This series has been focussed on exploring the importance of emotional development and how we can as parents be supporting our children’s mental health from the very early years of life so that they are able to manage the stresses we are seeing them face as they go through into adolescence and young adulthood.

We hear over and over again how the NHS is being brought to its knees because of the mental health epidemic in this country, its similar in other countries too so not indigenous to us, but if we want to see this ship turned around, its important that we come at it from all angles and one of the fundamentally crucial building blocks to mental health, we know, is the development and experience through childhood and the adolescent years

So coming full circle with this our final episode in the series, we are joined by perhaps one of the most influential people in the world when it comes to parenting and understanding the needs of our children. I was absolutely delighted when retired child psychologist, family therapist and author of the world’s best-selling book on raising boys, as well as other books that millions of parents have bought worldwide, Steve Biddulph, said he would join us on The Parenting Podcast.

We cover the importance of listening and being comfortable with feelings, putting boundaries down, how life has changed and what the impact has been on mental health and how we function, we cover how to understand gender and what our individual child’s needs might be, we pack loads in!

The sound isn’t perfect as we were half way across the world from each other so at times it sounds like one of us is furiously clicking a mouse or stirring a cup of tea – I promise you neither of us were, it was just the isms of the connection so apologies for that but you can hear what is said loud and clear. Enjoy!

Steve Biddulph's books:

• Complete Secrets of Happy Children
• Raising Boys in the 21st Century
• Raising Girls in the 21st Century
• 10 Things Girls Need Most To Grow Up Strong and Free
• Manhood 

And the other book that Steve referred to was Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne 

Continuing the quest of understanding emotions and mental health, addictions therapist Mandy Saligari joins us for this next episode with some challenging truths and encouraging advice.

We go from anxiety and out of control emotions, to eating disorders and self-harming, to toddler tantrums and teens who don’t talk. More importantly we talk about us as parents and what we can do raise our children so that they are best able to manage their emotions that they don’t need to self-medicate or shut down.

You may have seen Mandy on ITV’s This Morning, or Channel 5’s Celebrities in Therapy – or perhaps you’ve already watched her Ted talk about handling emotions. If so, you’ll know that she knows her stuff! Once an addict herself, she is now the co-founder of one of London’s leading treatment facilities for addictions on Harley Street. There’s so much to take away from this episode on negotiating our own emotional lives, whilst helping our children conquer self-destructive behaviour.

Mandy’s book is called Proactive Parenting and is jam packed with amazing advice and her Ted Talk is “Feelings, Handle Them Before They Handle You” 

Please do rate and review the podcast and it would be great if you could share and tag your friends. The NHS is at breaking point because of mental health illnesses, schools are spending their limited finances on help for the same so lets all do we can to raise the next generation of children to become adults who can! We are @thePpodcast on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram so please do start and join in with conversations over there.

In this next episode we talk with Michael Rosen about how the language of play and an attitude of playfulness can help with emotional development and mental health. Rather than being hounded by the obsession of right and wrong, or being the best at everything, we talk about having the freedom and ability to question the parameters that are set out around us which can sometimes lead us to think that there is only one path to follow.

We talk about how confidence and a sense of identity comes through having the ability to play with the world that is given to us, and that play is not just an occupier of time but that it’s a way of life that provides creativity, respite, connection and so much more. George Bernard Shaw said “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” 

So on this episode, we explore playfulness, how to build relationships with meaning and look at how we communicate and provide a safe base for our children to grow, whilst fostering a curious attitude that isn’t held back by the fear of getting things wrong.

To find Michael Rosen, he has stacks going on via his website and the book we were referring to was called Michael Rosen's Book of Play

We hope you enjoy the episode, please come and find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, we are @thePpodcast across the board and if you'd like to contact me, I'm Pipa Gordon, also generally somewhere to be found if you just search my name, or here's my website for all the links.