The Parent Practice Podcast
If you’re feeling really over the whole pandemic thing this episode will lift your spirits. The Covid-19 pandemic has certainly changed our lives. We’ve been forced to accept changes to the way we live in order to try to control the disease, some of which have been inconvenient, to say the least. Some families have found the enforced lockdown extremely difficult and for some isolation has really affected their mental wellbeing. But it hasn’t been all bad. Carl Honoré has written extensively about the benefits of slowing down –he calls it embracing our ‘inner tortoise’ - and...
info_outline Juliet Richards - Navigating Anxiety TPPP35The Parent Practice Podcast
We are all aware that anxiety is a growing problem amongst our littlies, our tweens and our teens, and a recent Bristol University Longitudinal study ( ALPSAC) has identified that anxiety amongst our young people, children and teenagers has risen over the past 3 months of the pandemic from 13% to 24% during the crisis. So this podcast helps parents understand it and most importantly gives some top tips re what can be done to manage anxiety, reduce stress and how to respond to it. Our guest today is Juliet Richards, who has been part of the facilitation team here at The Parent Practice since...
info_outline Louise Treherne - Helping Children Cope with the Return to School TPPP34The Parent Practice Podcast
Some of you will have children who have already returned to school, albeit part time, and some of you will have children who will be returning for the first time in September, so this episode has relevance for everybody whatever transition you are going through. Some children are terribly excited about going back and some are quite apprehensive. And parents may have mixed feelings too. Our guest today is Louise Treherne who is Head of Character Education at ‘Role Models’, an organisation which supports children to be resilient and creative problem solvers. Louise has a degree in...
info_outline Michele Borba - Raising empathetic children in an all-about-me world TPPP33The Parent Practice Podcast
There is no doubt that in this era of the Covid-19 pandemic there has been a huge amount of uncertainty and with that some anxiety. You may be feeling some anxiety yourself and perhaps your children are too. Well, the antidote to stress is empathy and our guest today has many, many ideas about how you can build empathy in your children. Dr. Michele Borba is an educational psychologist and former classroom teacher who is recognised globally as a parenting, bullying and character expert whose aim is to strengthen children’s empathy and resilience, and break the cycle of youth violence. She is...
info_outline Alex Webb - Understanding self for future happiness and success TPPP32The Parent Practice Podcast
Alex Webb is an experienced coach and facilitator, working with young people on an individual basis and in teams to become resilient leaders. Alex focuses on behaviour change, self-awareness and the understanding of self. Her belief is that if you understand yourself, you can then understand others, allowing you to adapt your behaviour to improve relationships. Her business is called Flying Start and she has been working with The Princes Trust to help young adults with leadership skills and confidence in their Future Leaders Programme. They help young people understand the future of work and...
info_outline Dr Laura Markham -We need to talk about racism - TPPP31The Parent Practice Podcast
You may have been provoked by the recent death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in Minnesota or by similar events in the UK and Australia, and elsewhere, to think really hard about racism. Were you galvanised into taking part in a protest against racism and against police brutality? Are you wondering how to bring up your children not only to not be racist themselves but to be outraged by discrimination on the basis of skin colour and to speak out against it? If you want to raise children who are going to be kinder, more tolerant adults who will create a better future for...
info_outline Victoria Bagnall -Executive Functioning - TPPP30The Parent Practice Podcast
Do you have a child for whom there is a disconnect between level of intelligence and academic performance? Do you have a teen who has issues with time management, who can’t get up in the morning? Maybe you’ve even got a young adult who is struggling now that the scaffolding of school has been taken away and they’re trying to manage on their own at university. Do you have a child with a diagnosis of ADD or ADHD or any other neurodiverse condition? Chances are he has executive function challenges. To function in the 21st century with everything we’re juggling we need to have finely tuned...
info_outline Pam Custers - The Primary Relationship is with the Parents not the Children TPPP29The Parent Practice Podcast
Conflict is normal in a healthy relationship, and relationships have definitely been feeling the strain in lockdown as we’re in each other’s company 24/7 and the division of responsibility in the family around childcare, supervision of schoolwork and domestic duties becomes strained. Parents are used to putting the children first but our guest today believes that the primary relationship is between the adults. The couple relationship can get lost if parents become a child-rearing unit. This episode looks at how we can communicate our needs in an effective way, Pam Custers is an experienced...
info_outline Elizabeth Fletcher - Parenting Apart in Lockdown TPPP28The Parent Practice Podcast
Right now every couple relationship is being stress-tested. Being forced into close proximity with your other half 24/7 and with other possible anxieties around work and finances and child care and education and concerns about your own and others’ health may mean that cracks are developing. If your relationship was already under strain before the arrival of this coronavirus it may have reached breaking point now. If you’re listening to this particular episode presumably you have an interest in helping children deal with the breakdown of a relationship, whether that is something that...
info_outline Sharon Charlton-Thomson - Radical Self care for the real world we live in TPPP27The Parent Practice Podcast
Those of us working in the coaching space right now know that many parents are feeling overwhelmed, stressed and depleted as our expectations of ourselves are through the roof. We’re supervising learning at home and many of us are working from home too; we’re getting the kids off electronic devices and coaxing them to take some exercise; we’re sorting out sibling squabbles and getting them to make their beds and put their clothes in the laundry basket, while also cleaning, shopping and cooking, all in closer proximity to our partners than usual. Never before has the phrase “For better,...
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This week’s episode is with Mandy Gurney, sleep expert and Director of Millpond Sleep Clinic.
Mandy trained initially as a general nurse, then as a midwife and health visitor. She set up Millpond in 2000 when she couldn’t find the answers she needed to her own child’s sleep issues. Millpond was the first private clinic to specialise in babies' and children's sleep problems and is the only clinic to help school-aged children. It now has a reputation as the UK's leading children's sleep clinic. Millpond is a sleep advisor to the NHS and provides regular national workshops to the NHS and the corporate sector.
Mandy is the author of Teach your child to sleep of which there is a new edition coming out this summer.
If you are a parent you will have been through periods of extreme sleep deprivation and know what it means to have your functioning compromised by that lack of sleep. If you are still finding it difficult to help your child settle to sleep you will really want to listen to this episode.
Listen to this episode with Mandy Gurney if you want to learn:
- About the science of sleep and how sleep impacts eating, exercise, hormones, immunity, learning, memory, creativity, decision -making, mood, and, as every parent knows, behaviour
- If you are a lark or an owl chronotype and what are the normal features of sleep in different developmental phases
- How to work with the natural sleep patterns of your child
- About sleeping being a skill and how important it is to develop good sleep habits early in life
- How to pick up on sleep cues from babies and settle them more easily
- About teenage sleep problems, which are more prevalent than sleep issues for babies
- How to set up good bedtime routines, no matter what age your child, including feed patterns and bath routines
- About gradual withdrawal methods, including use of the sleepy cushion
- What role rewards might have in helping develop good sleep behaviours
In our celebration of vulnerability and perfect imperfection Mandy shares with us a Low Parenting Moment of her own.
And Mandy also shares her top tip for raising children to be confident, happy and successful.
Links
To get in touch with Mandy: