The Calm Empowered Parent

We don’t have to inherit our parenting skills. We can intentionally become the parents we want to be, incorporating some aspects of our own upbringing along with new, better parenting techniques.

In this episode, Vanessa is joined by her clients Siobhan and Tony to talk through the parenting journey they have been on to gain confidence and skills in raising their 5-year-old son. Together with Vanessa, they walk through a tough parenting situation they have faced, what they have learned through their coaching and parenting work, and participate in a live coaching demo of an issue they are currently facing. Live coaching helps us all get out of the vague hypothetical style of parenting advice and into actual concrete tools that can help parents just like you. You will walk away from this episode with new parenting strategies and the inspiration you need from these incredible parents to try them out yourself.

Here are the topics we covered in Parenting Journey: Breaking Patterns to Raise Confident Kids.

• Using the social stories technique to help manage a difficult bedtime routine.

• Finding the value of simple yet effective tools that meet the developmental needs of our children.

• The impact of being willing to say ‘yes’ to new parenting techniques and strategies.

• The power of involving children in decision-making in everyday activities.

• Parenting in community and how this helps us gain appreciation for other parenting methods and confidence in our own parenting.

• Live coaching where Vanessa guides Siobhan and Tony through their latest struggles in their parenting journey with their ‘bossy’ 5-year-old and helps them identify best-fit tools to let him know what is negotiable and what is not.

Discover more about Vanessa’s signature yearlong program for parents and caregivers creating a legacy of love at https://bit.ly/RORImmersion. 

Go to www.thecalmempoweredparent.com to get your free copy of Vanessa’s Calm Parent Strategy Guide, to submit a question, to stay up to date with upcoming events, and to explore how to bring one of Vanessa’s low-cost workshops to your school or group.

Music by Jabari Martin instagram.com/iamstolenartifacts 

Has having children affected your marriage and other relationships? Marriage Coach and published author Imani Aieshah is here in this episode to tell you that it’s completely normal for couples and co-parents to face challenges after having children! In this episode, you’ll learn how to get on the same page as a family, master your children’s emotions along with your own, bring playfulness into each and every day, and promote personal growth and accountability for everyone in your home.

Here are the topics we covered in strengthening partnerships with Marriage Coach Imani Aieshah.

• Identifying the challenges that couples and co-parents face after they have children.
• Getting on the same page as a family about routines, limits, discipline, and other crucial aspects of raising children.
• Mastering not just our children’s emotions, but our own emotions.
• The power of personal growth and accountability.
• The importance of bringing playfulness into each and every day by incorporating it into even the smallest moments.

Discover more about Marriage Coach Imani’s work with married folks at https://themarriageculture.com/ and about our signature yearlong program for parents and caregivers creating a legacy of love at https://bit.ly/RORImmersion

Go to www.thecalmempoweredparent.com to get your free copy of Vanessa’s Calm Parent Strategy Guide, to submit a question, to stay up to date with upcoming events, and to explore how to bring one of Vanessa’s low-cost workshops to your school or group.

Music by Jabari Martin instagram.com/iamstolenartifacts 

What do I do when my child seems to get pleasure out of making others upset? How do we “get through to that teenage brain” and get on the same page as a family? These are questions asked by parents like you, and Vanessa is here to help, providing strategies for avoiding power struggles. She doesn’t just give answers, but also reminds us all that we’re not alone and shares research-proven, classroom and kid-tested practices to help you with your parenting challenges.

Here are the questions covered by Vanessa including avoiding power struggles, teen communication, and much more.

• How do we avoid power struggles with young children, especially when potty training?

• What can I do when a child seems to get pleasure out of making others upset?

• How do we foster resilience in children 6yo-8yo so they follow through and stick with things they start?

• How do you know you’re on the right track to establishing lifelong habits for kids, especially when you have no prior experience with children?

• How do we “get through to that teenage brain” and get on the same page as a family?

There’s usually something for everyone in these live coaching episodes! From tips on better teen communication and ways to avoid power struggles with kids of all ages, let me know what tool or strategy stood out to you in the comments below.

