Some of my greatest parental learning has come from watching and listening to other parents on how they manage their daily family life.
The following are just a few of the nuggets of wisdom I have accumulated along the way:
- Routines will make your life easier with kids.
- It is only a sleeping problem if it is a problem for you.
- Get down low to talk to little ones when their behaviour needs correcting.
- Teenagers want to either have the last or the loudest word – let them have it.
- The advice from a neighbour that the 15 year old “would come back” helped me stay positive through some testing adolescent years.
These processes I either learnt or adapted from other parents:
- Make the lunches the night before – hat tip to Stephanie
- Children information sheet – keeps all the info like last tetanus shot etc in the one place to make form filling super quick and easy – hat tip to Danielle
- No technology during the school week – hat tip Belinda
And it appears I am not alone in wanting to learn from other parents. In the annual PWK survey there were many comments along these lines:
Loved the series you did on a day in a life of different mums….was a great insight – more of that too.
Sneak peak into other mums sharing their meal plans too.
Feedback/comments are great to share from mums who are managing busy families (hints/tips).
More posts on a day in the life of … and clean eating. I love reading about real life stories.
Keep going. I’ve enjoyed seeing other people’s days. Looking forward to seeing what you do this year.
I too loved the “What other mums do” series but felt that there was so much more I could have learnt from the mums if I had could have asked them more questions.
If you completed the survey you will have noticed I asked a question to see how many readers listened to podcasts. 37% of you are currently listening to podcasts. So I have decided to combine these two ideas to create a podcast series sharing the wisdom of other parents. So often podcasts feature experts in various fields and I love listening to them, but I would also love to hear what is working and not working for others in people like you!
And this is where you come into it! Last year I had a form for readers to enter their details so I could write up what their typical day looked like. This year, I would like to interview readers for the podcast series to have a conversation with you on how you manage family life. I truly believe we all have wisdom to share that can help others with their current (and future) challenges.
Thanks so much to everyone who volunteered to be on the podcast. I am now making my way through all of the fabulous submissions and have closed entries at this point. I will be in touch soon if you filled in the form.
In the form below I will capture a few details as my aim will be to share a cross section of family styles – working parents, stay at home, single families, large families, small families etc. You don’t have to give your full name, a first name is fine.
The series will be limited to 11 episodes so unfortunately I will not be able to share everyone’s stories. I will email everyone to let them know and the process for the interviews will start with email exchanges and then a one hour call, around 20 – 30 minutes of which will the recorded interview. It won’t take up a huge amount of your time and I would be super grateful if you would share your wisdom with the readers of PWK.
Don’t worry if you have never ever listened to a podcast. Once I have the series ready to go, I will share steps on how you can easily access the interviews and share them on the blog.
I am really excited about this podcast series and cannot wait to get it started, thanks in advance for your participation!