The Peaceful Parenting Podcast

* Morgan’s Masterclass Protect Your Peace

xx Sarah and Corey

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Sarah: Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Peaceful Parenting Podcast. Today’s guest is Jennifer Anderson, nutritionist and founder of Kids Eat in Color. Jennifer has a new book coming out all about helping kids develop a good relationship with food and with their bodies. That’s what we’re talking about in today’s episode.

Along the way, we also touched on some great tips for packing school lunches and making meals easier and more affordable. There’s so much conflicting information out there about feeding kids, and with their physical and mental health at risk, knowing what to do can be very stressful for parents. I love Jennifer’s common-sense and relaxed approach to eating and feeding, and I hope you do as well.

If you like this episode, please share it with a friend so more parents can learn about peaceful parenting. If you’re a fan of the podcast, you can help us out not only by sharing it, but by leaving a review and a five-star rating in your podcast player app. While you’re there, don’t forget to follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. If you’d like to support us even more, you can become a supporter on Substack to help us offset the cost of making the show. We’ll put a link in the show notes.

Okay, let’s meet Jennifer.

Hey, Jennifer. Welcome back to the podcast. This is your second time with us.

Jennifer: Thank you so much for having me.

Sarah: Yeah, I’m so excited. You have a new book coming out, so maybe you could introduce yourself and then tell us about your new book, which is available for pre-order and coming out in September. We will link to that in the show notes, but tell us a little bit about who you are and about your new book.

Jennifer: Sure. I’m a registered dietitian. I have two kids who have not been easy to feed, and I’m the founder of Kids Eat in Color and the CEO of Better Bites. I’m so excited to have this book coming out. It’s called Feed Them Well: A Guide to Raising Healthy, Confident Eaters for Life. I just cannot wait for parents to have this resource.

Sarah: Amazing. You were telling me before we started that the focus of your book is having kids have a healthy relationship not only with food, but with their bodies. Maybe we could start out by talking about—obviously, this could be a very long conversation—but some of the top things you’ve found that are really helpful, sort of dos and don’ts, in terms of having kids have that healthy relationship with food.

And also, what do you mean when you talk about a healthy relationship with their bodies? Maybe that’s a two-part question.

Jennifer: Yeah. I love that you framed it as a two-part question, because it is kind of a two-part question, but I feel like that’s only because in English we don’t have a way to describe the fact that these things are deeply connected in us.

When I think about a healthy relationship with food, I want to make sure kids know how to take care of their bodies. They know what a balanced diet looks like. They’re able to enjoy food, whatever kind of food it is. And also, we want kids to be able to really appreciate and live in their bodies, experience life through their bodies, and not have this deep what’s called internalized weight bias, where thin is the ideal. Thin is what everybody is shooting for. You should either be worried about how thin you are or trying to get thinner. That is a soul-sucking way of living when we’re so focused on weight and diet culture.

So we want to give kids another option. We want to give kids the ability to really appreciate their bodies, and yet we also want to do so in a way that they’re still able to care about the health of their bodies in a way that’s healthy, as opposed to just diet culture.

What I call this is embodied independence, where kids are independent. They know all the things they need to do, and they’re also embodied. They’re living in and experiencing their bodies.

When we think about what we want to do and what we want to not do, we want to model what we want kids to do, ideally, and this is in every single area of parenting, including eating. That’s where the independence comes from. We’re modeling, and we’re also providing the boundaries and opportunities for them.

I always tell parents, “You are in charge of your restaurant at home. You’re the head chef. You’re going to set when your restaurant hours are, you’re going to set what’s on the menu, you’re going to set all these things.” As you’re doing that, you are teaching your child what is part of a healthy lifestyle.

On the other side, we’re thinking about their relationship with their body. We want to minimize internalized weight bias, and that means we’re not discussing body sizes or body shapes. We’re not weighing ourselves in front of our kids. One of the most powerful things you can do as a parent is to not discuss your body size or shape and not discuss any weight-loss attempts at any point, if that’s something you ever engage in. Those two things are huge risk factors for disordered eating and eating disorders. If we could just not do that, that would actually be huge.

Sarah: I feel like that’s actually a real gift my mother gave me. She never talked about her weight or diets o…

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🎉 Celebrating 7 Years (+ A Special Anniversary Offer) 🎂 Jul 29, 2026

Show notes

Seven years ago, I started the Peaceful Parenting Membership to create a place where parents could keep learning and growing together.

In this special episode, I reflect on what I've learned after supporting thousands of families and why peaceful parenting isn't about perfection—it's about practice.

If you've ever thought, "I know what to do, I just can't seem to do it in the moment," this episode is for you.

I also share a special anniversary offer to celebrate seven years of this incredible community.

Learn more here: https://reimaginepeacefulparenting.com/sevenyears

Offer ends Saturday Aug 1.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sarahrosensweet.substack.com/subscribe

Emotionally Immature Parents with Morgan Pommells: Episode 229 Jul 24, 2026

Show notes

In this episode of The Peaceful Parenting Podcast, my guest is therapist Morgan Pommells. We explore the lasting impact of having an emotionally immature parent (EIP), including how to begin healing and how we can break the cycle with our own kids. We also talk about boundaries with our EIP parent, why children's big emotions aren't personal attacks, and what every child truly needs to thrive.

Know someone who might appreciate this episode? Share it with them!

