Pop Culture Parenting

In this reflection episode we hear from so many parents & professionals about their worries regarding children they care for. We discuss early development, neurodiversity, teenagers, schools and the best practice approach to assessment and building support around kids. Thank you to every single person who sent in a message. We can only read a fraction but every message helps choose what we cover and where we go next.

One big challenge of supporting children is figuring out when to worry. What difficulties are a typical part development and what are signs of something more worrying? Research highlights that many parents and professionals feel lost as to signs of developmental or mental health concerns so in this episode we try to offer guidance so that people can be comfortable to keep sailing or help realise it's time to find a safe harbour for support. Please send in your questions, reflections and advice about when to worry about the kids we love and care for.

Few episodes are more important and full of practical tips than this one! In this re-listen we reflect on what we can do to support our kids in healthy sleep. Poor sleep impacts 30-40% of children with up to 80% of neurodivergent children experiencing childhood insomnia. We hope you like this PCP Guide and please listen to the reflection episode 20 as it's full of gold form the beautiful PCP community. We hope this helps your child sleep better and succeed more in their waking hours.

Well this is a big one folks! Thanks to so many amazing questions, reflections and advice about motivating our kids this episode is jam packed with PCP gold. Dr Nick gets a little emotional at the end as he reads out guiding advice from an amazing paediatric OT about how he brings motivation and strength into his work with children and the families who support them. We hope this episode helps to guide the kids you love and care for and thanks for guiding us too.

This was a big re-listen. This episode was first released two and a half years ago following an email from an amazing parent trying to find a way through supporting their child after another child had made them feel different and less worthy of being celebrated. This movie helps remind us that kindness, seeing the best in people and loving unashamedly are the qualities we should elevate above intellect or power. We hope you like it and please join us on Patreon for additional resources we are building and a live Q&A to conclude this PCP Guides series on supporting neurodivergent kids. Thank you all for supporting us too.

So many kids struggle with focusing impacting their learning, relationships and self-esteem. In this PCP Guide we look back to an episode from over 3 years ago that explores how we can best support these kids in our homes, school and the broader community. We hope it helps and please come over to our free patreon community to learn more together.

PCP Guides: supporting neurodivergent kids part 1 is out! Hi beautiful PCP community! We asked you what you'd like us to cover in future episodes and so many of you asked for topics we have covered in our 4 year back catalogue. After a team huddle we are excited to announce PCP Guides!!! We will reflect on previous episodes covering requested topics with a reflection at the beginning, new resources within our free patreon community and a live Q&A to diver deeply into where the textbooks meet real life. First cab off the rank is neurodiversity and in part 1 we look back at episode 58 Blade Runner & neurodiversity. It was emotional, practical and we hope it helps to guide you in some small way.

To kick off the year we explore the key components to goal setting and motivation to help set the kids we care about up for success. We talk about why this matters, the common pitfalls and how to put the science into practice in the real world. From building this early in kids to helping the out the teens who are stuck in amotivation. We are so excited to be back and we can't wait to read your reflections, questions and advice. Special thanks to our sponsor Sound Slam for supporting this episode. Sound Slam is a beautiful card game created by two Aussie mums. It combines literacy research with connection and fun to help our kids learn to read. We love the game and think you will too.

In our final episode of the year we answer some important short questions about how we can have impact in the face of difficult challenges in the world right now. We then read out the reflections from some of the beautiful PCP community who generously share their journey. As always there is laughter and tears. Thank you all for being a part of PCP in 2025. We feel privileged to share this community with you and hope you are able to slow down and rest over the coming weeks. See you in 2026 to face the challenges and celebrate the wislows together. Love Nick and Billy.

In our final topic of 2025 we explore what impacts the kids we care about in terms of their development and mental health. We explore the science and Dr Nick treats us to his big lessons from PCP this year. Please send in your best reflections, questions and advice for our reflection episode to share with the wonderful PCP community.

This is a big one folks. In this ep Nick & Billy dive deep into how we can build hope in our kids at different ages and levels of development, how hope is different to optimism and resilience, and how it can be used following set backs and failure. We discuss hope in the setting of heartbreaking experiences such as school expulsion, trauma, suicidal thinking and grief. As always we also read beautiful reflections and advice that bring laughter and tears. Thank you to everyone for sharing your experience with such honesty, vulnerability and courage. Your strength to keep trying to heal and grow for all the kids out there gives us hope.

Hope is an essential part of life that keeps us moving forward, especially during adversity. It's not a feeling but a skill that kids can learn if we know how to guide them. In this episode we discuss the importance of hope, how it changes through life and how the research can be used in the real world to help develop it in our kids. We hope you like it and we can't wait to read your reflections, questions and advice.

In true form to the topic this reflection episode is rather playful between Nick and Billy as they explore how to play with kids. We discuss why it can be tough, how to target specific struggles, the role of educators and how play changes from kids to teens. As always there are beautiful reflections, questions and tips from the wonderful PCP community. Thank you as always and we hope you like it.

Play is one of the most important aspects of child development and mental health. Unfortunately many of us struggle to know HOW to play with kids. In this episode we discuss exactly how we can use play with children and teens to build skills in communication, empathy, emotional regulation and so much more. We hope you like the episode and we can't wait to read your reflections, questions and advice. Special thanks to our sponsor Hot Wheels for supporting this episode and helping us keep the conversations rolling ❤️ Hot Wheels is all about helping kids build confidence and resilience through play… and we love that.

In this special episode we talk with the phenomenal Dr Tina Payne Bryson, New York Times best-selling author, psychotherapist, researcher and wonderful human. Tina helps us understand how the science can be translated into practical strategies regarding emotional difficulties, attachment, neurodiversity, trauma and so much more. Thank you Tina for your generosity and if you somehow don't know her work please check her out. As you can tell in the beginning of this episode Billy is a HUGE FAN.

In this reflection episode we discuss how we can set our kids up to succeed through their teens, how to spot when something is wrong and what we can do to help. We also chat about how to support teens through bullying, keeping things from us, finding their identity, phones and much more! Thank you to everyone who sent in questions, advice and reflections, we hope this episode honours your story.

Adolescence is an important developmental window during which identity is explored and relationships are strengthened. It can also be a turbulent time during which mental illness spikes and the kids we care about become lost. Luckily there is so much we can do to prepare ourselves and our younger kids for this period. The evidence can also guide us if we are currently supporting a teen even if it all seems hopeless. We hope you like this latest episode and we can't wait for your reflections, questions and advice.

In this reflection episode we hear from PCP listeners who generously share their stories of survival with reflections, questions and advice. It's a vulnerable conversation with an emotional ending but we hope it helps people find the kindness and compassion for themselves that we work on for ourselves. Thank you to everyone who contributed, we feel so lucky to have you in the area with us!

This episode is a little different to our others. PCP aims to guide us all about how we can better support the kids in our lives. Sometimes though the weight of doing better can be too much. In this honest chat we talk about sometimes needing to just survive and how best to do that without feeling like a gladiator constantly fighting in the arena. We hope this helps lighten that burden and we can't wait to hear your reflections, questions and advice.

In our second reflection episode about nurturing neurodiversity we dive into the science of neurodiversity and how it can be used in the real world to support the kids in our lives. We hear from exceptional educators about how to best support neurodivergent students, discuss research about pathological demand avoidance (PDA) and explore mental health and trauma relating to neurodiversity. We end on a message that can help all of us understand the power of inclusion. We hope you like it and thank you to everyone who sent in their stories. It's a privilege to read them and we wish we could share them all.