"There is so much significance in what you do as a human being - your ability to influence."

In Part 2, Neil Rampersad gives more insight into what it means to be a man, in a world where often men want to talk but many topics are not quite acceptable. He also further reveals his insights gained from parenting and examining his own parenting choices.

"I get immediate feedback from my kids about my choices - if I choose to see it."

"As a man, we all have these stories we don't tell..."

In the first interview in my "Mother of a Son" Series, Neil Rampersad shares stories of his own childhood, and gives us insight into his experiences of satisfaction and struggle while he raises a son and daughter.

"Creating an environment of unconditional love requires us being able to acknowledge each other's humanness, which includes emotions."

Enjoy this insight Neil provides, and stay tuned for part 2, airing next Monday, July 2.

"When it comes to teaching values, all those 'Why?"s your kids threw at you? You throw them right back."

In part 2 of our chat, Amy Leask shows us why big questions are perfectly sized for little kids, what questions we might want to consider asking our kids about social media, and why the "Santa Question" is an important one to look at from several perspectives.

WARNING: If little ears are listening, we talk about Santa and Elf on the Shelf from an adult perspective, and you may want wait to listen

"Children are already little philosophers - we just have to help them with a framework" - so says Amy Leask, a children's interactive media producer, and founder of both Red T Media and Enable Education.

In this episode Amy and I talk about the Big Questions kids can ask, how we can use them as a bonding experience, and how we can help our kids understand that there's no one right answer, but that some answers are better than others.

This is part 2 of my chat with Theresa Czajkowski, Creative Solutions Creator and Professional Mess Maker at the Creative Campus.

Theresa and I turn to a discussion of adult creativity, and talk about how important empathy and being able to take other people's perspectives into account are vital for creativity.

Warning: We discuss abortion in this episode. We are not judgemental about what your opinion might be, but if you are highly sensitive about the topic then you may want to skip this one.

Watch out when you get two creativity specialists together! Theresa is the Creative Solutions Creator and Professional Mess Maker at the Creative Campus, and we discuss how to get our kids to be more creative, and why we should.

The link between emotions and creativity are discussed, including why the fear of making mistakes hampers our kids' creativity. Ways of getting our kids to be more creative are discussed, including letting them get into the mud!

In part 2 of my chat with Catherine Mitchell, grief recovery specialist, we discuss the frustration and helplessness we sometimes feel when we see that people need help healing from grief, but they'd rather just cope instead.

For more information about the Grief Recovery Method®, check out the blog post for this episode at www.momtellectual.com.

Catherine Mitchell is a Grief Recovery Specialist, and I trained with her in the summer of 2017. The training changed both of us, both personally and professionally, and we discuss how these changes have shown up in our lives and relationships.

For more information about the grief recovery method, visit the blog post for this episode at www.momtellectual.com.

Even if you didn't have trouble sleeping before you have kids, the long term disruption to sleep that many of us face when we become parents often is hard to overcome. Andrea Strang, a Gentle Sleep Consultant, offers us ways to improve our own sleep, even if we still have to adjust our sleep around the demands of parenting.

If you struggle to help your baby or child sleep, this episode is for you! Andrea Strang is a Gentle Sleep Consultant who offers us tips and strategies for helping our kids sleep better.