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Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based parenting ideas to help kids thrive

Parenting is hard…but does it have to be this hard? Wouldn’t it be better if your kids would stop pressing your buttons quite as often, and if there was a little more of you to go around (with maybe even some left over for yourself)? On the Your Parenting Mojo podcast, Jen Lumanlan M.S., M.Ed explores academic research on parenting and child development. But she doesn’t just tell you the results of the latest study - she interviews researchers at the top of their fields, and puts current

kids & family parenting

All Episodes

40:18

RE-RELEASE: What’s Really Behind Your Hardest...

Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based... ·

2026/10/05

You did everything right today, and it still wasn't enough. Your kid melted down over something small, you lost your patience faster than you wanted to, and now you're lying in bed wondering if today's hard moment left a mark.In this episode, I get into why some days with our kids are harder than others, and it's rarely just about what happened in that one moment. Temperament mismatch (or a temperament match that causes its own friction), the attachment patterns we picked up long before we had

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21:35

Episode Summary 11: Breaking the Cycle: One Mom’s...

Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based... ·

2026/09/28

You promised yourself you wouldn't become your mother. Then your kid won't put their shoes on for the third time, and the voice that comes out isn't really yours.In this episode, I talk with Terese, a parent who grew up walking on eggshells around a mother who yelled often. She would yell because Terese had her school books on the dinner table - and then after dinner, she would yell because the books were in the living room. Terese knew she wanted to raise her own kids differently, but she

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49:44

10 Years, 10 Lessons: Everything I Got Wrong About...

Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based... ·

2026/09/21

Before my daughter was born, I made a book split into two halves. One cover said 'me.' The other said 'you.' I filled the 'you' side with a list of hopes for who she'd become. I had a lot of ideas about the person she should be before I'd ever met her. This episode marks ten years of the podcast, and I'm using it to walk through ten things I got wrong along the way. Because if you're in the middle of any of these yourself, I want you to know exactly where I started. I'll cover what I

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20:03

Why Your Preschooler Is Hitting, Biting, or Kicking...

Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based... ·

2026/09/07

Your child's preschool number shows up on your caller ID, and your stomach drops before you even answer. Preschool never calls with good news. Your kid hit someone at the sand table, or kicked a friend in line for the bathroom, and now you're standing there wondering if you have to call another parent and apologize, and whether this is the start of your kid becoming the one nobody wants to play with.The conversation you have that night probably isn't the first one. You remind your child that we

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51:18

Re-release: Creative Problem-Solving (Without Giving...

Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based... ·

2026/08/17

Sara's four-year-old started asking permission for things he used to just do on his own, like grabbing the markers off his own shelf. It was a small request, but it worried her, since nothing about her home had ever required asking first. This episode follows what she did next. Sara gets specific about creative problem-solving in action: a drone in the sky and a line of dump trucks waiting outside a construction site. She talks through the exact question that became her compass whenever

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01:00:19

Re-release: Raising an Entrepreneur (Without Taking...

Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based... ·

2026/08/03

When my daughter Carys was 10, she started a pet-sitting business. She opened a Roth IRA with the income, built a client base of dog walkers and cat owners in our neighborhood, and figured out a system for remembering security codes only after a couple of alarms went off by accident. This episode is about that decision. Skills needed for entrepreneurship come from real clients and real consequences. A kid learns to be reliable because someone is counting on her. She learns to communicate clearly,

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16:41

Episode Summary 10: Burnout vs Depression: The Mental...

Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based... ·

2026/06/15

Many mothers go to the doctor because they feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and they aren’t sleeping - and leave with a depression diagnosis and a prescription. The message is: your brain isn't working right, and medication will help you cope.But what if the problem isn't your brain at all? In this episode, I talk with journalist Bob Whitaker, who has spent decades investigating psychiatric treatment in the U.S. We look at how women's distress has been medicalized instead of taken seriously as a

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30:23

266: If ADHD Medication Doesn’t Help Kids Learn, What...

Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based... ·

2026/06/01

If you listened to our first episode on ADHD, you already know that the story most parents get about the diagnosis has some significant gaps - in the diagnostic criteria, in the research funding, and in the case for lifelong stimulant medication. This episode goes deeper on the topic of medication for kids. Most parents medicating their child with ADHD in the U.S. are doing it because they want their child to learn and succeed in school (social concerns are seen as more important to parents in the

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28:11

265: Einstein Never Used Flash Cards: How Kids Learn...

Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based... ·

2026/05/11

Most parents have heard that play is how children learn. But in a world full of educational toys (even for babies, preschoolers, and kindergarteners!), enrichment classes, structured activities, and apps designed to make babies smarter, making time for play is harder than it sounds. The pressure to get kids ahead earlier keeps building - and the research that's supposed to reassure us often gets buried under the noise.Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek has spent more than 20 years studying how children

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45:20

264: Who Really Decided Your Child Needs ADHD...

Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based... ·

2026/04/27

If your child has been diagnosed with ADHD, stimulant medication is probably the first thing their doctor mentioned. And if you're trying to figure out whether it's the right choice for your family, you deserve more than a pamphlet published by a drug company. You deserve the full picture - including what the research really shows, who funded it, and the questions the medical model of ADHD hasn't answered. The story most parents get is a tidy one: ADHD is a chronic brain disorder, it's highly

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20:27

263: What’s Really Behind Your Child’s End-of-Day...

Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based... ·

2026/04/20

If your child holds it together all day at preschool or daycare and then completely unravels the moment they get home - melting down over dinner, refusing to use the potty, making every transition a battle - you're watching afterschool restraint collapse in action. It's exhausting. And it can bring up some painful feelings for parents too, including wondering whether your presence is making things harder, not easier.In this coaching call I worked with Kathleen, parent of a three-year-old who

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35:02

262: How Limits Show Up in Your Child’s Body

Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based... ·

2026/04/13

If your morning routine for preschool looks less like a smooth routine and more like 21 rounds of "no", "stop", and "not like that" before 8 am, then things aren’t working well for either of you.In this episode, we walk through one ordinary preschool morning minute by minute, from the cereal bowl to the car seat buckle. We also learn how to move from: "how do I get my child to cooperate" to: what is going on inside my child's body right now, and what are they trying to communicate through

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22:01

261: Why Your Kids Fight (It’s Not What You Think)

Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based... ·

2026/03/30

If your kids are fighting constantly, you're probably exhausted from playing referee. Maybe they're arguing over whose toy is whose, poking and teasing each other until someone cries, or telling you two completely different stories about what happened. And when you step in to help, nothing seems to work.In this free Beyond the Behavior group coaching call, parent Stacey’s 12-year-old and 7-year-old are caught in a cycle of constant sibling conflict - poking, teasing, hitting, and yes, even lying

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44:10

260: How the World's Toxic Systems Live Inside Our...

Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based... ·

2026/03/09

If you've been watching the news and feeling despair because you can’t do anything about it, this episode is for you.The Epstein files, revealing how powerful men think about, talk about, and treat women. ICE raids tearing families apart. Strikes on Iranian cities - and schools full of children! In this episode, I make a direct connection between these social issues and what happens inside our homes every day. The patterns playing out on a global scale - where the person with more power

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23:15

Episode Summary 09: Is Your Child’s Diagnosis...

Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based... ·

2026/03/02

When a doctor hands your child a diagnosis, it can be a relief - finally, an explanation for their behavior! But sociologist Dr. Allan Horwitz has spent decades studying how psychiatric diagnoses are made, and what he's found raises serious questions about how much weight that label should carry. In this episode, Dr. Horwitz walks through how the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) - the manual that defines every mental health diagnosis - was built less on scientific research than on

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28:20

259: Understanding Why Your Child Hits (And What...

Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based... ·

2026/02/16

When your three-year-old hits you, their sibling, or another child, it's easy to feel frustrated, embarrassed, or even angry. You might wonder if this challenging behavior means something is wrong with your child or your parenting. In this episode, I help you see hitting in a completely different way. Instead of viewing it as a problem to eliminate, we'll explore what your child is trying to communicate through their actions. You'll discover how hitting is often your child's attempt to meet

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01:02:24

RE-RELEASE: Parental Burnout: Is Your Exhaustion...

Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based... ·

2026/02/09

Are you exhausted in a way that sleep doesn't fix? Do you find yourself more irritable with your children than you ever imagined possible? You might be experiencing parental burnout and you're far from alone.In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Moïra Mikolajczak, one of the world's leading researchers on parental burnout, along with listener Kelly, who shares her raw, honest experience of burning out while raising her young daughter. Dr. Mikolajczak reveals groundbreaking research showing that

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27:16

Episode Summary 08: What Is Collaborative Parenting?...

Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based... ·

2026/02/02

When you started parenting, you probably had ideas about the kind of parent you wanted to be. Maybe you imagined patient bedtimes and peaceful mornings. Then reality hit, and you found yourself doing things you swore you'd never do.Parent Maile Grace knows this feeling well. In this conversation, she shares how her parenting values have shifted since her daughter was born. She talks about moving away from strategies like timeouts that seemed to work in the moment but didn't align with what she

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20:27

Episode Summary 07: Is Your Child’s Behavior Really a...

Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based... ·

2026/01/19

When your child struggles with behavior or attention, doctors might suggest ADHD medication. Before you move forward, you should know what a psychiatric diagnosis actually is - and what it isn't.This episode examines how psychiatric diagnoses actually work - and what they don't tell you. Dr. Sami Timimi, a child and adolescent psychiatrist in the UK, explains how the mental health system has become an industrial complex that profits from turning distress into diagnoses. You'll learn why a

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23:08

258: YPM 2025 Year in Review + What’s Coming in 2026

Your Parenting Mojo - Respectful, research-based... ·

2026/01/12

Welcome to 2026! In this episode, we're looking back at what we covered in 2025 and sharing what's coming in the year ahead.A Year of Growth 2025 was a year of evolution for the podcast. We covered topics you've been asking about - parenting triggers, rage, overwhelm, boundaries, and breaking family trauma cycles. We also did a deep dive across four episodes into Dr. Jonathan Haidt’s book The Anxious Generation (which likely overstates the harm of social media on kids). There’s also a summary

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