And if you love the podcast, FREE ways to help us out:1- Rate and review the podcast in your podcast player app

2- “Like” this post by tapping the heart icon ♥️

3- Share this with a friend. THANK YOU!

You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or check out the fully edited transcript of our interview at the bottom of this post.

We talk about:

00:00 – Introduction to Morgan Pommells

02:30 – What is an emotionally immature parent?

07:15 – Emotional immaturity vs. narcissism: What’s the difference?

09:00 – Why emotionally immature parents are often critical

10:30 – The biggest impact on children: Growing up without a strong sense of self

12:00 – How childhood with an EIP affects adult relationships and self-worth, and our own parenting

15:30 – Healing from emotionally immature parenting

18:30 – Why your child’s big emotions are actually a sign of safety

19:00 – Navigating relationships with emotionally immature parents as an adult

27:00 – Teaching children that feelings aren’t dangerous

27:45 – Emotionally immature grandparents: Do the patterns continue?

29:15 – The power of delighting in your child

32:45 – What if your parenting partner is emotionally immature?

35:00 – The parenting mistake we all make: Taking children’s emotions personally

36:00 – Morgan’s advice for every parent: Heal your own wounds before they parent your children

38:00 – Where to find Morgan and closing thoughts

Resources mentioned in this episode:

* Morgan’s IG @morganpommells

Connect with Sarah Rosensweet:

* How to Stop Fighting About Video Games with Scott Novis

xx Sarah and Corey

Your peaceful parenting team- click here for a free short consult or a coaching session

Visit our website for free resources, podcast, coaching, membership and more!

In addition to knowing you are supporting our mission to support parents and children, you get the podcast ad free and access to a monthly ‘ask me anything’ session.

Sarah: Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Peaceful Parenting Podcast.

Today’s guest is Morgan Pommells. Morgan is a therapist and coach who helps the adult children of emotionally immature parents stop seeing themselves through their parents’ eyes and finally come home to who they really are.

Morgan and I discuss what an emotionally immature parent is, how that is—and isn’t—different from narcissism, and how people grow up to parent this way. Morgan also shares how having an emotionally immature parent affects us as children, how it continues to affect us once we’ve grown up, and how we can heal from having been raised by an emotionally immature parent.

We also talk about the opposite of emotionally immature parenting and what our kids need in order to grow up whole and healthy.

Morgan has so much wisdom, and so much of our work overlaps. I think you’re going to learn a lot from this conversation, and I think you’re really going to enjoy it.

If you like this episode, please share it with a friend so more parents can learn about peaceful parenting. If you’re a fan of the podcast, you can also help us out by leaving a five-star rating and review in your podcast app. While you’re there, don’t forget to follow the show so you don’t miss an episode.

Let’s meet Morgan.

Sarah: Hi, Morgan. Welcome to the podcast.

Morgan: Hi! Thank you for having me.

Sarah: I’m so glad to have you on. We’ve been trying to schedule this for a while, and I think this is such an important topic for parents. I’m so glad we finally got to sit down and have this conversation.

Morgan: Me too. It’s a super important topic for parents.

Sarah: Tell us a little about who you are and what you do.

Morgan: I’m a therapist and coach in Ontario, Canada, and I specialize exclusively in working with the adult children of emotionally immature parents. Whether that’s through workshops or one-to-one work, everything I do revolves around helping people heal from having emotionally immature parents.

Sarah: So tell us: what is an emotionally immature parent?

Morgan: Great question.

An emotionally immature parent is someone who really struggles to manage their own painful internal emotions. Those emotions tend to spill out onto everyone around them instead of being worked through internally. These are parents who might struggle with shame, rage, or fear of abandonment, and instead of taking responsibility for those feelings and working through them themselves, they become everyone else’s problem.

They take those emotions out on their children. They may recruit their children into never leaving them because they’re terrified of being abandoned. The child becomes responsible for soothing and managing the parent’s anxiety, which is really the opposite of what a healthy parent-child relationship is meant to be.

Sarah: Yeah.

What causes somebody... I guess you don’t become emotionally immature—you just never emotionally mature. What causes that lack of emotional maturation? How does somebody become an emotionally immature parent?

Morgan: There are a couple of different pathways.

A lot of emotionally immature parents have their own relational trauma. If we experience something deeply overwhelming at a young age and don’t have the capacity to metabolize it at the time, we can become emotionally stuck there. Our biological age keeps moving forward, but our emotional development doesn’t necessarily come with us. Our emotional defenses stay frozen at that younger age.

In other cases, someone may have had the capacity to become emotionally mature, but emotional immaturity was all that was ever modeled for them. They don’t have another template. They don’t know a different kind of parenting exists because they’re simply working from the script they inherited.

Sarah: So far we’ve been talking about this in psychological terms, but what does that actually look like in real life?

Let’s focus on an adult child. What would a familiar interaction look like between an emotionally immature parent and their grown child?

Morgan: One of the biggest dynamics is fear of abandonment.

When their child grows up, goes away to university, finds a partner, or simply starts building their own life, emotionally immature parents can become very controlling. They can become very mean. They can use shame to pull their child back toward them and keep them emotionally close because they’re so afraid of being abandoned.

When children are younger, it usually looks like a lot of control. That parent has a tremendous amount of fear and anxiety, but instead of working through it themselves, they try to control their child. As a result, the parent feels safer, but the child feels controlled and suffocated.

Sarah: So they’re almost externalizing their own feelings?

They feel scared, so they make their child feel scared? Or is that too simplified?

