How to teach mindfulness to children

How do you teach mindfulness to children when you’re struggling to stay regulated yourself?

In this episode of Wellness in Every Season, Autumn Carter sits down with parenting coach and author Mindy Green to explore practical ways parents can help children develop mindfulness, emotional awareness, resilience, and nervous system regulation.

Drawing from both professional experience and personal parenting journeys, Autumn and Mindy discuss why mindfulness isn’t about perfection—it’s about presence. Together they explore how summer schedules, family routines, personality differences, sleep, connection, and self-care all play important roles in helping children and parents feel more regulated and connected.

Mindy shares the inspiration behind her children’s books, Sammy’s Super Stretchy Shoelaces and Sammy’s Super Stretchy World Activity Book, which help children recognize emotions in their bodies, build emotional awareness, and develop healthy coping skills through engaging stories and activities.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What mindfulness looks like for children and families
 • Why nervous system regulation starts with parents
 • How personality differences impact family dynamics
 • Ways to create a summer by design instead of by default
 • The importance of routines, sleep, and structure during school breaks
 • How to balance connection, independence, and quiet time for children
 • Why repair matters more than perfection in parenting
 • Practical strategies for helping children recognize and process emotions
 • How self-care and mindfulness help parents show up more effectively for their families

Whether you’re a parent, grandparent, educator, caregiver, or simply someone looking to better understand mindfulness and emotional regulation, this conversation offers practical tools and encouragement you can begin using right away.

Connect with Mindy Green

Website: mindygreencoaching.com

Email: mindy@mindygreencoaching.com

Books:
 • Sammy’s Super Stretchy Shoelaces
 • Sammy’s Super Stretchy World Activity Book

About Mindy Green

Mindy Green is a parenting coach who specializes in helping parents create stronger relationships with their children through emotional awareness, nervous system regulation, and practical parenting strategies. Drawing from her experience as a school social worker, parent, grandparent, and coach, Mindy helps families build resilience, connection, and confidence while navigating the challenges of everyday life.

If this episode resonated with you, please share it with a parent, teacher, caregiver, or friend who could use a little more mindfulness and calm in their life.

For more wellness tips and exclusive content, join my newsletter! Sign up now at https://wellness-in-every-season.kit.com/5-days-to-mastering-mornings-and-evenings receive a free 5-day guide called "Awaken and Unwind: 5 Days to Mastering Life's Mornings and Evenings." 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Today we are talking about mindfulness and how to teach it to children. Welcome to Wellness in Every Season. We talk all things wellness to help you align yourself, align with your goals, find balance in your life, and just recalibrate yourself. If you are listening for the first time, welcome, welcome. I'm so glad you're here. And let's get started in the rest of the podcast. For me, I have four kids, and my third kid has led me on this whole journey. That's how I know Mindy Green, who I'm going to be introducing a little bit more in a second. And it can be so hard to teach this to your children when maybe you're not regulated yourself. You're not working on your own mindfulness journey. And you may end up being in shoes like I am in, where you have a child who needs it deeply, but you need to figure out how to regulate yourself first. So we're going to be talking about some of that, but mostly mindfulness. And when I was looking into doing this myself, I kept putting it off and I realized it's because I don't want to do it alone. And the first person came to mind was Mindy because she is so good at this. I she is a parenting coach. She has been on some of the same trainings as me for being a parenting coach. And she's a very calming presence, which is so great. She's been on her own journey to becoming a parenting coach and her own reasons why, which she'll talk about a little bit. And before we hit record, the timing fits perfectly because she has a book that's geared towards children and parents to work through together. And it's about the same topic. Welcome, Mindy. Tell us about your book and then tell us a little bit about your journey.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Well, I'm so excited to be here. This is really my topic. I do a lot of work around nervous system regulation. And so I had written a book and it came out last October, and it's called Sammy's Super Stretchy Shoelaces, which is a little bit of a tongue twister. That was a book that was inspired by my older grandson who had these really super long shoelaces. And he was getting so frustrated because every day he was having to, even though he would double, triple, quadruple, and I don't know what goes from there, not these darned shoelaces. And he was just getting frustrated. So we went about trying to put some perspective around this as we created our own little book. And he illustrated it, and I wrote the copy for it. And then we decided to make it into our own book. My most recent book just came out two weeks ago, and I'm very proud of it. And it's called Sammy's Super Stretchy World. And it's an activity book that has all kinds of things for kids to do to learn how to recognize when they have a feeling in their body and where are they feeling it and what they can do about it. You know, and sometimes we don't do anything with it, we just recognize it and go on. And then there are other times that maybe we need to move our bodies or whatever it is to help process those emotions and then also to regulate our nervous systems. I was saying this to you, Autumn, earlier, that there are fun things in it too, and not that those tools that they learn, but there's also mazes and word searches and coloring pages. And it's a book where they can express themselves in whatever creative way feels good to them. So that was the whole purpose of that book because I wanted kids to really be even more immersed and know Sammy and his sidekick Winston, his little dog, even better and become more part of their world. And so this just adds on to that. And so really, I'm going to say that I this is something I used to say when I was younger, you know, and I was a new parent, and I would say to my husband, because I would sometimes be so overwhelmed, I also have four kids and very close in age. You know, there's like between the oldest and the youngest, they're about a little less than six years. And so, you know, they're back to back. And we were going through all the different stages, it seems like at once, and in it for quite some time. And so I would often say to my husband, I don't think that I'm cut out for this world because what I was really seeing is that my nervous system was oversensitized and I was overwhelmed by things. And so it was learning how, and this is part of the journey is learning how to then take care of myself so that I could better show up for my kids. And so this is something that has been most of my adult life raising kids, now having young adult kids and having grandkids in my life, and how I really want to show up. And, you know, so it is that mindfulness. It's the pre and when I think of mindfulness, I really think about presence of mind, you know, and and being where there's a in New Orleans, they I remember going one time and they have this, it's almost like a little scam that they have people do, and they'll bet you money that they can tell you where you're where you got your shoes. And so they'll say, you know, I know where you got your shoes. And so you'll say, I don't think so. And they'll say, Well, if I can guess, you you give me $20 or whatever. And the whole premise behind this is that you got your shoes where you're standing. And so I often think about that with mindfulness and with the tools that we teach ourselves to show up and really be present is to be where our shoes are, to be where our feet are planted and to be in the moment.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

I love that. I know so many parents who are in shoes like I am. We had all four in six years, too. The biggest gap is between the oldest two, and then it's bam, bam, bam. So yes, absolutely agree with what you were saying. And it can be so hard to feel regulated coming into summer when the kids are home more, they're around each other more if they have siblings, or maybe they're more bored and needy if they don't have siblings. And it can be really hard coming into the middle of summer and then the end, especially the end, to feel regulated, to feel like you still have sanity, like you still can dig deep when you need to think creatively through a problem or whatever. So I feel like this when this is going live is super needed, and this is something that you can come back to that is worth sharing with other people. Even if you don't have children, you might work with them if you're in a school system or there's children in the community. There are still ways that you can support mindfulness, and the things that we're going to be talking about, you can still use for yourself. So keep listening, even if you don't have children, because I feel like if you look at the news and you look at the world around you and you see the awfulness of it, a lot of it really stems from people who are dysregulated. And it comes from that saying that I grew up hearing, I have no idea where it came from, but it's hurt people and it makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

Yes. I agree. And a lot of my messaging right now is really prepping parents and just the adults in our lives, because we have friends who may not have children, or teachers who don't have children, or they're really looking forward to having a summer off. They've been overstimulated, they've been giving their all, and they need a break too. And so this is a chance to reset. And so the question is if you have kids, how do you do that? And if you don't have kids and you've struggled with this, how do you do it? And I think that I often talk about this about creating a summer by design. And part of that is, and I don't know if you want to go ahead and get into this now or not, but so is really thinking about what how do you all best function? And so it's giving a little bit of time to visualize what it is that you want from your summer. So if you're a parent and your kids are going to be home all summer and you're in your home with them, and you'll do a little bit of tweaking if you're a parent who works as well. For those of us who are at home with our kids, that's a lot of time together. It's a lot of time for us to be with our kids, it's a lot of time for our kids to be with one another. Or, like you said, autumn for parents who maybe have one child, it's a lot of time for them to figure out what to do with themselves. And so, how do we do that? This is where giving some thought about the intention that you want with the summer. What are the activities that you would like to do realistically? Because I know that I used to have this whole laundry list of things I wanted to do over the summer, and my kids would look at it and they were tired because it's also they needed a break as well. And so it's looking at realistically what works. Now, I'm going to say with all of this, and sometimes the desire is to just throw away our routine and our schedule and just say, it's going to be this wonderful break, and we go into it with rose-colored glasses, and then we realize even like a couple days in, a weekend, that that's not going to work. So our kids manage best, and we manage best navigating all of this when we actually have a bit of a routine. And so that's the structure and the rhythm that helps our days feel more manageable. So, you know, I say that's the kids can sleep in a little bit if you're able to allow them to do that. They don't necessarily need to get up early or at the same time that they did during school. That's one of the nice things about summer break is for them to be able to rest a little bit more. But also when they get up, what is it that they're going to do? So it's still, you know, they're going to eat breakfast, whatever it looks like in your feeling, breakfast, doing their things to care for them, brushing their teeth, their hair, getting dressed for the day. It can be tempting to wear your pajamas every day, all day. But I think that there's something to be said for, you know, getting up and getting ready for the day. And that also is a mindset, is that mindfulness piece that if you are going to go and do a task later or an activity later, that the kids are ready and you are too. And you can designate certain days as pajama days or lounge days and look at this with some flexibility. But talk to your kids too about what it is that they want the summer to look like. They may not want to do all the activities. They may not want to go to the library every Tuesday or do a summer camp or whatever it is, but allowing them to have some say in what they might like to do, knowing that they probably do need to do something because when they have too much time on their hands and the boredom sets in, which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing, but they're going they could be end up being creative in ways that are not most helpful for the running of your household. So those are just some things to consider. And also I think bedtime is another big area. I'm just thinking of those times of the day that can be big transition times. And so I'm going to say it may be really appealing to just say, okay, the kids can go to bed later. You know, you're going to let them stay up later and do different things. And if you are going to allow them to do that, recognize that some of that, especially when you have younger kids, you're eating into your personal time, your time for yourself, your time with your significant other. So you may want to allow them to have maybe, again, one or two nights a week where they can stay up later, depending on what the next day looks like, because you want to set yourself up and them up for success for what the rest of the week is going to look like. So if you let your kids stay up later in the beginning of the week and you know that you have a busy middle part of the week or end of the week, then they might go into that tired. So just giving some consideration. And it's this may sound like it's nitpicky, but it's really not. It's just giving some thought. And again, this is that mindfulness piece about what it is that you can do to create a schedule that supports you and your family and what your individual needs are.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

