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Ten Percent Happier


Being a parent is really freakin’ hard. Of course, it can also be incredibly rewarding and delightful. Either way, it consumes us. Childproof is a show about us, the parents, and how we can raise kids without losing track of ourselves in the process. Each episode host Yasmeen Khan, a journalist and mom, brings us conversations and stories with fellow parents and experts on how to navigate this whole parenting thing — especially the shifts that happen within ourselves. Because parents are growing too.




Editor's Notes:

"Childproof is a show about the parent experience with a nod towards the idea that parents are also growing just like kids are growing," host Yasmeen Khan tells Apple Podcasts. "It's the show for parents seeking growth, and I'm one of those people." The North Carolina-born and now Brooklyn-based host, journalist--and most importantly, mom--Khan brings you the bi-weekly show Childproof about parenting for parents.

Khan's past life as a reporter and journalist for WNYC Radio covering New York City schools and policing paved the way for her passion for covering families--especially issues and anxieties that the pandemic brought to the surface. "People are so deeply affected by these events. Family structures are, and parents are," Khan says. "I bring a lot of that sort of background with me and I have brought some characters, actually, from my time reporting into the show also." 

The self-proclaimed "audio evangelist" covers a range of topics on parenting through the lens of other parents sharing their stories. "If we're going to feature someone's story, I want to hear somebody wrestling with something," Khan says. "What are parents grappling with? What's the interior experience of a parent? I hope in that sense, honestly, the show could be for anybody, any grown-up, if they have kids or not, but because sometimes the issues we're grappling with aren't specifically related to our kids, all the things that we're dealing with as people."

Anything goes, and each episode aims to have a takeaway in the form of a lesson learned or some evidence of personal growth. But getting to hear parents share their own concerns is cathartic in its own right. "Nothing should feel like it's too precious or performative or anything like that, but if you feel like someone is really opening up in a conversation, and you can sense that they're just being real with me and the audience, that's compelling," she says. "That's really where the power of audio comes in because audio stories and listening to someone tell their own story is so intimate. I think it's the most powerful way to tell the story."

And as a mom to two girls herself, she knows a thing or two about being a parent. "My kids fill my tank in a way that I need, that I can't get anywhere else," she says. "And the thing I love about being a parent is that my life is filled--this is going to sound so cheesy--but my life is filled with so much love. I don't feel like I deserve it all the time, but it's just nothing but love. And that just gives the house a lot of good energy, you know? And I like that.”


Childproof

Being a parent is really freakin’ hard. Of course, it can also be incredibly rewarding and delightful. Either way, it consumes us. Childproof is a show about us, the parents, and how we can raise kids without losing track of ourselves in the process. Each week host Yasmeen Khan, a journalist and mom, brings us conversations and stories with fellow parents and experts on how to navigate this whole parenting thing — especially the shifts that happen within ourselves. Because parents are growing too.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to Childproof

We're diving into one enormous question: how have you changed since becoming a parent? Maybe you've changed in ways you're not comfortable with, or maybe you'd actually like things to be different. Perhaps you've never even considered the question. Today we're digging into all the ways we transform as parents and, more importantly, how to deal with change when it feels really hard.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

1: Parenting Changes Us, Whether We Like It or Not

Exhausted? Snippy? Yelling? Yasmeen’s in the same boat. Today, she gets personal on when and how she loses her cool with her daughters and the way she’s trying to manage it. We hear from a licensed clinical social worker who has specialized in “the shit we need to do to not lose our shit.” She wants to make sure individual parents know they’re not the only ones who get a little snappy and yell, even if it feels that way.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

2: Yasmeen's Bedtime Problem

Parents are holding things together at the seams. In our second pandemic winter, parents and caregivers are working in overdrive to deal with positive covid cases at home or around them, school closures, covid testing lines, and making sure our kids are okay. But… are parents okay? This week we hear from parents on where they’re at, and we offer some practical ideas for staying resilient in this herky-jerky time.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

3: Are You Okay?

"I look at them and they're in a different world. I don't know how to describe it other than, 'I don't know what this is, and I don't know what comes next.'" 