Morgan: No, in some cases that’s exactly what’s happening.

If you have a parent who’s very anxious or very fearful, it can actually feel safer if everyon…

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Dopamine Kids with Michaeleen Doucleff: Episode 228 Jul 12, 2026

Show notes

You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or check out the fully edited transcript of our interview at the bottom of this post.

In this episode of The Peaceful Parenting Podcast, Michaeleen Doucleff and I talk about her new book Dopamine Kids: A Science-Based Plan to Rewire Your Child’s Brain and Take You’re your Family in the Age of Screens and Ultraprocessed Foods. Michaeleen’s position is not that screens and ultra-processed food are “bad.” Rather, Michaeleen explains how they can take the place of things that truly bring us joy and pleasure, leaving us with an empty feeling of "what's next?" and an endless cycle of wanting. We focus on how dopamine has been misunderstood and how it actually works, how magnets like screens and ultraprocessed foods keep us stuck, and small changes you can make to start shifting things in your home.

Know someone who might appreciate this episode? Share it with them!

And if you love the podcast, FREE ways to help us out:1- Rate and review the podcast in your podcast player app

2- “Like” this post by tapping the heart icon ♥️

3- Share this with a friend. THANK YOU!

We talk about:

* 00:00 Introduction to Dopamine Kids and why our understanding of dopamine is outdated

* 02:15 Michaeleen’s journey from NPR science journalist to parenting author

* 05:00 Dopamine isn’t pleasure—it’s wanting: the neuroscience that changes everything

* 07:20 Why kids say they’d rather play with friends than be on screens

* 08:00 The difference between dopamine, serotonin, and real satisfaction

* 13:30 How apps and ultra-processed foods hijack the brain’s reward system

* 16:45 Why endless scrolling never feels satisfying

* 18:30 “Bottomlessness”—one of the biggest design tricks keeping us hooked

* 20:30 Why we want activities for our kids with a clear purpose and a clear endpoint

* 22:00 The veggie straw experiment that changed Michaeleen’s thinking about food

* 26:50 Magnets and cues: how screens become automatic habits

* 32:00 Why removing screens isn’t enough—you have to replace them

* 33:30 Helping kids meet their real need for adventure and autonomy

* 36:00 Small, permanent changes vs. temporary screen detoxes

* 37:30 Why the car is a great place to start reducing screens

* 38:00 Is reducing screens really more work?

* 40:15 Why laws and regulations haven’t caught up with technology

* 43:00 Why this isn’t a willpower problem

* 46:30 Can kids ever use screens in moderation?

* 49:00 Paid video games vs. free games

* 51:30 This isn’t about screens being “bad”

* 53:00 Helping kids gradually learn to use technology well

* 54:00 School Chromebooks and why parents have more influence than they realize

* 58:00 Advice Michaeleen would give her younger parenting self

* 1:00:00 Why kids have to experience offline joy before they’ll want it

* 1:01:00 Sarah’s client who removed the TV—and what happened next

* 1:02:30 Final thoughts and where to find Michaeleen

Resources mentioned in this episode:

* Michaeleen’s website

* Dopamine Kids: A Science-Based Plan to Rewire Your Child’s Brain and Take You’re your Family in the Age of Screens and Ultraprocessed Foods

Connect with Sarah Rosensweet:

* Synergetic Play Therapy Institute

xx Sarah and Corey

Your peaceful parenting team- click here for a free short consult or a coaching session

Visit our website for free resources, podcast, coaching, membership and more!

In addition to knowing you are supporting our mission to support parents and children, you get the podcast ad free and access to a monthly ‘ask me anything’ session.

Sarah: Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Peaceful Parenting Podcast.

Today’s guest is journalist Michaeleen Doucleff. She is the author of the book Hunt, Gather, Parent and now has a new book out called Dopamine Kids: A Science-Based Plan to Rewire Your Child’s Brain and Take Back Your Family in the Age of Screens and Ultra-Processed Food.

Michaeleen’s first book is one of our favorite parenting books, and now we can add this one to the list. She walks us through how screens and ultra-processed food hook us and keep our brains stuck in a hijacked wanting cycle without giving us actual rewards and pleasure.

We eventually get around to discussing this, but I want to stress right here at the beginning that Michaeleen isn’t saying that screens and ultra-processed food are evil or that they have no place in our lives. Rather, they can take the place of things that truly bring us joy and pleasure, leaving us with an empty feeling of “what’s next?” and an endless cycle of wanting.

I learned so much from this book. I’d been wanting to make some changes in my own life with my relationship with my phone, and this book helped me understand why it was so hard and what I could do. A hint: as it turns out, we don’t understand dopamine correctly at all. Our cultural shorthand about what dopamine is and what role it plays in the motivation and pleasure cycle is totally outdated.

If you’re interested in making some positive shifts in your child’s life, in your family, and in your own life, you’re going to love this interview and Michaeleen’s book.

If you’d like to support us even more, you can become a supporter on Substack to help us offset the cost of making the show. We’ll put a link in the show notes.

Let’s meet Michaeleen. I hope you enjoy this conversation and get as much out of her insights as I did.

Sarah: Hi, Michaeleen. Welcome back to the podcast.

Michaeleen: Thank you so much for having me.

Sarah: When we had you on a few years ago to talk about your first parenting book, Hunt, Gather, Parent—we’ll link to it in the show notes—it ended up being one of our favorite podcasts out of the 200-some episodes we’ve done. I’m so excited to have you back to talk about your new book.

