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DISCOVERING WHOLENESS

Solo Parent

Release Date: 03/31/2020

How Much Change Can My Kids Take? with Kyle Cruze show art How Much Change Can My Kids Take? with Kyle Cruze

Solo Parent

This week we are discussing ‘How Much Change Can My Kids Take?’ with Kyle Cruze.   Our kids have experienced so much change already, and we know stability is important. How much change can they endure before there are lasting consequences?    Kyle is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the state of Tennessee. Since graduate school, Kyle has dedicated almost all his professional time to working with adolescent/teenage boys and their families. Recognizing the huge need that boys have for clarity and guidance, Kyle has sat with hundreds of kids and their parents with...

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What Is Stability? show art What Is Stability?

Solo Parent

This week we are discussing ‘What is Stability?’ as a single parent.   If you define the life of a single parent, you might say that instability is the word. The challenges and chaos of work-life balance, finances, emotional stress, and more are simply a given when you’re a solo parent, and because of that, we may often feel like our situation is not stable. But what does stability actually mean? Are we actually creating a stable environment but we just don’t realize it?    Today, we cover three main points:  1) How to tell the difference between uncertainty and...

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When Your Child Triggers You show art When Your Child Triggers You

Solo Parent

This week we are discussing “When Your Child Triggers You”   Everyone who has been through trauma has triggers. Our children can often push those buttons and trigger a strong response from us—and single parents don’t have a backup person to help out when this happens. If we’re overwhelmed, we react to triggers instead of responding—and it doesn’t go well. What do we do when our child triggers us, and how can we use them to our benefit?    Today, we cover three main points:  Defining Triggers Navigating Triggers The Healing Power of Triggers   LINK...

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Parenting a Child Who's Mad at You show art Parenting a Child Who's Mad at You

Solo Parent

This week we are discussing “Parenting a Child Who’s Mad at You”    It’s inevitable that our kids will be mad at us, whether they’re five years old or twenty-five. Their anger can feel like a heavy weight loaded onto our already-exhausting life! How do we effectively and lovingly parent a child who’s mad at us?   3 MAIN POINTS Today, we cover three main points:  Reasons Our Kids Get Angry Our Response (What We Can Do) Keeping Our Side of the Street Clean   LINK TO SHOWNOTES For all the detailed show notes, tips and links click -   ASK US...

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The Three Phases of Solo Parenting show art The Three Phases of Solo Parenting

Solo Parent

In this week’s episode - “The Three Phases of Solo Parenting” - we are honoring single parents as we lead up to National Single Parent Day.   In 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed Proclamation 516, designating March 21st as National Single Parent Day. The proclamation recognized the courage and dedication of single parents. Only those who have been on this often-lonely and overwhelming path know just how challenging it is to be a single parent.    We are all at different stages in our solo parent journey—some of us are just beginning, and some of us are decades past...

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Getting Out From Under Single Parent Guilt show art Getting Out From Under Single Parent Guilt

Solo Parent

This week we are discussing “Getting Out From Under the Single Parent Guilt”   As a single parent, we are second-guessing and undermining ourselves. We want what’s best for our kids but don’t feel like we’re able to deliver it, so we overcompensate or feel like giving up. How can we parent from a place of balance rather than swinging from a pendulum of too hands-off or too involved?   Today, we cover three main points:  The Guilt Present, Not Perfect Good-Enough Parenting   LINK TO SHOWNOTES For all the detailed show notes, tips and links click -  ...

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Helping Our Kids Grieve Loss w/ Annie F. Downs and Tatum Green show art Helping Our Kids Grieve Loss w/ Annie F. Downs and Tatum Green

Solo Parent

This week we are discussing “Helping Our Kids Grieve Loss” with Annie F. Downs and Tatum Green - authors of Where Did TJ Go?   None of us are exempt from loss. We have all lost someone we love in some way or another. This is a painful subject that we often don’t know how to talk to our kids about—but it’s also incredibly crucial that we do. How do we talk to our kids about grief and loss in a healthy, honest, and appropriate way? Our guests this week, New York Times bestselling author, Annie F. Downs and her sister, Tatum Green are Co-Authors on a new book - Where Did TJ Go?...

