Precarious Parenting

Joy is in her sixties, she has three children and seven grandchildren, three of which she has raised herself as a single grandparent.  One of Joy's children is a sex worker and, alongside her choice of industry, her parenting capacity has been compromised in numerous ways. Joy has stepped in each time to raise the children and guide the family.  Joy has survived cancer and, with the news of a potential return of the illness, she had to make some big decisions. Chatting with Joy has been a pleasure - she speaks from a place of deep unconditional love and understanding and I had to ask myself: how would I cope?  All the names in this story have been changed to protect the family members.

Danny Gough is a passionate man. Music has been a huge driver in his life and he's turned his passion into a method of enabling children to dream big, with a mindset to fly. He's the founder of Class Dynamix: an initiative working with schools in the UK and USA to promote pride in their assemblies; write, perform and produce their own school anthems; and tackle pertinent issues such as anti-bullying campaigns. Danny talks us through is his journey to Class Dynamix and how it has worked magic on children aged eight to 11 on both sides of the Pond.  Class Dynamix has performed on Britain's Got Talent, Sainsbury's Christmas adverts, performed at conferneces and much more. It's difficult to not get whipped up in the excitement!

Joe Chown is the Chair of the Hackney Foster Carers' Council and he's passionate about the raising the role of foster carers, so they are seen as co-parents; not just contract workers or babysitters.  He wants to give all foster carers the voice they deserve.  He's also dedicated to increasing the levels of collaboration between Childrens' Social Care, the Police and the Foster Carers' Council to ensure a far greater working relationship to benefit the whole community; especially the young people in care and the foster carers themselves. Joe can be contacted on

Recently Greg Fisher published a book called “Happy Hockey Dad: Tapping into what is already there". It's a book that takes a closer look at why parents of kids in any sport (not just ice hockey) can seem to lose their temper, behave inappropriately or just seem to feel the outcome of the game directly affects their own happiness and wellbeing. Does that sound like anyone you know?  Greg is a husband and father, a coach, an entrepreneur and an author. He’s the CPO (Chief Potential Officer) at his business, Team Unleash Your Potential. Greg is a certified Clarity® Coach and works with athletes, parents of athletes, leaders and entrepreneurs to unleash their potential.  Greg's book 'Happy Hockey Dad' can be purchased on Amazon. He can be contacted via

Christian McNeill has been a coach and Three Principles Practitioner since 2012. Prior to that she was a lawyer, first as an advocate and later a tribunal judge. During her 20s she encountered some significant personal challenges, including an alcohol issue. And through this experience she became very interested in how the mind works. In 2010 she stumbled across a radically different understanding of human wellbeing called The Three Principles - she was immediately struck by the outstanding outcomes that this understanding could produce. As she says on her website, the results, in every area of human endeavour and human experience, dwarfed everything else she had come across in two decades of study. She said that being a single parent felt overwhelming but she knew her children have access to unlimited resources of resilience within them. Christian starts by guiding us to listen to ourselves first and that 'life is a thousand times more enjoyable without addiction'. In 2019 Christian and Barbara Sarah Smith collaborated to write a book: Addiction: One Cause, One Solution about addiction recovery from a 3 Principles approach. It is available here  Connect with Chistian:

In this episode we meet Favour Oyelowo, a 23 year old Nigerian studying Aviation at a university in the Turkish Occupied Republic of Northern Cyprus.  Favour is following his dream to become a pilot which has meant living away from his family since he was 16 years old. He funds all his living and studying expenses by working a number of jobs.  Having not seen his parents or brothers for seven years, he often feels lonely and questions his decisions. However, when we listen to Favour we hear a wisdom beyond his years. He reminds us that, if we set our minds to it, we can achieve our dreams.

In her 15 year career as a Transformation Coach, Elaine Wright has worked with many parents seeking to enhance their connections with their children. These parents aspire to develop more fulfilling and loving relationships, fostering an anger-free environment for their family. Elaine wrote her book 'A Guide to Anger-Free Parenting: Calm your Triggers for Emotional Wellbeing and Strong, Resilient Happyt Kids' as she had felt exhausted from mental stress and anger. Later on she saw this as a personal message to be shared. If you'd like to reach out to Elaine, here's her . There's a Calendy link under Contact. If you'd like a copy of her book, here's the .

Nicola Morgan is an international speaker and bestselling author of both fiction and non-fiction for teens. The book for which she is most well-known is Blame My Brain, The Amazing Teenage Brain. She’s known as 'The Teenage Brain Woman'. Together, we chat about her fascination with the teen brain and her desire to share this information as widely as possible. Her skill is sharing this neuroscience in a way which appeals to teenagers, parents, teachers and educators alike. We also chat about the revised edition, which is about to be released in mid-February 2023, and includes an additional chapter on social media and its impact on the teen brain. She says: "if we understand how our brain works, then we can start to make it work better instead of beating ourselves up about why it isn't working." Nicola can be found on and on Twitter @nicolamorgan

Andy's children have grown up now but he acutely remembers how his drinking affected the whole family. He talks about using drink to dull the feelings he was afraid of such as fear and guilt; he calls it 'the shame cycle'. By following the 12 Step recovery programme, in which he began to understand his self-centred fear, Andy now lives life one day at a time. He feels more present to the world around him, and within him, and loves the creativity which is untapped. This is an honest discussion about the parent who drank too much and the viewpoint of a child of a parent who drank too much.

The wonderful Dicken Bettinger chats about the joy of being a grandparent; to show up, be present with warmth and common sense. This is a beautiful episode which I'm sure you'll love as much as I did recording it.  Dicken is a clinical psychologist and author, and now sits as a Director on the Board of the 3 Principles Global Community site. In this podcast he shares the universal principles of Thought, Consciousness and Mind which are most fundamental when understanding the human psychological experience.  He says to enjoy yourself and the moment you're not, recognise it is Thought-related and it'll bring you back to the present moment. Dicken's co-authored book Coming Home is a highly recommended read.  Dicken's YouTube channel:

Elianne Elbaum is the Director of the Global Centre at UTEC University in Uruguay and, through this role, she supports tribes and first nation people within their communities. She discusses her experience as a new mother and how she felt 'so alone' and 'left behind' in her world. She compares this to how new mothers are treated within the communities she studies and how she sees parental wellbeing as the key to children's wellbeing.  Elianne has written a short book/essay called 'Making Parenting Better', which considers what developed societies might be like if we moved from a market economy to a care economy.  Elainne can be contacted on Instagram: @Elianne Elbaum or Twitter: @Eli_Elbaum  Making Parenting Better can be purchased via Kindle

Lorina Troy shares her shocking story of having her children removed. A mis-diagnosis led to her children being fostered, their father being arrested under two felonies linked to this mis-diagnosis, losing their home, marriage break-down ... to proving the mis-diagnosis, fighting for her children to be returned, all the way to successfully having the law changed for the right to a second medical opinion.  Lorina's story is fascinating. Her book is called 'Miracles of Faith' and can be found on Lorina can be contacted via FaceBook:

Sue Atkins helps us see that raising happy, confident kids can be hard, but the good news is that when the going gets tough, we’re not alone! With over 15 years experience as a parenting coach and teacher, Sue is the Parenting Expert for ITV’s ‘This Morning’, BBC Radio, Disney Junior, Good Morning Britain and India’s Education and Parenting World. She guides parents to overcome their challenges and develop their own balanced, down to earth parenting approach that creates happy, positive children, and relaxed confident parents. Sue is the author of the Amazon bestseller ‘Parenting Made Easy – How To Raise Happy Children’ as well as ‘Raising Happy Children for Dummies’ – one in the famous black & yellow series.  Sue also has lots of free resources on her website.

Tom Kreffer has diarised his experience from the moment he found out he was going to become a dad and he now writes books in the format of daily journal entries: () is about pregnancy from a soon-to-be dad's perspective. His second book ( covers the first year (newborn to one-year-old) and his third, about to be released, looks at the second year of parenthood. Tom believes that talking about pregnancy from a dad’s perspective is an underserved market. He feels that, fortunately, there is an increasing focus on encouraging dads to speak up.  Tom is able to blend humour with profound emotional truth and his books make people laugh, relate and reflect.  @tom_kreffer

Debbie Ausburn is a social worker turned lawyer, former foster parent, and current stepparent, and she written a book titled, 'Raising Other People's Children: What Foster Parenting Taught Me about Bringing Together a Blended Family.'  Debbie has spent decades working with traumatised children and this fascinating chat looks at the journey to writing her book.

Hans Kullberg's 10-month-old daughter, Aviva, passed away in November 2020 and he takes time in this podcast to explain how he has grieved, and still grieves. He is building a legacy in Aviva's name through a series of children's illustrated books: Baby Aviva Orangutan Diva, and by encouraging others to take a closer look at grief and the grieving process. Contact Hans on IG @avivasdad or via

Mavis Karn, LSW, MA, is an incredibly wise woman. She works in private practice offering coaching, counselling, teaching, education and consulting services. Here she discusses an important lesson she has offered her clients for more than 40 years.   Deep listening gives people the opportunity to begin changing their lives, restore hope, and greatly increase their ability to experience peace and joy and serve others.   She published the thesis 'The Myth of Peer Pressure', and a well-known letter to juvenile inmates, called 'The Secret'. Here's a link to her letter:   Mavis’ honesty and humble “true north” understanding of the principles underpinning the human psychological experience is deeply and broadly respected by clients and colleagues.

Ali Fanshawe is a parenting language specialist and founder of Fzzykids. In this podcast she shares her personal experience of adopting two children with educational learning needs, plus emotional and behavioural issues - what Ali refers to as being fizzy! Once she had understood and accepted that that things aren't always how we think they should be, Ali now feels able to share her journey and, therefore, offer support to other parents of fizzy kids.

Jack Pransky is a Three Principles author, trainer and practitioner: a coach of coaches and a counsellor of counsellors. He is a national and international consultant, speaker, and author who has worked in the field of prevention and community organising since 1968. He has written a range of books for children and adults. In this podcast we discuss his book: Parenting From The Heart. Jack talks about parenting honestly and openly, guiding us to listen deeply to our children and, from there, we'll be guided by well-being, not by our emotional state of mind. This podcast isn't just about parenting;  the ability to listen deeply to another person is helpful for us all.  Jack and I are hosting a four-part online programme called Parenting From The Heart in June and July 2024. Here's the event link: Find out more about Jack at

SF Banks is a man on a mission; he's full of energy and positivity, even though a traumatic event at the age of 16 could have meant things may have turned out very differently.  SF sees his vocation as supporting teens. He feels the pandemic has opened up opportunities for the future of younger people and says it's a great time to be inspired. Find SF on and @sfdreamsbig