Michaeleen: Thank you so much. That’s so nice. It’s an honor to come back.

Sarah: I’m so happy to have you. Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.

Michaeleen: I was—or I still am—a science journalist. I’ve been one now for about 16 years, and I spent 13 or 14 years as a radio correspondent at NPR. I’m still there covering children’s health, global health, neuroscience, and psychology.

Before that, I was trained as a chemist. I have a PhD in chemistry.

Five years ago, I wrote the parenting book Hunt, Gather, Parent, and I had no idea I’d ever become a parenting expert. That definitely wasn’t on my life bingo card.

When I had my daughter Rosie almost 11 years ago, I had no clue what I was doing. It just seemed like an impossible task. Then I started studying parenting around the world, and I realized there was an easier way to do things. That’s what Hunt, Gather, Parent is about.

More recently, about six years ago, I was really trying to fix my own screen problem—my own addiction to my phone. I was so obsessed with it. As I investigated neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral psychology, I started to realize, “Oh gosh, we’re really getting a lot of things wrong when it comes to screens and our kids.”

That led me to write this next book, D…

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FREE Peaceful Parenting Reset Jun 12, 2026

Show notes

Between end-of-school-year chaos, summer transitions, and the general heaviness of life right now, it can be easy to drift away from the peaceful parenting practices that help us feel grounded and connected with our kids.

In this short bonus episode, Corey and I talk about the *free* Peaceful Parenting Reset — a free 5-day experience designed to help you get back to basics with simple, manageable tools that can make a real difference in your home. Plus, this time we’re including a special Summer Planning Workshop to help you head into summer feeling intentional and prepared.

It’s free, it starts Monday June 15, and I’d love for you to join us.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sarahrosensweet.substack.com/subscribe

All About Meltdowns: Episode 227 Jun 10, 2026

Show notes

You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or check out the fully edited transcript of our interview at the bottom of this post.

In this episode of The Peaceful Parenting Podcast, I interviewed Hayden Ahlbrandt, a certified Synergetic Play Therapist. Hayden shares some really helpful thoughts and strategies on both how we can prevent meltdowns and how best to support our child—and ourselves—once we find ourselves with a meltdown on our hands. We focus on connection, co-regulation, mindfulness, and creating safety.

Know someone who might appreciate this episode? Share it with them!

And if you love the podcast, FREE ways to help us out:1- Rate and review the podcast in your podcast player app

2- “Like” this post by tapping the heart icon ♥️

3- Share this with a friend. THANK YOU!

We talk about:

* 00:00 – Sarah introduces Hayden Ahlbrandt, certified Synergetic Play Therapist. Overview of meltdowns, regulation, and co-regulation

* 05:25 – Viewing behavior through a nervous system lens

* 10:30 – Understanding Meltdowns Through the “Pop Bottle” Analogy

* 12:00 – Why some days kids can handle more than others

* 1:00 – “Regulation Is Connection to Self” - Helping kids discover what naturally regulates them

* 20:00 – Why Regulation Tools Need to be Practiced Outside Meltdowns

* 22:00 – Preventing Meltdowns

* 24:00 – The Three Rs: Regulate, Relate, Reason

* 30:00 – Mindfulness and Co-Regulation

* 32:30 – The Parent’s Nervous System

* 36:00 – Aggression During Meltdowns

* 38:30 – Making the Environment Feel Safer

* 42:00 – Parenting Advice Hayden Wishes He’d Known Earlier

Resources mentioned in this episode:

* Hayden’s website

* Hayden’s IG @lowtideplaytherapist

Connect with Sarah Rosensweet:

* Dr. Justin’s website and podcast

xx Sarah and Corey

Your peaceful parenting team- click here for a free short consult or a coaching session

Visit our website for free resources, podcast, coaching, membership and more!

In addition to knowing you are supporting our mission to support parents and children, you get the podcast ad free and access to a monthly ‘ask me anything’ session.

Our sponsors:

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Sarah: Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Peaceful Parenting Podcast.

Today’s guest is Hayden Ahlbrandt. Hayden is a certified Synergetic Play Therapist who lights up at any opportunity to teach, educate, and support adults in how they can best support the children in their lives.

He specializes in meltdowns, and that’s what we’re going to be talking about today. Hayden shares some really helpful thoughts and strategies on both how we can prevent meltdowns and how best to support our child—and ourselves—once we find ourselves with a meltdown on our hands.

I think you’re going to find this episode really useful, no matter how old your child is. One thing I really appreciate is that Hayden sees meltdowns through the lens of the nervous system and in terms of regulation, dysregulation, and co-regulation.

I’m definitely going to be thinking about a phrase he shared: “Regulation is connection to self.”

If you like this episode, please share it with a friend. Word of mouth is the best way to get more eyes and ears on the podcast.

If you’re a fan of the podcast, you can help us out not only by sharing it, but by leaving a review and a five-star rating in your podcast player app. While you’re there, don’t forget to follow the show so you don’t miss an episode.

If you’d like to support us even more, you can become a supporter on Substack to help us offset the cost of making the show.

You can also check out our sponsors: Yoto Audio Players for Kids, a screen-free alternative that makes listening, learning, and entertainment easy with no screens, and Evelyn & Bobbie Bras, the most comfortable and flattering bra I’ve ever worn.

Links are in the show notes.

Okay, let’s meet Hayden.

Sarah: Hi, Hayden. Welcome to the podcast.

