Parents We've Met

Dayna and Jenny are joined this week by a very special guest, Vasa Fia Collins. Fia is the wife of the late Fa'anānā Efeso Collins - a deeply respected Samoan community leader, Auckland politician, educator and advocate - whose sudden passing in February 2024 had a profound impact on his family and the communities he served. Fia shares what it’s been like to walk through deep loss and grief, supporting her two daughters while also finding her own footing. She reflects on the individual ways her girls have navigated grief, the challenge of rebuilding routines and confidence after profound change, and how Samoan culture, faith and community have anchored their whānau through it all.  She honours the dedicated father that Efeso was to their daughters – his humour, playfulness, strengths and hope for their futures – and shares how she hopes to carry forward the dreams that they had so intentionally built together.   Parents We’ve Met is brought to you by Parenting Place – a charity with a heart for New Zealand families. Explore our self-guided online courses and hundreds of free parenting articles and ideas HERE.  Find us on:⁠ YouTube⁠ / ⁠Instagram⁠ / ⁠Facebook⁠ / ⁠Tik Tok ⁠/⁠LinkedIn  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is a new phone or gaming console topping your kid’s Christmas wish list? Or is tech already a part of daily life? Either way, this chat’s for you.  Jenny and Dayna are joined by Parent Coach Sheridan Eketone for a deep dive into navigating screens and the digital world without meltdowns, battles or bribery.  In this episode, we cover everything from setting kids up for safety before they hop online, to modelling the digital habits we want them to adopt - and resetting boundaries if things have gone too far.  With Sheridan’s help, we also offer simple tools like drawing up a family tech agreement or first phone agreement together – and getting through the long summer break (school holidays!) without leaning on the screens.  Looking for support when it comes to screen time, online safety and first devices? Check out: Digital Parenting: Raising kids in an online world.  Parents We’ve Met is brought to you by Parenting Place – a charity with a heart for New Zealand families.  Find us on:⁠ YouTube⁠ / ⁠Instagram⁠ / ⁠Facebook⁠ / ⁠Tik Tok ⁠/⁠LinkedIn  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you’re feeling defeated by sleep, or lack thereof, this episode is for you. Sleep psychologist Dan Ford, founder of The Better Sleep Clinic, joins Dayna for a straight-up chat on sleep, stress, melatonin and magnesium, and how genetics might have a role to play in your bedtime struggles. From snoring to nightmares, insomnia to 3am wakeups, Dan unpacks some common sleep challenges and sheds light on how our kids' sleep habits might be affecting their brain development and wellbeing.  Together they also explore some of your burning sleep questions, including:  Why do kids get hyperactive when they’re tired? (and fool you into thinking they’re not tired) How do screens affect sleep and bedtimes? How do hormones and perimenopause affect women's sleep?  Why does trying harder to sleep sometimes make insomnia worse?  Kids snoring - when is it harmless and when should you get it checked?  The ABCs of children’s sleep: age, bedtime, consistency.  Dan also shares plenty of practical, realistic advice for parents, from creating healthy routines, to understanding why wake times matter more than bedtimes. He talks about how to support teens whose body clocks naturally run late and offers gentle strategies for those moments when a child simply can’t fall asleep without you.  Parents We’ve Met is brought to you by Parenting Place – a charity with a heart for New Zealand families. Explore our self-guided online courses and hundreds of free parenting articles and ideas HERE.  Find us on:⁠ YouTube⁠ / ⁠Instagram⁠ / ⁠Facebook⁠ / ⁠Tik Tok ⁠/⁠LinkedIn  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is a reassuring reminder that anger isn’t a parenting failure - it’s a message! In this coaches’ couch episode, Jenny and Dayna sit down with Parent Coach Kristin Ward to unpack what might be going on beneath those fiery ‘red-brain’ moments that sometimes sneak up on us parents. We talk about why anger shows up, why some of us meet it with shame or self-condemnation, and how understanding its purpose can completely change the way we respond.  Using the ‘anger iceberg’ metaphor as our guide, we look beneath the surface at the unmet needs that often drive big reactions. We also share practical strategies for navigating moments of anger and rage, including:  Preventing the blow-up by acting early, using firm boundaries before your tank hits empty  The power of a ‘pause’ when emotions are high. Using, ‘We’ll talk about this later’ as a circuit breaker rather than a shutdown.  Rupture and repair and strengthening connection after tricky moments.  Keen for more episodes that touch on the topic of anger in parenting?  🎧 Kanoa Lloyd: Stretch and grow (your kids and yourself!)  https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/kanoa-lloyd-stretch-and-grow-your-kids-and-yourself/id1710061323?i=1000674632767  Parents We’ve Met is brought to you by Parenting Place – a charity with a heart for New Zealand families. Explore our self-guided online courses and hundreds of free parenting articles and ideas HERE.  Find us on:⁠ YouTube⁠ / ⁠Instagram⁠ / ⁠Facebook⁠ / ⁠Tik Tok ⁠/⁠LinkedIn  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Neuroscience educator ⁠Kathryn Berkett⁠ joins Jenny and Dayna for a deep dive into our kids’ brain development, with tips on how we can support them through every leap, wobble and wild moment that these changes bring. In the first three years of life, babies’ brains form an astonishing thousand trillion connections - and then, just when we’ve caught our breath, the second massive brain upgrade arrives in early adolescence. In this episode, Kathryn shares more on: The physical impact of screens on developing brains  How to nurture a teen brain as it learns to take perspective and make sense of a changing world How gratitude, free play, and movement literally shape neural pathways  Why kids need tolerable stress (and moments of fear!) to build resilience The influence of gaming on dopamine and desensitisation.  Kathryn Berkett’s new book: ‘What’s going on in there? The Neuroscience of the Adolescent Brain’ is available to purchase from 27 November, 2025.   Want to learn more about navigating devices and screens with kids? Check out 'Digital Parenting: Raising kids in an online world' - a course by Parenting Place. Find us on:⁠⁠ YouTube⁠⁠ / ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ / ⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠ / ⁠⁠Tik Tok ⁠⁠/⁠⁠LinkedIn ⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices