Parenting with Gratitude™

Two weeks into summer vacation and you are already burned out? Maintain your mental health and mindful parenting skills with actionable tips shared in this episode. Stef discusses the unique ways families navigate summer and share practical tips for maintaining a mindfulness routine.

For Stef, as a Type-A mom, planning and avoiding the dreaded "Mom, I'm bored!" can be overwhelming, she has worked hard to combine gratitude practices and summer activities for a more balanced experience.

Discover the power of non-negotiable mental health practices, creating downtime for the whole family, and teaching valuable life skills.

Download the summer planning sheet and get ready to prioritize self-care while embracing the joy of summer.

Referenced in this episode:

• Oh Crap! by Jamie Glowacki

• Feed the Meter system coined by Dr. Harvey Karp

• Download the summer planning sheet

• Write an end-of-the-season review wherever you listen to this!

• Spotify

• Apple

• Amazon

• Join the Gratitude Circle here, and let's anchor ourselves in connection.

• Find ALL the Parenting with Gratitude™ practices in one place - right here.

Are you ready to parent with more patience, empathy, and compassion? Parenting with Gratitude™ is not the end goal - it's the method. 🎟 It's the means to achieving the goal of parenting differently.

Follow along for more gratitude and parenting advice:

👉Instagram

👉TikTok

👉Youtube

Buy my bedtime book: "The Middle of the Night Book "here.

Subscribe and share so you can all listen as a parenting expert and author, Stef Tousignant, offers you a sneak peek into her journey to normalize imperfect parenting and discover the gifts a committed gratitude practice can bring to modern family life.

🎧 Listen to this podcast if you want to parent differently than you were raised.

🎧 Listen to this podcast if you want to parent differently than you did 5 years ago.

Other podcast bonuses include interviews with expert guests, sleep consultants, and other mindful parenting guides, and easy and fun gratitude practices that fit your modern parenting lifestyle.

The kids of my good friend Alison Mountford of Ends and Stems, a family meal planning and food waste expert, provided our fantastic and giggly intro. More about her here: https://endsandstems.com

Isolation and loneliness plague modern motherhood, but there is a solution. Join Stef Tousignant, a seasoned mom of two and former professional nanny, in this episode of "Parent Differently with Gratitude" as she unveils the transformative power of connection and gratitude.

Discover practical strategies to break free from isolation, forge meaningful bonds, and overcome parenting challenges. Explore how nurturing gratitude in yourself and your children can create a vibrant support community. Say goodbye to loneliness and embrace the joy of a connected motherhood.

Referenced in this Episode:

• Dr. Laurie Santos, cognitive scientist and host of The Happiness Lab

• Join the Gratitude Circle here, and let's anchor ourselves in connection.

• Find ALL the Parenting with Gratitude™ practices in one place - right here.

• Episode 16: Reframing Parent-Child Interactions Using the ARC Model

Are you ready to parent with more patience, empathy, and compassion? Parenting with Gratitude™ is not the end goal - it's the method. 🎟 It's the means to achieving the goal of parenting differently.

Follow along for more gratitude and parenting advice:

👉Instagram

👉TikTok

👉Youtube

Buy my bedtime book: "The Middle of the Night Book "here.

Subscribe and share so you can all listen as a parenting expert and author, Stef Tousignant, offers you a sneak peek into her journey to normalize imperfect parenting and discover the gifts a committed gratitude practice can bring to modern family life.

🎧 Listen to this podcast if you want to parent differently than you were raised.

🎧 Listen to this podcast if you want to parent differently than you did 5 years ago.

Other podcast bonuses include interviews with expert guests, sleep consultants, and other mindful parenting guides, and easy and fun gratitude practices that fit your modern parenting lifestyle.

The kids of my good friend Alison Mountford of Ends and Stems, a family meal planning and food waste expert, provided our fantastic and giggly intro. More about her here: https://endsandstems.com

In this episode, we dive into the concept of 'equanimity' and explore how it can transform our experience of motherhood. Equanimity, often described as emotional groundedness or acting non-reactively, allows us to find balance amidst the chaos and challenges we face as moms. It's not about suppressing emotions or achieving a constant state of zen; instead, it's about developing resilience and a healthy relationship with stress.

