After reading The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your  Children Will Be Glad That You Did), I knew I had to get Philippa Perry on the podcast. She is a renowned psychotherapist, author, journalist, and television presenter, and the wife of artist Grayson Perry.

In this episode she helps us unpack what gets in the way of connecting with our children.

She would like children to be able to tell their parents absolutely anything. And, as parents, she says it could be dangerous to close that down. If we can have a strong healthy connection with our kids, the future can take care of itself.

We dig into:

- How to have connected, trusting relationships with our children (even if we didn't have that with our own parents)

- What gets in the way of having a good connection with our kids and what can enhance it

- The trouble with not feeling our own pain

- The generational cycles of parenting

- What does it mean to give our kids 'enough' attention

- Authenticity vs perfection parenting

- How to help children express anger without acting out

There is so much heart and wisdom in this exchange with Philippa. I hope you can feel it too.

DISCOUNT FOR THE MOTHERKIND COMMUNITY

As you may already know, I’m very excited about our sponsor, Zendium toothpaste.

Zendium toothpaste naturally strengthens your mouth’s natural defenses and reduces bad bacteria responsible for dental problems. Parents will be familiar with the battle to get their kids to brush their teeth, but did you know that kids have 3x more taste buds than adults? This makes them particularly sensitive to strong flavours and foaming agents, which can result in difficulties with brushing and too-short brushing times. You may also not have known but your child’s mouth also has its very own natural defences, made up of enzymes and proteins in saliva, that have the ability to protect them from dental problems.

All you need to do is head to Zendium.co.uk and enter the code MOTHERKIND at checkout for 20% off their kids and adult range.

Big gratitude to Zendium for supporting me and the podcast!