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Teaching Our Kids Healthy Love show art Teaching Our Kids Healthy Love

Solo Parent

This week we are discussing Teaching Our Kids Healthy Love   We want to teach our kids what healthy love or a healthy marriage looks like, but without two parents in the household, often what they’ve seen is broken or simply non-existent. How do we teach our kids about building healthy relationships when we aren’t able to model it for them?    Today, we cover three main points:  Relationships are Relationships Setting the Tone  When our kids are in unhealthy relationships    LINK TO SHOWNOTES For all the detailed show notes, tips and links click -...

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Navigating Single Parent Dating: FAQs show art Navigating Single Parent Dating: FAQs

Solo Parent

This week we are discussing Navigating Single Parent Dating: FAQs    Dating is hard, period. There’s no manual, no “right way” of doing things. But when you’re a single parent, it gets even trickier; you have kids now and dating has changed significantly in this digital age. How can single parents navigate dating and all its complexities?    LINK TO SHOWNOTES For all the detailed show notes, tips and links click -   ASK US ANYTHING! We want to answer any Solo Parent questions you may have.  Go to and ask us anything…it can be related to a topic we...

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Is It Love or Loneliness? show art Is It Love or Loneliness?

Solo Parent

  This week we are discussing Is it Love or Loneliness?   Sometimes loneliness cuts so deep that we’ll accept less than what we want or deserve; we’re willing to take love from anyone we can get—both in romantic and non-romantic relationships. Sometimes it’s really love, but other times it’s simply a solution for our loneliness. How can we tell the difference in our relationships?    Today, we cover three main points:  How loneliness and love are intertwined Why we don’t want to be lonely Questions to ask ourselves    LINK TO SHOWNOTES For...

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In today's podcast, we deal with the topic of wholeness as part of our stability as single parents. Wholeness is defined as the state of being unbroken or undamaged but being a single parent can leave us feeling devastated and less than whole. It's especially challenging after some of our experiences and while feeling added pressure to have it all together for our kids. On today's podcast, Solo Parent Society founder, Robert Beeson, podcast co-host, Kimberley Mitchell, and single mom, Marissa Lee, discuss wholeness as something we find not in spite of brokenness but because of it. This may seem counterintuitive but brokenness can actually serve us well when we let God transform us through it. How do we do that? We need to anchor ourselves to Him and then wait for Him to repair and transform us. Anchoring: The act of dropping an anchor is an active process that requires knowing where you are. You can't lower an anchor in mud. It has to be dropped somewhere it will actually hold. As solo parents, we may find ourselves wanting to escape the storm of our brokenness but we cant. Instead, God promises to be with us in it so don't despise the storm. Embrace it as the place where God will meet you and anchor yourself to Him in the midst of it. How do we do this? Specific ways to anchor: Know where you are. Before you drop your anchor, assess your situation honestly. You can't go back to the shore you came from and you may not know where you are going. Instead, accept where you and then you can drop your anchor. Anchor yourself in God's Word. Single parents need to be equipped. We need truth and hope. Surround yourself with it. Play worship music. Find a key verse and use it as a screensaver, memorize it. Especially as solo parents, we cannot be self-reliant. We have to let the anchor of truth hold us firm. Once we are anchored in truth, then what? Well, then we wait. Waiting: Waiting isn't passive. It requires focus and determination to wait when we would rather run from our brokenness. Instead, we must accept where we are, lower our anchor and wait on God to repair us and see us through. Specific ways to wait: Take our thoughts captive. As we wait for God to open the next door and show us next steps, we must take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. Our thoughts are powerful and 70% of them are negative. We have to identify these negative thoughts as lies and speak back to them with truth. We have to be careful which voices we listen to. We need to remember we have a God who saved us! He wins in the end and He is with us in the wait. Be present. While we wait, we need to be present. Be present with your kids, with yourself and with God. Get quiet and still. Allow space for God to speak. Accept what is and find the beauty in it. Be patient with yourself, with your circumstances and with God. Let go of the past and the future. What matters today is what you do right now. Just do the next right thing. Remember, wholeness is not a destination but confidence in the One who created us. So, don't run from brokenness God is at work in it. Be expectant. Be patient Look for God in your brokenness and you will find Him. Anchor yourself to Him and wait. You are closer to wholeness than you ever thought. Find us on Facebook and on Instagram and at www.SoloParentSociety.com.