Using the analogy of weather, we discuss the different states of overwhelm that many moms can relate to, from feeling stuck and overwhelmed by sensory overload or intense emotions to the anxiety that arises from uncertainty. As mothers, our stress baseline tends to be high due to the constant unpredictability of parenting, and it's crucial to find strategies to lower our stress arousal to better handle peak stressful events.

Equanimity allows us to respond to challenging situations instead of reacting, resisting or running away. By developing a sense of grace and offering ourselves acceptance, we learn to acknowledge the realities of motherhood without self-judgment. The chaos and self-doubt that often accompany parenting are not our faults, and by embracing equanimity, we can find peace within the storm.

Join us as we explore the power of equanimity and mindfulness in transforming our relationship with stress and embracing the present moment. Remember, amidst motherhood's messy, overwhelming, and sometimes frustrating moments, you are a GoodAF Mom.

Referenced in this episode:

• The Stress Prescription by Elissa Epel, PhD

• Join the Gratitude Circle here, and let's anchor ourselves in connection.

• Find ALL the Parenting with Gratitude™ practices in one place - right here.

Are you ready to parent with more patience, empathy, and compassion? Parenting with Gratitude™ is not the end goal - it's the method. 🎟 It's the means to achieving the goal of parenting differently.

Follow along for more gratitude and parenting advice:

👉Instagram

👉TikTok

👉Youtube

Buy my bedtime book: "The Middle of the Night Book "here.

Subscribe and share so you can all listen as a parenting expert and author, Stef Tousignant offers you a sneak peek into her journey to normalize imperfect parenting and discover the gifts a committed gratitude practice can bring to modern family life.

🎧 Listen to this podcast if you want to parent differently than you were raised.

🎧 Listen to this podcast if you want to parent differently than you did 5 years ago.

Other podcast bonuses include interviews with expert guests, sleep consultants, and other mindful parenting guides, and easy and fun gratitude practices that fit your modern parenting lifestyle.

The kids of my good friend Alison Mountford of Ends and Stems, a family meal planning and food waste expert, provided our fantastic and giggly intro. More about her here: https://endsandstems.com

Today we look at thoughts like "Am I failing them!?" and others with Dr.Laura Froyen, a development psychologist and a podcaster herself: check out The Balanced Parent here.

Habitual thinking, Obsessive Thoughts, Intrusive Thoughts. We suffer from all types of different thinking patterns as humans. And when you are under the stress of parenthood, these patterns can swing more to the negative than they may have in the past.

Dr. Laura and I get into the neurology of and developmental reasons for these thinking patterns and offer practical tools for gaining perspective, using mindfulness to establish distance or 'objectification'–space to look and assess.

Sometimes thoughts can seem true - maybe like: our kid's behavior reflects how "good" or "bad" of a parent we may be. We talk about temperament, personality, and our innocent search for worthiness within our children's growth and development.

Find out more about Dr.Laura Froyen on her website, laurafroyen.com, and she will send you a free self-compassion exercise to try with your family.

Referenced in the show:

• The Gardener and the Carpenter by Alison Gopnik

• The Scientist in the Crib by Alison Gopnik

• How to spot the signs of Postpartum Anxiety on HelloPostpartum.com

• The Love & Kindness Bodyscan - Episode 19

• Join the Gratitude Circle here, and let's anchor ourselves in connection.

• Find ALL the Parenting with Gratitude™ practices in one place - here.

Are you ready to parent with more patience, empathy, and compassion? Parenting with Gratitude™ is not the end goal - it's the method. 🎟 It's the means to achieving the goal of parenting differently.

Follow along for more gratitude and parenting advice:

👉Instagram

👉TikTok

👉Youtube

Buy my bedtime book: "The Middle of the Night Book "here.

Subscribe and share so you can all listen as a parenting expert and author, Stef Tousignant offers you a sneak peek into her journey to normalize imperfect parenting and discover the gifts a committed gratitude practice can bring to modern family life.

🎧 Listen to this podcast if you want to parent differently than you were raised.

🎧 Listen to this podcast if you want to parent differently than you did 5 years ago.

