**In this episode we discuss suicide and depression - if these are tricky subjects for you then please do look after yourself and maybe skip today's episode or listen when you feel ready.**

This episode with Laura is very emotional and insightful one, with moments of humour - we hope you enjoy it. We spoke with Laura about:

• Her situation now as a single mum with 2 children, sharing their care with her ex-husband.
• What happened when Laura became pregnant with Arthur, the birth (by c-section) and coming home.
• The moment she decided she didn’t want to leave the house and a few days later when she decided the solution would be to end her life.
• How her feelings were towards Arthur and when she told her friend how she felt.
• The series of thoughts that went through her head and how she would live hour by hour.
• How she felt like a fraud when the doctor told her she needed help (and ongoing!).
• The round the clock care she received before being supported by the peri-natal mental health team, suicidal thoughts and then how she agreed to be admitted to a mother and baby unit.
• Laura’s experience of being in the unit (she was there for 3 months).
• The different types of postnatal depression and how dads can have post-natal depression too.
• Why Laura wrote the book and what post-natal depression looks like.
• The ongoing support Laura received.
• Getting pregnant the second time, what that meant and how it felt when she had Willow.
• Routine and how it can help.
• How important a support system is.

You can buy Laura’s book on Amazon here (and in all good bookshops) -

Places to get support - Association for Post-Natal Illness / PANDAS FOUNDATION UK

Instagram @cantylaura @bespokefamily

Facebook @bespokefamily

For information about a Bespoke Family Parent Consultation click here: https://www.bespokefamily.co.uk/parent-consultations

‘Your Guide to...’ (our downloadable webinars including behaviour, toilet training, sleep and more)

This podcast is produced by Decibelle Creative

This episode is for parents and carers who are thinking about starting weaning. We talked about:

• When you should start weaning and the guidelines for this.
• What weaning is.
• The signs to look for to know if your baby is ready to start weaning.
• The fact that sleep changes and that this is more likely to be a 4 month sleep regression than that they are hungry and need to be weaned.
• What to start children on (baby rice is not necessarily the right answer!) and the different methods that can be followed to start weaning.
• Choking and the associated worries.
• The difference between gagging and choking (do a parent first aid course)- we have a podcast episode on this – First Aid Emergencies with Sian Stephanie
• The best sitting position for babies when weaning and beyond.
• The importance of role modelling.
• Things you need to buy or think about before starting weaning.
• The faces babies make!!
• Allergies and what to be aware of.
• Pouches, homemade food (and porridge!).
• What if you hate certain foods?? (spoiler alert – you need to put a brave face on!!)
• What shouldn’t you feed children under 12 months old?
• Following social media accounts (shout out to Charlotte @SRNurition !)

Instagram @bespokefamily

Facebook @bespokefamily

For information about a Bespoke Family Parent Consultation click here: https://www.bespokefamily.co.uk/parent-consultations

‘Your Guide to...’ (our downloadable webinars including behaviour, toilet training, sleep and more)

This podcast is produced by Decibelle Creative

We started by speaking to Louise all about her background including extensive experience in E-Commerce and the moment GoHenry came to be (she blames her kids who clicked rather alot on iPod downloads!)!

We also talked about:

• GoHenry’s founding aim to increase confidence to use and understand money in what was an increasingly cashless environment.
• What GoHenry is and how it works.
• How GoHenry helps with financial education with their ‘money missions’ on the App
• Where the name GoHenry came from (such a lovely story!).
• How to help children learn about the concepts of money from a young age.
• Claire and Becks’s own attitudes to money and how it’s spoken about in our households.
• How GoHenry is working hard to get financial education introduced as part of the national curriculum to EVERY child.
• Question from our listener, Jason - should children be educated about the stock market and investing from a young age? Louise’s biggest regret is that noone spoke to her about it!
• The effects of a cashless society and how to help children understand worth. How GoHenry can help with this.
• How Louise’s children are with money now!

Instagram @bespokefamily / GoHenry

Facebook @bespokefamily / GoHenry

GoHenry website – https://www.gohenry.com/uk/

For information about a Bespoke Family Parent Consultation click here: https://www.bespokefamily.co.uk/parent-consultations

‘Your Guide to...’ (our downloadable webinars including behaviour, toilet training, sleep and more)

This podcast is produced by Decibelle Creative

We chatted about:

• What spending quality time with your children means (Becks googled it!)
• The fact that it doesn’t need to be endless amounts of time and that quality not quantity is what counts.
• How quality time is different for everyone, but that in the main though it is 1:1 interaction and communication, no phones or devices, just being focussed on each other.
• How quality time doesn't have to be something specific like a board game, it can be just doing something with your children and chatting with them as you do it. You don’t even have to be creative!
• How mirroring your child’s play can help if you aren’t sure how to spend the time with your child.
• Love Languages! Is quality time yours?
• The guilt that can be felt when you don’t feel you are spending enough quality time with your child and some achievable things you can try. Don’t force it!
• Reading books together – why this is so important (and how it helps you to spend quality time with your children as well).
• Keeping it simple and taking the pressure off – if you think about it, you are probably doing it anyway!

