In this thought-provoking episode of the Love Each Other Better podcast, I sit down with Jen Lumanlan, host of the Your Parenting Mojo podcast and author of Parenting Beyond Power: How to Use Connection & Collaboration to Transform Your Family and the World. Join us for an introduction to how white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism shape family dynamics and influence parenting approaches, and how to shift out of traditional power dynamics to make family life easier and more connecting.

Jen Lumanlan’s shift from a sustainability consulting career to a focus on parenting wasn’t incidental. After grappling with the challenges of raising her own daughter, she realized that academic research on child development could serve as a guiding light. This led her to pursue master’s degrees in psychology and education, and subsequently, to the creation of her podcast and book. Her primary goal? To leverage her learnings to support other parents facing similar challenges.

Parenting Beyond Power: How to Use Connection and Collaboration to Transform Your Family and the World, exploring the ways power-over parenting teaches patriarchy to the next generation, plus needs-based alternatives and practice scenarios to help listeners put these anti-patriarchal parenting approaches into use.

In this conversation, it does take a minute to get around to stating explicitly that white parents do not have the same parents as parents who are Black, or Indigenous or Asian or other oppressed identities. I want to assure you we do get around to that and also that it is front and centre throughout the book, and it’s handled with nuance. It’s an excellent book for folks who are actively seeking or maybe just starting to be curious about how to dismantle systems of oppression and unhook from supremacy culture and the use of dominance and coercion at the family and relational level.

Jen Lumanlan, author of Parenting Beyond Power: How to Use Connection & Collaboration to Transform Your Family, believes there’s a direct link between parenting and social justice.

In today’s episode, Jen Lumanlan, the founder of “Your Parenting Mojo,” is here to share her wisdom on meeting our needs and those of our children. Together, we delve into the delicate balance between safety and autonomy as parents, exploring how to set boundaries that respect our own needs while honoring our children’s independence.

This is Jen’s second time on the show.  She is back this time to talk about taming your triggers in parenting, which is a very timely topic, like every parent I know is feeling especially spread thin and beyond exhausted after enduring the last two years.  We dig into the concept of parenting triggers and then Jen coaches me about a trigger that is very front and center in my own parenting journey right now.

Learn about evidence-based parenting on some of the most important things for the first year. This episode covers topics like attachment, sleep, and play. Plus, some research-based tactics to make sure you are nurturing yourself as a parent and meeting your own needs as you build a relationship with your baby.

We can sometimes get so focused on correcting our kids' behavior that we neglect to consider what unmet needs are being expressed. Jen Lumanlan explains how to shift our responses to parenting triggers.

How Research Can Help You Be Future Focused with Jen Lumanlan of the Your Parenting Mojo Podcast

Many of us have been homeschooling our children because of Covid. We might have the idea that homeschooling means sitting at a desk for hours and hours on end. We might feel that a child doesn’t socialize enough if they are homeschooling. Listen to our chat about some of these misconceptions around homeschooling and we dive into interest-led learning. 

If you are a parent, if you ever think of becoming one, or if you know any parent at all that could do with some extra reassurance and tips regarding respectful parenting Jen is your woman. She knows lots and what she doesn't yet know about she researches! 

In this episode, we talk about how COVID affected schooling, how to decide between in person education as opposed to homeschooling, and how we can plan for the future.

Parenting is stressful right now. This is because we are educating our kids at home while juggling work with limited childcare. We are also navigating difficult, important conversations about racism, the pandemic, and world events. How can we regain our sanity and parent in a way that is meaningful? Join us for a conversation with Jen Lumanlan

Have you ever wondered if you are parenting the “right” way? Our podcast guest Jen Lumanlan did and decided that she would go to the research to figure out how to parent her child. She discovered what was worth paying attention to and what wasn’t, and it allowed her to let go of some core tenets of parenting.

Biz and Theresa ponder the age old concept: “It’s cute, till it isn’t.” Be it singing or asking questions or adorable bedtime routines, it’s all cute…till it isn’t.  Does it stop being cute with time? When we’re out of patience? When a friend stops by and we notice they don’t think it’s cute? Plus, Biz brought the fudge, Theresa makes some changes and we talk to Jen Lumanlan of the podcast Your Parenting Mojo.

This episode features an interview with Jen Lumanlan from Your Parenting Mojo. In her own words, "I don’t have much in the way of parenting instinct but I make up for it with outstanding research skills." Interestingly, by way of analyzing the research on parenting and starting her own podcast, she has been able to develop a true intuition and ease for parenting.

In this episode, we talked about why anxiety disorders are on the rise in children, reasons kids need risks in order to be safe, and how kids learn from rough and tumble play.