Organization can feel like a false promise of more. If only you could be more organized, you could manage MORE stuff. You could handle MORE on your calendar.
But the truth is, the sheer quantity of…everything…is inundating us. 
My efforts at organization mostly lead me to feel like a total failure. I can’t organize my dresser drawers, they end up a heap of mess. I can’t organize my purse, it ends up all thrown in the middle. I can’t organize multiple playdates and activities for my kids on a weekend, because I forget things.
You don’t need more bins. More planners. You don’t need ombre’d markers. And you certainly don’t need more self-loathing about being unable to maintain complex systems. What you need is more practice saying no. 
Organization isn’t the answer. Minimalism or better yet, essentialism is the answer. 
The post Organize vs. Minimize appeared first on Simple Families.

Organize vs. Minimize

Simple Families offers solutions for living well with children. In this show, we focus on child behavior, positive parenting, family wellness, and decreasing the mental load. As a Mama with a doctorate in Child Development, Denaye’s perspectives are grounded in research, but more importantly real life.

Kids & Family

Parenting

Education for Kids

Most of us have a conflicted relationship with social media and online life. For today's episode I'm chatting with author Kara Alaimo. Kara's new book, Over the Influence: Why Social Media is Toxic for Women and Girls - And How We Can Take it Back, debuts this month. In our conversation we are sifting through a variety of topics related to how we are influenced as parents and how we can be thoughtful when leading our children into a more mindful online space. 
Due to some sensitive content, this episode should be first previewed without young children present. 
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Over the Influence ft. Kara Alaimo

The chances are good that you are familiar with perfectionism. Either you have experienced it yourself, you have a partner or parent with these tendencies, or perhaps you have a child touched by perfectionism. In today's episode, I'm chatting with Clarissa Ong Ph.D. She's a professor and the co-author of the book The Anxious Perfectionist: How to Manage Perfectionism-Driven Anxiety.  
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Perfectionism ft. Clarissa Ong Ph.D.

There are many misconceptions about what it means to be 'gifted'. Today's guest, Julie Skolnick, explains to us that giftedness usually comes with considerable challenges. She also shares ideas and insight on how to support and educate children who are gifted, but also have challenges (sometimes called twice-exceptional). 
LINKS



Julie's Book, Gifted and Distractible




Julie's Website, With Understanding Comes Calm




Episode with Ross Greene, founder of CPS and author of The Explosive Child




GHF Empowering Gifted Families




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Gifted and Distractible ft. Julie Skolnick

Many of the guests on this show are authors—especially of non-fiction books. Although we often rely on non-fiction to teach us, sometimes the greatest lessons actually come through diving deeper into the life experiences of characters in a novel. Today, I’m speaking with authors Christine Platt and Catherine Wigginton Greene. Christine and Catherine have co-authored a brand new book that tells the story of an entertaining and thought-provoking interracial friendship between two mothers, De'Andrea and Rebecca. You can find Rebecca, Not Becky anywhere books are sold. 
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Interracial Friendship

Once upon a time, building a village to raise a family probably felt simpler. The village was likely the (literal) neighbors and family members who lived right around the corner. But in today's world, our communities are more complex and diverse. The people we lean on may live nearby, but they also may live on the other side of the globe. I'm joined by Michelle Kennedy, the founder of the app Peanut, to talk about building community in motherhood.
Peanut's Invisible Mother Campaign

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Organize vs. Minimize

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