Go to www.thecalmempoweredparent.com to get your free copy of Vanessa’s Calm Parent Strategy Guide, to submit a question, to stay up to date with upcoming events, and to explore how to bring one of Vanessa’s low-cost workshops to your school or group.

Go to www.thecalmempoweredparent.com to get your free copy of Vanessa’s Calm Parent Strategy Guide, to submit a question, to stay up to date with upcoming events, and to explore how to bring one of Vanessa’s low-cost workshops to your school or group.

Music by Jabari Martin instagram.com/iamstolenartifacts 

Have you ever felt like waving that white flag of surrender? Like things with your child are so challenging that at times you feel defeated? During the pandemic, Vanessa’s coaching client Sarah Kowalski found herself overwhelmed and even afraid after her son began lashing out emotionally and physically. Eventually, she knew that the best thing that she could do was ask for help, and now she shares the strategies she learned to manage challenging situations and shift the entire dynamic of her relationship with her son. 

You will get a personal look at how Vanessa walks parents through tricky situations and common challenges with their children with tenacity, vision, and commitment. You’ll also learn how you can adapt these strategies and tools to your child and their developmental stage’s needs and goals. Together, we can normalize asking for help and learn the art of setting boundaries with kids, sticking to them, and modeling the behavior we want to see in our children. You aren’t in this alone. 

Here are the topics we covered in setting boundaries with kids.

• Normalizing asking for help when we’ve run out of tools and strategies

• Concrete strategies for managing challenging situations and finding that one piece that can shift the dynamic

• The necessity and challenge of both setting boundaries with kids and holding to them

• The power of modeling the behavior ourselves that we want to see in our children

Discover more about our signature yearlong program for parents and caregivers, The Family Foundations Immersion, at https://bit.ly/RORImmersion.  

Go to www.thecalmempoweredparent.com to get your free copy of Vanessa’s Calm Parent Strategy Guide, to submit a question, to stay up to date with upcoming events, and to explore how to bring one of Vanessa’s low-cost workshops to your school or group.

Music by Jabari Martin instagram.com/iamstolenartifacts

Parents today are charting new territory. Many of us are working to raise our children with an emphasis on emotions despite our own parents not teaching us to regulate our emotions or making us ignore or tamp our emotions down. 

In this episode, a member of Vanessa’s coaching team, Occupational Therapist Kathrynn Dunn, shares top insights about emotional regulation skills for kids and how sensory experiences can lead to overwhelm. She also helps us to accept dysregulation as a natural and manageable response, and to find a balance between being firm and kind when our child’s behavior doesn’t meet our expectations.

This episode aims to help you shift from fixing a problem to meeting a need, while you learn how to assess your own emotions, relate your own sensory experiences to your children’s, and promote the behavior you want to see in your children by modeling it yourself.

Here are the topics we covered in Emotional Regulation Skills for Kids.

• How to raise children with an emphasis on emotions when we ourselves were raised by parents who worked to ignore them or tamp them down.

• Relating our own sensory experiences to our children’s experiences in order to build empathy and become more effective guides.

• Recognizing that dysregulation is a natural response to situations that are overwhelming, overstimulating, and unmanageable.

• Finding the balance between over-punishing and overly permissive responses to unfavorable behaviors.

• Where to start when building your family’s unique sensory needs profile - the elements to take into account for every family member, such as things they cannot stand, and the things they can’t do without.

Parents and caregivers, we hope you got some valuable insights to help you in the growth and development of your family from this episode, Emotional Regulation Skills for Kids.

Go to www.thecalmempoweredparent.com to get your free copy of Vanessa’s Calm Parent Strategy Guide, to submit a question, to stay up to date with upcoming events, and to explore how to bring one of Vanessa’s low-cost workshops to your school or group. 

