299- Navigating School Lunch with Feeding Littles’ Megan McNamee, MPH, RDN

You're listening to Voices of Your Village, and today we get to chat about thriving through grief. I got to hang out with Brandi Sellerz-Jackson. She's a storyteller, birth and postpartum doula, and the creator of Not So Private Parts. Initially created as a women's lifestyle blog, Not So Private Parts has evolved into a resource removing the shame and stigma surrounding women's issues. Sellerz -Jackson is the co -founder of Moms In Color, a black mom collective centered around celebrating diversity in the motherhood space. She is also the senior manager of social media for Ergobaby, a leading brand in baby wearing and attachment parenting. She has been featured in Oprah Daily, USA Today, Essence, and Mother, among other outlets. Sellerz-Jackson lives in Pasadena, California with her husband John and and their three boys, Jax, Jedi, and Jupiter. I loved chatting with Brandi because we got to talk about the real real of like, what is this really like to move through grief, and how grief shows up at different stages in parenthood. I think we often think of grief only in certain times, like if we lose someone we love, but grief happens often. When we grieve the life we had before when we had a second kiddo or third or when we grieve the life we had before kids or when we grieve the different parenting stages of longing for those early days or as kids transition into high school or middle school or go to college. Grief shows up all the time for us and learning to move through it and parent through it is a necessary skillset for being able to show up. All right folks, let's dive in.  Connect with Brandi: Instagram: @bstereo   Website: http://notsoprivateparts.life/ Moms in Color: https://themomsincolor.com/ Order the book: On Thriving: Harnessing Joy Through Life's Great Labors  Connect with us: Instagram: @seed.and.sew  Podcast page: Voices of Your Village Seed and Sew's Regulation Quiz: Take the Quiz Order Tiny Humans, Big Emotions now!  Website: seedandsew.org Music by: Ruby Adams and Bensound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Voices of Your Village and today's a special episode because we're doing something a little bit different. I teamed up with my pal, Hunter Clarke-Fields, and we're doing a little podcast swap. So you get to hear an episode from her podcast, Mindful Parenting Podcast. I've been on it before. You may have tuned in then, but here's an episode from her podcast, Mindful Parenting Podcast, on what mindful parenting is. What makes mindful parenting different? How is it different from mindfulness for parents? In this very special reverse interview, Hunter answers questions posed by Lynn Weller, the Mindful Parenting Community Manager. You'll learn about why mindful parenting came about, Hunter's own struggles, and what's inside the groundbreaking course she developed. If you dig this episode, head on over and give her podcast a follow. You'll even be able to hear an episode from our podcast on her feed. Go check out which one I selected. Alright, folks, let's dive in. Connect with Hunter Clarke-Fields: Instagram: @mindfulmamamentor Website: www.mindfulmamamentor.com Order Hunter’s books: Raising Good Humans, Raising Good Humans Every Day Podcast: Mindful Parenting Podcast  Mindful Parenting Course Hunter’s previous podcast episodes on Voices of Your Village: How to Mindfully Raise Kind, Confident Kids Alyssa’s previous podcast episodes on Mindful Parenting Podcast: Navigate Tantrums, Meltdowns, and Defiance and Help Your Child Regulate Feelings  Connect with us: Instagram: @seed.and.sew  Podcast page: Voices of Your Village Seed and Sew's Regulation Quiz: Take the Quiz Order Tiny Humans, Big Emotions now!  Website: seedandsew.org Music by: Ruby Adams and Bensound  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Voices of Your Village and I'm so stoked about today's episode. I got to hang out again with my friend Eli Harwood of Attachment Nerd to chat about her latest book, Raising Securely Attached Kids. In this conversation today, we get to dive into how to raise confident kids. I have quoted her latest book, Raising Securely Attached Kids, in my upcoming book because it is just so good. And the way that she delivers information, it feels so accessible. Eli is a licensed therapist. She's the creator of Attachment Nerd. She's the author of the book Securely Attached and Raising Securely Attached Kids and has more than 17 years of clinical experience helping people process relational traumas and develop secure attachment relationships with their children and partners. I'm so jazzed to share this episode with you. I could hang out with Eli forever and I feel like I learn from her every single time I get to hang with her. Head out and snag her book right now, Raising Securely Attached Kids. All right, folks, let's dive in.  