Navigating the mess of parenthood
“Parenting is easy”, said no one ever. Ultimately, the truth is there are many ways to raise a child. You make your own path. Or maybe it’s more like a meandering stroll with intermittent bramble bushes, flower meadows, mud puddles, creaky rope bridges, fallen logs, woodland creatures and peaceful streams. You get the picture it’s a little bit of everything and it’s going to be unique to you and your family.
Why subscribe?
This place is about parenthood— the state of being a parent. Parenthood can be a mess. And it can be wonderful, too. Here we can get curious about it all.
It’s not just about the doing (the parent-ing) although it’s easy to get really focused on that. It’s noisy these days with all of the advice out there. It’s information overload and it adds to the stress. This newsletter is about how to navigate this messy adventure in ways that serve you and your family. And this is how we do that here:
Through humor, you know that quality which appeals to a sense of the ludicrous or absurdly incongruous (according to the dictionary). Ludicrous—that captures a lot of parenting.
Compassion for ourselves and others. Being a parent is hard and caring for ourselves and each other is a vital part of getting through the mess.
Common sense entails making decisions that are practical and reasonable for your family.
This isn’t a place for parenting advice—well, not directly. There are some ideas for consideration, but that’s it. I may know a thing or two, but so do you. You know your family and your needs, so you are the expert.
All subscribers have access to:
Weekly posts about a range of topics including:
parental mental health
neurodiversity
discussing current parenting trends/discourse
practical tools from mindfulness, self-compassion and psychology
ideas for navigating parenting advice in our modern world
resource recommendations
parenting humor and messy moments
A monthly round up with recommendations for reading, watching, listening and playing
Audio recordings of posts to enjoy on the go
Paid subscribers have access to:
All of the content above, plus access to paid only content a couple of times a month.
The opportunity to submit questions to be answered in a future newsletter.
Paid subscribers support curious, compassionate and common sense writing about parenthood. This support allows this newsletter and community to grow.
About Me
I am a mom and licensed clinical psychologist passionate about parental mental health, mindfulness, psychology, neurodiversity and coffee. As a psychologist, I had the privilege of working with children, adolescents and families dealing with health challenges, physical differences, managing pediatric surgery and a range of other challenges related to chronic illness, mental health and neurodiversity. My professional experiences taught me many things but my greatest lessons have come from being a parent. A couple of years ago I shifted to being a stay-at-home parent. As a parent of neurodivergent kids, I have had to adapt and question a lot of what I thought being a parent would look like.
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Something important to keep in mind: The content on posted by Dr. Kathryn Barbash, PsyD on the Instagram account (@drkathrynbarbash), A Wonderful Mess newsletter (kathrynbarbash.substack.com) or any other medium or social media platform is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for medical, clinical, legal and professional advice, diagnosis or treatment. Reliance on any information provided is solely at your own risk. Always seek the advice of your licensed mental health professional or other qualified health provider.
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