This week's listener question is in response to our previous episode "Toddlers Can't Share | Why forced sharing leads to people pleasing": I have a 2.5yo and an almost 4yo, and they sometimes snatch toys etc but often the play nicely, so I'm not always watching - so what if they are fighting over a toy and I didn't see 'who had it first'? What do you do in that instance if you don't know who was playing with it first? My girls don't understand 'who had it first' as Leah (my 4yo) would think...

Is daycare bad for my child? This episode tackles common childcare concerns like developmental benefits and choosing the right program. We explore the effects of childcare at different ages, from infancy to preschool, and answer your burning questions: Does preschool impact school readiness? What's the difference between daycare and preschool? What questions to ask when choosing a program? How long is too long for a day of childcare? How to support your child after daycare? Discover...

This week's listener question is in response to our previous episode "Whole Brain Child | How to boost your child's brain development": Question 1. I have a 3 year old (will be 4 in May) who I would love to figure out better. I feel like I kinda failed him when it comes to the regulating emotion piece. I used to (and still often do) get very flustered at his big emotions. I wish I would have been better at staying calm and helping him get back to the upstairs brain but I feel like my...

Do you get praised for being "easy" or "going with the flow" but deep down, feel exhausted? Us, too. In this episode, we explore the hidden costs of people pleasing. We discuss how this behavior is rooted in childhood experiences and the belief that our needs are a burden. We unpack the connection between people pleasing and codependency, and how we often absorb discomfort to keep others happy. We delve into the fear of being selfish and the challenge of advocating for ourselves. Finally, we...

This week the girls chat about Layne's viral reel on why sharing is not developmentally appropriate for toddlers and how forcing them to share actually leads to people pleasing tendencies in adulthood. We discuss how conflict avoidance and the fear of being judged affect parenting choices. We lay out more age-appropriate ways to help toddlers negotiate shared space and materials, how to support healthy boundaries for children and how to help them regulate the difficult feelings of wanting...

This week's listener question: Trying to find the balance of how to encourage a timid toddler to try new things while not pushing too hard. Things as simple as going down a bigger slide at the playground, trying a new food, or jumping off the side of the pool into dad's arms. How can we foster bravery in our (especially extra timid) toddler while not pushing too hard? Email your questions to [email protected] Book a 1:1 coaching session with Layne:...

This week Layne breaks down how a child's brain is wired, how it grows and how learning a little bit about it helps us raise calmer, happier kids. Different parts of a child's brain develop at different speeds and understanding these differences can reveal how to help your child through difficult feelings, how to respond to outbursts and how to support their growth into mentally well adults. Learning about brain development is the #1 tool that helped Layne crack the code on toddler behavior,...

This week's listener question: How to honor your child's own developmental rhythm and stop comparing to other children Email your questions to [email protected] Book a 1:1 coaching session with Layne: ⁠⁠enquiryco.com/coaching⁠⁠ Join ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Very Good Mothers Club⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to be a part of our community and join our live monthly calls (4th Tuesday of every month): ⁠https://verygoodmothersclubhouse.com/share/7ah7WID0giU77Bz0?utm_source=manual⁠⁠!

Quigley Goode joins for this JUICY 🍊 convo about reclaiming your identity and charting your own course without letting the world define you. She shares her journey from being on American Idol to leaving music and pursuing a career in social media and fashion. We dive deep into her motherhood journey from a pandemic pregnancy and absolutely CRAZY birth story to quarantining in the hospital with a Covid positive newborn to weening a breastfeeding toddler AND weening herself off SSRIs at the...

This week's listener question: My daughter seems to have anger as a default emotion lately (crying emoji). There's no build up to her screaming. It's like everything she feels is a huge, shrill scream and it causes such a visceral reaction in me. I feel like there's nothing that seems to get her to stop screeching with rage. Email your questions to [email protected] Book a 1:1 coaching session with Layne: ⁠enquiryco.com/coaching⁠ Join ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Very Good Mothers Club⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to be a...

Welcome back! We are starting Season 5 with a juicy, sweet, vulnerable conversation between two friends (plus you). We get an update on the "C" word about Jess' upcoming surgery (if you missed her cervical cancer announcement, check it out on Youtube). Then Layne shares about the loss of her job which leads to a conversation about what it means to believe in yourself, how to stay the course when your life's direction feels unsteady, and how to trust yourself enough to move forward. There...

This week Jess and Layne reveal why we named the podcast Very Good Enough. Jess talks about founding Very Good Mothers Club on the belief that a very good mom is someone who loves their kid and tries. Layne walks us through the Donald Winnicott's concept of "the good enough mother" and why being a good enough parent is better for your kids than being a perfect one (there's a real reason and it's not just because perfect parenting is a MYTH - which it is). Join ⁠Very Good Mothers Club⁠ to be...

