The ParentNormal

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

Ep. 68 Interview with Family Therapist Colleen O’Grady, author of Dial Down the Drama

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Family therapist Colleen O’Grady, author of Dial down the Drama: Reducing Conflict and Reconnecting with Your Teenage Daughter, is the featured guest this week.

In our conversation, Colleen gives me a preview of what I have to look forward to when my kids become teenagers. We’ll talk about the differences between parenting young kids and teenagers. And since Colleen is the first family therapist to appear on the show, I ask her about how to know when you should actually see a family therapist. Because who hasn’t thought they could use a therapist at one time or another?

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. 67 Interview with Marc Webb, director of The Amazing Spider-Man, 500 Days of Summer and Gifted starring Chris Evans

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Marc Webb, director of The Amazing Spider-Man movies and 500 Days of Summer (also amazing) starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel is the featured guest this week.

On April 7, Marc has his next movie coming out titled Gifted. The movie stars Chris Evans (Captain America) who plays a single man raising his child prodigy niece. So in our conversation, I asked Marc about what he learned from researching this movie about how to help a gifted child fulfill their potential without pushing them too far. I also asked Marc how he gets the best performances out of child actors, which can be a very hard thing to do. I know I struggle to get my kids to say please, so I can’t imagine what it would be like to try to get them to say a memorized monologue. I will say, however, that Mckenna Grace, the girl who plays Chris Evans’ niece in the movie, is a very gifted actress. I know she helped make Marc’s job easier.

And finally, I asked Marc about directing Spiderman, because that’s kind of a big deal. According to IMDB, The Amazing Spiderman 2 had a 200 million dollar budget. That’s a lot of responsibility for a director. But Marc did awesome, just like he did this interview.

Behind the Scenes: When I interviewed Marc, we were both at the Dad 2.0 Conference in San Diego, so there is a little bit more noise in the background than usual. My interview last week with HGTV’s Josh Temple was at the same conference.

Me and Marc Webb

Me and Marc Webb at the Dad 2.0 Conference in San Diego, California.

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. 66 Interview with HGTV star Josh Temple, host of House Crashers, America’s Toughest Jobs, Ultimate Treehouse & Backyard Nation

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Josh Temple, host of the popular HGTV show House Crashers, is this week’s featured guest. In recent years, Josh has also hosted America’s Toughest Jobs on NBC, Ultimate Treehouse on the Discovery Channel and Backyard Nation for TLC.

What makes Josh a great host of House Crashers is that he’s not only entertaining, he is also a real licensed contractor. But since this host, me, doesn’t know much about home improvement, in our conversation I made sure to ask him for easy home improvement tips. We also talked about how he got into doing home improvement projects and how to get kids interested in architecture and engineering.

Behind the Scenes: When I interviewed Josh, we were both at the Dad 2.0 Conference in San Diego, so there is a little bit more noise in the background than usual.

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

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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.

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

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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

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