is open and honest with Megan, Gray, and GM’s very own Meghan, sharing what their parenting journey has been like with their children who have gifts that are often overlooked by society. They discuss knowing and learning about their children’s brain wiring, embracing it, and erasing the stigma. They share what they’ve learned about themselves on their parenting journeys, how they want to show up for their kids and support them through mindfulness, intentionality, patience, and reframing the conversations they have with/about their children. They talk about whether or not they owe people an explanation when a complex moment occurs in public (spoiler: they do not), which leads to the idea of divesting from giving energy currency to people who seek to make life harder and more uncomfortable for their families. They discuss pushing back against stereotypes and expectations of what neurodiversity looks like and how they advocate for their children academically, emotionally, and socially. They wrap up the conversation by sharing what other parents can do in their own homes, with their own kids to create a more accepting, respectful, kinder world for children who are neurodiverse, including letting children be who they are and not who people think they should be.

As always, thanks for listening! Share Gaining Mom-entum and follow/comment/review wherever you get your pods.

IG: @gainingmom_entum

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Email: [email protected]

Music: Evan Dysart (Spotify and Bandcamp)

Artwork: Catherine Cachia (IG: @catherinecachia, catherinecachia.com)

Resources:

Bright and Quirky

Canucks Autism Network 

The Neurodiverse Classroom by Victoria Honeybourne

Some Brains by Nelly Thomas

The Whole Brained Child by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson 

Different Brains

We’re Not Broken by Eric Michael Garcia 

Misfits of Motherhood podcast 

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

Welcome back to another episode of Gaining Mom-entum! Meghan is fired up this week about a PAC meeting that she Zoomed into at her child’s school. After debriefing, they get into this week’s topic — queer parenthood. This week’s awesome guests are Astri & Ainsley, long-time friends of Meghan’s, who were extremely generous in sharing their time and their experiences as new parents. If you hear some background noise, it’s just the sound of multitasking parents and their infant daughter. After sharing preferred pronouns, Ainsley & Astri share the story of how they welcomed their child into the world and dealing with invasive, inappropriate questions from family members. (Heads up: Please keep in mind that we had this conversation in a safe environment, with it being made very clear that Astri & Ainsley were in the driver’s seat in determining what they felt comfortable sharing with all of us. They were incredibly open and giving in their responses, but they did not owe us any of the stories that they shared.) This conversation covers a lot of ground including pandemic parenting, the harm caused by assigning gender to parenting roles, the need for education and open conversations around gender diversity, how we conceptualize resources for new parents, queer relationships, and the language we use to talk about it all. The conversation wraps up with a reminder that queer kids need to know they are loved, and talking to all kids about gender diversity and diverse families is one way to we can all work together to make sure that happens.

As always, thanks for listening! Please share Gaining Mom-entum and comment/review wherever you listen to your pods.

Instagram: @gainingmom_entum

Facebook: Gaining Mom-entum Podcast

Email: [email protected]

Music: Evan Dysart (Spotify and Bandcamp)

Artwork: Catherine Cachia (IG: @catherinecachia, catherinecachia.com)

Resources:

International Family Visibility Day Toolkit

Building Bridges: Queer Families in Early Childhood Education

What Makes a Baby?

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson & Peter Parnell

Baby’s First Words by Stella Blackstone & Sunny Scribens

Cookies and Cake & the Families We Make by Jennifer L. Egan

The Family Book by Todd Parr

Parenting is Political

The Bare Naked Book by Kathy Stinson

From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea by Kai Cheng Thom

Welcome back to Gaining Mom-entum! This week, Abi & Meghan celebrate the midway point of season 2! They reflect on the first half of the season and express gratitude for the guests who have shared their time, thoughts, and experiences. Then it’s time to get into the week’s topic: parenting in the digital age. Meghan & Abi get into what they’re doing with their kids around technology and how the digital moment that we live in has impacted their parenting (for better and for worse). They don’t have all (or even most) of the answers but they do have a lot of questions and they’re hoping the GM community will weigh in. Their conversation on parenting in the digital age includes the benefits and challenges/concerns of parenting during this digital moment (their children have become BFFs with Google Home and Alexa), building community connection, trying to teach delayed gratification when everything is instantly accessible, and of course, screen time. They take a trip down imaginary lane to ponder what having social media as teens would have been like for them, which leads them to empathize even more with the impact that it can have on the lives of today’s youth They talk about their differing practices on posting images of their children, the responsibility of digital content creators for what they put into the world vs. the responsibility of parents to monitor what their kids consume, and end with some takeaways for how to parent their kids in this era, and encourage the GM community to join them in continuing the convo.

As always, thanks for listening!

Follow Gaining Mom-entum and comment/review wherever you listen to your pods.

Instagram: @gainingmom_entum

Facebook: Gaining Mom-entum Podcast

Email: [email protected]

Music: Evan Dysart (Spotify and Bandcamp)

Artwork: Catherine Cachia (IG: @catherinecachia, catherinecachia.com)

Resources:

Common Sense Media

Cybertip

Need Help Now 

Adrift in the Digital Age 

Safe Online 

Ready or Not: Preparing Our Kids to Thrive in an Uncertain and Rapidly Changing World

It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens

Raising Humans in a Digital World: Helping Kids Build a Healthy Relationship with Technology – Diana Graber

Shame Nation: Choosing Kindness and Compassion in an Age of Cruelty and Trolling

Screen Balance Inspiration: 100+ Ideas to Help You Create Your Personalized Screen Balance Style

Minisode time! This week’s mini starts off with Meghan asking Abi how she’s doing, which leads them to discuss whether or not they can appreciate art from the past knowing that it doesn’t quite hold up under the lens of the present moment. From there, they segue into talking about their conversation with Chaw-win-is, including pushing back on narratives, decolonization, and expanding what is available in educational institutions. They also touch on some listener feedback about moving the decolonization conversation forward. Abi & Meghan end the minisode off talking about a new show by one of their favourite comedians, Doing the Most with Phoebe Robinson. While discussing the show, they take a moment to stan Phoebe and her accomplishments (as well as shout outs to Whitney Cummings and Amber Ruffin) before pondering which activities they’d like to participate in if they found themselves lucky enough to be the celebrity friends invited to be on Doing the Most.

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Music by: Evan Dysart (Follow Dysaart on Spotify and Bandcamp)

Artwork by: Catherine Cachia (IG: @catherinecachia, catherinecachia.com)