The Sandbox with Diane and Rebekka

As anyone with young children will know, sleep is a precious commodity! Join Diane and Rebekka as they think about how to help families embark on the group project that is healthy sleep. This conversation offers a thoughtful understanding of human sleep/wake cycles, sleep associations, and mindful ways to support children in sleeping "in their own beds all night long until the sun comes up." If this sounds like a welcome change of affairs for you, then tune in!

Come on down to Burger Mom, the friendliest restaurant in town, where Diane and Rebekka are serving up delicious helpings of wisdom and wonderings about how to navigate feeding and eating in family life, while also bringing joy and connection back to the family table! Join us as we discuss picky eating, healthy choices, and how to avoid being a short-order cook at mealtime.

It's been a year - baby Poppy is now 1 year old, and although the aftershocks of her birth have spread far apart, this big birthday spells a profound aftershock of grief for big sister Molly. The sisters are finding each other and becoming friends, and Rebekka is holding space for everyone's big, mixed-up feelings, including her own! We consider how to elevate ourselves along the lifespan experience of being a sibling, in the roles we play in family life, and throughout each family's unique developmental journey. How can we all get into a cooperative relationship with reality as family life changes?

As Jon Kabat-Zinn cribbed from Zorba the Greek, family life is the "full catastrophe." Newly mobile baby Poppy is struggling to organize herself and find her place in the family and the world, and it's taking a toll on everyone - mommy, daddy, and big sister alike. Tune in for mindful tips on dealing with biting, "poo-poo butt!", and and "Mommy, little sister is touching me!"

Rebekka's family is still adjusting to the not so recent arrival of its newest member, who is now 9 months old. Rebekka has reclaimed the role of "mommy" in the eyes of her oldest child: some ruptures have been repaired! In spite of the speed bumps in this family's development (and growing sibling conflict), big sister Molly is showing something very important: when most of her "input" needs are met (good food, stimulating play, loving relationships), the "output" is love.

What is a toy, anyway? How can we use objects to deepen relationships and spark the imagination? Give a listen for playful ideas to bring into your family life on this episode of The Sandbox with Diane and Rebekka. Big shout out to Antoinette Portis's Not a Box and Not a Stick!

Join Diane and Rebekka for a special video episode. We discuss the origins of Mindful Parenting Groups, how we met, and the three pillars of mindful relating: observe mindfully, reflect kindly, and respond flexibly. How do these pillars look in a parent-child relationship? How can we use them to deepen and strengthen our connections with others? Tune in to find out!

Now that Rebekka's 7-month-old baby has become more of a person in her own right, everyone wants to compare her to her big sister. Which one is happier? Fussier? A "better" child? On top of this, drama persists between Rebekka and her older child, who often tells her to "GO AWAY!" When family life is like juggling chainsaws, sometimes the best (and only) thing we can do is share how hard it is with a trusted confidante.

All that talk about singing in the last episode got Rebekka thinking about even more ways for parents and children to engage meaningfully through music. Tune in for zipper songs, lullabies as a barometer and tool for parental self-regulation, rhyming games, and more!

In late summer 2019, one of Rebekka's oldest friends, digital humanities professor Jo Guldi, posted a news article on her Facebook page drawing attention to the ongoing human rights quagmire at the border. Rebekka commented, "I feel sickened by what our country is doing, and sickened further by my sense of utter helplessness to stop it. I've given money to organizations that are strong in this fight, and will give more. I am desperate to do more myself, as an American, a mother, a Jew, and a human being. But what?" This led to a fruitful back and forth about ways we can take concrete action, culminating in a challenge for the Sandbox: "I would go *bonkers* for an episode that talked about what it's like to parent in a time when other children's lives are being treated with negligible concern for them as human beings. It would be a prelude to thinking clearly and talking about so many other concerns I have as a parent -- raising a child in a time of climate change, at a time when the basic values of democracy that I took for granted growing up seem under assault." Jo turned our entire thread into a powerful op-ed piece, "Parenting in an Age of Violence," which you can read here or at https://tinyurl.com/jguldi

Jo, challenge accepted. Here's our first conversation about how, through our parenting, we can work to create a better society for everyone.