Other podcast bonuses include interviews with expert guests, sleep consultants, and other mindful parenting guides, and easy and fun gratitude practices that fit your modern parenting lifestyle.

The kids of my good friend Alison Mountford of Ends and Stems, a family meal planning and food waste expert, provided our fantastic and giggly intro. More about her here: https://endsandstems.com

In this episode, we discuss the difficulties of establishing a daily gratitude practice and why it is important to be intrinsically motivated. Stef explains the concept of the Intention-Action Gap, which refers to the disconnect between intentions and actions when trying to establish a new behavior.

She also suggests looking over old gratitude lists as a way to recommit to the practice and to find intrinsic motivation. By rediscovering past moments of gratitude, listeners can reignite their motivation to practice gratitude and enjoy its many benefits. Listeners are also encouraged to believe in themselves and their ability to benefit from a daily gratitude practice.

Here's the Parenting with Gratitude™ Equation:

Intention + Attention + Action + Repetition = Results you can See and Feel

Referenced in this episode:

• Join the Gratitude Circle here, and let's anchor ourselves in connection.

• Find ALL the Parenting with Gratitude™ practices in one place - here.

• Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation

• The Intention Action Gap

• Science also supports being part of a community that can assist in maintaining motivation.

• Try out the practice of Savoring.

Are you ready to parent with more patience, empathy, and compassion? Parenting with Gratitude™ is not the end goal - it's the method. 🎟 It's the means to achieving the goal of parenting differently.

Follow along for more gratitude and parenting advice:

👉Instagram

👉TikTok

👉Youtube

Buy my bedtime book: "The Middle of the Night Book "here.

Subscribe and share so you can all listen as a parenting expert and author, Stef Tousignant offers you a sneak peek into her journey to normalize imperfect parenting and discover the gifts a committed gratitude practice can bring to modern family life.

🎧 Listen to this podcast if you want to parent differently than you were raised.

🎧 Listen to this podcast if you want to parent differently than you did 5 years ago.

Other podcast bonuses include interviews with expert guests, sleep consultants, and other mindful parenting guides, and easy and fun gratitude practices that fit your modern parenting lifestyle.

The kids of my good friend Alison Mountford of Ends and Stems, a family meal planning and food waste expert, provided our fantastic and giggly intro. More about her here: https://endsandstems.com

Can we find happiness by looking within and choosing ourselves first? Stef shares her personal experience of how focusing on gratitude helped her to notice the good around her and how she is using her Parenting with Gratitude™ formula to inspire moms to start a daily gratitude practice.

Stef, who has a professional nannying career of over 20 years, also shares her struggles with reactive parenting and how she realized she didn't want to be a perfect parent. She encourages parents to choose a third option, a middle way of parenting differently. The podcast is based on behavioral science, positive psychology, and mindfulness techniques, and Stef shares practical tips for achieving emotional well-being and physical health.

References in this Episode:

• Join the Gratitude Circle here, and let's anchor ourselves in connection.

• Studies show the more we feel positive emotions, the better - for our emotional well-being and physical health.

• Start a daily gratitude practice because it's time to rewire our brains.

• The Parenting with Gratitude™ Equation: Intention + Attention + Action + Repetition = Results you can see and feel.

• Avni Patel Thompson is a wonderful mom and start-up founder of Milo.

• A third zone of opportunity, or what Buddhists call "The Middle Way"

Are you ready to parent with more patience, empathy, and compassion? Parenting with Gratitude™ is not the end goal - it's the method. 🎟 It's the means to achieving the goal of parenting differently.

Follow along for more gratitude and parenting advice:

👉Instagram

👉TikTok

👉Youtube

Buy my bedtime book: "The Middle of the Night Book "here.

Subscribe and share so you can all listen as a parenting expert and author, Stef Tousignant offers you a sneak peek into her journey to normalize imperfect parenting and discover the gifts a committed gratitude practice can bring to modern family life.

🎧 Listen to this podcast if you want to parent differently than you were raised.

🎧 Listen to this podcast if you want to parent differently than you did 5 years ago.

Other podcast bonuses include interviews with expert guests, sleep consultants, and other mindful parenting guides, and easy and fun gratitude practices that fit your modern parenting lifestyle.

The kids of my good friend Alison Mountford of Ends and Stems, a family meal planning and food waste expert, provided our fantastic and giggly intro. More about her here: https://endsandstems.com

The Crossover event of the season - LOL, just kidding - but this episode is something new! My guest Christy Thomas and I swap our never-been-told secret motherhood stories of "Enough is enough." Christy also shares her mindfulness journey and how she builds empathy into her days as a military wife and mom of three. If you want to hear my "Enough is enough" story, you will need to go to Christy's podcast and look for the episode that came out on May 5th, 2023!

Christy Thomas is a Positive Discipline Educator, life coach, podcaster (Keep Calm Mother On), and teacher. Christy has also been the anchor to her family of three kids and her military community during her husband's 20+ years of duty with the submarine force in the US Navy. She's navigated ten moves, public school teaching in three states and homeschooling in seven. Christy coaches on mindfulness, meditation, and compassionate confidence. She knows you are the right parent for your kids and wants to help you believe it with every breath you take.

Other things:

• Join the Mother's Day Challenge with TableTopics and boost your well-being in time for the big day! Buy your gratitude pack here.

• Take the Gratitude Quiz to see where you rank - can you boost your gratitude? Take it again in a few weeks.

• Join the Gratitude Circle here, and let's anchor ourselves in connection.

Are you ready to parent with more patience, empathy, and compassion? Parenting with Gratitude™ is not the end goal - it's the method. 🎟 It's the means to achieving the goal of parenting differently.

Follow along for more gratitude and parenting advice:

👉Instagram

👉TikTok

👉Youtube

Buy my bedtime book: "The Middle of the Night Book "here.

Subscribe and share so you can all listen as a parenting expert and author, Stef Tousignant, offers you a sneak peek into her journey to normalize imperfect parenting and discover the gifts a committed gratitude practice can bring to modern family life.

🎧 Listen to this podcast if you want to parent differently than you were raised.

🎧 Listen to this podcast if you want to parent differently than you did 5 years ago.

Other podcast bonuses include interviews with expert guests, sleep consultants, and other mindful parenting guides, and easy and fun gratitude practices that fit your modern parenting lifestyle.

The kids of my good friend Alison Mountford of Ends and Stems, a family meal planning and food waste expert, provided our fantastic and giggly intro. More about her here: https://endsandstems.com

Let's talk about the importance of parenting with joy and gratitude. Positive emotions like joy and delight can be integral to our healing and well-being as mothers. I acknowledge that it can be difficult to add more joy to our daily lives, but I encourage you to bring gratitude to any moment of joy and watch what happens.

We also discuss the challenges of navigating tough situations with joy and how to adopt the goal of imperfect parenting. The episode concludes by discussing the scarcity mindset and the need to make time for play.

"The truth is that play seems to be one of the most advanced methods nature has invented to allow a complex brain to create itself," says Dr. Stuart Brown in his book Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul

References in this Episode:

• Join the Mother's Day Challenge with TableTopics and boost your well-being in time for the big day! Buy your gratitude pack here.

• Take the Gratitude Quiz to see where you rank - can you boost your gratitude? Take it again in a few weeks.

• Join the Gratitude Circle here, and let's anchor ourselves in connection.

• Episode 23: from 1/3/23 called Burnout and the Benefits of Gratitude

• Episode 37: from 4/11/23 called Off the Hook: Practice

Are you ready to parent with more patience, empathy, and compassion? Parenting with Gratitude™ is not the end goal - it's the method. 🎟 It's the means to achieving the goal of parenting differently.

Follow along for more gratitude and parenting advice:

👉Instagram

👉TikTok

👉Youtube

Buy my bedtime book: "The Middle of the Night Book "here.

Subscribe and share so you can all listen as a parenting expert and author, Stef Tousignant offers you a sneak peek into her journey to normalize imperfect parenting and discover the gifts a committed gratitude practice can bring to modern family life.

🎧 Listen to this podcast if you want to parent differently than you were raised.

🎧 Listen to this podcast if you want to parent differently than you did 5 years ago.

Other podcast bonuses include interviews with expert guests, sleep consultants, and other mindful parenting guides, and easy and fun gratitude practices that fit your modern parenting lifestyle.