This is something that I've spent a lot of time on, and our oldest in particular will say, Well, I noticed that my friends stay up later, and I say, Okay, are your friends' parents divorced? I get crickets, and I'm like, that's why. Because I come from a divorced family, and I have a half-brother, so he was around, and he's four years older, so he's around for some of the time. So I'm mostly an only child. So I understand the boredom and parents coming home, and why did you do this? Honestly, I was bored out of my freaking mind. So that's why I made this poor decision and drew on the wall or whatever. So, yes, there's that. And then there's also the my parents were working so hard that they kept me up later than they should have because they wanted to spend time with me. And it also ate into their alone time, and it caused me to have meltdowns and be crabby the next day. I realized that with my oldest, for some reason, this child needs more sleep than the other children. And I think that deals with personalities, which we're totally going to talk about personalities in a little bit, because that is our jam as parenting coaches. And it's something that if you're listening to this, it even works if you are a manager and you work with other people in the workplace. Everybody has different personality types, and there's four major ones. And once you understand this, it makes it easier for you to connect first of all with yourself and then connect with other people. And of course, as a manager, you can't manage people's sleep schedule. It'd be great, right? You know that crabby person in the office who always has to drink like a gallon of coffee and you still kind of can't talk to them. And how many times do we as parents, and I am totally holding up a mirror right now, manage our children's sleep schedule, and we're we can be nitpicky about the sleep schedule, but we're not about our own. As I said, I'm holding the mirror up here, and I've noticed as I've been focusing on it, I feel so much better and I have energy, and I'm like, where did this energy come from? It's really nice. I'll take more. But so much of what Mindy's talking about, I can tell it's from her own personal experience. And anyone who is watching, I was shaking my head yes, during all of it, because I've noticed that for myself parenting. And I've noticed as I become a stickler of different things, it's really set things in motion. Like, okay, yes, sleep is important. And for us, we make sure that we keep the morning routine the same. We're a lot more lax about what time it gets done. We allow maybe an hour extra time, so I could kind of be slow and goof off and just enjoy each other, but they're not allowed to have free play, do whatever, have a little bit of screen time until they have finished their morning task list, which is the exact same task list as during the school year, except they don't need to pack a lunch or anything unless we're going somewhere. That's the only difference. And they're not getting their pack pack and getting out the door, right? So it still makes it so it's not as hard of a transition when school happens or when they have summer camps. And I've set into place with my own family, is realizing I remember how painful the transition was. It took like a month and a half of the school year before I finally felt like I wasn't a zombie as a child. Why was that? And spending that time in the why has really helped me to come up with these things. So if nothing is resonating for you quite yet, you have other needs that are coming up, go back to the why and put on that curious hat. Stay out of the judgment, just the why right now of figuring out why is this working or why isn't this working? And you can put this in anything that does not feel like it's working quite well in your life. And then I'm gonna kick it back to Mindy. Can we talk about personalities right now and what you have found? Because I know you have different personalities in your own family. And I always love starting with in my family, this, and then in coaching, I bring this because I feel like the first guinea pig is always yourself and then your own family. And then seeing, like, oh, this works, maybe it'll work here and then here, and bringing it out. But I know from talking, you have the different personalities in your family. So let's talk about that and how that relates to mindfulness and regulation. I wanted to let you know that there are some amazing things happening behind the scenes here that I'm very excited about. The first one is I am opening my podcast up for sponsorships. So if you are an aligned brand with wellness, reach out to me. You can find me wellnesseveryseason.com slash podcast slash sponsor. I also have something going on for you listeners. If you've been listening for a while, I interview people who are aligned with wellness and they talk about the healing modalities and different modalities that they do, but it is in a very descriptive sense. I am making it so that you have the chance to experience it during a recorded episode, and other people get to experience it alongside you so that we can really see how it works. Instead of just this zoomed out experience, we get to really zoom in and experience it. So you can find out more about that at wellnesseveryseason.com forward slash listener wellness guest.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