Hayden: Thank you so much. I’m excited to be here.

Sarah: Yeah, I’m excited to have you. I found you on Instagram, and I love all the reels that you make. I love your energy and how you show up for parents so they can show up for their kids. So I’m really glad to have you on the podcast.

Hayden: I appreciate that.

Sarah: Tell us about who you are and what you do.

Hayden: Yeah. Well, obviously, my name’s Hayden.

I’m a certified Synergetic Play Therapist, and I have my own play therapy practice. Like you mentioned, my Instagram has become something I’ve had a lot of fun doing. It’s really given me an avenue to work with adults and support them in how we support kids.

So I kind of have a two-pronged approach right now. I work with kids in my play therapy practice, but I also do a lot of speaking, presenting, workshops, and that kind of thing—giving parents the tools from the training I have so they can better support kids.

My specialization has really become focused on big behaviors and meltdowns. I also work with a lot of anxiety.

So that’s the quick elevator speech.

Sarah: Yeah, it makes sense because you have the kids for maybe an hour a week—or whatever your typical amount is—but then they’re off with their parents for all of the rest of the days and hours of the week.

If parents don’t know how to support them during that time, it probably makes your job not work as well, right?

Hayden: Yeah, definitely.

I always explain it as wraparound support. I think we can do so much in our time together and in our work during sessions, but things are just going to move so much quicker when parents are involved.

Ultimately, that’s how I view my work as a play therapist. We’re not trying to make drastic changes or fix things. We’re trying to help the child feel better because, typically, when they’re coming in, it’s because something in their world feels really big, really hard, or really challenging, and that’s coming out as behaviors.

Sarah: Right.

Hayden: I kind of view it that way. We’re trying to help the child feel better, which is going to help the whole family system feel better.

Typically, with the kinds of things I mentioned—if a child is having really big, intense meltdowns that are above and beyond what’s developmentally appropriate—it can be really hard on the entire family system: siblings, parents, whoever it might be.

I talk about it as creating as much wraparound support as possible because it’s going to help the child work through whatever feels clogged for them in that moment.

Sarah: What’s a Synergetic Play Therapist?

Hayden: Yeah. Synergetic Play Therapy is a modality, an approach—a specific type of play therapy.

The way I typically explain it is that we’re really worki…

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The Psychology of Peaceful Parenting with Dr. Justin Coulson: Episode 226 May 22, 2026

Show notes

You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or check out the fully edited transcript of our interview at the bottom of this post.

In this episode of The Peaceful Parenting Podcast, my guest is Dr. Justin Coulson, an Australian parenting expert and father of 6 who has his PhD in psychology and is the author of 10 books on parenting and the co-host of the Happy Families podcast with his wife, Kylie. We discuss the psychology behind peaceful parenting, including how self-determination theory explains kids’ challenging behavior. Dr. Justin also shared his three E’s of discipline.

Know someone who might appreciate this episode? Share it with them!

And if you love the podcast, FREE ways to help us out:1- Rate and review the podcast in your podcast player app

2- “Like” this post by tapping the heart icon ♥️

3- Share this with a friend. THANK YOU!

We talk about:

* 1:45 – Introduction to Dr. Justin Coulson and his personal parenting turning point

How struggles with anger and discipline led him to rethink everything and study psychology.

* 08:20 – Learning to regulate ourselves, practicing repair, and growing over time.

* 15:50 – Why peaceful parenting starts with the parent’s self-awareness and regulation.

* 19:50 – Understanding behavior through compassion and curiosity.

* 20:50 – The HALTS framework

How hunger, anger, loneliness, tiredness, and stress impact children’s behavior.

* 23:00 – Self-determination theory and parenting

* 33:00 – The 3 E’s of Effective Discipline

* 41:50 – How to use the 3 E’s in everyday parenting moments.

Real-life examples: screens, sibling conflict & collaboration

* 49:00 – Building trust and the “goodwill bank” with kids

Why collaborative parenting pays off when tough limits are needed.

* 53:30 – Advice to his younger parenting self: “soft eyes”

A powerful reflection on kindness, connection, and showing up with compassion.

* 56:30 – Where to find Dr. Justin Coulson

His podcast, books, and upcoming work on boys and healthy masculinity.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Connect with Sarah Rosensweet:

* Peaceful Parenting in the Teen Years Course starting Tuesday, May 5 th

xx Sarah and Corey

Your peaceful parenting team- click here for a free short consult or a coaching session

Visit our website for free resources, podcast, coaching, membership and more!

>> Please support us!!! Please consider becoming a supporter to help support our free content, including The Peaceful Parenting Podcast, our free parenting support Facebook group, and our weekly parenting emails, “Weekend Reflections” and “Weekend Support” - plus our Flourish With Your Complex Child Summit (coming back in the summer for the 3rd year!) All of this free support for you takes a lot of time and energy from me and my team. If it has been helpful or meaningful for you, your support would help us to continue to provide support for free, for you and for others.

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Sarah: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Peaceful Parenting Podcast. Today’s guest is Dr. Justin Coulson. He’s an Australian parenting expert with a PhD in psychology, the author of 10 books on parenting, the co-host of the Happy Families podcast with his wife, Kylie, the father of six children, and, last but not least, grandfather of one.

We discuss the psychology behind peaceful parenting, including how self-determination theory explains kids’ challenging behavior. Dr. Justin also shared his three E’s of discipline, which I just loved.

