Meghan Leahy is the mother of three young daughters, a certified parenting coach, and a columnist for The Washington Post, writing about all things parenting! She is the author of the upcoming book, "Parenting Outside the Lines: Forget the Rules, Tap into Your Wisdom, and Connect to Your Child."

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In this episode, you’ll enjoy:

• Meghan’s path to discovering that parent coaching was her passion just by chance, hard work and perseverance.
• Learn about Dr. Gordon Neufeld of the The Neufeld Institute and the attachment-based developmental approach.
• The struggle of setting boundaries for parents and the commonly faced organizational concerns.
• How the constant influx of stimulation impacts children’s ability to focus, maintain their attention and, ultimately, learn.
• Hear about Meghan’s new book about how parents can examine their preconceptions and to be empowered to follow their own way.
• Kids need boundaries and how to determine how to set them.
• Learn what “Silent Compassion” means. It’s a great technique for expressing understanding and love along with boundaries.

Meghan’s favorite tidying tip: Clean the kitchen every evening for a much better start for the next day. (We love this one!)

What sparks joy for Meghan: The amazing things on TV these days and relaxing with her kids around great TV shows. And, MAKE UP! On top of everything else she’s juggling, Meghan is training to become a make-up artist!

To connect with Meghan, you can kind find her at mlparentcoach.com. mlparentcoach.com

You can sign up for Meghan’s free ebook, From A to Zzzz: How to Get Your Kids to Sleep on her website.

You can also sign up for her online parenting class, "From Conflict to Cooperation: Understanding and Preventing Power Struggles with your Children" here

You can more of Meghan’s’ tips via the Washington Post as the Parenting Expert in the “On Parenting” column.

Gems

• “Parenting is not an automatic thing, it’s a learning on the job kind of thing.”
• “My job was to illuminate why kids were struggling which is the first step to understanding how to get it right.”
• “So starts an avalanche of ‘Screw it, I’ll do it myself.’ which leads to resentment.”
• “There’s a lot of books about parenting skills..in my view all these these books are true and untrue…I didn’t want to write a book where parents had to ascribe to a theory…instead it’s about paying attention to your actual child and your actual life.”
• “It can be positive and fun, but when it falls apart, you just pick up and go on.”

You can find Karin Socci at The Serene Home
You can find Kristyn Ivey at For the Love of Tidy

Special Guest: Meghan Leahy.

Certified Conscious Parent Coach Tia Fagan helps parents create deeper connections, increase communication, and improve their relationships. We dive into a parenting method Oprah Winfrey called a revolutionary approach, that can change parenting as we know it. We first learned about the philosophy of Conscious Parenting while listening to OWN’s Super Soul Sunday podcast. The approach stems from the ideas of Dr. Shefali and her Bestsellers "The Conscious Parent" and "The Awakened Family."

We want to hear from you! Tell us your burning tidying questions or share stories about how KonMari has impacted your life. Find us at www.sparkjoypodcast.com and click “Ask Spark Joy” to leave a question or comment for a chance to be featured on next week’s show.

While you’re there, sign-up to join our Spark Joy podcast community and get notified when each episode airs. You can also join the Spark Joy podcast community on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter at the handle @sparkjoy_podcast.

In this episode, you’ll enjoy:

• How Tia defines of Conscious Parenting
• Tia's path to becoming a certified Conscious Parenting Coach, which including civil engineering, motherhood, professional organizing
• How Conscious Parenting impacted Tia's family, her two daughters from middle school on, including the moment she went from confronting her fear to sitting beside it
• Three of the most common challenges parents face: disrespect, not listening, and screen time battles
• Two of major parenting myths that serve as the foundation for Conscious Parenting
• Practical steps you can implement today to test drive Conscious Parenting
• How Tia manages clutter associated with toys, artwork, and kids clothings, through a lens of concious parenting

TIa's favorite parenting and tidying tip: Connection, connection, CONNECTION!; Sit with each object and honor them and then go through them again latter (time and practice).

What sparks joy for TIa: Her daughters entering the next chapter - their first year at college!

To contact Tia Fagan visit tiafagan.com and follow her on Facebook and Instagram @tiafagancoach
Tia is based in Madison, WI. she’s offering $50 off a virtual or local 4-Session Coaching package or $100 off a 10-Session Coaching Package. Mention "Spark Joy" to receive this discount.

Gems:

• "We're able to notice how we as parents influence the relationship we have with the children."
• "We accept [children] as they are, not how we wish them to be."
• "Parenting ourselves first is where we need to start."
• "When we're curious, we're more likely to look at things without judgement."

You can find Karin Socci at The Serene Home
You can find Kristyn Ivey at For the Love of Tidy

Special Guest: Tia Fagan.