Instagram @bespokefamily

Facebook @bespokefamily

For information about a Bespoke Family Parent Consultation click here: https://www.bespokefamily.co.uk/parent-consultations

‘Your Guide to...’ (our downloadable webinars including behaviour, toilet training, sleep and more)

This podcast is produced by Decibelle Creative

Elizabeth joined us from San Francisco – she is founder of Stereotype Kids which was set up because her Boy / Girl twins didn’t want to be restricted to wearing their own clothes and wanted to wear each others.

We chatted about:

• Why Elizabeth feels it’s important to challenge traditional views on boys and girls clothing and to allow the children to dress for joy rather than what they ‘should’ be wearing’.
• Friends and family reactions to the children wearing clothes that they didn’t think they should be.
• ‘Dressing is expressing’ - how this is where Elizabeth wants her children to be and feel comfortable in what they wear with no limits.
• Dressing children (not just twins etc) in the same clothes and how Elizabeth feels about that.
• Individuality and the importance of allowing children to express their personality / style etc.
• Stereotype – which is a gender inclusive clothing line. “You were born to stand out” is their tagline.
• Matching outfits as a family.
• Responding and reflecting if your child wants to wear something you don’t want them to and allowing them to do this freely.
• What if other children or adults (or you) have an adverse reaction to what your children are wearing.
• School uniforms and the responsibility schools have to ensure gender equality in what the children can wear.
• Slogans on tops and colours for children of both genders.

Stereotypekids.com (clothing will be available in the UK next year 2025)

Instagram @bespokefamily / @stereotypekidsofficial

Facebook @bespokefamily

For information about a Bespoke Family Parent Consultation click here: https://www.bespokefamily.co.uk/parent-consultations

‘Your Guide to...’ (our downloadable webinars including behaviour, toilet training, sleep and more)

This podcast is produced by Decibelle Creative

Safia told us all about her company The Mum Hub which she founded in Lockdown, her family and what else she has done and is doing in her career. We also discussed:

• Time management for parents and the common things parents experience for example feeling they are having to be in too many places at once!
• Having a to do list / a priority list and putting things on paper. E.g. what are the top 3 things that I have to focus on?
• Planning and not feeling like you have to ‘do it all’. Lowering expectations of yourself.
• Walking pads!
• Some techniques / tools to help manage time as well as setting boundaries - how available you make yourself / the ways you can be contacted.
• How often it isn’t as bad as you thought it might be – having some perspective.
• Teaching our children about how to manage their time and the myriad of notifications that are thrown at them on a daily basis.
• Things we can do to help organise (and how it’s important to be able to trust others with tasks and preparation to help spread the load!).
• Carving out time for yourself – how important it is, but how it can also lead to guilt.
• Safia’s tips for how to cope when you are feeling overwhelmed.

The Mum Hub website

Instagram @bespokefamily / @the_mumhub

Facebook @bespokefamily

For information about a Bespoke Family Parent Consultation click here: https://www.bespokefamily.co.uk/parent-consultations

‘Your Guide to...’ (our downloadable webinars including behaviour, toilet training, sleep and more)

This podcast is produced by Decibelle Creative

In the week leading of Halloween you might find that your little ones are feeling more scared than usual. But regardless of this, children can be scared of lots of things and this is the subject of this episode!

We chatted about:

• Halloween and how we never really ‘did’ Halloween when we were little and how much it has ramped up in recent years.
• What we were scared of when we were little (well mainly Becks!).
• How every child is individual in terms of what they are / aren’t scared of – some children will LOVE being scared by example.
• How to respond / react to a little one who is scared of something, the kind of things children can be scared of and why it might be.
• Being scared of dying.
• How feeling fear is a natural emotion and how we need it.
• How to help children regulate when they are feeling scared.
• Some techniques to help children when they feel scared.
• Halloween and being scared!

Related blogs:

“I’m scared!” – 10 tips to help your toddler or pre-schooler with their fears

My child is afraid of the dark

Instagram @bespokefamily

Facebook @bespokefamily

For information about a Bespoke Family Parent Consultation click here: https://www.bespokefamily.co.uk/parent-consultations

‘Your Guide to...’ (our downloadable webinars including behaviour, toilet training, sleep and more)

This podcast is produced by Decibelle Creative

Molly is founder of The Body Happy Organisation and author of ‘Every Body’ and ‘Body Happy Kids’

We spoke to Molly about:

• Her background as a journalist and why she decided to focus on researching and promoting Body Confidence for children (and adults).
• Diet culture around children and becoming aware of all the things they are watching and absorbing all the time.
• Teaching children to value, respect and give dignity to everyone regardless of what they look like.
• Body diversity, discrimination and poor body image.
• Weight stigma and weight bias and how this can affect people throughout their lives, for example how well children do in school, in their career and future lives.
• Molly’s books – ‘Every Body’ for children aged 9+ - and how body image is ‘a we issue not a me issue’ and ‘Body Happy Kids’ written for parents to help children and teens love the skin they are in - raising children with a positive body image.
• Being at peace with your body and all the things that feed into this – body appreciation.
• How parents can approach conversations with children when they are being negative about their bodies or when someone has made a comment about their body.
• How listening and encouraging children to talk to us is one of the most important things we can teach them.

Instagram @bespokefamily / @MollyJForbes / @bodyhappyorg

Facebook @bespokefamily

For information about a Bespoke Family Parent Consultation click here: https://www.bespokefamily.co.uk/parent-consultations

‘Your Guide to...’ (our downloadable webinars including behaviour, toilet training, sleep and more)

This podcast is produced by Decibelle Creative