The ParentNormal

Your Home for Close Encounters of the Baby, Toddler & Elementary Kind

Ep. 65 Interview with Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians and book critic for Time

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lev-grossman

Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians Trilogy, which is now a TV series in its second season on SyFy is the featured guest this week. Lev is also the book critic and lead technology writer for Time, but I think he would be most proud to tell you that he is a father of three kids.

In our conversation, we talk about why the fantasy genre and books like Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia have such a wide appeal to audiences young and old. We also talk about what it’s been like to see his characters from The Magicians reimagined for TV on SyFy, what books he has enjoyed introducing to his kids and what we can expect from his next book about King Arthur’s knights after the collapse of Camelot.

Links Mentioned in this Episode:

About Breaking Down Parenting: A ParentNormal Podcast

Since this episode was originally released, the show has evolved into Breaking Down Parenting: A ParentNormal Podcast. It’s a show that’s for imperfect parents by imperfect parents. Hosted by humorist and imperfect parent of three Chris Cate, every episode breaks down a topic that causes parents to break down, such as putting kids to bed, potty training, the terrible twos, homework, clothing, discipline, cleaning up, cooking for kids, and so on….

By the end of each topic breakdown, parents will hopefully realize they aren’t alone in their struggles and that the craziness all parents go through is actually quite funny when it’s looked at in the right light. After all, the mission of the show is to help parents laugh when they want to cry.

Breaking Down Parenting: A ParentNormal Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Google and Spotify.

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Links to popular episodes of Breaking Down Parenting: A ParentNormal Podcast

Ep. 64 Interview with Heather Armstrong of Dooce, “Queen of the Mommy Bloggers”

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heatherarmstrong

Heather Armstrong, known by her fans simply as Dooce, is this week’s featured guest. She is not only one of the most successful bloggers of all time, she is a mother of two, a New York Times bestselling author and she has even been the subject of a question on Jeopardy that went like this:

Rhyming with “Juiced”, it’s “to lose one’s job because of one’s blog”, coined by blogger Heather Armstrong

The correct answer was, “What is Dooced?” – because, as you might infer, Heather famously lost her job because of her blogging about it.

In an article by the New York Times that called her the Queen of Mommy Bloggers, it said she had 100,000 visitors to her site daily. So I think blogging has worked out pretty well for her.

In our conversation, we’ll talk about how blogging has changed since the early days, how bloggers can use their platform to promote positive messages, how Heather helped influence the creation of Twitter and how her readers helped her with her postpartum depression.

Links Mentioned in this Episode:

About Breaking Down Parenting: A ParentNormal Podcast

Since this episode was originally released, the show has evolved into Breaking Down Parenting: A ParentNormal Podcast. It’s a show that’s for imperfect parents by imperfect parents. Hosted by humorist and imperfect parent of three Chris Cate, every episode breaks down a topic that causes parents to break down, such as putting kids to bed, potty training, the terrible twos, homework, clothing, discipline, cleaning up, cooking for kids, and so on….

By the end of each topic breakdown, parents will hopefully realize they aren’t alone in their struggles and that the craziness all parents go through is actually quite funny when it’s looked at in the right light. After all, the mission of the show is to help parents laugh when they want to cry.

Breaking Down Parenting: A ParentNormal Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Google and Spotify.

Connect with The ParentNormal on Social Media

Connect with all things ParentNormal on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Links to popular episodes of Breaking Down Parenting: A ParentNormal Podcast

Ep. 60 Interview with Jennifer Lehr, author of ParentSpeak What’s Wrong with How We Talk to Our Children and What to Say Instead

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Pspeak

Jennifer Lehr, author of ParentSpeak: What’s Wrong with How We Talk to Our Children–and What to Say Instead is the featured guest this week. In our conversation, Jennifer will explain what “parentspeak” is and why we should change some of the common phrases we use with our kids.

Many of the common phrases Jennifer says not to use are phrases I say to my kids all the time, including “You’re so cute,” “Be careful,” and “Can you say thank you?” These are phrases I’ll probably continue to use, for better or worse, but I do think Jennifer makes some good points about how they have the potential to send a different message than what was intended.

Listen to the episode and you be the judge of whether “parentspeak” is a problem, too politically correct or somewhere in between.

Links Mentioned in this Episode:

About Breaking Down Parenting: A ParentNormal Podcast

Since this episode was originally released, the show has evolved into Breaking Down Parenting: A ParentNormal Podcast. It’s a show that’s for imperfect parents by imperfect parents. Hosted by humorist and imperfect parent of three Chris Cate, every episode breaks down a topic that causes parents to break down, such as putting kids to bed, potty training, the terrible twos, homework, clothing, discipline, cleaning up, cooking for kids, and so on….

By the end of each topic breakdown, parents will hopefully realize they aren’t alone in their struggles and that the craziness all parents go through is actually quite funny when it’s looked at in the right light. After all, the mission of the show is to help parents laugh when they want to cry.

Breaking Down Parenting: A ParentNormal Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Google and Spotify.

Connect with The ParentNormal on Social Media

Connect with all things ParentNormal on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Links to popular episodes of Breaking Down Parenting: A ParentNormal Podcast

Ep. 57 Interview with Amy Bellgardt of Mom Spark about How to Make Six Figures a Year Blogging

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amy-bellgardt

Amy Bellgardt of MomSpark.net is this week’s featured guest. If you’re a blogger or have any aspirations to be a blogger, whether it’s a blog about parenting or anything else, you’re really going to enjoy this interview.

A couple of months ago, Amy wrote a post on her blog titled How to Make Six Figures a Year Blogging. I thought the idea of making six figures a year writing about one of your passions was incredible, so I invited Amy to be on the show to talk about creating a successful blog, building an audience, how social media can help you, how to connect with brands to monetize your site and about her own success story.

Links Mentioned in this Episode:

About Breaking Down Parenting: A ParentNormal Podcast

Since this episode was originally released, the show has evolved into Breaking Down Parenting: A ParentNormal Podcast. It’s a show that’s for imperfect parents by imperfect parents. Hosted by humorist and imperfect parent of three Chris Cate, every episode breaks down a topic that causes parents to break down, such as putting kids to bed, potty training, the terrible twos, homework, clothing, discipline, cleaning up, cooking for kids, and so on….

By the end of each topic breakdown, parents will hopefully realize they aren’t alone in their struggles and that the craziness all parents go through is actually quite funny when it’s looked at in the right light. After all, the mission of the show is to help parents laugh when they want to cry.

Breaking Down Parenting: A ParentNormal Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Google and Spotify.

Connect with The ParentNormal on Social Media

Connect with all things ParentNormal on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Links to popular episodes of Breaking Down Parenting: A ParentNormal Podcast

Ep. 56 Interview with Parent Hacks author Asha Dornfest

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asha-dorfest

Asha Dornfest, author of Parent Hacks: 134 Genius Shortcuts for Life with Kids, is this week’s featured guest. In our conversation, we talk about her favorite hacks, how she got started learning new hacks and where she has had the most success discovering new parenting hacks.

Links Mentioned in this Episode:

About Breaking Down Parenting: A ParentNormal Podcast

Since this episode was originally released, the show has evolved into Breaking Down Parenting: A ParentNormal Podcast. It’s a show that’s for imperfect parents by imperfect parents. Hosted by humorist and imperfect parent of three Chris Cate, every episode breaks down a topic that causes parents to break down, such as putting kids to bed, potty training, the terrible twos, homework, clothing, discipline, cleaning up, cooking for kids, and so on….

By the end of each topic breakdown, parents will hopefully realize they aren’t alone in their struggles and that the craziness all parents go through is actually quite funny when it’s looked at in the right light. After all, the mission of the show is to help parents laugh when they want to cry.

Breaking Down Parenting: A ParentNormal Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Google and Spotify.

Connect with The ParentNormal on Social Media

Connect with all things ParentNormal on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Links to popular episodes of Breaking Down Parenting: A ParentNormal Podcast

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