Ep 40 – Respectful & Peaceful Parenting with guest Avital Schreiber (AKA The Parenting Junkie)

Before we get into today’s episode I want to talk about you. I want to talk about your life, the way you show up in how you live, love, play, work, mother, and parent. Are you happy? Do you feel like you are thriving? Do you feel successful? Do you feel proud of yourself, of the way you raise your family and show up in your life? Do you feel good in your body, with your energy levels, with how you organize your day? Or do you feel like a panting dog most days, like you are running around and around in circles and never having enough time to finish anything? Does this sound familiar?

Do you feel endless exhaustion, moodiness, hormonal, in all sorts of pain, looking at yourself in the mirror with disgust and shame, having a flakey hair, flaky skin, disconnected from yourself? Feeling chronically unappreciated, lonely, constantly yelling, and never feeling like you have enough.

Do you feel like all you do is survive the day instead of thriving in your days?

The only reason I bring this up is because I have been that woman not long ago. For the most part, I had everything I needed – I had the house, the marriage, kids, my work but something was missing. The missing piece was me. I wasn’t present. I was doing all the things, showing up for the logistics but going to bed feeling depleted. Admitting this wasn’t easy, I had to be willing to be uber honest with myself and say out loud that, slowly, I was wasting my life away.

The questions to ask here is when? When will you wake up and decide that it’s time for a change? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result. When will you decide that it’s time to take care of you? When is it time to give yourself what you’ve been giving to others all this time?

I want you to know that it is possible to change your current reality if you feel like you are not living up to your potential. If you feel like you are wasting your life, Like I did. But where do you start? Here’s an amazing exercise for you to do at home or once you have some time for yourself. Start by writing out what it is that you really want, or would be nice to have. Do this exercise even if it feels like you are fooling yourself or wasting time doing it. Do it anyway! This is your doorway to seeing what’s possible. Because If you can write it, it can be achieved. Period.

Then I want you to reach out to me and share with me what you’ve come up with. I want to invite you to chat with me, and share with me what is it that you need right now in order to feel good. What is it that you need but don’t dare to admit to anyone, not even to yourself?

I work with women and mothers who are ready to step out of their own way, define what it is that they need, voice it loud and clear and then create the reality they want for themselves. In order for this to happen you need to have the mindset down, your health in check, you need to learn how to organize your life around your fluctuating hormones so that you can rip the maximum of each day. This is super important if you are a busy mom who doesn’t have time to waste. Whether you’re running a business, organizing an event, getting ready for an important speech that has the potential to change your entire career, or even if you are raising small kids, juggling a million things all at once, you need to learn how to move through life in a female body, embodying femininity, sexuality, sensuality, mastering how to regulate your big and scary emotions. The truth is that we are not men and it is absurd, in my opinion, that we try to move through life like men and then feel like shit. This is because we are women, and women do life differently. So I encourage you to do this exercise and then reach out to me and we can chat about what it is that you need and how I can help you have more of what you want by doing less work and hustle. You can reach me at dorit@healthbeginswithmom.com

Alright, so this ties beautifully with today’s topic. Today we are talking about respect and peacefulness in parenting, and you and I know that it all has to start from within. We cannot respect other people unless we respect ourselves, respectful parenting begins with the inner work.

As a parent, you know that having children is one thing. Enjoying the process of raising them is another. Raising confident, resilient, self-reliant, independent, resourceful, explorative, children with a growth mindset is a completely different ballgame.

It requires intention, time investment, being present, and resourcefulness on our part as well. This is not an easy task nowadays where we have a million things pulling at us in different directions. We have our fulltime jobs, careers, activities, food planning and food prep, dishes, laundry, household stuff, kids school, driving them to and from, your marriage, friends & family, holidays, and so on. No wonder why so many of us, women and moms, are feeling like we are constantly out of balance, or searching for balance every single day.

The shiny object syndrome is alluding us to sometimes neglect, unintentionally, of course, the things that matter the most – enjoying your own life and the life, or lives, you’ve created.

We all want what’s best for our kids. I think the vast majority of parents want to do a good job, most of us want to raise people we need more of in this world and not the opposite. I think the best approach to this would be realizing that raising kids will trigger you, it will bring up a lot of gunk from your past, things you haven’t dealt with yet, and in a sense viewing parenting as an opportunity for personal growth and your kids as your teachers, or gurus

One website I really enjoy and is super helpful for me is The Parenting Junkie. Here’s a little piece from the website: 

If you believe that parenting is a journey of transformational growth – for the parent, more than for the child.
If you believe there are no bad children, only children who are having a hard time.
If you believe no matter what situation you’re in – empathy will help.
If you believe that good parenting means striving for connection.
If you believe that connected parenting does not come naturally, but demands intense levels of commitment and deliberate practice.

Well, then my friend, you and I are already best buds.

Today on the show I am chatting with Avital Schreiber, the creator of The Parenting Junkie, who is a mindful parenting coach and imperfect Mom to three little-spirited gurus.

Avital’s work is dedicated to helping parents to Love Parenting and to Parent from Love. The Parenting Junkie publishes weekly videos designed to inspire, inform and uplift and runs courses and memberships dedicated to prioritizing Play, Presence, and Peace in our and our children’s lives. A HuffPost contributor, with an audience in all four corners of the globe, her work is endorsed and recommended by the leaders in the Parenting space, Dr. Shefali Tsabary, and Dr. Laura Markham.

Here’s what we cover on the show

  • Why is it important to respect our children?
  • How to apply the respectful and peaceful parenting approach with regards to food and mealtime?
  • The Gardner and the Carpenter approach to raising children.
  • How is it that our children are our teachers? What are we learning from them?
  • Conscious feeding and feeding children with patience, love, good sense.
  • Feeling in control over your buying power with regards to food
  • The atmosphere we create when we eat and empowering kids to enjoy mealtime
  • The division of responsibility in feeding
  • Kids want to thrive and succeed, how we can tap into their inner wisdom
  • Prioritizing play as the pillar of childhood
  • Benefits of boredom and doing nothing

Show Notes

theparentingjunkie.com

The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children by Alison Gopnik 

Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense, Revised and Updated Edition by Ellyn Satter

Experts mentioned: Dr. Peter Grey, Alfie Kohn, Ken Robinson, Dr. Shefali Tsabari, Dr. Dan Siegel

The Division of Responsibility 

Present Play Membership Community 

2 thoughts on “Ep 40 – Respectful & Peaceful Parenting with guest Avital Schreiber (AKA The Parenting Junkie)”

    • Loved having you on Avital! You are a truly magical human being and a wonderful mother. You are an inspiration to me and to so many women, mothers and parents out there! Keep up the great world! xoxo

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