Music by Jabari Martin instagram.com/iamstolenartifacts 

Let's have some fun exploring our feelings! It’s so important to teach our kids how to identify and express their emotions in empowering and constructive ways. Kids get upset, and often don’t have an answer when we ask, “How do you feel?” And, when they do answer, they can have a canned response as a catch-all, like “I’m fine.”

The good news is that learning how to articulate feelings, desires, and needs are teachable skills! And, the more often your child practices naming their emotions, the more comfortable and adept they will be at identifying and expressing them in empowering and constructive ways.

One of the ways my clients have raised their kids' EQ is adding “feeling words” to their family vocabulary... with a Feelings Chart. For more insights on how to identify and express emotions in constructive ways, watch this short training. I share 10 ways to use a chart that kids love because learning about our emotions doesn’t have to be a drag, or only happen when things go wrong.

Here are the topics we covered in 10 Ways to Boost EQ with a Feelings Chart.

• Using movies, songs, and stories to help children recognize certain emotions and relate them to their own lived experiences.

• Questions to ask our children around their emotional life to promote reflection and growth.

• Building empathy and body language recognition skills through charades and other games.

• Learning to identify and name emotions outside of intense moments in order to connect our awareness of feelings and how to express them.

Get your own copy of our favorite Feelings Chart at https://wholeheartedschoolcounseling.com/ and find other ready-to-use printable SEL resources by Anita and the folks at Whole Hearted School Counseling.

Go to www.thecalmempoweredparent.com to get your free copy of Vanessa’s Calm Parent Strategy Guide, to submit a question, to stay up to date with upcoming events, and to explore how to bring one of Vanessa’s low-cost workshops to your school or group.

Music by Jabari Martin instagram.com/iamstolenartifacts

One of the key principles of The Calm Empowered Parent podcast is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to parenting, and this episode embodies that principle by exemplifying one big-hearted mama’s commitment to discovering the most effective parenting style.

Vanessa sits down with client Tiffany Eng to talk through her parenting journey and how she has discovered the most effective parenting style by embracing being calm in high-emotion situations, fighting back against outside pressures to do things counter to what she intuits her child needs, all while extending empathy towards herself.

You will get a personal look at how Vanessa walks parents through tricky situations and common challenges with their children with tenacity, vision, and commitment. You’ll also learn how you can adapt these strategies and tools to your child and their developmental stage’s needs and goals.

Here are the Topics We Covered in Discovering the Most Effective Parenting Style.

• Learning what we as parents need to calm down in a high-emotion situation and to extend empathy towards ourselves as we do for others.
• How to respond powerfully to outside pressures by pushing back with the tenacity, vision, and commitment to what you know works best for you and your child.
• Using the ‘previewing tool’ to help your child feel prepared, set expectations, and give them some autonomy and control over the situation
• Adapting our expectations and strategies based on the developmental stages of our children.

Go to www.thecalmempoweredparent.com to get your free copy of Vanessa’s Calm Parent Strategy Guide, to submit a question, to stay up to date with upcoming events, and to explore how to bring one of Vanessa’s low-cost workshops to your school or group.

Music by Jabari Martin instagram.com/iamstolenartifacts

What if we told you that the CLUTTER in your house is covering up bigger issues and contributing to overwhelm in both you and your children? Fortunately, Decluttering Expert and mother of 5, Krista Lockwood is here to teach you how to declutter your home quickly to reduce your workload, promote child independence, and help quell big emotions.

If the very idea of decluttering your home feels like too much, Krista and Vanessa address some of the reasons why parents think they can’t declutter, and proven ways to get it done no matter what life is throwing your way. Listen for simple tools to simplify your life and how to experience the wisdom that less is truly more.

• Assess how your child’s environment may be contributing to household and behavioral issues

• Learn proven methods for creating reliable systems and reducing workload, overwhelm, and big emotions

• Discover the underlying issues that emerge when decluttering and how to address them

• Learn the lesson of ‘less is more’ as it pertains to children in the home (and classroom)

Krista Lockwood, the creator of Motherhood Simplified, a group, a podcast, and much more, focuses on helping families by showing them how to declutter their homes quickly to ensure they support them, instead of working against them.

