Parenting. Yes, there’s a podcast for that too. When you think about it, it shouldn’t come as a surprise. I mean, seriously, parenting is blooming hard, exhausting and disorienting. So much goes on, we barely have time to get hold of our bearings.

If you’ve got it all figured out, good for you, move on to something that is more useful to you. Most people I know don’t have it all figured out. They may even be reasonably ‘together’ but they still suffer from sleep deprivation and other curses dished out by parenthood. This list is for people like them, people like us.

A little disclaimer…

I’ve not listened to ALL of these podcasts about parenting. I’ve dipped in and out of some, others I listened a little and added to my list with a view to go back to later. There are simply not enough hours in the day to consume every piece of content.

I wanted to share these with you as part of the podcast series because we’re all in this together. We may be raising bilingual children (or not!), but we still need to deal with day to day parenting conundrums and challenges. From education to challenging behaviour, sleep deprivations and technology in the hands of our teenagers and pre-teens. It’s a mine field! I wish I had known many of these podcasts when I was expecting. I suspect it might have helped make life easier.

My gift to you

This list is not so much about my favorite podcasts of all time – although there is an element of curation involved – also areas that I think we all struggle with at some point and may be interested to learn more about.

There is a podcast aimed at parents of teenagers. My children have eight and ten years to go before they reach ‘teenagerdom‘ but I already bookmarked it because it sounded really interesting and I figured I might need it sooner than expected. Above all, it’s podcasts I found in the past year that I think might be of interest to you.

You can pick and chose what resonates with you and what’s most helpful to you and your family right now.

1. Connecting

The first part of the list is about connection.

Unruffled  

Unruffled is a podcast from parenting expert and author Janet Lansbury, which you can also listen on her website as well as on your favourite podcast platform.

Lansbury’s approach focuses on respectful parenting. Respectful parenting manifests itself by showing respect for the child and acceptance of her emotions and development but allows for firm parental limits as needed. I accept it may not be for everyone. I find it admirable and like to listen to it with an aspirational attitude. Janet’s voice is soothing and even though I’m very far from being the virtuous mum she portrays, one dreams…

This podcast is mainly aimed at parents of toddlers and is very practical, with examples of things a parent could say or do in given scenarios, but without being too prescriptive. Every episode starts with a lengthy sponsor introduction which I started skipping with the 30 second fast forward button as it’s just so long. Then Janet dives into a question sent to her by a parent and answers it on the podcast.

The Read Aloud Revival

This is actually one of the first podcasts on parenting I came across. I think the host and author Sarah Mckenzie was a guest in one of the raising bilingual children podcasts I mentioned recently. I liked the sound of what I was hearing and searched for the Read Aloud Revival online.

Sarah is a homeschooling mum of six and a believer in that the “best way to connect with our kids is through stories”. She talks about making meaningful connections through reading aloud to our children, no matter how young or how old they are. If you read some of my old posts such as this one and this one you’ll know that I subscribe to that.

I’ve not listened to many of the podcast episodes recently but I listened to a few a while ago. Sarah describes her approach as to “balance loud, chaotic family life with my hopes to make our home a nurturing, warm place where we come… “

I’m not a homeschooling mum and the dynamic in our house is, I’m sure, very different from Sarah’s but this resonated with me. As Sarah says on he website: “…when our kids are grown and gone, they won’t likely mind that their childhood included dishes piled in the sink, that we never ever reached the bottom of the laundry basket.

… but they’ll remember the stories, and they’ll treasure the time we spent reading to them.”Sarah Mckenzie, The Read Aloud Revival

2. That old battle – peace and quiet 

The first two podcasts below are on my subscribed list but to be honest I never really used them as they are aimed at parents of young children. I feel that, in our family, we’re past the sleep training stage. Having said that, I hold on to these two podcasts in the hope that one day it will solve all our problems.

The third podcast is applicable to a wider age range. I only got into it recently, when I started realising that I and our family might benefit from some mindfulness.

I truly wish I had known about these podcasts before. I hope someone else can benefit from it.

The Sleep Nanny

Shortish episodes of around 10 minutes. A sleep consultant shares advice on sleep training for babies and toddlers in a slow pace ‘coachy‘ style. Here’s a link to the sleep consultant website

The Little Zs

Also by a sleep consultant, somehow this podcast feels more confident to me, it seems to be more fast-paced and confident, but maybe that’s a matter of personal preference. Alas, it’s aimed at parents of young children. I wish there was one for our age range (nearly 4 to 5 yo).

Mindful Parenting in a Messy World

I’m including Mindful Parenting in a Messy World in this section because, albeit not being about sleep, it does aim to bring mindfulness and peace into households. It’s early days, but I hope it helps me and my family be a little more errr… peaceful?!

3. For parents of older children

Their own devices

Eight years to go until we have a teen in the house and, I promise you, the dread has already set in. Right now, this podcast might be irrelevant to us, but I have a sneaky suspicion it won’t be long until I’ll be binge listening to it!

Dubbed as for “MTV parents raising youtube kids”, I felt I had to include it on this list! The couple of episodes I listened to so far sounded really good and I think there will be many parents of teenagers and pre-teenagers grateful for it.

Their Own devices promotes itself as practical parenting advice for the 21st century. It’s hosted by Marc Groman, an Obama White House tech and privacy adviser, and David Reitman, an adolescent medical doctor, for “candid discussions and helpful tips about screen time, social media, sexting, privacy, online gaming, and other challenges facing parents today.” Marc and David are married, raising a teenage son of their own.

The topics are varied and the treatment frank. I like that it’s easy to listen, factual and useful, not just trying to be funny.

If you have teens or pre-teens, this may be a good one for you. From what I gather, getting to grips with the impact of tech on our children, especially teenagers, is essential, and this podcast just one of the many tools in the parenting toolbox.

TED Talks Education

TED Talks is such a great initiative. You’ll find it easily online. There is a strand dedicated to Education offering a range of interesting topics, some of which you can see in the image below.

If you take an interest in the world around us, especially in what regards to our children and THEIR world, this may be of interest to you.

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Do you have any podcasts you’d like to recommend? Drop it on the comments below.