Us and Kids: Parenting and marriage coaching with therapist, Jan Talen

For today’s show, things felt a little different in the fact that I felt like I had nothing to say. But once I dove into the “I have nothing to say”, my brain dove into the feeling that I have all sorts of things to say.

Ever been speechless? Stunned...or shamed into silence? So tired you can not make a sentence? Or over thinking something without a clear thought or direction at all? What creates those moments? What should we do with them? How do we find words or expressions that actually free us up without creating another big fuss?

On today’s show, we are going to talk about our kiddos and come at it from the angle of parenting. We have to make sure we understand what is happening as our kiddos make this adjustment into school.

The kids might be a few weeks into school and this might be a time where things start to crumble. So I am here to give you a bit of encouragement that you can pass on to them. We talked a little bit about this in previous episodes and now we are going to do a little refresher.

On today’s show, we are taking a little more lighthearted approach and we’re talking about keys. More specifically talking about car keys but we will start out with just keys in general. We use keys for things like our home, car, maybe a bike lock, but what do they have to do with a relationship anyways?

A key by itself without a lock or something to go into, is not usually of much value. We find loose keys around the house and they eventually get thrown because they are for something we don’t have or use anymore. In a way, key’s connect us to something valuable.

On today’s show, we are talking about the big topic of going back to school. I know going back to school for our kids right now and for us parents just feels daunting and weird. I'm sure by now you have looked through what your schools are offering and what the choices are for online versus in person.

Remember that the best thing you can do for your kiddo, no matter where they're going, is to be supportive of them. You are the best buffer for them against the stress they are going to feel in making this transition. Have a listen to this episode and help your kiddos get off to a good start.

On today’s show, we’re going to do something a little bit different. We have gone through all of our podcast episodes and picked the top 5. In the beginning of this podcast we talked about the first 5 years of married life and then progressed into the first 5 years after having kiddos. The theme seems to be the number 5 so we chose our 5 favorites to review.

It’s been almost a year since Us and Kids became real. And part of our growth and joy has been in putting together a podcast with a printable each week. So, we’ve taken a look back to see which ones you have enjoyed the most and made a short review of each of them.

On today’s show, we are talking all about regression and stress. These can be really scary and overwhelming words. Knowing the why, the where and the what-to-do can really help settle down the worry that comes with regressing.

Regression is usually when someone or something goes back(wards) to something that used to be. A kiddo might regress to fighting bedtime, or bathroom use, or baby talk. We usually regress when we are scared - in big or small ways.

On today’s show, we are talking about depression and how that affects our lives. Depression can make us feel really dead. Not like dead as in not alive, but dead alive but not able to engage in life. So our lungs can breathe and our heart can beat. But our brain can hardly think and our body can hardly move.

It's just not a fun place to be. No one wakes up in the morning thinking today I'll be depressed. It is heavy, and about it as impossible to stop as a car running over you. In today’s podcast we will talk about how to build habits (muscles) and how to set do-able goals that will help to disarm this powerful emotion.

On today’s show, we are talking about conflict resolution and what it looks like in parenting and marriage. Conflict resolution is a mouthful of ideas, experiences, emotions and words! No wonder it’s so hard to figure a way out of it. No wonder we want to just run from it.

Are you tired of fighting about the same things over and over again? What if we turned it upside down and looked first at ourselves, then at the problem and then at the other person. Would that create a better solution...maybe even a longer-lasting solution?

On today’s show, we are talking about goals and setting goals. We go into how to do that and why to do that, and if that’s even possible when you’re raising kids and trying to stay married. A lot of times our goal might just be to make it through the day.

When I think of goals we can sometimes think about sports and scoring a goal, but also what a team might have had to do to reach a goal. Communication, team work, agreement and consistency are all important aspects of setting and achieving goals regardless of the end desire.

On today’s show, we are talking about big emotions in our kids. Last week, in episode 44, we talked about the adult brain and big emotions. There we split the brain into spaces where the emotions develop and where the feelings develop.

Today we are focusing more on the emotional space because our kiddos are still developing their brains and so, where we can impact, for better mental health, our kiddo’s brains, it is wise and good for us and for them, to do so.