In this special holiday episode of Real World Peaceful Parenting, Lisa Smith revisits one of the most impactful episodes: the 10 things she knows for sure about peaceful parenting. These tried-and-true truths serve as a compass for navigating the challenges of parenting with connection, empathy, and regulation—especially during the busy holiday season. Whether you’re new to peaceful parenting or looking for a fresh perspective, this episode offers transformative insights to help you create meaningful connections and joyful memories with your kids.

What You'll Learn:

• You Are Not Alone – Embrace the understanding that parenting challenges are shared, and support is always available.

• Progress, Not Perfection – Learn why striving for improvement rather than perfection leads to more impactful parenting.

• Connection Before Cooperation – Discover how creating a sense of being seen, heard, and valued fosters lasting cooperation.

• Mistakes as Process Problems – Shift your mindset to view mistakes as opportunities to refine processes, not reflections of character.

• Conflict as Growth – Recognize that conflict signals opportunities for learning and deeper connections.

• Scuba Dive into Feelings – Master the art of diving beneath surface behaviors to address the unmet feelings and needs that drive them.

In this episode of Real World Peaceful Parenting, Lisa Smith revisits one of the most transformative topics for parents: understanding why kids struggle to listen. Using Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-Hour Rule, Lisa explains how kids are still building the skill of listening and offers tools to shift your parenting perspective. By replacing frustration with connection and understanding, you can create a more peaceful and joyful environment, especially during the holiday season.

What You'll Learn:

• The Listening Learning Curve – Discover why listening is a skill your child is still developing and how to reframe your expectations.

• The 10,000-Hour Rule for Parenting – Learn how to apply the principle of deliberate practice to your child’s growth and development.

• Shift Your Perspective – Gain insights on how to approach your child’s struggles with empathy and patience.

• Building Connection – Understand the power of modeling calm, connection, and understanding to guide your child’s emotional growth.

• Practical Tools for Parenting – Learn how to stay consistent with requests while fostering an environment of trust and growth.

• Holiday Support Opportunities – Get details on Lisa’s free live coaching sessions to help navigate holiday parenting challenges.

In this episode of Real World Peaceful Parenting, Lisa Smith shares the transformative power of self-regulation, especially during the holiday season. Using relatable stories and practical steps, Lisa teaches how to manage stress, model emotional intelligence, and create a calm, connected holiday atmosphere. Learn how every pause and deep breath is a lesson your kids will carry for life.

What You'll Learn:

• Why Self-Regulation Matters – Understand how your ability to manage stress shapes your child’s emotional intelligence and creates lasting holiday memories.

• Recognizing Triggers – Learn how to identify physical and emotional cues that signal stress and frustration before they escalate.

• The Pause Button – Discover how pausing and taking four deep breaths can reset your nervous system and prevent reactive parenting.

• Connection Before Correction – Explore how validating emotions and connecting with your child leads to better problem-solving and less holiday conflict.

• Practical Holiday Tools – Implement the “Trigger Tracker” and “Pause Practice” exercises to build your self-regulation muscle during busy times.

• Parenting as a Model – Recognize that your calm responses are teaching your children how to handle their own big feelings, now and for the future.

In this episode of Real World Peaceful Parenting, Lisa Smith shares how to be the calm anchor your kids need during the holiday season. Learn how your nervous system affects your children’s behavior and why your calm is the greatest gift you can give your family. Lisa explains practical strategies like the “Holiday Reset Ritual” and “Pause and Respond” to help you manage the unique challenges of the holidays—without yelling, threats, or stress.

What You'll Learn:

• Understanding Co-Regulation – Learn how your child borrows your calm nervous system to manage their emotions, especially during the holidays.

• Pause and Respond – Discover how taking a moment to breathe and reset helps you model emotional regulation for your kids.

• The Impact of Calm – Understand how your calm presence shapes your child’s brain for better emotional resilience.

• Handling Holiday Triggers – Identify common holiday stressors and how to track and manage your emotional responses effectively.

• Connection Before Correction – Discover why emotional connection with your child is the key to handling holiday meltdowns and sibling conflicts.

• Practical Tools for Calm – Use the “Holiday Anchor Breath” and other quick reset rituals to create a peaceful holiday experience for the whole family.

Warning: today I’m going to present an idea that you may not want your kids to hear, so I recommend listening to this when you’re away from your children.

The holiday season is upon us, and there are so many things about this season that I love; cozying up by the fire, watching football games, the general sense of the occasion and that it’s a special time of year. But there is something that I don’t love, and you might not even realize you’re doing it.

You might have heard of Elf on the Shelf, and you might even be using it as a way to make sure your kids behave during the holiday season. You know the drill – you tell your kids that if they misbehave, the elf will see everything and tell Santa not to bring them any presents. But there’s a big issue with using the elf in this way, and I’m explaining my problem with it this week.

In this episode, I’m sharing why using Elf on the Shelf as a tool to keep your kids behaving during the holidays is actually fear-based parenting. I’m showing you how to stop using Elf on the Shelf as a tool for punishment and instead start using it to connect with your kids, and some tips to help you move away from fear-based parenting during the holidays.

What You'll Learn:

• What fear-based parenting is and why it’s such a problem.

• How you might be applying fear-based parenting without realizing it.

• Some tips for using Elf on the Shelf as a tool for connection and cooperation with your kids.

• Why getting curious, not furious, is even more important at this time of year.

• How the holidays might bring extra emotions for your children and why you need to let them have them.

• Why threats and punishments are never the way to get your kids to behave.

• How to notice if you’re using fear-based parenting around the holidays.

In this episode of Real World Peaceful Parenting, Lisa Smith delves into the transformative power of defining family values. Through relatable examples and personal stories, Lisa shares why family values are essential for creating a unified approach to parenting and fostering a sense of purpose and connection in your home. Discover how establishing clear, actionable values provides a lasting framework for decision-making and guides your kids toward developing their own internal compass. Plus, Lisa offers practical steps to start defining your family values tonight!

What You'll Learn:

• Why Family Values Matter – Learn how family values create a guiding compass that everyone in the family can follow, making expectations clear and meaningful.

• Parenting with Purpose – Understand how values simplify decision-making and reduce conflicts by aligning with what truly matters to your family.

• Creating Consistent Guidelines – See how breaking down big values into daily actions can guide behavior and bring structure.

• Building Your Kids’ Internal Compass – Discover how values help children build their own decision-making skills and self-discipline, even when you’re not around.

• Getting Started with Family Values – Learn a simple exercise to define and outline your core family values tonight.

• Practical Examples from Lisa’s Family – Hear about Lisa’s own family values and how they’ve shaped her parenting journey, providing a real-world look at peaceful parenting in action.

In this episode of Real World Peaceful Parenting, Lisa Smith addresses the common challenges parents face when dealing with their children’s big emotions, especially anger. Building on last week's theme of diving below the surface, Lisa shares five practical scenarios that parents encounter daily, each illustrating how to respond with empathy and understanding. Lisa also provides actionable phrases to help parents get curious, not furious, enabling deeper connection and calmer communication with their children. This episode empowers parents with a toolkit for navigating tough emotional moments, guiding both parent and child toward a more peaceful relationship.

What You'll Learn:

• The Power of Connection Phrases – Learn specific phrases to help your child feel understood and calm in emotionally charged moments.

• “Pause and Probe” Technique – Discover how to pause, breathe, and explore what emotions might be under the surface of your child’s behavior.

• Real-Life Scenarios – Five common parenting challenges with step-by-step responses to foster empathy and avoid escalation.

• Understanding the “Iceberg of Behavior” – Why what’s visible (like anger) is often only a small part of what your child is experiencing emotionally.

• Building Emotional Intelligence Together – How practicing empathy and understanding fosters emotional growth for both you and your child.

• Practical Tools for Real-Life Parenting – Techniques for shifting from reaction to understanding, helping to create a calmer, more cooperative household.

In this episode of Real World Peaceful Parenting, Lisa Smith explores a transformative approach to handling anger in parenting. Guided by Eckhart Tolle’s wisdom, “Where there is anger, there is always pain underneath,” Lisa explains how to look beyond the surface of your child’s outbursts to understand the vulnerable emotions hidden below. With real-life stories and actionable insights, Lisa shares how getting “curious, not furious” can create breakthroughs in connection and emotional growth for you and your child.

What You'll Learn:

• The "Curious, Not Furious" Approach – Learn how adopting this mindset can uncover your child’s true feelings behind their anger.

• The Iceberg Model of Anger – Discover why anger is only the tip of the iceberg and how diving deeper reveals vulnerable emotions.

• Practical Techniques for Emotional Connection – Explore actionable strategies to identify and validate your child’s emotions.

• Real-World Examples of Compassionate Parenting – Hear relatable stories of parents navigating anger to build stronger bonds.

• Self-Reflection Practices for Parents – Understand your own reactions to anger and what underlying emotions you might be shielding.

• Building Emotional Intelligence in Children – Help your child develop emotional resilience by teaching them to manage and communicate their feelings.