Ok, there is no such “syndrome”, but there is an increased stress level in many families due to the holidays. This wonderful, magical, social, and fun time is also marked by lots of additional stress in our lives.
Yesterday I attended a weekly music class for babies and toddlers that is usually a highly participatory, fun event. The group was large, and both babies and adults were cranky, subdued, and not engaged nearly as much as usual. My 'armchair diagnosis' is sensory overload from all the ‘extras’ already going on because of holidays. I heard a couple of Moms comment on their incredibly long lists of extra things they were trying to accomplish because of holidays, and several bemoaned how close together Thanksgiving and Christmas are this year!
While I have no solution to the overwhelm many adults succumb to during this season, I do suggest shielding your baby from it as much as possible. Be aware that your baby absorbs all the ambient 'energy', whether or not it is directed at her. Even if you are wisely maintaining the regular routines, she is also picking up the heightened state of excitement everywhere, from the retail buzz in stores to festivities at friends’ homes. If you carefully limit how much you choose to expose baby to, you will have much less stressed out crankiness with which to contend.
Happy Holidays!
Email and phone support available throughout!
Ingrid Johnson
The Baby Parenting Coach
303.776.8100
babyparentingcoach@gmail.com
www.BabyShaman.com
Friday, December 12, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Fill Your Parenting Toolbox Today
Having the right tools, right away, is an asset in any task we undertake. In the lifelong role as parent, starting out with the right tools is great. And for all the rest of us, assimilating the best possible tools as we go in the process of parenting is a great way to do it, also.
You don't have to attend workshops or travel to weekly sessions in order to assemble your own best set of tools. The key component is learning to trust your innate abilities. Common sense often trumps expert opinion in this vocation. The more you develop your own common sense, and learn to trust your own voice, the more your confidence grows.
As parents today, our vulnerability is ripe for exploiting. Never have there been more choices, and more pressure to enroll in services, purchase products, and participate in information and consumption overload. Parenting has in some cases become a business, preying on parents' fears.
I offer objectivity and support for developing your own cycle of self-reliance. In a collaborative way, we address immediate concerns and then look at overall values and goals that you want to implement. Getting rid of extraneous stuff that is draining your energy is vital at this important stage of your life. Your confidence is your best ally. Clarity and continuity are part of the support system I provide.
Ingrid Johnson
303.776.8100
www.BabyShaman.com
babyparentingcoach@gmail.som
babyparentingcoach.blogspot.com
You don't have to attend workshops or travel to weekly sessions in order to assemble your own best set of tools. The key component is learning to trust your innate abilities. Common sense often trumps expert opinion in this vocation. The more you develop your own common sense, and learn to trust your own voice, the more your confidence grows.
As parents today, our vulnerability is ripe for exploiting. Never have there been more choices, and more pressure to enroll in services, purchase products, and participate in information and consumption overload. Parenting has in some cases become a business, preying on parents' fears.
I offer objectivity and support for developing your own cycle of self-reliance. In a collaborative way, we address immediate concerns and then look at overall values and goals that you want to implement. Getting rid of extraneous stuff that is draining your energy is vital at this important stage of your life. Your confidence is your best ally. Clarity and continuity are part of the support system I provide.
Ingrid Johnson
303.776.8100
www.BabyShaman.com
babyparentingcoach@gmail.som
babyparentingcoach.blogspot.com
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Your Baby, Your Self
As you become a parent and begin to understand the lifelong ramifications, you may also observe opportunities to grow yourself as a person. Our child give us many chances, in many different settings, to observe our own choices of our behaviors and reactions.
Of course, our own child's behaviors trigger us at times. She may exhibit a pattern or habit that we don't like in ourselves. He may somehow remind us of a relative or person we have memories of, and that may be pleasant, joyful, sad, or annoying. Every time such an event comes up, it's a chance to choose what we do.
Many parents revert to the pattern established by their own parenting. Others have studied approaches that may have appealed to them, and are trying to implement those. Some are influenced by friends and peers, others allow their own parenting style to emerge as they meet their baby.
The choices today in parenting styles are many. How do you choose the way that is right for you? What do you do if the way you have chosen isn't working?
How do you best use parenting to grow yourself as a person? The results you experience are very much up to you. Having excellent support increases the chances of the outcome being what you desire.
Ingrid Johnson
THE Baby Parenting Coach
303.776.8100
babyparentingcoach@gmail.com
www.BabyShaman.cmo
Of course, our own child's behaviors trigger us at times. She may exhibit a pattern or habit that we don't like in ourselves. He may somehow remind us of a relative or person we have memories of, and that may be pleasant, joyful, sad, or annoying. Every time such an event comes up, it's a chance to choose what we do.