I was just thinking about what you were saying about making it easier transition back into the school year as well. And what seems like it could stretch endlessly, this endless summer, we know that it is going to come to an end. And so whatever we do during the summer does impact the beginning of the school year. So I just wanted to reaffirm what you had said, Autumn, about that as well. And even if you decide to really be a little bit more relaxed in what you do over the summer and do something completely different than what you do during the school year, it would behoove you to think about what you're going to do maybe a month before school starts to get them back into starting to ease them back into that routine. That's one of the things that came to mind as you were talking, that if it's your goal that, especially for those of you who have teenagers, we know that their sleep schedule and their sleep patterns are really off anyway. But giving some consideration on how you can support them once it gets a little bit closer to school. It doesn't have to be all summer that they do this, but you can ease them back in even a couple of weeks before school, maybe having them back up their bedtime a little bit, whatever it is, it's starting to really get back into the school year routine so that it makes for an easier transition. So what you were saying too about personalities, that is such a huge thing. And I was just thinking about my own kids, like you said, they each have their own personalities. I have a very, very strong-willed oldest daughter, and so she's number one of four. And so she really set the tone a lot of times for the house because there were certain things that she wanted to do, and her siblings followed along. They were like the little ducklings following their leader, the older sister. And so one of the things as a strong-willed child, she really needed is to be able to have a say in what her day looked like, what the summer looked like for her. And so that was one of the things that we sometimes we butted heads over. But as I started to better understand where she was coming from, I understood that she really wanted to have a say. She wanted to have some control over what she was doing, what her days were going to look like, and also to be able to have time to explore her own interests. And so she was setting boundaries in the way that she knew how to do them, which sometimes I have a very different personality. I would take that personally of like, whoo, you know, and she would say it a little bit more strongly and abruptly than I would have. So it was for me being able to understand where she was coming from and not take things so personally. And then right behind her, her sister is a similar personality to me. So she really needed to have that togetherness time. And so for her, summer was like, ooh, we could just spend more time together. At the same time, there would be these disruptions and intense moments with her siblings because especially her oldest sister, who didn't always want to go along and do the things and have all this together time that her sister wanted. And then I have another child, my son, who is so cautious. And so he really needed everything to look a certain way. So for him, like we had talked about with routines, like maybe giving a little bit of flexibility in the morning routine. But keeping it fairly similar was really important to him. And then knowing what his week was going to look like, I had a calendar that I would keep on the refrigerator and I called it the motherboard. And so they would look at that and then had everything that we were doing and who was doing it, and I had it color-coded. It was a work of art. And it's that way the kids could go and look and see. And for him, that was especially important. And then for my youngest, he in the disc model of personalities. We have disc, which stands for dominant, which my oldest daughter was. We have I, which is my youngest son, and eyes are that inspiring type and also can be impulsive. I call him my Pied Piper of people because he's very outgoing. But for him, summer meant that he could have lots of people over coming in and out of the house, that they were off in the neighborhood. I don't even know what all they were doing. They were riding their bikes and they'd have a little pickup baseball game or different things like that. So for him, he was still to this day, he's 22 now, and he really sees summer as an opportunity to really enjoy the freedom of warm weather and all these different outdoor activities and being around people. And so you put that into your home, and what does that look like during summer? So you have one child who really wants to dictate what everything looks like, and you have the other, another child who just wants to go with the flow and everybody to be happy and get along. And then you have another one who really needs to have a tight schedule. And so, in coaching parents, too, this is one of the things that we talk about is like, how do you do all of that, be true to yourself, feel like you're taking care of yourself and meet the needs of your kid. And so this is where those conversations come in really handy. And even if your kids are on the younger end, you know, they're early elementary, they still have thoughts and ideas of what they might like to do. And so if it's in your budget for the kids who really want to be on the go and have a little bit of a stricter schedule, maybe for them it is getting them into some things that they can look forward to each week. It could be even something as simple, it doesn't have to be a summer camp, but you know, the library has lots of different programs, and many of them have summer reading programs. So maybe it's like putting that into the schedule that the kids will go and they'll check out books and maybe stay for one of the programs or something like that. And so that's something that can help for the ones who are cautious. It also helps for the kids who are really, really involved in wanting to be around other people because it gives them that social opportunity. And for the kids who are like my daughter was, who just wants everybody to be happy, it's being able to go to those things and they can also separate from one another a little bit, that they don't all have to stay together, that they can go and look for their individual books or whatever, and other things that you can do. Swim if you have a pool in your neighborhood or community, being able to go to the pool. Some of the kids might want to do a lesson, or they also have other things that they can do there that can meet all of those different needs of the kids and help you. I kind of call that one-stop shopping. So if you can look for activities over the summer that help with the different personalities in your family that might be there, then it helps you to not feel so overwhelmed and stressed, like you're having to pull yourself in multiple different directions, trying to meet their needs. And for us as parents, we can feel so overwhelmed and overstimulated so quickly, especially if it's been. I mean, we're going through our own things, right? We have our own lives and we have our own relationships with friends and family and our significant others, in addition to our kids. And so it's allowing, giving ourselves permission, and I think you talked about that, to get curious and not judgmental. And if something isn't working, it's okay to step back and say, you know what, this isn't working, and to allow yourself to not do it anymore. You know, so if those weekly library sessions feel like they're too much, it's okay to say, we're not gonna do that this week, or we're not gonna do that anymore. Or to find maybe a friend who is also interested in that, and then your child can go with a friend. Or if maybe your other kids have friends, then you want to go to the library with your kids. I'm just using the library as an example, it could be anything, but then maybe you have that special time with that particular child to be able to do that. And so then I'm thinking about the parents who are working and trying to juggle and manage all of this. And so I just want to, as a mindful moment here, I just want us to be able to just slow down and just say to you all that your summer and your kids' summer may look a little different. They may end up having to go to a camp, you know, or and you might be, they might be going to multiple camps over the summer so that you can have the coverage that you need. And if that's the case, I really want to say to you, if please don't feel guilty about that. If there are still ways that you can meet your children's needs, and even if you're working and their summer has to be more structured than it might be for someone who's going to be home, a parent who's might be home this over the summer with their kids. So if your kids are in summer camps or they're in daycare or whatever it is, there might be times that you are able to get off a little early. And that might be the time that you then do a special activity with them. You might go and get ice cream, or you might go to the park or go to the library or wherever it is and have those special moments with them too. I just really want to encourage you that it doesn't have to look perfect. Summer can be a difficult time, and also because you feel like there's so much time to fill and to account for, but really the quality of time that you're spending with them is many times more important than the quantity of time.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

