Dad Chats Live - Talking about Coping with Anxiety with Saleema Davies.
Saleema is a clinical hypnotherapist and founder of Papalona. A company that creates audio recordings to support children and parents’ mental health easily and effectively. We talk about the impact of anxiety on our lives, and how to cope with it. She shares some brilliant tips like:
Use Your Body - using breathing exercises to slow the breath and signal to our minds that the threat has passed, and moving to burn off the excess adrenalin that anxiety produces are simple but effective ways to help manage anxiety.
Acknowledge the Voice - we all have that voice in our minds that tells us what we're doing wrong - Saleema teaches us how coping with anxiety means managing that voice and we loved her advice on this!
In part two, we asked you about whether you are an anxious person, and how much your anxieties affect your every day life.
We also hear stories about a times you were anxious or nervous only to realise after the event there was no need.
Saleema has also written a fantastic blog post with even more information about coping with anxiety.
It's entitled How To Manage Your Anxiety, So That You Can Help Your Kids Manage Theirs. And is a great beginners resource to learn more about the things we can do every day to cope with our anxieties. We suggest you grab a drink, sit back and read Saleema's wisdom!
Huge thanks to Saleema for joining us - welcome to the Dadvenger Community!
Dad Chats Live - This week we talked with Elliott Rae from @mff about their new book DAD. A collection of 20 stories of fatherhood from 20 real dads who are living it every day. It’s a much needed book that will hopefully help to change the narrative for modern day fathers.
Elliott chatted to us about how the DAD book came about - the stories he heard from the different dads, and how he crowdfunded the project after it was turned down. We also talk about Elliott's experience of becoming a father, and how his daughter was unwell after her birth. This led Elliott to suffer PTSD, and he realised there wasn't enough support for dads to talk about their experiences.
Elliott then created MFF - Music, Football, Fatherhood, which started as a blog, and has grown into a support network for dads.
Another week with a brilliant Friday night chat!
This important book is groundbreaking. It is bringing together a group of men to speak openly about their challenges and successes in parenting. But getting it published wasn't easy. Elliott was turned down by different publishing houses. And in the end set about to raise the funds to self publish.
Read more about Elliott and what he had to do to make this book a reality in the post Everything You Need to Know About the ‘DAD’ Book
Plus Elliott also joined us on the Dadvengers Podcast where he talked about growing up in London with his parents who had emigrated from the Caribbean. You'll hear how his how his dad was a strict parent, but he was also fair and supportive! Elliott also opened up about the difficult birth of his daughter and first few months of his daughters life. From being in hospital to a life threatening allergic reaction at just a few months old. All this had a massive impact on Elliott’s parenting journey, and also led to his starting the Music Football Fatherhood.
Dad Chats Live. This week we revisit the George Floyd murder one year on.
In the weeks and months after George Floyd's murder, everyone was talking about racial equality and the Black Lives Matter movement. One year on - we talked about whether anything has actually changed? Has the conversation carried on after the initial media focus? What has changed?
We are joined by some regular Dadvengers, and some new members, to talk about the legacy of George Floyd. We chat about what we learnt about combating racism, and whether we are doing enough to be good allies. Then, we talk about the changes organisations and governments have, or haven't made, and what we think they should do.
Lastly, we shared the best books, films and TV shows to watch to learn about racism, including great books for our children. Use the links below to catch up on this brilliant Friday night Dad Chat.
1. One year on from the murder of George Floyd, how much have you learnt about what we need to do to combat racism and do you think you are doing enough?
2. What things (if any) do you think organisations and governments have done better in the year since the protests last year?
3. Tell us about the films and TV shows that you've seen since we gave you a list of things to watch to help educate yourself about racism.
Talking to our children about race issues can be tricky, but Last year, Nigel wrote a great blog called How To Talk To Children About #BlackLivesMatter. This is a great resource with helpful advice for talking to our kids about this important topic. We highly recommend you take a look.
If you haven't heard, we also have a fantastic Podcast which is hosted by Nigel, and every week he talks to a different guest about their parenting journey. We have some great guests who talk about racism in their stories. These are from John Lashley (Brooklyn Brownie Company), Elliott Rae, Amos Hurst and Nihal Arthanayake - check them out!
Enjoyed this? Click here for more Dad Chats!
Dad Chats Live - talking about the benefits of outdoor play on our children’s development, health and well-being!
With special guest Helen Stroudley from @peeplecentre
The brilliant Helen Stroudley joined Nigel to talk about why playing outdoors is so important! It has a great positive impact on our health and happiness - and does the same for our children. Whether you just get out for a walk or plan a full outside day - Helen tells us why we need to make the most of being outdoors.
Helen also tells us how to be best prepared for getting outdoors, so that there is no stress when we're there. From simply packing extra clothes, to wearing wellies for jumping in puddles! We know our children love to get outside, but hearing an expert tell us why it is so good for us all was a really brilliant chat - Thanks Helen!
Helen has also written us a brilliant blog Why Outdoor Play is Great for Your Health and Happiness She shares some great ideas for things to do with your kids to get the benefits of outdoor play. and answers the following questions
Make sure you check it out!
Plus if you want to know Why it’s important for dads to play with their kids more Susie Robbins joined us on another Dad Chat and wrote us a blog post answering the following.