Ways to stay in touch and learn with Krista Lockwood:

• Discover more about Krista and her work at https://motherhoodsimplified.com/featured-on/

• Get 10% off of Krista’s signature course with the code Vanessa10 at https://motherhoodsimp.samcart.com/products/decluttering-simplified-copy

• Get Krista’s free guide “How to Create a Decluttering Plan You Can Actually Do As a Mom” at http://motherhoodsimplified.com/DIY

• Join the Motherhood Simplified Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2010014145929427/

Go to www.thecalmempoweredparent.com to get your free copy of Vanessa’s Calm Parent Strategy Guide, to submit a question, to stay up to date with upcoming events, and to explore how to bring one of Vanessa’s low-cost workshops to your school or group.

Music by Jabari Martin instagram.com/iamstolenartifacts

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Cracking the code on motivating kids can be a puzzle - what works one day might not the next. It can feel confusing to us (and our kids) when we alternate between being cheerleaders and stern drill sergeants, bouncing between providing encouragement and enforcing consequences.

Join Vanessa in this episode as she draws on 15+ years of classroom experience and motivation research to help you gain insights into how to win your child's cooperation, enhance listening skills, and foster focus in school and family life.

Discover how to steer clear of relying on rewards and punishments and, instead, focus on intrinsic motivation. These motivation hacks not only build trust and mutual respect,  but also add a fun twist to parenting!

SHOW TOPICS:

• Busting the myth that motivation can only be achieved by “the threat of the stick or the promise of the carrot”

• How to help our kids reach their potential without sacrificing our relationship and their social and emotional well-being along the way

• Breaking down the potential reasons for low motivation in your child

• Practical tips and tricks for incorporating fun and collaboration into your quest for motivation

SHOW LINKS:

Go to www.thecalmempoweredparent.com to get your free copy of Vanessa’s Calm Parent Strategy Guide, to submit a question, to stay up to date with upcoming events, and to explore how to bring one of Vanessa’s low-cost workshops to your school or group.

Music by Jabari Martin http://instagram.com/iamstolenartifacts 

#RaisingOurResilience #TheCalmEmpoweredParent #ParentingMotivation #MotivationHacks #IntrinsicMotivation #ChildDevelopment #ParentingTips #PositiveParenting #MotivateKids #Education #FamilyLife #ClassroomExperience #MotivationResearch #TrustAndRespect #SocialEmotionalWellBeing #FunParenting #CollaborativeParenting

Now introducing The Calm, Empowered Parent Podcast!

Join educational consultant and parenting coach Vanessa Callaghan as she shares what you can expect from this parenting podcast that challenges the notion that parenting needs to be perfect and look the same for every family. Join us on your personal and transformative journey to raising resilient kids!

In the first season of the podcast, Vanessa will be bringing her treasure trove of tools and strategies gained from two decades in the classroom and coaching parents and caregivers to help you find your own authentic parenting style. You can look forward to episodes with parents and experts to help you promote childhood independence, navigate tantrums and meltdowns, motivate kids with less rewards and punishments, and so much more.

Dive into a season filled with real talk and practical tips and stories that will make you feel like you're chatting with a friend. Let's dive into raising resilient kids and becoming calm, empowered parents!

SHOW LINKS

Go to www.thecalmempoweredparent.com to get your free copy of Vanessa’s Calm Parent Strategy Guide, to submit a question, to stay up to date with upcoming events, and to explore how to bring one of Vanessa’s low-cost workshops to your school or group.

Music by Jabari Martin http://instagram.com/iamstolenartifacts 

#TheCalmEmpoweredParent #RaisingOurResilience #ParentingPodcast #AuthenticParenting #ChildhoodIndependence #ParentingBoundaries #TantrumsAndMeltdowns #MotivateKids #ParentChildRelationships #ResilientKids #EmpoweredParents #ParentingCoach #EducationalConsultant #PracticalParentingTips #RealTalkParenting #ParentingExperts #TransformativeParenting