The kids of my good friend Alison Mountford of Ends and Stems, a family meal planning and food waste expert, provided our fantastic and giggly intro. More about her here: https://endsandstems.com

Discover how intentional parenting, a growing trend, can sometimes backfire and lead to self-doubt. In this episode, we'll explore a new approach to parenting with intention that emphasizes self-growth and fulfillment.

Is striving for perfection as a mother worth sacrificing your own happiness? Join host Stef to find out and learn how to prioritize what matters most for you and your family. Don't miss this insightful discussion on the challenges and rewards of intentional living!

References in this Episode:

• Jack Kornfield's baby blessing: "You now have a live-in Zen Master - they are here to help you grow."

• Dan Harris and the Toilet Bowl Vortex, which is featured in his TED talk - here.

Join the Gratitude Circle here, and let's anchor ourselves in connection.

Are you ready to parent with more patience, empathy, and compassion? Parenting with Gratitude™ is not the end goal - it's the method. 🎟 It's the means to achieving the goal of parenting differently.

Follow along for more gratitude and parenting advice:

👉Instagram

👉TikTok

👉Youtube

Buy my bedtime book: "The Middle of the Night Book "here.

Subscribe and share so you can all listen as a parenting expert and author, Stef Tousignant, offers you a sneak peek into her journey to normalize imperfect parenting and discover the gifts a committed gratitude practice can bring to modern family life.

🎧 Listen to this podcast if you want to parent differently than you were raised.

🎧 Listen to this podcast if you want to parent differently than you did 5 years ago.

Other podcast bonuses include interviews with expert guests, sleep consultants, and other mindful parenting guides, and easy and fun gratitude practices that fit your modern parenting lifestyle.

The kids of my good friend Alison Mountford of Ends and Stems, a family meal planning and food waste expert, provided our fantastic and giggly intro. More about her here: https://endsandstems.com

The "Intensive Parenting" style, also called helicopter or overly involved parenting, has become part of our cultural norms. While many aspects of this type of parenting are good for children, it has largely negative effects on parents' mental health.

Primary caregivers, mostly women, bear the burden of child-rearing. The practice leaves out other factors that influence a child's development, such as culture, media, peers, school, genetics, and extended families. In this episode, Stef shares how she copes with the heavy load of "intensive" parenting and offers a pretty awesome new way to deal with the cultural norms that expect the world from mothers.

Referenced in this Episode:

• Study: In the Best Interests of Children? The Paradox of Intensive Parenting and Children's Health - Mara A. Yerkes, Marit Hopman, F. Marijn Stok & John De Wit (2021) Critical Public Health, 31:3, 349-360, DOI: 10.1080/09581596.2019.1690632

• Impact of media use on children and youth. Paediatr Child Health. 2003 May;8(5):301-17. doi: 10.1093/pch/8.5.301. PMID: 20020034; PMCID: PMC2792691.

• Stop Pretending Intensive Parenting Doesn't Work by Nate G. Hilger from the Atlantic

• Definition of Intensive Parenting from Parenting Culture Studies by Lee, Faircloth, et al. (2014)

Join the Gratitude Circle here, and let's anchor ourselves in connection.

Are you ready to parent with more patience, empathy, and compassion? Parenting with Gratitude™ is not the end goal - it's the method. 🎟 It's the means to achieving the goal of parenting differently.

Follow along for more gratitude and parenting advice:

👉Instagram

👉TikTok

👉Youtube

Buy my bedtime book: "The Middle of the Night Book "here.

Subscribe and share so you can all listen as a parenting expert and author, Stef Tousignant offers you a sneak peek into her journey to normalize imperfect parenting and discover the gifts a committed gratitude practice can bring to modern family life.

🎧 Listen to this podcast if you want to parent differently than you were raised.

🎧 Listen to this podcast if you want to parent differently than you did 5 years ago.

Other podcast bonuses include interviews with expert guests, sleep consultants, and other mindful parenting guides, and easy and fun gratitude practices that fit your modern parenting lifestyle.

The kids of my good friend Alison Mountford of Ends and Stems, a family meal planning and food waste expert, provided our fantastic and giggly intro. More about her here: https://endsandstems.com