Welcome to the first Connected Parenting episode of 2026.

As we step into a new year, many parents are feeling something they don’t always say out loud: the world feels unsettling. It feels polarized, confusing, and at times frightening. Even when we try to protect our children from it, kids sense adult anxiety, uncertainty, and tension more than we realize.

This episode is not about fixing the world or pretending everything is fine. Instead, it’s about coming back to what is within our reach as parents: connection, presence, and the small, powerful moments that shape emotionally healthy humans.

The world doesn’t need perfect kids. It needs emotionally integrated, compassionate, resilient humans, and those are shaped through connection.

Jennifer's Takeaways:

• New Year Reflections and Parenting Challenges (00:00)
• Children's Exposure to Information and Parental Responsiveness (01:31)
• Emotional Regulation and Self-Soothing (03:25)
• Concrete Ideas for Daily Connection (05:25)
• Reframing Parental Responses and Building Emotional Integration (05:46)

Meet Jennifer Kolari

Jennifer Kolari is the host of the “Connected Parenting” weekly podcast and the co-host of “The Mental Health Comedy” podcast. Kolari is a frequent guest on Nationwide morning shows and podcasts in the US and Canada. Her advice can also be found in many Canadian and US magazines such as; Today’s Parent, Parents Magazine and Canadian Family.

Kolari’s powerful parenting model is based on the neurobiology of love, teaching parents how to use compassion and empathy as powerful medicine to transform challenging behavior and build children’s emotional resilience and emotional shock absorbers.

Jennifer’s wisdom, quick wit and down to earth style help parents navigate modern-day parenting problems, offering real-life examples as well as practical and effective tools and strategies.

Her highly entertaining, inspiring workshops are shared with warmth and humour, making her a crowd-pleasing speaker with schools, medical professionals, corporations and agencies throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

One of the nation’s leading parenting experts, Jennifer Kolari, is a highly sought- after international speaker and the founder of Connected Parenting. A child and family therapist with a busy practice based in San Diego and Toronto, Kolari is also the author of Connected Parenting: How to Raise A Great Kid (Penguin Group USA and Penguin Canada, 2009) and You’re Ruining My Life! (But Not Really): Surviving the Teenage Years with Connected Parenting (Penguin Canada, 2011).