You can hear the theme music in the background...it sounds like the circus is coming to town, you can't turn it off, you can't get off. It's the parenting hamster wheel. We all want to jump off,  it how do we do that, what are the right approaches to getting kids to take ownership, laughing at our selves and how to hang tough when you are still on the wheel.

At what point do you tell your children that going to the supermarket on Sundays at 1:00 PM is a terrible idea unless you want to have a mental breakdown.  Well, it's a life lesson they will learn once, and they will never go again. On this bonus epsiode of Modern Mixtape, we are joined by our oldest daughter Payton as she begins her adventures of living on her own at her summer internship and discovering the art of buying fruit on sale and the no go zone of the supermarket on Sundays.

As a parent taking time for yourself is hard, but so important.  Finding four to five hours for a round of golf can be next to impossible, but so many lessons can be taken from the golf course into life and parenting. As life long golfers- we take a little detour, to visit lessons learned from the golf course. Maybe because we are both longing to get on the course.

As a parent how many times have you wished you could reach for the parenting manual and find the answer.  But there is no manual, because there is no one way to do things. There are universal truths such as kindness, hard work, but how you get there well it looks different for every family. We are throwing the manual out and sharing some laughs and when wish we could have had the manual for parenting.

How many times have you ever said, I would never when it comes to your kids activities and next thing you know you are slinging nacho cheese or baking forty cupcakes. Being a parent is easy, being a present parent is hard because you have to show up, time and time again. But you don't have to- you want to. It's a conscious choice. Join on this episode as we dive into being a present parent.

It can be tough to change. In parenting, in marriage and in life, but those who fail to change often get left behind. But going through change can be a rocky process not only for the individual but for those around them, often watching them walk through failure. How to you support someone on a journey of change....Grace. Join us as we talk about finding grace in failure.

Bonus Episode with our oldest Payton. Very candid discussion on learning how to pull the nose up when things go wrong, pulling out of the spiral, the rabbit hole. We have all been there- this can be even harder for someone who has autism. We wrap up our discussions on lessons learned as she finished her first year in college.

Everyone has a story, own your story. Ours sounds like a bar joke. The divorced woman, a widower, two kids on the spectrum, and the neurotypical kid...But it's our story.  We have had to lean into our story, writing our path and growing along the way.  Sharing a few laughs and memories about what makes us....this is us.

Bonus Episode. They leave the nest...it's hard, but they do come home. Conversation with our oldest daughter who is home from college. Talking life skills, transition to college and how different our generations are. Candid conversations about life skills, failure, and laughing along the way.

One in a row. Let that sink in.  You can't get to two in a row without one in a row.  You just have to start.  Is it a generational difference, maybe.  As kids we sure seemed more willing to get our one in a row. Just got out and do it, sometimes with reckless abandon. Our kids now our more measured.  In this episode we look at getting one in a row and how our kids now get their two in a rows.  You just have to start.

Guess who goes down first...the baby gazelle.  Kids are like jackals, they will always go after the baby gazelle. They are smart, cunning and they will divide and conquer if you let them. Parenting 101, be on the same page with you partner. Don't be the baby gazelle.  Join us for our first episode of Modern Mixtape: Navigating Parenthood.

Join us for Modern Mixtape. A sneak peak of whats to come on the crazy journey of navigating modern parenthood.