And if you look back at your own childhood, especially if you talk to your parents about it or your caregiver that you had, it can be so enlightening to think that they were trying to make this memory for you, but your core memory is during this other random time. So if you think about it that way, and then you're taking that same lens into your own parenting, it can be very interesting. You're trying to set up this opportunity for your children to make these memories. But what really stands out to them is when you seriously mess something up, and it's the repair that you're doing. And really that's what matters is the repair moment because they're learning how to repair times when they mess up as a child and then as an adult. But we're over here beating ourselves up for how we messed up, right? Like we have all of this guilt, and then we continue making decisions based off of our guilt, and then it just makes this whole awful thing, and we can be working from this lens of just being completely dysregulated. So I love how Mindy said, let's just take a minute to back up and to just take a breath. She didn't quite say it, taking a breath, but I took a breath by what she was doing. And then she I was going to ask her, what about those who are working? What about those that are single? It can be so hard. This is a time where you might feel like you're more strapped at the end of summer than you were over Christmas because summer camps are crazy expensive. I'm not sure if I feel blessed by this or not, but our children have decided they only want to do one summer camp, and the three of them are going to do it together. The youngest is too young to do it until next year, and it's at their elementary school. Super easy, and it's almost all day. Awesome. But they're not in summer camp. What am I gonna do with them? Right? I work from home, I'm out coaching people, I'm doing things. I have my whole workout routine that I do, which is at the gym. But one of the days that has the class that I love the most is during when a friend set up play groups. It can be so hard. And it's like, this is my time for me that I have to give up. Well, do you have to give it up, or is there a way that you can reorganize it so that you're still in there? Because, and this can sound narcissistic for a second, you are important, and you're being regulated means that you are going to be functioning from that place. You're going to be parenting from that place. If you're not regulated, that's when you explode yelling at everybody, and then you're having to repair it all over the place, right? And you're losing trust within yourself, let alone relationships with whoever you exploded on. Let's take that step of like, okay, my finances don't allow me to do all these things, and I'm working. What can I do? Well, let's think creatively. And I'll use myself as an example. I'm proud of this. It's taken me several years to figure this out. We have our favorite babysitter. She's home from college. I'm so excited. She is going to be babysitting for two mornings a week. And I'm going to use some of that time. I know it's not very much time, so I'm going to make the most of it. But I'm going to be splitting up with her. Like, hey, I want you to focus on this child and spending time with them. For one thing, my daughter wants to learn how to crochet. I have no interest. Our babysitter has that interest, and they love doing hair together. I'm actually growing out my hair for her. It's going to take forever. So we'll see. But she's willing to crochet with her. So I'm going to let them have that girl time. My daughter has that easy-going personality, like I do, and like you do, Mindy. And she gets lost. She has three brothers. So they try to do craft time together. So that's going to be their time together. My third kid gets dysregulated easily. So I'm going to make sure that he gets one-on-one time with me specifically. And it does not have to be a lot of time. And I have realized over the years that having her come is cheaper than summer camps. And it's easier. I'm not having to drive all over the place. She's also old enough and she was the lifeguard for several years at her pool. She's willing to take them to the pool. And she's already driven my car once. So I'm totally confident with that. And she's a really great driver. She comes from a divorced family. And if you are a child of divorced family, you grow up fast. So she's had to do that. So she's way more mature than other people her age. She's had to train her friends who have babysat for us how to use our dishwasher. One of the babysitters put dish soap in the dishwasher, so we came home to bubbles to explain it. My husband had to use the shot back. And when we told our regular babysitter about it, she totally made fun of her friend. It was fine, but it was also like a what? What made you not look at the container and put the wrong thing in? We all do stupid things that we laugh at at ourselves and at each other. But the thing is, you can do this with maybe a mother's helper. You can have a 12-year-old coming over who's just learning how to babysit and you can train them on how to do it. You need to be in the house with them still, but they can come and be that playmate, that older sibling to your children and help out. There are ways that you can do things. One thing that also helped me is realizing how is the classroom structured. Mindy, are you a school teacher?

SPEAKER_01 33:51

I was a school social worker for many years. Yeah. So I worked in the school system, but not as in the classroom.

SPEAKER_00 33:58

So you understand emotions super well from that. But there are times where you have quiet time. You can have quiet time at home for your own freaking sanity. And you can use all the cuss words with how stressed you get during that time. You can set time and you should set time for like everyone's going to do quiet activities. And I'm going to get a break and I can get work done, especially if I work from home. You can set these things up. And even if your children are at summer camps or grandma and grandpa's or whatever while you're working full time and then you pick them up, you can set up some of the same schedule so that they can decompress, so that they can have a routine. And I found because I also have the different personalities in my house that one likes some things one way, one likes it a different way. So I have interviewed each of my children to find out what they want for their summer, and I do that every year. I even have a worksheet that I created that my kids love so much that I then shared last year, and it will be in the show description again. But it goes through what do you want your summer to look like? What are your interests right now? Because my husband and I, we are very intentional people. We have very similar personalities, which works out super great. And for my son, the oldest, most of the time it's robotics. And because of his personality too, he kind of sets the tone. But my daughter, it's animals, she wants to be a vet. For the third kid, he's really into construction right now. And with our youngest, he thinks he's gonna be a Lamborghini driver. He has not changed for years. My husband and I are still like, what is that? We joke about it all the time. We spend the summer in particular deep diving on those things. We spend a lot of time at the library, too. The thing is, you can have the summer, the way you set up for your children, set up for you too. What is something that you're super interested in? You don't have to do these things with your kids, but you can do them alongside them. Share interests back and forth. You can have that time where, like, you're working on your hobby, your interest, or whatever it is. Think about things creatively. What things are my children interested in? How can I get to know them better? Where have I felt disconnected from different things that now I can spend time on during the summer, on myself, on relationships with my significant other, with my children, with my career?