If you’d like to support us even more, you can become a supporter on Substack to help us offset the cost of making the show. We’ll put a link in the show notes.

Let’s meet Dr. Justin. I hope you enjoy this conversation and get as much out of his insights as I did.

Sarah: Hello, Dr. Justin, and welcome to the podcast.

Dr. Justin: Sarah, I’m so glad to be with you. Thanks for having me on.

Sarah: Yeah, and it’s morning for you, evening for me—nice—and I’m just glad that we could make this time to talk to each other. I really appreciate it. Thank you. So, could you just tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do?

Dr. Justin: Sure. I grew up on the east coast of Australia, about an hour north of Sydney. Geographically, that kind of locates where I was. I was the teenage boy that every parent hopes they will not have. I don’t think I was a particularly bad kid, but I certainly wasn’t a good kid.

My parents were spending a small fortune—I’m a 1975 baby, I turned 50 last year—but this was in the late ’80s and early ’90s. My parents were spending so much money to send me to a private school. Because we were on the coast—a very quintessentially Australian thing—I was wagging school.

Do you say “wagging school” in Canada? Is that a term Canadians use?

Sarah: No, but I think we get the context. I think it means not going to school.

Dr. Justin: Yeah, I was truant. They thought I was there, but I wasn’t.

Sarah: We say skipping.

Dr. Justin: I was skipping school. Okay, yeah. We call it a school wag.

So I would go to school in the morning and get my name marked off in roll call. Then I would sneak out of the school. Across the road from the school, there were bushes—kind of a forest, or whatever you might call it in Canada and America. I would get changed out of my tie, long pants, and black school shoes, throw on some board shorts and a T-shirt.

My surfboard was stashed in the bush, and I’d grab it from the hiding place. Then I’d jump on a bus, go to the beach, and surf all day. Afterward, I’d get a bus back to school in the afternoon, change back into my uniform, and race into the school just in time to get my name marked off, looking like I’d been at school all day.

This was in the days before schools communicated with parents via email and text, because none of that existed. I was able to get away with it.

So I finished high school. I scored in the bottom 15%—

Sarah: Goodness.

Dr. Justin: Not just my class, but of the entire state of New South Wales. My parents were devastated.

I didn’t care. I wanted to have a media career. I wanted to be a radio announcer. So I got into radio. If you’ve ever listened to the radio—and no offense to radio people—you know you don’t have to do well at school to be good at radio. You just have to be able to sit on the microphone and say things that make sense.

I knew I could do that, so school didn’t matter to me. I didn’t care about it. That’s what I did.

But this is where it intersects with parenting.

About 10 years into my radio career, my wife and I were having some challenges, particularly around my parenting. We had a threenager and a newborn baby.

That three-year-old—I had always held the opinion that my children would do a…

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Teens, Tweens and Peaceful Parenting: Episode 225 May 02, 2026

Show notes

👉 PSST- Are you currently parenting teens? Before we get into the podcast, I want to make sure you know that my Peaceful Parenting in the Teen Years group coaching course starts on Tuesday, May 5. Learn more and how to join us HERE.

Back to the podcast— You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or check out the fully edited transcript of our interview at the bottom of this post.

In this episode of The Peaceful Parenting Podcast, Corey and I discuss peaceful parenting teens and tweens, including mindset shifts, connection strategies, sideways listening, and why the teen years can be joyful instead of scary.

Know someone who might appreciate this episode? Share it with them!

And if you love the podcast, FREE ways to help us out:1- Rate and review the podcast in your podcast player app2- “Like” this post by tapping the heart icon ♥️3- Share this with a friend. THANK YOU!

We talk about:

* 00:00 — Introduction: Peaceful parenting teens and tweens

* 01:02 — Why the teen years don’t have to be scary

* 02:39 — The importance of parents

* 04:48 — Don’t take teen behavior personally

* 06:32 — Responding to the feeling under the attitude

* 08:42 — Remembering how hard the teen years can feel

* 12:39 — Connection matters: “at what cost to the relationship?”

* 14:12 — Tip: sideways listening

* 15:41 — Tip: being a “potted plant”

* 17:51 — Tip: connect on their terms and timeline

* 21:17 — Why the teen years can be something to look forward to

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Connect with Sarah Rosensweet:

xx Sarah and Corey

Your peaceful parenting team- click here for a free short consult or a coaching session

Visit our website for free resources, podcast, coaching, membership and more!

>> Please support us!!! Please consider becoming a supporter to help support our free content, including The Peaceful Parenting Podcast, our free parenting support Facebook group, and our weekly parenting emails, “Weekend Reflections” and “Weekend Support” - plus our Flourish With Your Complex Child Summit (coming back in the summer for the 3rd year!) All of this free support for you takes a lot of time and energy from me and my team. If it has been helpful or meaningful for you, your support would help us to continue to provide support for free, for you and for others.

In addition to knowing you are supporting our mission to support parents and children, you get the podcast ad free and access to a monthly ‘ask me anything’ session.

Our sponsors:

Sarah: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Peaceful Parenting Podcast. I have Corey here with me today, and we are going to be talking about peaceful parenting teens and tweens. Welcome, Corey.

Corey: Thanks for having me.

Sarah: All right, Corey, we were just reminiscing about how long we’ve known each other, and you have known me for eight years now. So you’ve seen me through all of the teen and tween years. How are you feeling about when your kids are getting closer to those ages?

