The Parenting Lab (Help for the Healing Parent)

How often do you say “I’m sorry” when you haven’t actually done anything wrong?

Parents often apologize to soften a decision, avoid conflict, or make their needs easier for someone else to accept. But over time, those automatic apologies can turn a clear choice into a request for permission - and leave you second-guessing yourself.

In this episode, we’re exploring four things you never need to apologize for:

• Setting boundaries that protect safety

• Prioritizing your physical, mental, and emotional health

• Asking for help

• Creating peaceful routines that support your family

You’ll learn the difference between an apology and an acknowledgment, why someone else’s disappointment doesn’t automatically make your decision wrong, and how to communicate with confidence without becoming rigid or dismissive.

This isn’t about avoiding accountability or refusing to change your mind. It’s about saving apologies for moments that need genuine repair instead of using them to minimize your boundaries, needs, or choices.

If you struggle with parental guilt, people-pleasing, overexplaining, or trusting what your family needs, this episode will help you respond with greater clarity.

♥ Your Parent Coach, Brittney

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For free resources, online courses, or to join the mailing list, please visit ⁠theparentinglab.org⁠

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Email Brittney: [email protected]

What does healthy compromise look like in parenting - and how do you know when to negotiate, when to hold firm, and when a limit needs to grow with your child?

In this episode, we explore the “sweet spot of mutual discomfort”: the place where parents and children both stretch a little to reach an agreement that takes everyone’s needs seriously.

We’ll talk about how collaborative parenting can reduce power struggles while helping children develop autonomy, responsibility, trust, and maturity.

I also clarify the important differences between parenting rules, limits, and boundaries - three terms that are often used interchangeably but serve very different purposes.

You’ll learn:

• How rules, limits, and boundaries differ
• Why compromise requires give and take from both people
• How to decide whether a parenting limit is open to negotiation
• Why listening to your child doesn’t guarantee a yes
• How limits can expand as children grow
• Why the conversation matters as much as the agreement

Whether you’re navigating bedtime, screen time, school, friendships, or curfew, this episode will help you approach disagreement with more clarity, curiosity, and connection.

Learn more about rules, limits, and boundaries at theparentinglab.org.

Mini-Lab: Connecting Your Values to Limits, Rules & Boundaries

♥ Your Parent Coach, Brittney

Join The Parenting Lab ⁠Facebook Group⁠!

For free resources, online courses, or to join the mailing list, please visit ⁠theparentinglab.org⁠

Follow on Instagram / TikTok / YouTube  ⁠@TheParentingLabPodcast⁠

Email Brittney: [email protected]

Have you ever known your child needed empathy, but felt too irritated, distracted, or depleted to care? I’ve been there - and the guilt afterward can be almost as hard as the moment itself.

In this episode, we're talking about empathy fatigue: why compassion can feel out of reach even when you love your child deeply.

We’ll look at what might be draining your capacity, from the emotional demands of the day to unmet needs of your own. We’ll also explore the difference between being present with your child’s feelings and believing you have to take them on or make them disappear.

I’ll share a simple way to notice when you’re reaching your limit, pause without pulling away, and offer the care you can honestly give. Because your child’s experience matters - and yours does, too.

♥ Your Parent Coach, Brittney

Join The Parenting Lab ⁠Facebook Group⁠!

For free resources, online courses, or to join the mailing list, please visit ⁠theparentinglab.org⁠

Follow on Instagram / TikTok / YouTube  ⁠@TheParentingLabPodcast⁠

Email Brittney: [email protected]

What can your zodiac sign reveal about your parenting strengths, stress responses, and opportunities for growth?

In this fun birthday episode, we explore all 12 zodiac signs - from Aries to Pisces - and how their natural personality traits may shape the way we connect, protect, communicate, set boundaries, and respond under pressure.

We’ll look at the gifts and shadow sides of each sign and what aligned parenting might look like when those strengths become overextended.

We're using astrology as a fun tool for parenting self-awareness, and another perspective on what makes us tick!

Use code BIRTHDAY for 50% off The Core Values Lab - this is my absolute favorite resource, and the foundation of all the work we do. I'm so excited to share it with you at a discount for my birthday!

♥ Your Parent Coach, Brittney

Join The Parenting Lab ⁠Facebook Group⁠!

For free resources, online courses, or to join the mailing list, please visit ⁠theparentinglab.org⁠

Follow on Instagram / TikTok / YouTube  ⁠@TheParentingLabPodcast⁠

Email Brittney: [email protected]

Every parent has moments they wish they had handled differently - but what we do after a parenting mistake may matter just as much as the original moment.

In this episode, I explore why fear, embarrassment, dysregulation, and old patterns can shape our reactions, and how we can repair without abandoning boundaries or accountability.

I’ll also walk you through a practical five-step process for taking responsibility and finding your way back to connection.