SPEAKER_01 36:22

Autumn, you just gave so much value there. I I want to be present, but I also at the same time wanted to take notes because what you said was so powerful. And I think that one of the misunderstandings that we have sometimes about parenting and when we talk about mindfulness, being present, that doesn't also always mean, too, that we have to be actively involved either. It's that we're there in doing things next to them. You know, so like you had said with your son when he was doing his kindergarten work, you were right next to him. And so it's almost like when kids are very young, they do parallel play. They're not necessarily playing with each other, but they're both playing at the same time. I think that's also something to give consideration to with the summer, is that you don't always have to be playing games with them or keeping them really busy or active. It's okay, like you had said, because that's the normal rhythm of a school day, too. And also probably on the weekends, even that you have times where there's activity, there are times that it's quieter, and that fits our own patterns of energy. So if we're asking our kids to have a quiet time, and we can set that for them. After lunch, we're gonna have a quiet time from one to two or one to two thirty. And if they're not into naps, my kids stopped naps very early. And so I would have this set up for them too. What are the things that they can do? They can color, they can draw, they can read a book. They had things that they could do that allow them to have that quiet time because whether they want to admit it or not, and they could be the most outgoing social kid, they do need to have some quiet time as well to help their brain reset. Because when we're constantly inputting information and stimulating them, that's when they can have issues too. And I was just thinking about when we are wanting to have these wonderful memories with our kids. And so a lot of times we attach that to an activity, you know, like, oh, we had this wonderful vacation and we did this and we did that. And sometimes there's value in the quiet moments, too, that could be when you're all sitting on the couch together and you're just really enjoying looking out the window or reading a book or telling jokes or whatever it is that your family enjoys. It doesn't have to be high energy to be high impact.

SPEAKER_00 38:43

That's true. And I think you and I probably have a similar love language with quality time.

SPEAKER_01 38:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

We don't need all the vacations and all the loud stuff. Spend time with me showing me that you really know me, that there's trust there and there's that safety. And my daughter's the same way, and I was showing you that your book was kind of similar to something that I'm doing with my children. This is not something that I have a link to or anything, but I bought this journal for my daughter and I to do together, and we pass it back and forth, and there's questions in there, and there's a place for us to draw, and she's super creative, and she and I are having so much fun doing this, and it's important to her in particular because she's the only girl besides me in the family. We have one girl dog, I don't think that counts, but this has been helpful because she gets this time with me and she decided to up level it last week and she wanted us snuggled up together. And it reminded me, like I just mentioned, the love languages. There's a reason why when we have our parenting coaching program and we're working with our clients, one of the last things that we do is we go through the love languages. We're not just understanding personality type, but we're understanding love languages. And for me, I take it one step further. I heard about it in a podcast, and it made so much sense to me that I didn't even research it because it was just one of those duh moments that sometimes the way that we receive love, our love language, is not the way that we naturally show love. And there's times where that can get crossed wires and it gets messy because the way that we're showing people love naturally, they try to reciprocate that, and we're like, no, that doesn't resonate for us. So, in particular, I'll use my aunt for an example. She loves to give gifts, but she is picky as all get out. So good luck getting her a good gift without her wanting to re-give it to somebody else. You know somebody like this.

SPEAKER_01 40:53

Yes, yes, but that's my sister.

SPEAKER_00 40:56

And it's has made such a difference understanding my kids' love languages and that they change over time, noticing that within myself and within my husband, they change over time. For instance, when I first took the love language test in my married life, not when I was single, I took it when I was breastfeeding my oldest. And I had to think about timing. There's a big enough gap. I was not pregnant with my daughter yet, but I was nursing, and my physical touch, that's one of the love languages, was like zero, beyond touchdown. And that is one of my husband's love languages, and he was just like, and I'm gonna go be depressed over here for a bit. Whereas now, retaking the test, it's much higher for me because my kids no longer want to really snuggle with me. They'll do it for like a second when they're hurt or not feeling well, and then they're too wiggly, and they're like, Okay, mom, I'm done with you. So I have to tell my husband, I need snuggles, which he totally lights up when I say that. It changes over time. We forget that.

SPEAKER_01 42:09

Yeah. And Ana, I'm so glad that you brought that up because I had a parent reach out to me recently. I have a monthly newsletter that I send out the parents, and she told me how much she'd enjoyed that particular newsletter. And one of the things I'd asked her, I said, Is there something that you would like me to cover? And she said exactly that. She said, What do you do when you're so touched out that the thought of your child, your spouse, anyone else touching you, even if it's just a brief pat on the hand or on the shoulder, just sends you wanting to run. You're running in the other direction. And so I put that in my June newsletter because I think that that's a very real issue that we have. And I remember feeling like that too when my kids were young, and I had my number four who he didn't want to wean from breastfeeding. And so we breastfed for much longer than I would have wanted to. And I had my other son who just he would want to come and snuggle or put his arms around my legs, and then my husband would come home and he'd want to give me a hug and kiss me because he hadn't seen me all day. Lovely, right? And what a sign of affection. But at that point, I was like, you know, trying to push him away because it's like I just couldn't handle anymore because my body was overstimulated because I was overtouched.

