Dear exhausted parent:

No one has a playbook for how to navigate family living during these challenging times, so please don't feel badly that you aren't doing any of this perfectly. Most parents and kids are riding a daily roller coaster of emotions as we sometimes worry, sometimes grieve the loss of normal life as we knew it, sometimes want nothing more than to escape the closeness of quarantine, and sometimes feel our hearts swell with gratitude for the sweet and tender moments of family connection. Our many mixed feelings show up in each moment in ou...

Following the horrific shooting in Las Vegas, Jen was interviewed by Yael Braun, founder of Motherlucker, along with trauma therapist Stephanie Small. In this interview we discuss the importance of trauma awareness and education for both children and adults - and how we can begin to take steps toward healing.

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Vegas. This week that word means something totally different than it usually does.

It’s hard not to feel a little helpless these days, between natural disasters, terrorism, and seemingly ever-present violence I can’t help but feel extremely lucky,...

"Falling back" is the time change you loved before becoming a parent because you got an extra hour of sleep, but that you now dread because your little one may wake even earlier than usual! Here are our tips to ensure that the transition goes as smoothly as possible.

1.  Put your child to sleep at his normal bedtime on Saturday night.

2.  Your child will likely wake up a bit earlier by the new clock than he normally does, say at 5:30 AM (which still feels to him like 6:30 AM).  Psychologically, it can be painful to see 5:30 AM on your clock and deal with...

Most parents are eager to do the best job they can raising their children. In our parenting groups, when we ask moms what qualities they feel make for a good parent, some will joyfully describe their experiences with their own mothers or fathers when they were children. They will speak of parents who were generally patient, present, calm, able to hold loving boundaries, and supportive. They tell us they want to emulate much of how they were raised with their own children, and they feel they have a solid roadmap - the example of their own parents - with...

Photo credit: Laura Joyce / Goofyfoot Photography

In our parenting groups and private consultations over the last 20 years of working with families, parents have shared deeply about their lives, both the happy times as well as the more difficult situations or events that they experience. Unfortunately - or fortunately, depending on your perspective - none of us gets through life unscathed by challenges. That goes for kids too, of course. This week on There Goes the Motherhood (Wednesdays at 10/9c on Bravo), Beth expresses her reluctance to tell her kid...

On a prior episode of There Goes the Motherhood, Stefanie’s 7-year-old son Ellington found his fear of dogs ignited when he came in contact with Jen’s dog at Rivers’ birthday party. In group, Stefanie and Jill made a plan to create a book for Ellington to prepare him for a visit from Jill’s very friendly dog Otto, to help Ellington overcome his fear. The intention of the book was to humanize dogs for Ellington, and to introduce Otto as a potential friend. In the book, we gave Otto interests that are similar to Ellington’s (like wearing hats, liking sup...

Conflict is something that most of us tend to avoid, and yet it is an inevitable part of family life, and of life in general. It's too bad that we tend to shy away from conflict so readily, because it can be a powerful messenger - a gateway to understanding both ourselves and another person on a deeper level, and to greater compassion and empathy. If we shifted our perspective about conflict and saw it not as something catastrophic but rather as a potential opening to stronger connection, we might even embrace it.
 
This week on There Goes the Motherhoo...

This week on There Goes the Motherhood (airing Wednesday night on Bravo - 10/9c), we discuss a topic in group that we feel is one of the most important for having a happy and healthy family: the effects that raising children have on a relationship. While Stefanie and Leah have continued to maintain consciousness around the need for intimacy and connection with their spouses, Meghan explains that after she had kids she "closed the door on her relationship." Meghan goes on to say that as a mom, she is always exhausted and hyper-focused on her kids, and t...

At Sleepy Planet Parenting, we have been offering mom groups for almost 20 years. In that span of nearly two decades, we have created a space where women gather together weekly to navigate perhaps the most important, baffling, and love-filled journey they will ever undertake: motherhood. In group, we talk about not only the nuts and bolts of parenting – including sleep, nutrition, and development – but also a mom’s ever-shifting identity, how being a parent affects the couple relationship, the endless struggle to balance work and home life for those who...