♥ Your Parent Coach, Brittney

Join The Parenting Lab ⁠Facebook Group⁠!

For free resources, online courses, or to join the mailing list, please visit ⁠theparentinglab.org⁠

Follow on Instagram / TikTok / YouTube  ⁠@TheParentingLabPodcast⁠

Email Brittney: [email protected]

Every mother has a story - but many of us have learned to minimize, edit, or keep parts of ours hidden.

In this episode, I’m joined by Kim Marshall, parent coach and creator and curator of Motherhood Expanded, a multi-author anthology sharing the honest lived experiences of women across different ages and stages of motherhood.

Together, we explore why telling the truth about motherhood can feel so vulnerable, how cultural expectations disconnect women from their own authority, and what becomes possible when our experiences are witnessed in safe community.

We also talk about motherhood as an ongoing transformation, why parenting is an inside job, and how our growth naturally reaches our children without requiring them to become someone different.

I also share part of my own story with my daughter - how our relationship called me into healing, how we learned to interrupt a generational pattern together, and why beginning later did not mean beginning too late.

This is a conversation about the stories we carry, the women we become, and the healing that can begin when someone finally asks us to tell the truth.

Find Kim on Instagram at @RootsandWingsChildhood or at rootsandwingsmethod.com. Motherhood Expanded is available on Amazon.

♥ Your Parent Coach, Brittney

Join The Parenting Lab ⁠Facebook Group⁠!

For free resources, online courses, or to join the mailing list, please visit ⁠theparentinglab.org⁠

Follow on Instagram / TikTok / YouTube  ⁠@TheParentingLabPodcast⁠

Email Brittney: [email protected]

“How do I get my child to listen?”

“How do I stop yelling?”

“How do I know if I’m doing this right?”

These are three of the most common questions parents ask me - but the answers aren’t usually found in another script, consequence, or parenting strategy.

In this episode, we're exploring what parents are really seeking beneath these questions: control, change, and certainty.

You'll learn how to recognize what you can actually influence, understand the patterns behind your reactions, and evaluate your parenting without expecting perfection or using your child’s immediate response as the only measure.

You’ll also hear what parent coaching actually looks like - and how it helps parents move beyond solving one difficult moment to better understand themselves, their children, and the relationship they’re building over time.

To schedule your FREE 20-minute Insight Session, click HERE. You can bring your own version of one of these questions, and we can talk about the next step you can take for your family.

♥ Your Parent Coach, BrittneyJoin The Parenting Lab ⁠Facebook Group⁠!

For free resources, online courses, or to join the mailing list, please visit ⁠theparentinglab.org⁠

Follow on Instagram / TikTok / YouTube  ⁠@TheParentingLabPodcast⁠

Email Brittney: [email protected]

Back-to-school anxiety isn’t just for kids. Parents carry worries into a new school year, too - about teachers, friendships, grades, learning challenges, IEPs and 504 plans, new schools, and big transitions into junior high, high school, or college.

In this episode, we explore the difference between preparing for the school year and bracing for everything that might go wrong.

You’ll learn how parental anxiety can shape the way you interpret your child’s experiences, how to separate what you know from what you fear, and how to support your child without passing your worry on to them.

You don’t have to predict every challenge to be prepared. You can stay attentive, listen before reacting, advocate when needed, and trust yourself to respond as the year unfolds. Let this year be new - and leave a little room for things to go right.

♥ Your Parent Coach, Brittney

Join The Parenting Lab ⁠Facebook Group⁠!

For free resources, online courses, or to join the mailing list, please visit ⁠theparentinglab.org⁠

Follow on Instagram / TikTok / YouTube  ⁠@TheParentingLabPodcast⁠

Email Brittney: [email protected]

As children grow, our authority naturally begins to fade - but that doesn’t mean our guidance has to disappear.

In this episode, we explore the difference between control and influence, why control can feel so reassuring, and how parents can build the kind of trust that allows their voice to matter even when the choice no longer belongs to them.

We’ll talk about compliance, boundaries, emotional safety, repair, and the difficult truth that influence never guarantees a particular outcome.

Because control may change what children do while we’re watching...but influence becomes part of who they are when we’re not.

♥ Your Parent Coach, Brittney

Join The Parenting Lab ⁠Facebook Group⁠!

For free resources, online courses, or to join the mailing list, please visit ⁠theparentinglab.org⁠

Follow on Instagram / TikTok / YouTube  ⁠@TheParentingLabPodcast⁠

Email Brittney: [email protected]

Sometimes the smallest things are evidence of the biggest changes ❤️

My daughter recently asked me to sit near her during a phone interview, and - as small as that seems - it reminded me how far we have come in healing the attachment patterns that have shaped me.

I'm sharing the experience and what that means for me and my relationships - thanks for being a witness to it!

♥ Your Parent Coach, Brittney