Many parents revert to the pattern established by their own parenting. Others have studied approaches that may have appealed to them, and are trying to implement those. Some are influenced by friends and peers, others allow their own parenting style to emerge as they meet their baby.
The choices today in parenting styles are many. How do you choose the way that is right for you? What do you do if the way you have chosen isn't working?
How do you best use parenting to grow yourself as a person? The results you experience are very much up to you. Having excellent support increases the chances of the outcome being what you desire.
Ingrid Johnson
THE Baby Parenting Coach
303.776.8100
babyparentingcoach@gmail.com
www.BabyShaman.cmo
Friday, October 17, 2008
Parenting - The 'Irrational' Vocation
If you saw an ad for a position that was exhausting, caused discomfort, took up most of your time, and involved risk (during pregnancy and childbirth), would you be excited about getting into the job?
When you decide to become a parent, you sign up for all that, as well as all the rewarding and heart-warming moments that make up being a parent. The rewards are huge, and so are the challenges. Preparing ahead of time is wonderful, and I encourage you do that. However, the best preparation in the world does not anticipate the unforeseen developments that come with a new baby.
Whether it's a temperament or patterns that are not what you were told about in your parenting class, your baby is almost sure to bring you some unexpected challenges. Also, the predictable pieces can still create stress and discomfort for parents. How you handle this will determine the overall quality of your parenting experience.
Lining up excellent support is a wise decision before your baby is born. Knowing that there is experienced and wise support available is important. Call upon it when you need it.
Ingrid Johnson
THE Baby Parenting Coach
babyparentingcoach@gmail.com
303.776.8100
www.BabyShaman.com
When you decide to become a parent, you sign up for all that, as well as all the rewarding and heart-warming moments that make up being a parent. The rewards are huge, and so are the challenges. Preparing ahead of time is wonderful, and I encourage you do that. However, the best preparation in the world does not anticipate the unforeseen developments that come with a new baby.
Whether it's a temperament or patterns that are not what you were told about in your parenting class, your baby is almost sure to bring you some unexpected challenges. Also, the predictable pieces can still create stress and discomfort for parents. How you handle this will determine the overall quality of your parenting experience.
Lining up excellent support is a wise decision before your baby is born. Knowing that there is experienced and wise support available is important. Call upon it when you need it.
Ingrid Johnson
THE Baby Parenting Coach
babyparentingcoach@gmail.com
303.776.8100
www.BabyShaman.com
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Oh Baby!
Here's a great opportunity to meet me and learn more about the services I offer - The Oh Baby! Baby & Family Expo in Denver on September 27-28.
I'll be there both days, and would love to see you!
If you're in Colorado and have a chance to stop by, please do - Colorado Convention Center in Denver, lots of valuable information, fun, and lots of shopping!
www.ohbabybabyexpo.com
Hope to see you!
Ingrid Johnson
www.BabyShaman.com
303.776.8100
BabyParentingCoach@blogspot.com
I'll be there both days, and would love to see you!
If you're in Colorado and have a chance to stop by, please do - Colorado Convention Center in Denver, lots of valuable information, fun, and lots of shopping!
www.ohbabybabyexpo.com
Hope to see you!
Ingrid Johnson
www.BabyShaman.com
303.776.8100
BabyParentingCoach@blogspot.com
Friday, July 25, 2008
Bump Up Your Confidence As a Parent
Monday, July 21, 2008
Stress, 'corrosive cortisol', and your baby
Highly recommended book for all parents:
Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain
by Sue Gerhardt
A highly readable and lively book about the neuroscience, psychology, and biochemistry behind the shaping of your baby's nervous system, this book confirms many important correlations between love and brain development. The chapter on 'Corrosive Cortisol' alone makes the book worth reading. Secure emotional attachment is vital for a lifetime of mental and emotional health.
Persistent powerlessness (the very nature of babyhood) and unrelieved, chronic stress are clearly identified as causes of damage to mental and physical health in babies. The importance of tender, protective parenting cannot be stressed enough. However, many parents are so stressed themselves that offering this type of parenting is challenging, to say the least.
The link between emotional insecurity and cortisol dysfunction is clearly documented. Tuning in emotionally and being available to your child is vitally important. Creating optimum support for yourself as a parent is a wise and powerful choice. Ensure that you are available to your child on this level.
Please contact me at
for details on how I provide coaching by phone and email for busy parents.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Support for Your Own Parenting Wisdom
Dealing with any parenting challenge is easier with solid support from a source you know and trust. Particularly during the first year or two of parenting (and plenty of times after that, as well), we question our own abilities to deal with the ongoing challenges. This is for good reason, as most of us have never embarked on a role more challenging or stressful. No career experience can prepare one for parenting.