It’s easy to get stuck inside the experience of each day and let one string together with the next until they slip way from you. This is a conversation about coming up for air and looking around. Of course, you have to be “IN” your life and experience it in the present with your kids, your work, your passions. But you also have learn how to rise above the hustle, how to check in with yourself, how to get clear on your vision and set direction in order to live the life you want. Jess and Layne...

Play shapes every aspect of who your child is becoming and you might not even know what it really is. Do you want your child to have strong social/emotional skills, become a creative problem solver, be confident, have healthy relationships, develop cognitive skills for math and reading, grow strong motor skills and be empathetic? Not exaggerating – it ALL comes through play. This episode is Layne’s mini-manifesto about how you can enter into your child’s world and really see who they are,...

Dr. Sam Rader returns to teach us why anger is an essential part of love, how to recognize and express when our boundaries are violated and how to use our anger as fuel to get our lives where we want to them to go. She shows us how to keep our natural, healthy anger from becoming toxic and how to encourage our children to grow a healthy relationship with their own emotions. Sam gifts us with a guided mediation and journaling prompts to help us get back in touch with our instinctive nature and...

This week we debrief Jess' big announcement (we don't want to use the "C" word but check out the Youtube link below if you need to catch up) including our big feelings, insights into the timeline and a few big lessons we've already learned on this very new journey. We tease an interview that's coming next season because the conversation taught us so much about how to handle when people don't like you (it's so good we can't even save it for when the episode comes out). And then we reflect on...

It's an opinionated week on the podcast: first we realize we've both had close encounters with reality TV and have spicy feelings about it, then Layne shares some hot takes about rules (not a fan). We deep dive into why it's more effective and EASIER to focus on teaching kids what they CAN do than trying to enforce a list of "rules". We discuss why traditional rules are too abstract for little kids to follow, why rules provoke anxiety in both kids and parents, and which very normal parenting...

It's easy to wonder if we're doing enough to get kids ready for next stage in their lives. In this episode, we make a case for why the best way to prepare a child for the future is to let them be exactly where they are right now. We dive into why making your 3-year-old sit still will not actually get them ready for kindergarten, why you don't need to worry about memorizing the ABCs and how the skills they're building as babies and toddlers are the foundation for everything to come. We finish...

Happy Winter Solstice! Posting this bonus a night early because tonight is the longest night of the year and I woke up with some thoughts about that :) Join ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Very Good Mothers Club⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to be a part of our community and join our live monthly calls (4th Tuesday of every month)! Email your questions to [email protected] Book a 1:1 coaching session with Layne ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠

We all want our kids to be happy and we all hate tantrums. But how much "yes" is good for them and when does appeasing to avoid tantrums start to damage our parent-child relationship? Weaving in lots of practical support and encouragement, Jess and Layne dig into why it feels impossible for some of us to stand up to our demanding little ones. We talk about ways our own childhoods affect our personalities and impact our parenting using examples that have come up recently in the community...

This week is a collection of the best advice for having a great holiday with your kids from the podcast so far. We cover topics like: How to define what you want at the holidays and avoid disappointment How to release the pressure to make holidays perfect Creating a calming and cozy holiday atmosphere at home Managing kids' expectations and avoiding overstimulation during the holiday season How navigate social media and comparison How to let life be magical even when there are hard...

This week's listener question: Toddler anxiety around pooping on the potty/using the adult sized toilet. Join ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Very Good Mothers Club⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to be a part of our community and join our live monthly calls (4th Tuesday of every month)! Email your questions to [email protected] Book a 1:1 coaching session with Layne ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠

We're joined this week by the captivating Vee King-Cunningham who shares the story of losing her husband in her twenties (while pregnant!), parenting while grieving, falling in love again and thriving as a blended family. She shares her experience of learning how to let people help you, how to process grief in your own personal way, and how to stay connected to the memory of someone who's gone (and help your kids remember them, too). While the topics are heavy, this conversation is not - Vee...

This week's listener question: I'm all for snacking, but it's every 10 minutes. Already high protein snacks. Thoughts? Join ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Very Good Mothers Club⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to be a part of our community and join our live monthly calls (4th Tuesday of every month)! Email your questions to [email protected] Book a 1:1 coaching session with Layne ⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE

It's easy to feel like time is slipping through our fingers. In this episode we delve into the overwhelming feeling of not having enough time to check off our endless to-do lists. We discuss ways to cope with the sense that life is hurtling by too fast, how to quiet the internal critic who tells us we aren't doing enough, and why doing nothing is actually a form of healing. Jess shares the secret to transforming late school drop offs. And Layne casts a spell to slow down...