42 min listen
BEST OF: How Little Parenting Can We Get Away With? (with guest James Breakwell)
FromWhat Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood | Parenting Tips From Funny Moms
BEST OF: How Little Parenting Can We Get Away With? (with guest James Breakwell)
FromWhat Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood | Parenting Tips From Funny Moms
ratings:
Length:
49 minutes
Released:
Aug 30, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Sometimes we need to stop trying so hard for things to get easier. We asked our listeners: where’s an area of your parenting where you got better results by doing less?
In this episode we discuss our listeners' best advice on how to parent more lightly by caring less about our children’s:
homework
potty training
outfits
palates
basic hygiene
birthday parties
We also talk “bare minimum parenting” in its many forms with guest James Breakwell, author of Bare Minimum Parenting: The Ultimate Guide to Not Quite Ruining Your Child.
James says bare minimum parenting isn’t about the number of kids you have: “Two children aren’t twice as much work as one. If you’re already yelling at the first kid, just add the name of the second kid at the end.” For James, bare minimum parenting is about playing the long game. Can you look around at a group of adults and pick out which ones had baby massage or language-immersion preschool? Okay, sometimes they’re dead ringers. But most of the time you can’t, and we think James’s new book is slyly revolutionary in the way it enables all of us to do less, worry less, and get our kids to pretty much the same place in the end.
In other words, Bare Minimum Parenting doesn’t have to mean no rules. It can mean basic rules that work for your family. But those rules aren’t set by the family next door, or that clickbait-y guilt-inducing article you just read.
And when the rules don’t work? Put them aside for a bit. No regrets.
ICYMI: in this episode Margaret mentions this slackline as her key to bare minimum backyard fun— her kids play on it for hours.
Here's where you can find James:
Buy James's book: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9781982599294
@XplodingUnicorn on Twitter
@ExplodingUnicorn on Facebook
We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website:
https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode we discuss our listeners' best advice on how to parent more lightly by caring less about our children’s:
homework
potty training
outfits
palates
basic hygiene
birthday parties
We also talk “bare minimum parenting” in its many forms with guest James Breakwell, author of Bare Minimum Parenting: The Ultimate Guide to Not Quite Ruining Your Child.
James says bare minimum parenting isn’t about the number of kids you have: “Two children aren’t twice as much work as one. If you’re already yelling at the first kid, just add the name of the second kid at the end.” For James, bare minimum parenting is about playing the long game. Can you look around at a group of adults and pick out which ones had baby massage or language-immersion preschool? Okay, sometimes they’re dead ringers. But most of the time you can’t, and we think James’s new book is slyly revolutionary in the way it enables all of us to do less, worry less, and get our kids to pretty much the same place in the end.
In other words, Bare Minimum Parenting doesn’t have to mean no rules. It can mean basic rules that work for your family. But those rules aren’t set by the family next door, or that clickbait-y guilt-inducing article you just read.
And when the rules don’t work? Put them aside for a bit. No regrets.
ICYMI: in this episode Margaret mentions this slackline as her key to bare minimum backyard fun— her kids play on it for hours.
Here's where you can find James:
Buy James's book: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9781982599294
@XplodingUnicorn on Twitter
@ExplodingUnicorn on Facebook
We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website:
https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Released:
Aug 30, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Dividing the Workload: In any home, there’s the workload everyone can see: the dirty dishes, the broken crayons under the dining room table, the laundry to be folded. And in most of our homes, that workload is divided more equitably than it was in the homes where we grew up.... by What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood | Parenting Tips From Funny Moms