This questioning can easily spiral into doubt, lack of confidence, and provide fodder for disagreements with our partner, family members, and friends. Often a second or third child brings up new issues that are unfamiliar and difficult.
It's fascinating to me that while much time and energy is devoted to all the nuances of decorating the baby's room and signing up for all the 'right' activities and classes, it's often unclear where the parent will turn when there is a question or challenge that is not addressed in the readily available channels.
New parents are typically stressed with just making it through the day and week. They are handed dilemnas and questions on a daily basis, some more pressing than others.
What if you had a wise and trusted person in your life with whom you could consult regarding parenting as needed, to vent, ask questions, reflect, or any combination thereof? How would you benefit from increasing your own skills in accessing your own parenting wisdom, while understanding more about this path of great opportunity?
Ingrid at babyshaman.com is dedicated to working with you to evoke the best parent in you, keep you learning about yourself, and support you in your choices in parenting.
This questioning can easily spiral into doubt, lack of confidence, and provide fodder for disagreements with our partner, family members, and friends. Often a second or third child brings up new issues that are unfamiliar and difficult.
It's fascinating to me that while much time and energy is devoted to all the nuances of decorating the baby's room and signing up for all the 'right' activities and classes, it's often unclear where the parent will turn when there is a question or challenge that is not addressed in the readily available channels.
New parents are typically stressed with just making it through the day and week. They are handed dilemnas and questions on a daily basis, some more pressing than others.
What if you had a wise and trusted person in your life with whom you could consult regarding parenting as needed, to vent, ask questions, reflect, or any combination thereof? How would you benefit from increasing your own skills in accessing your own parenting wisdom, while understanding more about this path of great opportunity?
Ingrid at babyshaman.com is dedicated to working with you to evoke the best parent in you, keep you learning about yourself, and support you in your choices in parenting.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Rewards of Conscious Parenting
Deciding to use parenting as a journey for growth is indeed a wise choice. The many challenges and lessons that come our way in the various stages of parenting create a rich series of opportunities to look at ourselves in new ways.
Our children, even from their very youngest moments, reflect some of our own qualities and trigger some our our most difficult emotions. While most of us experience great joy and wonder looking at our offspring, it isn't long before some pattern emerges that reminds us of something we haven't quite worked out ourselves. That is the prime moment for growth, if we choose to use it. That is the opportunity to reflect on what is being triggered in ourselves, where it originates, what purpose it serves in our present lives, and the choice to release and go forward, or not.
No one talks much about the incredible opportunity for self-examination and growth in child-rearing. Maybe it's because young parents are exhausted, overwhelmed, and accepting what they've been told about the realities of parenting. Still, in those instances where it is welcomed, we have the chance to look at who we are, how we are, and what we might want to edit out of our own behaviors.
For expert and experienced support in being the parent you want to be, contact me at 303.776.8100
Ingrid Johnson
www.BabyShaman.com
Our children, even from their very youngest moments, reflect some of our own qualities and trigger some our our most difficult emotions. While most of us experience great joy and wonder looking at our offspring, it isn't long before some pattern emerges that reminds us of something we haven't quite worked out ourselves. That is the prime moment for growth, if we choose to use it. That is the opportunity to reflect on what is being triggered in ourselves, where it originates, what purpose it serves in our present lives, and the choice to release and go forward, or not.
No one talks much about the incredible opportunity for self-examination and growth in child-rearing. Maybe it's because young parents are exhausted, overwhelmed, and accepting what they've been told about the realities of parenting. Still, in those instances where it is welcomed, we have the chance to look at who we are, how we are, and what we might want to edit out of our own behaviors.
For expert and experienced support in being the parent you want to be, contact me at 303.776.8100
Ingrid Johnson
www.BabyShaman.com
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Support for New Parents
After all the books, all the advice of family and friends, the job of parenting comes down to you and your partner's choices. Today is an opportunity to look closely at what you most value, where your skills and natural strengths are, along with where you are not necessarily particularly well prepared as a parent.
Even in the very best circumstances, where your own experience being parented was healthy and nurturing, when we stand in our own roles as parents, many challenges appear.
Many of us choose not to repeat all the ways in which we were parented. Inventory needs to be taken, and deciding which familial patterns to continue can be balanced with your own choices for parenting in healthy, loving ways.
As a mentor and guide for the early parenting journey, I offer ongoing support by phone and email. I help you clarify your vision and implement practical strategies.
Personalized parenting education and coaching is a valuable investment in the life of your family.
Look for my new website
www.BabyShaman.com
coming in the next few days!
Ingrid Johnson
303.776.8100
Even in the very best circumstances, where your own experience being parented was healthy and nurturing, when we stand in our own roles as parents, many challenges appear.
Many of us choose not to repeat all the ways in which we were parented. Inventory needs to be taken, and deciding which familial patterns to continue can be balanced with your own choices for parenting in healthy, loving ways.
As a mentor and guide for the early parenting journey, I offer ongoing support by phone and email. I help you clarify your vision and implement practical strategies.
Personalized parenting education and coaching is a valuable investment in the life of your family.
Look for my new website
www.BabyShaman.com
coming in the next few days!
Ingrid Johnson
303.776.8100
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Mom's Breastaurant
Rocky Mountain Sustainable Living Fair in Fort Collins, CO, featured this wonderful and practical respite for nursing mothers. How nurturing for both mother and child to have a place where nursing is unhurried and comfortable. It's time this concept spread to more public places, so that breasteeding is the easy and obvious choice for moms and their young.
Please visit www.momsbreastaurant.com for more info.
Ingrid Johnson
www.BabyShaman.com
303.776.8100
Please visit www.momsbreastaurant.com for more info.
Ingrid Johnson
www.BabyShaman.com
303.776.8100
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Trusting Yourself As A Parent
There are many influences, ranging from the media to our own relatives, that can steer us away from our own wisdom and knowing when it comes to parenting. At times, it seems the media is bent on portraying "super moms" and "super dads", who somehow emerge from full days of work and still have the perfect meal ready, the 'quality' time to spend with their young children, and of course appear flawlessly groomed and attractive themselves. Any parent who is successful over time knows they have chosen to let go of things they thought were indispensable in order to get it all done.
The tricky part is making the choices on what is truly important to you, what is moderately important, what is marginal, and what you are already willing to cut loose. It varies for each of us, so if your friend with a toddler is refreshed and uplifted by going and having a manicure, you may choose something entirely different. It might be a yoga class, a regular meeting a friend for coffee - what matters is that it works for you. What matters is that you take the time to identify which small things can be added in, changed (sharing a chore with a partner?), deleted entirely - and you may want to revise the list frequently.
Your intuition and inner guidance are valuable and the more you apply them, the more effective you will be. There is not necessarily a lot of external support for doing this, and for that reason, the services I offer can be most helpful in keeping you on track. Consistent support for tapping in to your wisdom - a path for parenting that reflects who you are and what you want for your child.
Ingrid Johnson
303.776.8100
The tricky part is making the choices on what is truly important to you, what is moderately important, what is marginal, and what you are already willing to cut loose. It varies for each of us, so if your friend with a toddler is refreshed and uplifted by going and having a manicure, you may choose something entirely different. It might be a yoga class, a regular meeting a friend for coffee - what matters is that it works for you. What matters is that you take the time to identify which small things can be added in, changed (sharing a chore with a partner?), deleted entirely - and you may want to revise the list frequently.
Your intuition and inner guidance are valuable and the more you apply them, the more effective you will be. There is not necessarily a lot of external support for doing this, and for that reason, the services I offer can be most helpful in keeping you on track. Consistent support for tapping in to your wisdom - a path for parenting that reflects who you are and what you want for your child.
Ingrid Johnson
303.776.8100
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Appreciation
At any age, we all respond positively to appreciation. Listening to an adult describe the rewards of acknoweldging individuals in the workplace, I immediately think back to my experience this week with a delightful 23-month old boy.
My young friend had a somewhat bumpy transition to being a big brother 2 months ago. Still in the baby/toddler stage himself, he had no way of understanding how a baby sister would impact his life.
As I held his baby sister and quieted her (first time Mom and Dad have left her with other than a family member), her big brother repeatedly wound up her musical mobile, brought over baby books, and waited patiently for me to be available.
When we were getting ready to write about today's events in his journal (I'll write more about that later), I looked at him and said, "I'm so proud of you. You did a great job as a big brother," he absolutely beamed. He was so obviously happy to be appreciated, and of course his behaviors are reinforced and will be seen again.
Don't forget to take the time, whatever the age of anyone you interact with today, to acknowledge and appreciate them, right where they are now, just as they are now. It's a powerful gift for us all to give each other.
My young friend had a somewhat bumpy transition to being a big brother 2 months ago. Still in the baby/toddler stage himself, he had no way of understanding how a baby sister would impact his life.
As I held his baby sister and quieted her (first time Mom and Dad have left her with other than a family member), her big brother repeatedly wound up her musical mobile, brought over baby books, and waited patiently for me to be available.
When we were getting ready to write about today's events in his journal (I'll write more about that later), I looked at him and said, "I'm so proud of you. You did a great job as a big brother," he absolutely beamed. He was so obviously happy to be appreciated, and of course his behaviors are reinforced and will be seen again.
Don't forget to take the time, whatever the age of anyone you interact with today, to acknowledge and appreciate them, right where they are now, just as they are now. It's a powerful gift for us all to give each other.
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