Parental Control

Who were you before you became a mother? And how much of that person do you recognise now?

Motherhood changes us in ways we can never fully anticipate. But what happens when the identity you've spent years building suddenly feels completely at odds with the life you're living?

In this episode of Parental Control, Ellie Thompson joins entrepreneur and RESTOREHer founder Lina Perez for an honest conversation about motherhood, ambition, maternal mental health and the pressure women face to bounce back after having a baby.

Following the birth of her son in 2025, Lina experienced postpartum anxiety, a frightening period that also triggered a profound crisis of identity. Together, Ellie and Lina explore the grief of losing the woman you once were, the guilt that can accompany motherhood, and the loneliness of appearing capable on the outside while struggling internally.

They also discuss what recovery really looks like, why returning to your old self isn't always the answer, and the importance of recognising mothers as people with emotional and physical needs of their own.

Email us at [email protected]

Follow us on Instagram @mybabainsta and @mybabagram

Show notes

RestoreHer

Instagram: @restoreher_retreats

What is My Baba?

My Baba provides the daily scoop on family, food and lifestyle - we're not just experts at all things parenting.

Visit mybaba.com

The Content on this podcast is provided by My Baba and represents our sole opinions and views. For more information on our terms and conditions please refer to the website: https://www.mybaba.com/terms-conditions/

Are we making parenting harder than it needs to be? With endless advice, conflicting opinions, parenting experts and products promising to make family life easier, it can sometimes feel as though raising children has become more complicated than ever.

In this episode of Parental Control, My Baba's Ellie Thompson is joined by TV presenter, dad and founder of Dadvengers Nigel Clarke, alongside educational psychologist and fellow My Baba Awards judge Sasha Hall, for a refreshingly candid conversation about what parenting actually looks like behind closed doors.

From the expectations they had before becoming parents to the battles they've learnt to let go, parenting fails, questionable advice and the things their children have taught them along the way, Nigel and Sasha share the lessons that only really come from doing the job. They also tackle whether knowing too much about child development can make parenting harder, what children genuinely need from us and whether today's parents are drowning in information. Qs for Nigel and Sasha

Plus, as judges of the My Baba Awards 2026, they turn their attention to the products that really make family life easier, what modern parents actually want from brands and what it takes for a product to genuinely stand out.

Email us at [email protected]

Follow us on Instagram @mybabainsta and @mybabagram

Show notes

We'd love you to join us at The Baby Show Olympia London, sponsored by Pampers from 23-25 October. Even better, we've been given a code to save you over 35%* on tickets! Secure yours now for just £18*, saving you £10* on the on-the-door price (ticket price includes a £2 transaction fee, applied per order). Simply quote PTMYBABASOC when booking. Click here.

*T&Cs apply. Ticket price includes a £2 transaction fee, which is applied per order.

What is My Baba?

My Baba provides the daily scoop on family, food and lifestyle - we're not just experts at all things parenting.

Visit mybaba.com

The Content on this podcast is provided by My Baba and represents our sole opinions and views. For more information on our terms and conditions please refer to the website: https://www.mybaba.com/terms-conditions/

What happens when we die? It's a question most of us will ask at some point, but for Parental Control host Ellie Thompson, it became impossible to stop asking after losing her little boy, Billy.

In this deeply personal episode, Ellie is joined by Dr Eben Alexander, neurosurgeon and bestselling author of Proof of Heaven. For much of his medical career, Eben believed that consciousness was dependent on the brain. Then, in 2008, a severe brain infection left him in a week-long coma — and what he says he experienced during that time completely transformed his worldview.

Since Billy died, Ellie has found herself searching for answers in places she might never previously have considered — exploring science, consciousness, near-death experiences and the possibility that the people we love might somehow still be with us.

Eben's work has become an important part of that journey.

In this episode, Ellie and Eben explore his extraordinary experience, the nature of consciousness, what near-death experiences might tell us about death, signs and connections with those we've lost, and whether science could ever help us understand what happens when we die.

It's a very different episode of Parental Control, and one of Ellie's most personal conversations yet.

Email us at [email protected]

Follow us on Instagram @mybabainsta and @mybabagram

Show notes

• Dr Eben Alexander — official website — his books, work on consciousness, talks and resources.
• Sacred Acoustics — the brainwave-entrainment audio and meditation work associated with Eben and Karen Newell. Their site also has free training resources.
• Inner Sanctum Center — Eben and Karen's community and courses exploring consciousness, including monthly online sessions.
• Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies — research organisation focused on evidence concerning survival of consciousness after physical death and the nature of an afterlife.
• Laura Lynne Jackson — official website — psychic medium and author whose work you discuss in the episode.

What is My Baba?

My Baba provides the daily scoop on family, food and lifestyle - we're not just experts at all things parenting.

