Guest speaker Lori Rothstein is a working mom of 2 who knows the challenges and joys of waking up every day to the snuggles, energy, and frustrations of her 5 & 7 year-olds. She’s a leadership educator, a Positive Psychology Practitioner and a Certified Parenting Coach.

Lori describes clearly the challenge faced by people who are used to getting things done in the corporate world are made more challenging by parenthood. For example, saying to yourself “I'm going to go for a run at ‘this time’” – Lori acknowledges that this sort of structure doesn't always work as a parent.  She says “the truth in my family is that when we wake up, we're probably not in the same configuration of when we went to bed, so there's some kind of movement during the night … I don't wake up earlier than my kids and have that time to myself … ” All very relatable 😊

I asked Lori for 3 tips – but she gave us SO MUCH more.

Her number one tip is SELF CARE! She says that “if you don't have a plan for taking care of yourself then your plan is incomplete because we really can't take care of our kids if we're not taking care of ourselves.” 

She talks about compassion fatigue which is when we were less able to have a connection with somebody else – and four types of self-care that can be the most effective to overcome it.

One of her tips for self-care, is to make the most of smaller nuggets of time in what she describes as the “transition” between activities. Ask yourself in the moment “what kind of self-care do I need? 

On the podcast Lori talks about 4 different aspects of self-care:

1. Connection with others or alone time
2. Outlets for Creative Expression
3. Relaxation / mindfulness
4. Family Rituals

Lori describes each of the above on the podcast. My guess is that the first 3 you will have come across previously – so I thought I’d add a few words on Family Rituals which may be a newer concept.

She talks about having a number of different ‘family ritual’ practices or activities. Her honesty is refreshing when she says “one thing everyday doesn't quite work for us, but we have choices ….” She goes on to describe a few things that really work for her family:

• A daily nature poem book – her daughter an early reader, reads aloud and they talk about it which helps them to connect with what's happening in nature
• Gratitude Jar with good things about their day – which can also be looked at to raise a smile “Aw, he liked his mashed potatoes”
• A picture or collage on the wall - that can be added to. 

Her final tip is around setting intentions.  

Lori has done a great job of taking the "vanilla" tools from Positive Psychology and ssuccessfully adpted them for family life.  

More information

· Lori takes clients who want to grow as an individual as well as a parent. To see more of how she works – why not sign-up for her Facebook Group: Resilient Parenting Solutions: Parenting strategies to foster wellbeing and emotional intelligence in our kids and ourselves. https://www.facebook.com/resilientparentingsolutions/

· Lori’s website is: https://lorirothstein.wixsite.com/website-1

· This Parent Podcast is brought to you by Suzanne Hazelton – author of Great Days at Work, and creator of GenieBubble Making WORLD CLASS educational resources available to every child, to help them find their own interests and flourish. www.geniebubble.org

· Or join the GenieBubble community at https://www.facebook.com/groups/geniebubblegroup

· We appreciate you sharing this information! C’mon – don’t be shy!