Dad Chats Live - Work Life Balance. This week, we are talking about how we balance work and life. This can be the ultimate juggling act. Especially if you have a job that doesn't support your family life. And with all the changes from the last year, so many of us are more used to being home. How are we managing with the return to work?
We talked about the ups and downs of balancing parenting and a career, The issues that we can face when needing time off for our children, and how we manage to ensure the scales aren't tipping into "all work and no play".
We also talked about how the lockdown has impacted our work lives, and how we will make changes as life goes back to normal.
For our lighthearted topic we touched on the lockdown easing - the pubs are open, has anyone been there yet - and if they had, how was it?
Topics:
1. Work and Childcare. Many of us bump into situations where work and chlidcare can become difficult. Let's hear your experiences and where we can turn for help.
2. In relation to our first tpoc, are you planning on changing your work-life balance as we move out of lckdown?
3. Our lighthearted topic - have you been to the pub yet? This week saw the lockdown restrictions ease. Have you managed to socialise? Or maybe you're doing it this weekend?
Did you enjoy this chat? Are you struggling with your life balance? We also have a blog post Is there a secret to Dads and the Work-Life Balance written by Chris Baldrey-Chourio during lockdown.
Dad Chats Live - This week Nigel discussed Men’s Perinatal Mental Health with Mark Williams from @fathers_mentalhealth
Mark is a well known figure in the UK when it comes to mental health and men. He is the founder of Fathers Reaching Out – an organization with a mission to prevent, treat and spread awareness about fathers’ mental health. Mark is also the founder of International Fathers’ Mental Health Day and has been awarded Inspirational Father of the Year in 2012 and Local Hero at the Pride of Britain Awards. Above all though mark has suffered Perinatal mental health and come through the other side and dedicates his life to helping others get through this traumatic condition. His story is an inspiring and informative one.
A huge thank you to him for bringing his time and knowledge to our Dadvengers community.
Mark has written a wonderful blog post to accompany this chat. As in the chat it covers his own personal experience with the illness and what he has learnt along the way including ;-
If you’d like to read the full article please click on the link. And do feel free to feedback your thoughts on this or any of our posts in the comment sections at the bottom of each page.
Mark also has 2 books that he has published on the subject. Daddy Blues and Fathers and Perinatal Mental Health: A Guide for Recognition, Treatment and Management. Both are great resources for people suffering from this mental health illness
Dad Chats Live - Postpartum Psychosis. This week we talked about Postpartum Psychosis with Simon O'Mara from @actiononpp. And what a fantastic an insightful session it was. Make sure you check out the videos below.
Firstly we learnt that the condition is often misunderstood and many people have heard nothing about. It is also not to be confused with postnatal depression or baby blues, Postpartum Psychosis is a medical emergency that needs swift professional treatment. Listening to Simon tell the story of his wife's case and how it affected him is eye opening and resonated with other sufferers too. Thank you to Simon for sharing your own personal experiences, we're sure they will help others in the future. We were also joined by Ruth and Lacey in the second hour who shared their experience with us - so a huge thank you to them for speaking so openly too.
Simon has written a wonderful blog post to accompany this chat called Everything You Need To Know About Postpartum Psychosis As a Father and it covers the following;-
Not only that, it also touches upon a few of the symptoms to look out for such as:-
And do feel free to feedback your thoughts on this or any of our posts in the comment sections at the bottom of each page.
Dad Chats Live Childrens Wellbeing - This week we were joined by special guest Adrian Bethune from @teachappyuk, talking all about what he’s learnt in regards to children’s wellbeing and how parents can better support their kids.
1. Wellbeing – What is it and how can parents support their children?
2. Does your diet affect your wellbeing? Let's talk about what we eat and how it affects us mentally.
3. What’s the best drink you’ve had in the best location? Let’s reminisce on those great moments that don’t happen often enough.
Adrian has written a blog post for us to accompany this chat - covering the following key areas of Childrens Wellbeing:
As well as that he has also provided tips on how we as parents can support wellbeing in our children. They include:
All of these areas are covered in the post, so if you’d like to read the full article please click on the link. And please feel free to feedback your thoughts on this or any of our posts in the comment sections at the bottom of each page.
Subjects: This week we were joined by special guest Ian Dinwiddy from Inspiring Dads. A website focused on helping stressed dads balance work and fatherhood. We talked about.
1. Building meaningful relationships with your partner and your children. How do we do it and what are the benefits.
2. Do you find it hard to communicate with your partner? Let’s find out what we can do to improve communication with our families.
3. What are you doing for lockdown Valentines? We know it’s another excuse to sell cards, but it's lockdown and something tells us if you don’t make an effort this year (however small), it may be used against us in a future event or situation!
Ian kindly wrote us a blog piece that accompanies this chat. It's ever so easy to get complacent in our relationships and think that everything is fine. But often complacency can mean we miss things that can come and bite us later on. It's not a bad idea to take a look at our relationships now then and give them a little check. We need to be remember that:-
All of these areas are coverd in the post, so if you’d like to read the full article please click on the link. And please feel free to feedback your thoughts on this or any of our posts in the comment sections at the bottom of each page.