SPEAKER_00 43:23

My husband, when we had that conversation, he started taking over when our kids wanted me and wanted to snuggle me. He would insert himself right away.

SPEAKER_01 43:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 43:32

Yeah. And it's hard when you don't know the language to be able to share it without having it be such a big feeling that it becomes this volcano and it's messy, and you're like, I don't mean it to seem so awful for you, but it feels awful within me. And when you don't have the right words, which helps. With going through the course that we teach and having the coaching where you have the space to really gain the language and understand the whys behind everything for you and understand if you have triggers, what is it from? Is it from something from your childhood? Or is it something that's coming up within parenthood that's separate from anything in your past?

SPEAKER_01 44:24

And I also just want to point out to the audience too, what you just said, that it changes over time as well. So if you're feeling like you're touched out right now, that doesn't mean that you will be later on. And you may be, you know, because that might just not be something that is your love language. And that's okay. Then I think when we have those moments to be able to pause and really to be able to reflect and like you said earlier, be curious about what's coming up for you. Then you can put some reflection or time into thinking, okay, well, is it something from childhood? Or is this, you know, what is this? And then being able to you can journal about it. You know, I'm a big fan of journaling, and sometimes journaling, we talk about that, and I have some of my clients roll their eyes. And I'm not talking about writing a book. It could even just be words, it could be pictures, it can be whatever. Sometimes I have them write words down and then they crumple it up and throw it away. Journaling means many different things, and I I know that could be a whole other topic, but it's just being able to get it down and to really think about what it is. And a lot of times being able to name what it is makes all the difference because then you're like, oh, okay, what next time it comes up, okay. I get it. This is from when I was feeling just like I needed some bodily atonement, knowing that you're your own person. And when we have babies, it's like our bodies belong to them, especially when we're nursing and we're recovering from giving birth and all of those things, we can lose touch with ourselves. And so this gives hope to those people who maybe are in that stage that as it grows, you know, your kids like Yuri said, your kids don't really want to snuggle anymore. And my kids are all adults now, and I have to chase them down for hugs. You know, I'm like, come to your mama, and then you know, just wanting to just squeeze on them a little bit and just love them. So there's a time and place for all things.

SPEAKER_00 46:22

The other thing that comes to mind that really helps me the most over the summer schedule your dates. My husband is my best friend, and I make sure that dates fall by the wayside during the school year. I hate that they do, but they just do. It's life. I make sure that we have consistent dates every week during the summer because I need them. And I also make sure that I have girls' night. And my husband will also give me space where I can go lock myself in the bedroom. He can tell when I'm having it, when the kids are having meltdowns, and he's threatening them if they do this one more time, and I'll make a comment like, I'm doing it, I don't even care. You can spank me, whatever. Just let me go to my room, I'll go to bed early. And he's like, go. I'm like, do those things for yourself, and most importantly, have that conversation with your significant other if you have one, or with your village. Set up a village, set up play dates. That is the best thing. I have a mom friend and I, we joke about how our kids will go to each other's house, and even though we have more kids in our house, it feels like we have less because suddenly our kids are not underfoot, they just disappear. Unless it's feeding time. Yes. But in our house, they'll tell me they're hungry, and I'm like, you know where the pantry is, you know where the fridge is, and I took off the lunch alarm because they would just naturally eat when they were hungry. That's actually really good for them. We forget that in the routine that we need to be allowing them to feel when they're hungry. Because then they aren't going to have disordered eating when they're older. They're going to know when they're hungry and know what to do. We sit down for dinner together. We kind of have breakfast together. So those stay pretty much the same. But lunch, it's just if we're out and about, we'll have lunch together. But if we're home, they have it at their own times that they're used to during the school year. You can keep a lot of the same school schedule. You don't have to come up with something different. But you do need to make sure that you have more time for you. Even if you're a working parent and they're in summer camp, it's going to be a different enough schedule for them that they're going to be a little more dysregulated. You're going to need to have more things for you to set yourself up, to be the best parent that you can be. If you have a really deep well of your own wellness and you're taking care of yourself deeply, parenting comes easier. If you are coming from a dysregulated place, good luck regulating your children. I know from personal experience. Whereas if you're getting enough sleep, it's easier to respond the way that you want to as a perfect parent, with using air quotes and all the eye rolls here when the time comes, because you're not coming from a place where you're tired and cranky. It's just easier.

SPEAKER_01 49:37

And also not feeling guilty too, I think, for having that routine and that structure. Because if you're, let's say you're a single parent and you don't, maybe you don't have a village. It's you, you're working full-time, you may not have a lot of time off. And so if you're allowing your kids, they go to camp and then they come home and then they're staying up later, and then they're grumpy in the mornings. And so it sets up this whole chain effect. And so what I was thinking is when you were saying about sleep, it's like a lot of times if we're letting our kids stay up later, then we're staying up later so that we have our personal time or having time, you know, for our spouse or be able to get together if we have, you know, girlfriends and we want to get together and do those things. And so this is where I think it's really important to say that it's okay for your kids to, you know, not stay up until 10 or 11 at night, depending on their age, obviously. But if your kids are younger and you want to have a consistent bedtime between the school year and the summertime, that's okay. You know, you maybe change it by a half an hour if that's really a big issue. But it's recognizing that you have your needs too, and it's okay to meet those because you're not going to be able to go through the next day being calm and regulated. And when I say calm, it's not that you have to be speaking monotone and practicing yoga or anything like that to be calm. It's just feeling like you can manage the demands of the day in a way that isn't impacting you negatively, your well-being, whether that's mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual. So it's know that you are important, that you have need. And really what you're doing is you're modeling that for your kids, how to take care of themselves too, because you're showing that you can take care of yourself, that you're important. And then it doesn't take, we don't have to. You know, you don't have to sacrifice everything for other people. And it starts with you. And and again, like you had said, with the wellness, that's one of the things I really focus on is yes, I do the parent coaching, but I really do more parent education. And this is the piece of it of taking care of yourself, because you know, when you're well regulated, then your kids are going to respond differently and they're going to be, then you're teaching them how to be resilient and regulated and to be able to handle their emotions. Will it be perfect? No, are they going to melt down? Absolutely. Will you melt down? Absolutely. You know, but it's again, like you had said, it's that after part, it's the repair.