Esau McCaulley always knew he wanted to be a father. But he's now working through some unexpected, complicated feelings around being able to give his four children a carefree life. Esau describes how he grew up poor in Alabama and sometimes struggles with relating to his children's comfortable upbringing outside of Chicago. We talk with Esau about this tension: about how to be in your children’s world, when you feel outside of it. 

Esau, a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, first wrote about this conflict in a recent essay: "I Grew Up Poor: How Am I Supposed To Raise My Middle Class Kids?"

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

4: I'm Giving My Kids The Childhood I Wanted. But I Struggle To Relate To It

When was the last time you asked for help, or accepted it when offered? As parents it's easy to feel like we're all furiously rowing in our own boats, doesn’t it? That we're required to be independent. That having people see us when we’re struggling is a sign of weakness. But the truth is, we need those connections — and that help — from other people. Today we visit a place, and time, when a community of parents felt a shared responsibility to one another. And we talk with Mia Birdsong, author of the book How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community, on how to build meaningful connections with other parents — and remind you why it’s necessary. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

5: The Case For Parenting In Community

Aubrey, a mother of three children with cognitive differences, has a habit of lying in bed at night and ruminating over the mistakes she feels that she’d made throughout the day. “Especially when you become a parent, your flaws take center stage,” she says. Although she’s been working on strategies to take better care of herself, she’s searching for a way to be kinder to herself when the chaos of her busy days feels like it’s too much. For an episode of Twenty Percent Happier that we’re sharing, Aubrey meets with Matthew Hepburn, a meditation teacher, to learn how to replace her nightly routine with a new practice: one that can help her ease up on herself when she feels like she’s falling short.

You can find more episodes of Twenty Percent Happier exclusively in the Ten Percent Happier app. https://www.tenpercent.com/twenty

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

6: A Lesson In Not Overthinking It

When you think back to your own middle school experience: do you cringe? In her latest creative project, author and podcaster Hillary Frank goes deep into the discomforts of middle school. Her audio drama, Here Lies Me, centers on an eighth grade girl confronting issues of harassment, bullying, all-around awkwardness, and the loss of her childhood. Hillary first conceived of the story some 15 years ago, long before she was a parent herself. But she only brought it to life as a fiction podcast last year – coincidentally at the same time that her own daughter entered middle school. We talk with Hillary about how she immersed herself in what truly goes down in the eighth grade, and how that has – and has not – prepared her for this stage of parenting. 

You can find Here Lies Me wherever you get your podcasts—and check out their website: hereliesme.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

7: ‘Welcome To Eighth Grade, People’

Having a job and having a child isn’t just a balancing act of two different roles. It’s a whole new identity to figure out — you are a working parent. But if you spend your efforts being devoted to work, and then devoted to kids, where does that leave… you know… you? How do you toggle between these different tasks and mindsets, draw firm boundaries between your work and home life, and still take time to check in with yourself? 

In this episode we’re sharing an adaptation of an article we did for the new parents issue of Romper, the online parenting magazine, focusing on mothers navigating the transition back to work after parental leave.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

8: Learning How To Be A Working Parent – And Not Just A Parent, Who Also Works

We know interrupted sleep comes with the job of raising kids, especially at the beginning. Night and day bleed into each other and, before long, we’re in a nonstop loop of pacing, rocking, changing, feeding and wondering: will I ever sleep again? 

In this episode we check in with a few under-slept parents about how a prolonged lack of rest has affected their lives and, in some cases, sense of self. We also talk with Dr. Lauren Whitehurst, a cognitive neuroscientist specializing in sleep, about how to be patient with our bodies and brains when we’re sleep-deprived.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

9: Will I Ever Sleep Again?

Erin is a mother of three teenagers. As her oldest prepares to leave home, she wonders how she can go about strengthening their strained relationship. She wrote to Childproof for advice and we enlisted the help of veteran meditation teacher James Baraz, who has personal experience healing his own relationship with an adult child.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

12: A Listener Asks: I’ve Changed As a Parent. What Do I Do About the Past?

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