Pre-parenting 101 Agile Parent Podcast!

Hey there! I recently had a lovely conversation/interview with John and Jahaira about their plans to get pregnant and become parents. We talked about early childhood development, sustaining a nurturing relationship with a partner before baby arrives, parent/child dynamics, mindset, and cultivating critical thinking in very young children. Also, we had fun and discussed how we might handle it if we were to see a child being spanked in a public place. Their podcast will be ongoing, so I hope you’ll check it out! read more

4 Secrets to Mindful Giving During the Holidays

Guest Post by Megan deBoer

As parents, we are often filled with conflicting desires during the holidays: we want to satisfy our children’s wishes, we want to make the holiday magical, we want to create our own family traditions all without causing financial stress and unwelcome credit card bills.  And so we try to plan…

Yet despite our best planning, there can come a moment during the whirlwind and heightened emotions of the holiday season when we find ourselves making impulsive, reactive, and unconscious spending choices.  We can be swept up in the mood, the beautiful display, the “deal!” and the hectic pace of it all.  It is easy to loose our bearings. read more

7 Destructive Parenting Myths

As a parent coach, I hear all sorts of thoughts and ideas that just don’t hold up to the current research on child-development and attachment, but some of these myths have been handed down from generation to generation for so long that we can forget to question them. Here are the 7 parenting myths that bother me the most:

1.    Kids Can’t Be Trusted

In my work as a preschool teacher, I’ve worked with hundreds of children and I’ve never met a child who wasn’t trustworthy. Children will rise to our expectations of them and I’ve noticed that when I expect them to follow through on their commitments and do what they say they will, I get excellent results. read more

Guest Post: Finding Contentment in the Midst of Chaos

Guest Post by Heather Chauvin

I used to believe that parenting was this ‘life sucking’ transition where you no longer can do anything for yourself and only give give give.

That parenting model wasn’t working for me.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into but I knew something needed to change.

The scariest part of it all was, “how do I change?”

It was about 4 years ago when I was introduced to the concept of ‘mindfulness’. I’m not talking about going to yoga everyday or sitting on a cushion meditating for an hour in the morning. I’m talking about mindfulness as a lifestyle. Becoming aware of HOW my personal beliefs affected my thoughts, actions and my reality. read more

My Top 10 Most Popular Posts of 2012

In the past I used to write whatever I wanted on this blog and I still do that to a large extent. But this year I had a shift. I realized that I want this blog, this website, and my business to be more about what YOU want and less about what just happens to strike my fancy when I sit down to write my posts. In order to better analyze what you like, I decided to take a look at the best performing posts from 2012 and use them to direct my future efforts.

And wow, I am shocked at how much time it has taken me to figure out what my top ten posts of last year were. First I had to decide on an accurate measure. Should I use traffic, views, tweets, or Facebook shares? After much research and analysis, I’ve decided to base my most popular posts on Facebook shares, since that’s how most of you let me know you’ve enjoyed my post. And so, without further ado, here are the top ten most popular posts of 2012! Oh, and I’ll share them in reverse order for a bit of dramatic flair 😉 read more