Welcome to the Mess

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Hi, I am Kathryn.

This is going to be imperfect but that is the best way to show up for something as complex as parenthood.

Introductions first

I am a psychologist. I am a mother to 4 kids. We are a neurodiverse family. I have been a working parent and a stay-at-home parent and now I find myself somewhere in-between. I am writer. I love coffee.

Do you ever…

• find yourself falling down the parenting information rabbit hole, only to emerge with less clarity than when you started?

• find that after reading a parenting book, listening to podcast or scrolling parent-gram you think that advice sounds great…but not for your family?

• find that your family was somehow left out of the mix of parenting advice?

• feel unsure about what is really important for your kid(s)?

• feel tired of a lot of the stuff? Not even sure what the stuff is but just exhausted with it all.

It’s a fantastic mess

It’s so noisy out there in the parent-scape. So many voices, so many choices. If your house is anything like mine, it’s already loud enough. This newsletter started out of frustration, exhaustion and hope. Even as a child and adolescent psychologist, it felt hit or miss when it came to finding what I needed for this wild ride of raising humans. That is where a hope was planted, that this newsletter could be a space for all of this fantastically messy adventure. A place for parents to connect, for stories and tools to support your unique parenthood.

This is not a place…

• For all the answers. I can’t promise your kids will do their chores or become a successful adult(whatever that is???). No one can make those types of promises.

• For shoulds or prescriptions. There will be some recommendations but you get to decide if that works for you and your family.

• To transform. This isn’t about changing you or your family. Let’s embrace where we are and find our choices for today.

This is a place for…

• Laughter (let’s do a lot of that)

• Storytelling and all types of stories (not just mine)

• Practical tools for parenthood (things that we can actually do when we have been woken up hourly since 1AM)

• Mindfulness (no mountaintops needed)

• Kindness (being kind can be pretty badass)

• Imperfection and mistakes (Lots of those)

• Shared wisdom (not to be confused with information)

• Whole people (not just the “parent you”)

• Creativity (in many forms)

• Reading (in whatever form it takes in your life)

• Collaboration (makes it all the more fun)

Expectations

Subscribe and you will find something waiting for you once a week.

• A Monday essay about a whole lot of different things related to parenthood, mindfulness, neurodiversity, imperfection and life’s curiosities. Along with some practical tips, recommendations and resources from time to time.

• A once-a-month post with a round up of links for reading, watching and listening and other random fun.

• As an avid reader, I am so happy to present “Reading While Parenting” to support your the parent reading life, however messy it may look. The Messy Summer Reading Club starts June 7 until August 23rd. It’s a weekly email to support your reading practice amidst the chaos of summer.

Check it out for yourself

• You can find posts here about navigating the noise (also known as the parenting advice firehose). Parenting content is approached through a lens of influence, culture, trends and use variety of perspectives to help sift through the information overload.

• You can find posts here about practical mindfulness tools for real life. No meditation on a mountaintop.

• Also check out the archive for much more!