Visit mybaba.com

The Content on this podcast is provided by My Baba and represents our sole opinions and views. For more information on our terms and conditions please refer to the website: https://www.mybaba.com/terms-conditions/

Swimming on Monday. Football on Tuesday. Music on Wednesday. Gymnastics at the weekend. Sound familiar?

For many families, extracurricular activities have become an almost automatic part of childhood. We want our children to try new things, build confidence, make friends and discover what they love. But somewhere along the way, have we started to believe that every empty space in their diary needs filling?

In this episode of Parental Control, Ellie Thompson welcomes education expert Katharine Radice back to the podcast. With more than 20 years' classroom experience and in-depth knowledge of education and adolescent development, Katharine advises schools nationally and internationally and is the author of The Parent's Guide to Exam Stress.

Together, they ask a deceptively simple question: how many clubs should our children actually be doing?

From the benefits of extracurricular activities and the warning signs of an overscheduled child to knowing when to let kids quit, Katharine explores whether every child really needs a packed diary and how much of the pressure is actually coming from us as parents.

And what about doing absolutely nothing?

They also discuss the importance of boredom, free play and giving children the space to simply be children. Because perhaps the question isn't how much more we can fit into their week, but whether we're in danger of scheduling the childhood out of them.

Email us at [email protected]

Follow us on Instagram @mybabainsta and @mybabagram

Show notes

What is My Baba?

My Baba provides the daily scoop on family, food and lifestyle - we're not just experts at all things parenting.

Visit mybaba.com

The Content on this podcast is provided by My Baba and represents our sole opinions and views. For more information on our terms and conditions please refer to the website: https://www.mybaba.com/terms-conditions/

What if the secret to better skin isn't doing more, but doing less?

In this episode of Parental Control, Ellie Thompson sits down with multi-award-winning aesthetician and celebrity facialist William Foley, founder of William Foley Skin and creator of The BioSync Method™, to challenge some of the biggest messages we're being sold about skincare today.

With 17 years of hands-on experience working with skin, William believes we've become obsessed with fixing, stripping, resurfacing and perfecting it, often at the expense of the skin's own ability to function.

Together, Ellie and William unpack the rise of complicated skincare routines, viral beauty trends and increasingly young children reaching for powerful actives. They explore what chronic stress can actually do to our skin, why the nervous system matters more than we might realise, and whether our constant pursuit of younger-looking skin is doing us any favours.

The conversation also covers men's skincare, teenage skin, the changes that come with perimenopause and ageing, and the growing world of regenerative aesthetics. William shares his thoughts on why more intervention isn't necessarily better, what genuinely healthy skin looks like and the simple things we can all do to support stronger, more resilient skin.

If your bathroom cabinet is overflowing with serums, acids and products promising to transform your face, this conversation might just persuade you to rethink the lot.

Email us at [email protected]

Follow us on Instagram @mybabainsta and @mybabagram

Show notes

Find out more about William Foley at william-foley.com and follow him on Instagram @william_foley_.

Website: William Foley Skin Instagram: @william_foley_

What is My Baba?

My Baba provides the daily scoop on family, food and lifestyle - we're not just experts at all things parenting.

Visit mybaba.com

The Content on this podcast is provided by My Baba and represents our sole opinions and views. For more information on our terms and conditions please refer to the website: https://www.mybaba.com/terms-conditions/

Why do people have affairs, and is infidelity ever as simple as one person being in the wrong?

In this episode of My Baba's Parental Control podcast, Ellie Thompson sits down with presenter, relationship expert and counsellor Anna Williamson, host of the hit podcast The Affair. Now in its sixth season, the series explores real-life stories of infidelity from every perspective, uncovering the emotions, motivations and consequences behind one of our most complicated relationship taboos.

Anna and Ellie talk about why people cheat, the impact affairs can have on relationships and family life, and whether couples really can rebuild trust after betrayal.

Email us at [email protected]

Follow us on Instagram @mybabainsta and @mybabagram

Show notes

What is My Baba?

My Baba provides the daily scoop on family, food and lifestyle - we're not just experts at all things parenting.

Visit mybaba.com

The Content on this podcast is provided by My Baba and represents our sole opinions and views. For more information on our terms and conditions please refer to the website: https://www.mybaba.com/terms-conditions/

Would banning social media for under-16s protect our children, or simply drive their online lives further underground?

As debate around children's access to social media continues, Ellie Thompson welcomes Child and Educational Psychologist Dr Emily Crosby to the Parental Control podcast to look beyond the headlines and explore what social media is really doing to young minds.

With more than 13 years' experience supporting children, young people and their families across NHS, local authority and private practice settings, Dr Crosby explains why adolescence is such a critical period for identity, self-esteem and emotional development, and how constant exposure to unrealistic content and addictive platforms can affect everything from body image and attention to anxiety and low mood.

But is an outright ban the answer?

Ellie and Emily discuss whether children would simply find ways around restrictions, the danger of pushing social media use underground, and whether banning access could inadvertently make some online risks harder for parents to spot.

They also tackle the bigger questions: Should tech companies be doing more? Are parents being expected to shoulder too much responsibility? What happens to teenagers who rely on online communities for connection? And if social media is off limits until 16, what magically changes on their 16th birthday?

Most importantly, Dr Crosby shares practical advice for parents on creating healthier digital habits at home – whether a ban happens or not.

Email us at [email protected]

Follow us on Instagram @mybabainsta and @mybabagram

Show notes

Instagram: @doctoremilyep

Website: dremilycrosby.com

What is My Baba?

My Baba provides the daily scoop on family, food and lifestyle - we're not just experts at all things parenting.

Visit mybaba.com

The Content on this podcast is provided by My Baba and represents our sole opinions and views. For more information on our terms and conditions please refer to the website: https://www.mybaba.com/terms-conditions/

Fear is a normal part of childhood. From monsters under the bed to spiders, needles and the dark, most children will experience fears as they grow. But when does a fear become a phobia? And what can parents do to help?

In this episode of Parental Control, Ellie Thompson is joined by leading Harley Street phobia expert and Face Your Fears author Christopher Paul Jones. Having overcome his own debilitating phobias, Christopher has spent more than 20 years helping people around the world—including Hollywood actors, musicians and celebrities—break free from fears that once controlled their lives.

Together, they explore why phobias develop, how parents can respond without reinforcing fear, and why Christopher believes many phobias can be overcome far more quickly than most people realise.

Whether your child is terrified of dogs, needles, vomiting or even going to school, this fascinating conversation is packed with practical advice that could help your whole family face fears with greater confidence.

Email us at [email protected]

Follow us on Instagram @mybabainsta and @mybabagram

Show notes

Face Your Fears, 7 Steps to Conquering Phobias & Anxiety

What is My Baba?

My Baba provides the daily scoop on family, food and lifestyle - we're not just experts at all things parenting.

Visit mybaba.com

The Content on this podcast is provided by My Baba and represents our sole opinions and views. For more information on our terms and conditions please refer to the website: https://www.mybaba.com/terms-conditions/

Every year in England, thousands of bright, capable kids sit down to take their GCSE English and maths exams — and fail. Not because they don't know the material. Not because they haven't worked hard. But because the exam itself only tests one narrow way of showing what you know.

My guest today has lived this. She watched her own dyslexic son work harder than anyone, understand the material, and still miss the pass mark — again and again — by the smallest of margins. And she watched what that did to him.

So she did something about it. She founded Fairer Exams, a parent-led campaign fighting for a fairer GCSE system — and she's since taken the message to the TEDx stage with a talk called Why exams need to change.

Today we're talking about dyslexia, dyscalculia, and why England is falling so far behind when it comes to fair assessment. We'll get into the terrifying stats — did you know as many as one in three young people are effectively locked out of opportunity because of this one narrow form of testing? And we'll talk about a route that exists right now, hiding in plain sight, that almost nobody knows about — one that could change the trajectory for thousands of kids, if only more parents knew it was there.

This is a conversation for every parent — not just those with a child who has additional needs — because this system touches every single family sending a child through school.

My guest today is Hannah Gee, founder of Fairer Exams. What a pleasure it was.

Email us at [email protected]

Follow us on Instagram @mybabainsta and @mybabagram

Show notes

What is My Baba?

My Baba provides the daily scoop on family, food and lifestyle - we're not just experts at all things parenting.

Visit mybaba.com

The Content on this podcast is provided by My Baba and represents our sole opinions and views. For more information on our terms and conditions please refer to the website: https://www.mybaba.com/terms-conditions/

Why do so many women reach their 30s and 40s feeling more critical of their bodies than ever before?

In this honest and thought-provoking episode of Parental Control, Ellie Thompson sits down with eating disorder specialist and author Elle Mace to explore the complex relationship women have with food, body image and self-worth.

From the pressures of social media and the rise of weight-loss injections to perimenopause, ageing and the unrealistic expectations placed on women, this conversation unpacks why so many of us still feel we're never quite enough—and, more importantly, how we can begin to change that.

Email us at [email protected]

Follow us on Instagram @mybabainsta and @mybabagram

Show notes

Parental Control, Ep 134: Why Are Children Worrying About Their Bodies So Young?

Instagram: @iamellemace

Food Freedom is available from 27th August at £14.99 via major retailers including Penguin, Amazon and Waterstones.

What is My Baba?

My Baba provides the daily scoop on family, food and lifestyle - we're not just experts at all things parenting.

Visit mybaba.com

The Content on this podcast is provided by My Baba and represents our sole opinions and views. For more information on our terms and conditions please refer to the website: https://www.mybaba.com/terms-conditions/