unknown 52:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:15

And you have to have awareness, you have to have the capacity to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00 52:20

And it's the reminder that as much as your children are still growing and learning, so are you.

SPEAKER_01 52:27

Yes. You've never been the age you are, you've never had kids the age that they are. You know, it's like this is all new for you too.

SPEAKER_00 52:37

And we forget that because we're too busy trying to be the perfect parents and show that we're perfect when our children just want us. And we forget that. Do you remember what you wanted when you were a child? Sometimes we are so busy being adults that we forget what it was like to be children.

SPEAKER_01 52:59

100%.

SPEAKER_00 53:01

So, what is your last thought you want to leave us with? And then where do we find your book? Where do we find you? Where do we get on your newsletter? How do we get in your world? Tell us all the things.

SPEAKER_01 53:12

So, my last thought is that you don't have to be a perfect parent. Being present has so much more impact, it has the lasting impact rather than trying to be perfect because you're not going to be. And then you set yourself up for failure. So do the things that you need to do and to be intentional about setting up the summer so that you can thrive and your kids can thrive. And with that, we didn't even get to talk about some of the tools that you can use and regulation. And there's so much more we could talk about. I don't want to. And this has been such a wonderful, rich conversation. So if you are looking for some things to help you and your kids with learning different tools that help with regulation and resilience and all of that, I do have my new book that came out, Sammy's Super Stretchy Activity Book. It has all kinds of fun things in it for the kids to learn. And there's a section in the back for you as parents how you can implement this at home. You can even share it with when they're going back to school with their teacher because there are things in there for the teacher. The books that I have are on Amazon. You're welcome to look up Mindy Green. There is a Mindy Green who's an herbalist, which is not me, but there's if you look up CME's Super Stretchy World Activity Book or the Sammy Super Stretchy Shoelaces, you'll find me, this Mindy Green child author. And you can also go to my website, which I know will be in the show notes. And that's just it's simple, super simple. Mindy Green Coaching. You're welcome to email me there. You can find there's a short little personality quiz, and also there is a way to sign up for my newsletter.

SPEAKER_00 54:53

And I think really there are so many tricks. But really taking breaks to check in with yourself, making sure you're getting enough sleep, that is the first thing that goes out the window for me during the summer. Getting enough sleep. And when you are doing the things that you know feel good, you're trying to keep those in place as much as possible. Maybe your exercise needs to move to a different time of day. Know that having your kids know that you're doing these things for yourself and why will remind them of, oh, there are things that I can do. Maybe I can do the workouts right alongside my mom, or maybe that's when I'm having quiet time. So my mom can work out without me asking a bajillion questions. Know that there are simple things and there are harder things. Check in with yourself and ask yourself, what do I need right now? Is the biggest trick right there.

SPEAKER_01 55:52

One last thought with that. And so you mentioned sleep and exercise and checking in with yourself. I would say the other thing is to make sure that you're eating. Because you may think a cup of coffee in the morning is enough. Your body really needs fuel to be able to function best. And there is such a thing, we can kind of make fun of it about being hangry, but it really does it impact your mood. So make sure that you eat along with sleeping and checking in with yourself.

SPEAKER_00 56:19

I get that way. So that's the first thing I ask my kids if they're crappy. Are you actually hungry? And then I have that way. Is that the same thing for me? And if you struggle with that, you might want to invest in a glucose monitor. Because then you'll have to see, oh, actually, I'm not taking care of myself. I'm sugar loading, and then there's the spike and everything else going on. It was very interesting for me to witness that for myself. Yes, amazing. And it goes back to the simple things of parenting. Make sure you're doing them for yourself. Well, thank you. Thank you for this. And thank you for being the first person that popped into my mind just from having the personality that you do and the work that you do, and for saying yes. I know that this will impact a lot of people. And that this is something that we can go back to, even if it's during winter break, even if it's during the middle of the school year, whatever. There are so many things that fall off our plate that shouldn't, regulation-wise, being mindfulness-wise, checking in with ourselves. And we wonder why things feel like they're falling apart when it's these simple things have fallen off because I have lost sight of what should matter for my own wellness and then for the wellness of my family. So thank you for this conversation. Thank you, Autumn, for thinking of me. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I hope that you found the answers that you needed and you had some amazing aha moments. Please share this episode with others because it helps us align ourselves and then better align the world so that we can seek the healing that we really are looking for. As part of the legal language, I am a certified life coach with a bachelor's in applied health. That is what I am leaning on for this. This is general advice taken outside. See you in the next episode.