Show #241 – Days Like These: Parenting Comfort with Pip Lincolne

LISTEN TO THIS WEEK’S SHOW ON iTUNES, STITCHER OR SPOTIFY OR LISTEN RIGHT HERE:

Love our new show tune in the intro/outro? It’s talented Australian independent artist Melanie Horsnell’s song “Birds”. So proud to support this wonderful Aussie artist and have her grace the show with her wonderful words and song!

Low Tox Club – the place to bring your low tox life to life

Want to join a community of like minds and enjoy all the perks of being in the Low Tox Life inner circle such as an online membership platform, 50% off all our Low Tox courses, an awesome chat group, my monthly Q&A, and special guest star interviews for just $49AUD ($29USD/28EUR/23pounds) per YEAR? We have created a special place and set of resources to help you achieve your goals and it’s a wonderful place to be – more details and registration here: https://www.lowtoxlife.com/the-low-tox-club/

And on this week’s show!

This week continuing our parents and kids series, I interview Pip Lincolne, author of the book “Days Like These” which really is a hug in a book for parents, whether you have one child, two or several, whether you have a generally great time as a parent or find it often a very challenging experience, or float somewhere between the two. Parenting is an incredibly expansive experience that fills our days with many, many things to do just to keep our little people alive and growing and as they get older, to support them in starting to make their own decisions in a healthy way. We forget that we might need support and care during this time to help us thrive through the monumental task at hand and so in this show, we explore what that help, support, and connection looks like. I love the example of the shower when thinking about the challenges of parenting at the newborn stage. I remember before I became a parent, secretly wondering how on earth my highly intelligent friends who’d had a baby couldn’t get showered and changed in the morning and were still in pyjamas at 4 pm! Of course, all was revealed in time when my boy came along, darn it. I laughed at my pre-mum self as I dragged the bouncer into the bathroom at 3 pm one day so that I could have a shower and keep my eye on him if he got upset. Sound familiar? I hope you enjoy and find comfort in today’s show.

Questions I asked Pip:

• What do you think steered you in the direction of writing on mental health and parenting? Your own medicinal therapy in part? Let your mess be your message? 
• How do you feel parenting impacted your sense of self? 
• Where do you see, along of course with all the incredible parts of the parenting journey, that many parents struggle the most? 
• Are there aspects to the way we are brought up culturally as women on some level that magnifies the ‘you’re not enough’ emotion so massively when we become mums? 
• How on earth did you bring together everything you knew that would help mums in their parenting journeys into one packed and useful book? 
• Sometimes we feel consumed by guilt – how can we love a child so much and yet, wish they’d give you an hour of peace, or stop asking questions, or just be asleep already, or not lose their school hat for the 5th week in a row? How can we navigate that weird duplicity inside of us? 
• What’s a simple thing we can do to help them know they’re basically our world? 
• Overwhelm: We all feel it – often I find in waves when a few things come to a head and it’s all too much: When we feel it creeping in, what can we do? 
• When can we spot when we might need professional support in this area? 
• And how can kindnesses – which are technically doing MORE – actually quell feelings of overwhelm and inadequacy?
• I love a little exercise you give your readers in the book, for those days where we feel we suck at parenting and nothing’s going well/right/as it should: The 3 things exercise. Can you talk us through it? 
• What is the ‘perfect parenting influencer’ doing to us as mums? Is it good to follow people’s endless stream of helpful tips and tricks and how they do everything if it plunges us into despair? Is there a healthy way to follow mums on socials without comparisonitis? 
• I was shocked to read in your book how many angles from which mums receive criticism: Can you share these different criticism channels and what the stats are telling us? What is the cost of unsolicited advice/criticism and the best way to react and hold strong/set boundaries?
• I love your 3 simple things to do when you receive criticism/get called out in public etc – document, clarify, move on (I totally empathise with the ‘hot face’ feeling! 
• Just how important is our friendship network on the parenting journey? What if we’re a little retreated and lost and need to re-establish one – any tips for reconnection/connection and building that rock-solid network? 
•  I know a lot of mums struggle with self-care, worth, and identity on the parenting journey – how can we keep ‘us’ when we become mums and throughout our kids’ childhoods?

Other helpful links:

Know more about Pip in her blog: http://meetmeatmikes.com/

Her new book, “Days Like These” is out now. Available at the Book Depository and Booktopia.

You can also find her on Instagram @piplincolne and Facebook

This week’s show sponsor:

We’re thrilled to have the wonderful Nordic Naturals fish oils as our show partner this month. They are thoroughly grounded in science. Evidence informs their product formulations. The latest research fuels their innovation. And cutting-edge technologies bring it all to life.

As a long time taker of their liquid fish oil and feel almost immediate effects when I take it, I personally vouch for this wonderful brand. A recent documentary painted all fish oils as severely harmful to the oceans, but as with all things, there are leading producers doing the right thing by the planet, producing a truly sustainable product, and Nordic Naturals is an example.

Check out this mini-documentary that covers all of Nordic Naturals sustainable fishing practices to illustrate their excellent work: https://therahealth.com.au/brands/nordicnaturals/  I love the founder story!

And of course, we’re running a little giveaway. You can win a duo pack of oils:

•         Arctic Cod Liver Oil liquid 237ml Lemon Flavour (what me and my son take) 
•         Arctic Cod Liver Oil 60 soft gels (great for travel and on-the-go factor)

All you have to do is leave a comment in the comments section, and you’ll be in the running. Good luck!

 

Enjoy the show,