Connect with Eli: Instagram: @attachmentnerd Website: https://attachmentnerd.com/ Order the book: Raising Securely Attached Kids: Using Connection-Focused Parenting to Create Confidence, Empathy, and Resilience Podcast: https://attachmentnerd.com/podcast Connect with us: Instagram: @seed.and.sew  Podcast page: Voices of Your Village Seed and Sew's Regulation Quiz: Take the Quiz Order Tiny Humans, Big Emotions now!  Website: seedandsew.org Music by: Ruby Adams and Bensound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Voices of Your Village, and today we get to dive into a topic that is just always on my mind. We get to chat about navigating school lunch with Feeding Littles co -founder Megan McNamee. She is a registered dietitian and nutritionist and co -founder of Feeding Littles, one of my favorite Instagram accounts. She specializes in pediatric nutrition and eating disorder prevention. Megan and her business partner Judy help parents feel confident feeding their babies, toddlers, and big kids through online courses and social media support. What I'm so stoked about is that they just launched their second book, Feeding Littles Lunches. It's a realistic lunchbox inspiration book. And let me tell you, I have a copy. It is gorgeous and so helpful. I sat down with Sage, my three and a half year old, and we went through the book and looked at the pictures and he found things that he wanted to try. And y 'all, he is a picky eater and sensory sensitive. And so finding lunches that work can be so challenging. And I feel like I just get stuck in the same thing over and over and just trying to find things that he will eat. And this book has been so, so helpful. Head on over and snag Feeding Littles Lunches. You will not regret it. All right, folks, let's dive in.  Connect with Megan: Instagram: @feedinglittles Website: https://feedinglittles.com/ Order the book: Feeding Littles Lunches Blog: https://feedinglittles.com/blogs/blog PackIt Lunch Bag: Here Connect with us: Instagram: @seed.and.sew  Podcast page: Voices of Your Village Seed and Sew's Regulation Quiz: Take the Quiz Order Tiny Humans, Big Emotions now!  Website: seedandsew.org Music by: Ruby Adams and  Bensound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Voices of Your Village, and today we get to dive into all of those big feelings that are coming up in this back -to -school time. We get to chat about something called restraint collapse, where kids restrain everything and kind of hold it in throughout the day, and then they collapse and let it all out with us. This is a doozy when they're navigating something new and hard, like back -to -school. It's like it's starting a new job or moving to a new house or any big life change where your brain is trying to figure out all the newness and what it means and it's exhausting. And so then we have these big meltdowns and feelings about things that typically they might not melt down about or that might not be a big deal for them. In this episode, we got to hang out with Lori Goodrich, an occupational therapist who walked us through different ways that you can support your kids after school to help regulate their nervous system. You can also head to seedquiz.com to understand your child's unique nervous system and get free tips and tricks for how to best support your unique child. All right folks, let's dive in.  Connect with Lori: Website: https://www.thrivetogetherot.com/ Instagram: @thrive_together_ot Connect with us: Instagram: @seed.and.sew  Podcast page: Voices of Your Village Seed and Sew's Regulation Quiz: Take the Quiz Order Tiny Humans, Big Emotions now!  Website: seedandsew.org Music by: Ruby Adams and Bensound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Voices of Your Village, and today we get to dive in with Dr. Shelby Kretz to chat about empowering kids with social justice education. Dr. Shelby Kretz is the creator of Little Justice Leaders, an organization that provides social justice education resources for educators and families. Little Justice Leaders offers a monthly subscription for parents and teachers that provides resources each month to learn about social justice. Little Justice Leaders has sent over 17 ,000 learning kits to parents and teachers around the world, and Shelby earned her Ph.D. in education from UCLA, and her dissertation explored social justice education at the elementary school level. Over the past decade, Shelby's worked with thousands of parents, teachers, and school leaders to bring social justice education to these children. It was such a rich discussion to get to hang with her, and I especially loved diving into of the breakdown with Rach at the end of what this looks like with our kids' IRL as parents and how it shows up. If this podcast is serving you, if you are finding value in it and it's helpful for you, please take a minute to rate and review the podcast. I love reading the reviews and when you rate it, it helps other folks find this podcast, which gives them free information and support on this journey of raising emotionally intelligent kids. Alright folks, let's dive in.  