Corey: I actually feel really good about it, and I tell people this all the time. I think from watching you go through it and seeing how much you loved and enjoyed the teen years, I actually don’t feel nervous at all. I feel excited. I’m really enjoying watching my kids get older.

Sarah: That’s so great. Yeah. I guess Maxine was 10, Asa was 13, and Lee was 16 when we met each other. So you really have seen me through all of those years. And Maxine, I can’t believe it, she’s going to be 19 soon, so I’m almost done with the teen years.

And you know, it’s really interesting because when they were little, Jesse and I went, “Oh my gosh, we’re going to have three teenagers at the same time.” And teenagers get such a bad rap. Everyone’s always talking about, “Oh, just wait. Just wait until they’re teenagers.” And I thought teenagers were amazing. Those were some of our best years when they were teenagers, and really, it’s all because of peaceful parenting.

I don’t think my kids are unusual. I mean, I think they’re great, but I think they were pretty typical teenagers, and I just think it’s peaceful parenting.

Corey: Yeah. I can’t get over how often I hear that. All the time, everyone’s just being like, “What’s it going to be like when they’re teenagers?” It’s this fear. It’s this cultural thing where everyone’s terrified of them.

Sarah: Yeah, yeah. And teenagers can have a hard time. It’s interesting: I was looking at some of this research the other day, and there’s a study—actually, I think my dad sent this to me—about how the most protective factor for a teenager not getting into trouble or having issues when they’re teenagers is a warm relationship with parents. That’s the number one protective factor for how teenagers do.

So in peaceful parenting, it’s all about the relationship, right? It’s all about connection. Since we are talking about teens and tweens today, maybe we’ll talk about some of the mindset shifts that we need to make with teenagers and tweens, and then we’ll go over a couple of tips. How does that sound?

Corey: That sounds great.

Sarah: Great. And before we get too far into this, part of the reason we were talking about this is because I have a course coming up. It’s a small group coaching course. It’s part instruction, part coaching, about peaceful parenting teenagers. Because while the concepts are the same as peaceful parenting younger kids, there are some adjustments that we need to make for teenagers, and there are also special considerations for peaceful parenting teenagers.

So if anyone’s interested in that, it starts on Tuesday, on the first Tuesday in May—whatever the date is. And it will be recorded if you can’t make it live. If anyone’s interested in signing up, it’s for six weeks starting on this coming Tuesday. We’ll put a link in the show notes for more information and for signing up.

I only offer this once a year, and you really do need to have a teenager. Don’t sign up for this if your kid is 12 or 11. We’re really focusing on kids who are already teenagers. So check that out in the show notes if you’re interested in joining us.

Let’s talk about teens and tweens.

So, mindset. These are things that are really important to remember whether your kid is 4 or 14, but they’re especially important. I think peaceful parenting teenagers is like peaceful parenting on steroids.

Corey: That’s a really good way to describe it.

Sarah: Yeah. Everything that you need to do when your kid is younger, you need to do even more when they’re teenagers.

One of the things that I always remind clients and people—and reminded myself when my kids were teenagers—is: don’t take it personally. It can be so hard, I think, because they’re bigger and they look like adults in some ways, right? Even parents who find it easy not to take it personally if a four-year-old is like, “You’re the meanest mommy, and you’re not invited to my birthday party”—it’s easier for us not to take it personally when they’re little. But when your 14-year-old says, “I hate you,” or whatever, it can be really hard not to take it personally because they a…

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You, Your Partner and Same Page Parenting with Martina Nova: Episode 224 Apr 16, 2026

Show notes

👉 PSST- Dealing with anxiety in your family? Or want to know what to do so it doesn’t become an issue? Before we get into the podcast, I want to make sure you know about the workshop I’m teaching How to Become an Anxiety-Resilient Family: What actually helps kids handle anxiety (and what unintentionally makes it worse) All the details are HERE

Back to the podcast— You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or check out the fully edited transcript of our interview at the bottom of this post.

In this episode of The Peaceful Parenting Podcast, Martina Nova, author of Same Page Parenting, talks about co-parenting, postpartum mental health, conflict, invisible labor, gender roles, and how couples can stay connected while raising kids.

Know someone who might appreciate this episode? Share it with them!

We talk about:

* 00:00 Introduction to Martina Nova and Same Page Parenting

* 02:00 Why parenting conversations are about more than logistics

* 04:00 Common issues couples do not realize they need to discuss

* 06:00 Postpartum mental health for both parents

* 08:00 How parenting brings up our own childhood patterns and trauma

* 13:00 Why little kids can be so hard on relationships

* 16:00 Feeling touched out, disconnected, and like roommates

* 18:00 How to start rebuilding connection with your partner

* 20:00 Conflict styles and how to handle conflict better

* 23:00 Gender roles, invisible labor, and what kids learn from us

* 29:00 Why involving kids in home life matters

* 32:00 The deeper goal of the book: connection between co-parents

* 34:00 Where to find Martina and her work

* 35:00 Advice Martina would give her younger parent self

Resources mentioned in this episode:

* Martina’s website

* Martina’s Book Same Page Parenting

Connect with Sarah Rosensweet:

* Rejecting Impossible Parenting Standards: What Disability Teaches Us About Care and Community with Jessica Slice: Episode 220

xx Sarah and Corey

Your peaceful parenting team- click here for a free short consult or a coaching session

Visit our website for free resources, podcast, coaching, membership and more!

>> Please support us!!! Please consider becoming a supporter to help support our free content, including The Peaceful Parenting Podcast, our free parenting support Facebook group, and our weekly parenting emails, “Weekend Reflections” and “Weekend Support” - plus our Flourish With Your Complex Child Summit (coming back in the summer for the 3rd year!) All of this free support for you takes a lot of time and energy from me and my team. If it has been helpful or meaningful for you, your support would help us to continue to provide support for free, for you and for others.

In addition to knowing you are supporting our mission to support parents and children, you get the podcast ad free and access to a monthly ‘ask me anything’ session.

Our sponsors:

Sarah: Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Peaceful Parenting Podcast. Today’s guest is Martina Nova. She’s a clinical therapist and author of the new book Same Page Parenting: Align with Your Partner to Raise Happy, Confident, and Resilient Kids.

Martina wrote this book because she realized, through her own experience as a parent and through her work with couples, that it can be really hard to find ways to talk about, and as she puts it, get on the same page with your partner about many of the issues that come up for us as we raise kids. We discussed some of these common issues, like how you connect after kids, how you handle conflict, and why relationships after kids can be so hard.

We also discussed how we teach kids about these issues and others, such as gender roles, whether we mean to be teaching them or not. If you find this episode helpful, please share it with a friend.

If you’re a fan of the podcast, please take a minute to rate and review us on your podcast player app. Remember, if you want the podcast ad-free, you can support us on Substack for less than $10 a month. Not only do you get the podcast ad-free, you get access to Q and As with me and discounts on workshops.

You also get the satisfaction of knowing that you’re helping to support us as we change the world through peaceful parenting. We’ll put the link to support us on Substack right here in the show notes, or you can just search up my name and Substack and you’ll find us. Let’s go ahead and meet Martina.

Hi Martina, welcome to the podcast.

Martina: Hi Sarah. Thanks so much for having me.

Sarah: Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do, and then tell us about your new book.

Martina: Of course. My name is Martina. I am a therapist in Vancouver, BC. I’m also a mom of two little ones, and I’m a co-parent as well.

So I recently wrote a book called Same Page Parenting, which I started thinking about toward the end of my last pregnancy, and it kind of developed when my youngest was really little. But it’s a book that I wrote in order to help a lot of people have conversations about parenting that we don’t realize we need to have.

It’s not just about how many diapers are we gonna go through, who’s gonna wake up for night feedings, what kind of onesies should we buy, but things about how do we understand how our upbringing influences so many different categories of parenting, how we show up emotionally for our children, how society shapes our views on certain things, how our own neurodiversity might come into play when we’re trying to regulate ourselves and be there for our kids, or even some views about gender roles or other assumed expectations that we don’t even know would be helpful to talk about before or during parenthood.

Sarah: I’ve always said that there should be some sort of test, or some way to know how your partner will be as a parent and the things that will come up, because you really can’t know. A lot of stuff comes up after you have kids that you wouldn’t even have known to talk about, or how having children was gonna affect you and affect your relationship. So this, as far as I know, no one’s developed a test yet, but this is a good substitute.

Probably everyone listening to this already has kids because it’s a parenting podcast. But this would be a great baby shower gift or something for someone, for them to talk with their partner about all of these things before, when they have maybe a little bit more leisure and time to sort of figure out how they’re gonna handle things.

One thing I do like about your book—the way it’s structured, I’ll just tell people, is you have a topic and then you have a sort of a brainstorm of questions for each age of parenting. Like, if you’re pregnant, these are some questions you might think about. If you have preschoolers, or if you have middle schoolers, or if you have adult children. And so you kind of go through all the ages and how each of the topics that you’re talking about, the kind of questions that might come up around that.

So it’s—and you said in your introduction you can skip around, go to the chapter that you need right now. It’s a very interesting and different parenting book. It’s not like any o…

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Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should: Episode 223 Apr 01, 2026

Show notes

You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or check out the fully edited transcript of our interview at the bottom of this post.

In this episode of The Peaceful Parenting Podcast, Corey and I explore the pressure of intensive parenting and the idea that “just because you can doesn’t mean you should.” We discuss burnout, productivity culture, and how letting go of unrealistic or unnecessary expectations can help us be the parents we truly want to be.

Know someone who might appreciate this episode? Share it with them!

And if you love the podcast, FREE ways to help us out:1- Rate and review the podcast in your podcast player app 2- “Like” this post by tapping the heart icon ♥️ 3- Share this with a friend. THANK YOU!

We talk about:

* 00:00 — Intensive parenting and unrealistic expectations: “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should”

* 03:00 — Cultural expectations and productivity mindset and the “perfect parent” standard

* 06:00 — How parents get overwhelmed: Sports, activities, food, and overscheduling

* 09:00 — Choosing what actually matters- “Does this spark joy?” and letting go of unnecessary tasks

* 13:00 — Doing less to feel better

* 15:00 — Productivity, burnout, and rest

* 17:00 — Letting go of control and accepting help and why independence isn’t everything

* 21:00 — Questioning parenting norms

* 25:00 — Why care and interdependence matter

* 30:00 — Corey’s injury story + the cost of overdoing it

* 34:00 — The importance of receiving care

* 36:00 — Rethinking what it means to be a “good parent”

Resources mentioned in this episode:

* Ditch Special Time? Connecting with complex kids when connecting is hard: Episode 212

* Episode 60: Hunt, Gather, Parent with Michaeleen Doucleff

* Strong-Willed Kids Workshop

Connect with Sarah Rosensweet: