No parent wants to see their child struggle.
But there’s a point when our help isn’t helping them learn the skills they need to thrive later.
Coming to their rescue every time they forget something at home…
Resolving arguments with friends for them…
Once or twice is not an issue. But when it becomes an all-the-time thing, it can set them up to be the college kid whose mom calls their teacher because they didn’t get the grade they wanted. Yikes!
So how do we teach them to be resilient when all we want to do is protect them?
That’s what my guest Meredith Brough and I discuss in this episode of the Gotcha Mama podcast.
Meredith has a lot of experience raising children and working with children. She’s been married for 24 years and has 5 children ranging from 12 to 21-years-old.
She also has over 30 years of experience caring for kids in various roles, as a nanny, preschool teacher, running a daycare from her home, and more.
Meredith shares several stories from her life as well as some practical tips. She tells how she learned (oftentimes the hard way) to allow her children to experience hard and uncomfortable consequences in order to learn how to be resilient and responsible.
There are so many factors that play into how we respond to our children’s behavior. Meredith honestly discusses how what she experienced in her own childhood played a part in how she responded to her children’s behaviors.
She’s so passionate about helping and equipping moms with young kids and OBVIOUSLY, that resonates with me. Hello!
I also got the amazing opportunity to be on her podcast and to go LIVE inside her membership to do a workshop on identity in motherhood: how to discover yourself in the middle of motherhood.
It was so much fun!
She also brings a lot of experience around gentle sleep methods for babies and toddlers which is wonderful and not talked about as much as others.
She’s full of knowledge and has the most genuine heart.
I’m so grateful when moms like Meredith who’ve “gone before us” in the motherhood journey are willing to share their experiences and encourage us moms coming up “behind them” with younger kids.
More About the Guest
She developed a love of mentoring mothers and helping with their kids’ sleep as a kind of hobby.
She wanted her friends to experience motherhood with children who had predictable schedules and great sleep habits.
This hobby turned into a full-time job when Meredith realized that improving young children’s persistent sleep problems could be life changing for exhausted mothers.
At 42 years old, she found her dream job – she started a business as a sleep coach for mothers of babies and young children.
She supports over 5,000 women from more than 100 countries in a Facebook sleep group called Successful Sleep, runs a membership site where moms learn about all things sleep and motherhood, and coaches dozens of women professionally.
She also recently started her own podcast (“The Sweet Slumber Podcast: the Good, the Bad, and the Sleep Deprived.”)
We talk about
- Some of the challenges and obstacles that she experienced raising her five kids
- Some ways that moms sometimes try to make things “perfect and protect our children from reality” and how we can stop doing this so much
- The importance of resilience and learning consequences for kids
- How to know the balance of teaching and protecting and how she’s tried to teach her children to “struggle well”
Links & Resources
https://www.instagram.com/sweetslumbertime
https://www.facebook.com/Sweetslumbertime/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/successfulsleep/
The Sweet Slumber Podcast: the Good, the Bad, and the Sleep Deprived
More about the Gotcha Mama Podcast:
The Gotcha Mama Podcast is where we share honest stories of the joys and struggles of mom-life with young kids.
Each week host Amanda Bennett interviews a mom about topics ranging from awkwardly making mom friends, to chasing BIG dreams and finding purpose, to managing crippling anxiety and depression. You’ll hear stories from moms like you with the purpose to inspire, encourage, and entertain you.
We understand that motherhood can be lonely and make you doubt yourself. The Gotcha Mama Podcast exists to let you know that you are not alone as a busy mom of young kiddos, no matter what you’re dealing with.
The show is all about tearing down our insecurities as moms by honestly sharing our stories and a little of what we’ve learned along the way.
We believe it’s a whole lot better riding the rollercoaster of motherhood together!
Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Also, please take a second and leave your honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Ratings and reviews are important and greatly appreciated! And I do personally read each and every one of them.
You can also listen on Stitcher, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.
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