Connect with Shelby: Instagram: @littlejusticeleaders Website: https://littlejusticeleaders.com/ Exclusive free resource for Voices of Your Village Listeners: How to talk to kids about current events Subscribe to Little Justice Leaders Community  Connect with us: Instagram: @seed.and.sew  Podcast page: Voices of Your Village Seed and Sew's Regulation Quiz: Take the Quiz Order Tiny Humans, Big Emotions now!  Website: seedandsew.org Music by: Ruby Adams and  Bensound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to Voices of Your Village, and today I got to hang out with Dr. Mary Ann Little. She's a PhD and is a clinical psychologist who's been in private practice for over four decades. We got to dive into a juicy topic talking about childhood narcissism. Her latest book is Childhood Narcissism: Strategies to Raise Unselfish, Unentitled and Empathetic Children. She is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Texas Southwestern medical center at Dallas, and has served as an adjunct professor in the departments of psychology and special education at the University of Texas at Dallas. It was a fun conversation. I feel like the word narcissism is such a triggering one. And I was excited to dive in with her on what does this really look like? What does it even mean? And what can we as parents be doing to support children so that we aren't looking at narcissistic adults down the road? How do we help them see outside themselves? In the second half, Rach and I dive into our fears around narcissism, how it relates to the need for external validation, and how our need for validation of our enough-ness shows up in real life. (Hint- we're still working on it) If this podcast has been helpful for you, please take a minute to rate and review. This helps us reach more folks who are looking for tools to raise emotionally intelligent humans. I'm so deeply grateful to get to do this work alongside you and to bring free resources like this podcast to you. Thank you so much for sharing. You're the bomb. Couldn't do this without you and wouldn't want to. All right, folks, let's dive in.  Connect with Dr. Little: Website: https://www.drmaryannlittle.com Order the book: Childhood Narcissism: Strategies to Raise Unselfish, Unentitled, and Empathetic Children Connect with us: Instagram: @seed.and.sew  Podcast page: Voices of Your Village Seed and Sew's Regulation Quiz: Take the Quiz Order Tiny Humans, Big Emotions now!  Website: seedandsew.org Music by: Ruby Adams and Bensound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Voices of Your Village, and today I got to hang out with Ashley Harris Whaley to chat about raising anti -ableist kids. Ashley is a disabled woman, mother, author, speaker, speech language pathologist, disability educator, and activist. She leads adult programs and research for the Cerebral Palsy Foundation and is the founder of Disability Reframed, an online platform focused on changing perspectives through education and conversation. Ashley is an experienced writer, consultant, and public speaker who delivers impactful messaging. Her writing has appeared in Refinery29 and TripAdvisor, and her debut children's book was published in May 2023. And I'm excited to share that her children's book, I Am, You Are, is out now. Go snag that bad boy. I Am, You Are. I have been learning from Ashley online for a long time and it was so rad to get to hang on the podcast and chat. I continue to learn from her all the time and I'm excited to share this one with y 'all. At the end of the episode, Rach and I chat about how this shows up in our real lives as parents, and how we can step up representation of disability for our kids. All right, folks, let's dive in.  Connect with Ashley: Instagram: @disabilityreframed Website: https://www.ashleyharriswhaley.com/ Order the book: I Am, You Are: Let's Talk About Disability, Individuality and Empowerment Other children's books Ashley recommends:  When Charlie Met Emma Awesomely Emma What Happened to You? You’re so Amazing Mama Car Connect with us: Instagram: @seed.and.sew  Podcast page: Voices of Your Village Seed and Sew's Regulation Quiz: Take the Quiz Order Tiny Humans, Big Emotions now!  