Hi, I'm Susie.

I took a step back from parenting work for a bit, and during that time I found myself thinking a lot about what parents actually need right now. Not more strategies, and not more “do this, don’t do that.” What I see over and over again is that parents are overwhelmed, and underneath that overwhelm is a quiet question: “Why do I keep reacting this way?”

What I’ve come to believe is this: anger doesn’t make you a bad parent, it usually means something in you is trying to protect. Appeasing your child doesn’t mean you’re weak, it often means you’re trying to reconnect. And those “I’m a bad parent” thoughts are not truths, they are stories you learned over time.

I don’t believe parents are doing it wrong. I believe most parents are doing the best they can with patterns they didn’t choose and reactions they don’t always understand. And when we begin to understand what’s happening inside of us, everything starts to shift, not because we’re forcing change, but because we’re responding from a more grounded place.