Your Parenting Long Game

Episode 335: When Your Child Resists Doing Boring or Uncomfortable Things Feb 13, 2025

It can be frustrating when our children won’t do what they’re supposed to do: brush their teeth, finish their homework, or complete a chore that we’ve been asking them to finish. While it’s common for kids with big emotions to resist things that feel boring or uncomfortable, it can be exhausting for parents to find “just the right thing” to motivate them to move forward. The good news is, understanding one thing about resistance can reduce it tremendously.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why kids with big emotions are so likely to resist doing boring or uncomfortable things (what’s going on in their brain)
How to recognize this type of response
How to get kids on board with reducing the resistance

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Episode 334: What’s in Control in Your Home: You or Everyone’s Reactions? Feb 06, 2025

You crave a peaceful home, but peace can be hard to come by when raising children with big emotions. Our kids are quick to react disproportionately to situations, and it’s easy to get sucked into their drama. How can we make sure that we are in control of our homes rather than everyone’s reactions?

In this episode, you’ll learn:

The science behind big reactions (and why we have more control that we think)
How to break the cycle of Yuck that keeps us stuck
A Leadership Parenting strategy called “Expect and Plan” that ensures we are in charge of our homes, not everyone’s reactions

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Episode 333: A Parenting Mistake & What I Did to Address My Guilt Jan 23, 2025

Show Notes:

We might want to handle the daily stressors of life with calmness and respect, but often it doesn’t work that way. (At least not for me!) Listen as I describe a situation I handled pretty poorly as a parent – and the strategies I used to get myself out of a cycle of guilt.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

How to feel our feelings without being controlled by Yuck
A simple and effective Leadership Parenting strategy to address mistakes
Questions to ask YOURSELF when you do something you regret

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Free live "Power Hour" event: How to Boost Confidence in Children with Big Emotions

Free live "Power Hour" event

Episode 332: When Children Resist Doing Hard Things: When to Push (and When Not To) Jan 16, 2025

https://rachel-bailey.com/332https://rachel-bailey.com/332Show Notes:

When we are raising children with big emotions, it can be frustrating watching them struggle when things don’t come easily. Even when we encourage them and remind them that they can do hard things, they may continue to complain or resist, leaving us wondering: Should we push them, or should we give in? Fortunately, there is a simple way to make this decision… and a way to help them handle discomfort when a push is appropriate.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why children with big emotions often avoid doing hard things
How to decide when to push them do hard things and when it doesn’t make sense to push
How we can help deal with their discomfort so they can become the best version of themselves

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Free resource: Summary of Episode 332

Free live "Power Hour" event

Episode 331: When Your Child Is Hard on Themselves When They Make a Mistake (Why Saying “It’s OK” Doesn’t Help) Jan 09, 2025

Show Notes:

While some kids with big emotions blame others, others are incredibly hard on themselves. And it can be devastating to hear them beat themselves up when they make a mistake! Often when they do, our instinct is to tell them it will be okay, that it’s not a big deal, that everyone makes mistakes. But as you’ve probably noticed, that doesn’t make them stop this behavior in the long run, and it can even make them feel worse in the moment. The good news is that we can use Leadership Parenting strategies to help our children – and ourselves! – handle these situations more effectively.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why previous attempts to help our kids calm down haven’t worked -- and often make things worse instead
Qualities that many children with big emotions have in common (and why it feels like they regularly get stuck in cycles of negativity)
How to stay regulated and help kids get unstuck so they can learn how to handle their mistakes in the moment… and build resilience for the future

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Free resource: Summary of Episode 331

FREE RESOURCE: Leadership Parenting Strategies

Episode 330: Using Leadership Parenting Strategies so That Emotions and Reactions No Longer Control Your Home Jan 06, 2025

Most parents who are raising kids with big emotions would say that our kids’ reactions – their reactions when they don’t get their way, or when they have to do something they don’t want to do, etc. – tend to be very big and very difficult to manage. Often, we feel like their reactions control our homes because they impact our daily routines, our other children, and even the decisions we make. But it is possible to regain control of your home so that it doesn’t seem like those emotions or reactions are in charge! Specific step-by-step strategies, called Leadership Parenting strategies, can help you make that happen.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

What Leadership Parenting strategies are and why they’re so powerful
Two actionable leadership parenting strategies that allow us and our children to respect emotions without being controlled by them
Benefits of using leadership parenting strategies with our kids

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Free training for parents with kids with big emotions Learn more about the Leadership Parenting Academy and Leadership Parenting Success Lab

Bonus Episode 2: A Plan for Holiday Success (Focusing on Kids’ Behaviors) Dec 12, 2024

Having a joyful and connected holiday season can be challenging when we are raising kids with big emotions. We are so busy and our children are overstimulated, full of sugar and out of their regular routines. If we aren’t proactive, we can become overwhelmed, exhausted, and resentful. The good news is, a simple process (that just takes a few minutes) can reduce holiday Yuck and increase our parenting influence, giving us more energy to enjoy the season.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

How to work with our children to solve problems, rather than working against them
A simple process that addresses our kids’ negative behavior, moods, and attitudes in the moment
How to use this same process to teach them the skills they need for the next time they have big feelings

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FREE RESOURCE: Work WITH your child using the 4Ps

Free training for parents with kids with big emotions

Bonus Episode 1: A Plan for Holiday Success (Based on What's in Your Control) Nov 28, 2024

https://rachel-bailey.com/?p=88635Holidays can be hard for kids with big emotions. From staying up late to being out of regular routines to being overstimulated, this season can leave us all feeling exhausted and stressed. In this bonus episode, I share a plan for holiday stress that doesn’t take a lot of time... and almost always leads to success!

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why taking 5-10 minutes now will save you hours later
The steps in this process, with an example of each
How this plan ensures that you will feel more in control this holiday season

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FREE RESOURCE: Plan for Success with the 4Ps (and examples)

Get Rachel's support

Free training for parents with kids with big emotions

Episode 329: Change One Word To Make a Big Difference to a Child With Big Emotions (or Anyone!) Nov 21, 2024

Show Notes:

It can be hard to know what to say to a child with big emotions when they're struggling. And while it’s important not to pressure yourself to say the “right thing” all the time, one small change (that you can make immediately) will almost always make things better in those situations.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why one word (that most of us use all the time) almost always upsets children with big emotions
The alternative word that can make a positive difference in negative situations
How this shift improves our influence in the moment and strengthens our children’s self-esteem in the long run

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FREE RESOURCE: Reminder of “but” to “because” strategy + examples

Apply to Rachel’s “Beyond Behavior Blueprint” program

Free training for parents with kids with big emotions

Episode 328: A Simple Action That Strengthens Your Child’s Confidence & Your Relationship Nov 07, 2024

Many kids with big emotions lack confidence, and that can be heartbreaking to see. While building children’s confidence doesn’t happen overnight, one simple action can help. Even better, this same action can also strengthen your relationship and takes less than a minute to use!

In this episode, you’ll learn:

The simple strategy to strengthen your child’s confidence and your relationship
How we can incorporate this strategy into our daily lives
Why this strategy might not work for anxious or sensitive kids (and why that’s a good thing!)

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FREE RESOURCE: List of "Emotional Needs Accounts" + ideas for deposits

Apply to Rachel's "Beyond Behavior Blueprint" program