Website: seedandsew.org Podcast episode with Jessica Slice: Respectful Parenting IRL: Parenting with Disabilities Music by: Ruby Adams and Bensound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Voices of Your Village. Hello, everybody. Today, I got to hang out with Heather Chauvin of the Emotionally Uncomfortable podcast. And we had such a great conversation talking about how to take radical ownership of our own emotions and needs as adults so that we aren't laying that burden on our kids. We touch on codependency and co -parenting relationships and how so much of this work is the self -awareness of what's coming up for us underneath the way we're interacting with our kids and partners. Heather is a TEDx speaker, author of Dying To Be A Good Mother, and host of the highly loved podcast Emotionally Uncomfortable. Heather started her career as a social worker helping adults understand children's behavior, but it wasn't until 2013 when a stage 4 cancer diagnosis pushed her to take a deeper stand for change, uncovering how cultural expectations sabotage our dreams. She's been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Real Simple Magazine, MindBodyGreen, Google, and more. When Heather isn't working, you'll find her living out what she teaches, which may include kayaking Alaska, snowboarding, hiking, or anything else that challenges what she believes is possible for herself and inviting her children along the journey. Alright folks, let's dive in.  Connect with Heather: Instagram: @heatherchauvin_ Website: https://www.heatherchauvin.com/ Order the book: Dying To Be A Good Mother: How I Dropped the Guilt and Took Control of My Parenting and My Life Podcast: Emotionally Uncomfortable Connect with us: Instagram: @seed.and.sew  Podcast page: Voices of Your Village Seed and Sew's Regulation Quiz: Take the Quiz Order Tiny Humans, Big Emotions now!  Website: seedandsew.org Music by: Ruby Adams and  Bensound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Voices of Your Village, and today I get to hang out with Greer Kirshenbaum. Greer's awesome. She is an author and a neuroscientist, a doula, infant and family sleep specialist, and a mom. She trained at the University of Toronto, Columbia University, New York University, and Yale. Greer has combined her academic training with her experience as a doula and a mother to lead the Nurture Revolution. It's a movement to nurture our baby's brains to revolutionize mental health and impact larger systems in our world. She wants families, professionals, and workplaces to understand how early caregiving experience can boost mental wellness and diminish depression, anxiety, and addiction in adulthood by shaping baby's brains through simple, intuitive, enriching experiences in pregnancy, birth, and infancy. Her book is called The Nurture Revolution: Grow Your Baby’s Brain and Transform Their Mental Health through the Art of Nurtured Parenting. She offers resources, workshops, and sessions on her website, nurture-neuroscience.com. Y 'all, learning how to communicate with babies and the importance of it is huge because it's the foundation for attachment, which y 'all know if you've read Tiny Humans, Big Emotions, is cornerstone to how we show up in the world. Dr. Greer Kirshenbaum is laying this out here for you in her book, The Nurture Revolution. It was so rad to get to chat with her about it, and at the end Rach and I break down what this looks like for us in real life, and some of the struggles we have experienced as parents, trying to support our kids' development while also navigating our own mental health. If this podcast is serving and supporting you, please take a minute to rate and review it. It is how we can reach more folks with free tools and support on this journey because we know it takes a village and we are not meant to do this alone. Thank you so much for being a part of this village. Y 'all are rad. All right, let's dive in.  Connect with Greer: Instagram: nurture_neuroscience_parenting  Website: https://www.nurture-neuroscience.com/ Order the book:The Nurture Revolution: Grow Your Baby’s Brain and Transform Their Mental Health through the Art of Nurtured Parenting Connect with us: Instagram: @seed.and.sew  Podcast page: Voices of Your Village Seed and Sew's Regulation Quiz: Take the Quiz Order Tiny Humans, Big Emotions now!  Website: seedandsew.org Music by: Ruby Adams and  Bensound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices