Embrace Parenthood Transitions for Deeper Connections

(object hissing) (mouse clicking) (gentle bright music) Headspace Studios. (gentle bright music) (waves rustling) (tranquil music) Hi, my name is Dr. Lateefah Watford, and welcome to Radio Headspace into Tuesday morning. As you know, this week is all about navigating major life changes, and today, I wanna talk to you about something that's always in flux. Kids. It's a huge change when you have them. Then, they become toddlers, then they go to school, then they're teenagers, and then one day, they're gone. But as a mom, I've been there, and I have some tips and experiences on how I made it through to share with you. Let's get into it. You know, it's kind of hard to state what the hardest thing is when transitioning into parenthood, only because transitions and parenthood never leave each other. They're always happening. I think when you go from not being responsible for something and then being responsible not just for something, but for someone, that's a huge transition. Of course, there are common things you think of. Financially, how do you do it? Do I have a home that's big enough for it? But there are other things that people don't really talk about a lot. In my practice, I consistently see struggles between the parent and child relationship at major transition points developmentally. So when the children go from elementary school to middle school, or middle school to high school, when there's a lot going on developmentally, the parents struggle. For example, around middle school going into high school is when the teens will start separating from the family. And now, instead of focusing on the family and what the family does, they're now focusing on their friend group. They're pulling away, some parents feel, from the family. There's also some good changes that affect their relationships. For example, when your kids graduate from high school, or achieve something that they've been trying to do, or even when they just follow through on something that you've been teaching them, and realize that the reason Mom has nagged me all the time is because this is what I needed to do to get what I wanted. So if you have kids or are about to have them, here are some things to keep in mind when they're going through their big changes that you are also going through with them. I always recommend to the parents that I interact with professionally, or in my personal life, that they need to prepare their tool belt. What do I mean by that? I mean there are things and skills that you need to have or have access to to help you make it through this whole parenthood thing. For example, you're gonna need to double up on your patience. You're gonna have to learn that the way we did things or the way that we were raised may not work in this new world, in this new time. You're gonna also have to learn your...