Parents We've Met

Dave Mackay is the founder of Sideline Advisor, a counselling and mentoring service for young athletes.

In this episode he chats with Dayna and Jenny about how parents can help kids to thrive in, and enjoy sports, navigate performance-related anxiety and achieve long-term success in their chosen sports. Dave shares why effort matters more than outcomes, why he doesn’t believe in ‘player of the day’ - and why parents should ‘let the coach be the coach’.

He also tackles some of your burning questions like: 

What happens when kids are pushed too hard in sports?  

How can you create memories around sports that go beyond the loss or win? 

What should you do – and not do – on the sideline? 

What are the traits of young people who succeed in sports in the long term? 

What are some myths about high performance sport? 

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.  

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We're back for 2026 and leaning straight into the good stuff! Dayna and Jenny are joined by Parent Coach Sheridan Eketone for a timely chat on the (often) tricky transition from summer holidays to the start of the school year. 

We tackle back-to-school anxiety, big feelings, friendships, after-school meltdowns and the bevy of emotions around school and pre-school.

Sheridan shares handy tips for parents on making school transitions easier, including rehearsals, ‘bridges to separation’ and ‘leaving and receiving’ rituals, along with ideas for some simple things you can do daily to support confidence and independence.

For our TEENS, we talk re-establishing healthy school-week routines, especially when it comes to sleep and phones, and structuring daily and weekly schedules to reduce worry and anxiety. 

Check out some of the resources mentioned in this episode: 

Untangling Anxiety: Supporting kids through worry and fear – an online self-guided course for parents and caregivers: https://hub.parentingplace.nz/courses/untangling-anxiety

The Red Plate: https://parentingplace.nz/shop/red-plate-ceramic

The power of rehearsals: https://parentingplace.nz/resources/lets-rehearse-how-to-make-a-hard-thing-easier 

Time to spare and why it matters in parenting: https://parentingplace.nz/resources/time-to-spare-and-why-it-matters-in-parenting 

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 
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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 
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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 
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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