In the Arena with the Eyre Sisters

Parenting adult kids is a whole new ballgame, folks! We talk about how our parents approached parenting us in our adulthood then Saren and Shawni share their experiences with adult kids as they've moved from parenting to coaching to cheerleading. Saydi chimes in with a lot of great questions she's been thinking about as her oldest is about to head off to college soon. Do you have adult kids? What works for you? Share your ideas and thoughts on Instagram @eyresisters. 

Show Notes: 

Grandparenting course by our parents

Shawni’s post on parenting adult kids

A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza (book mentioned by Shawni)

Quote shared by Saydi about having a child is like having your heart walking around outside of your body

In this episode, we focus on a specific age group - little kids! In answer to listener questions, we share our experiences and tips on sleeping, eating, emotional disregulation (temper tantrums!), promoting cooperation, and the joys of little kids. These years can be exhausting, but they are also full of so much fun! Please share your favorite little kid ideas on our Instagram page @eyresisters. 

Show Notes:

Joy School

Still face

Early Childhood Development Class

Don’t Carpe Diem

Hand Brain Model

Lava Concept

Documentary on Babies

Zones of Regulation

Book on Cooperation

In this episode, we share our best tips for family travel. We talk about how to make time for travel, how to find the money to travel, how to feed your family inexpensively while traveling, how to involve your kids in the planning, how to travel with younger children, and more!

As with family life in general, traveling with your family can feel pretty un-glamorous when you're in the middle of it but when you look back, the experiences are cherished. We share some crazy stories and some beautiful memories alongside practical ideas for how you can make family travel happen if that's something you'd like to do with your family.

Our challenge for you to sit down with your spouse and make a plan for some sort of trip you'd like to take with your family. 

Show Notes

Ian's post about traveling on credit card points

Saren blog post about making travel affordable

Food you can find and make in pretty much every country:

• Pasta and red sauce with cheese

• Fresh fruits and veggies (produce is typically more flavorful in other countries)

• Fresh crusty bread with cheese/salami

• No bake cookies (oatmeal, cocoa, butter, sugar (it's fine to leave out the vanilla)

• French toast (even for dinner) with honey instead of syrup

• Scrambled eggs 

• Homemade pizzas (local bread topped by red sauce and cheese cooked in the oven)

• Rice and beans with garlic, onions, chili powder (with cheese on top)

• Frozen prepared meals are available in many places (especially frozen pizza)

Our brother Jonah marches to the beat of his own drum and has created a rich and beautiful life for his family while living very frugally. Join us as we interview Jonah and learn more about the unique approach to life and parenting that he and his wife, Aja, have chosen. We talk about everything from killing your own food for meat to moving to New Zealand after being inspired by Lord of the Rings to fixing up cars so they run on old vegetable oil. We hope you find Jonah as inspiring as we do! Join us on Instagram, @eyresisters, and let us know what out-of-the-norm things you've chosen for your family or what you'd like to do after listening to Jonah. We can't wait to hear from you!

Show Notes:

Wagon (Ana's award-winning film about driving cross-country in an old G-Wagon) 

This week we decided to answer a bunch of questions from our listeners. We answer questions about our names, flops in our family growing up, how we take care of ourselves as mothers, etc. Go grab your favorite dessert and come join us for a fun chat! 

Show Notes:

Hunt, Gather, Parent by Michaeleen Doucleff

The Parenting Breakthrough by Merrilee Browne Boyack

Here it is! The episode where we talk about what our parents told us was the most wonderful, beautiful thing in the world - sex!  We discuss the talk our parents had with each of us at age 8, how they followed up on that initial discussion, and what we liked and didn't like about how they handled things. We also talk about the initial and ongoing talks we've had with our own kids. How do you talk with your kids about this super important topic? How do you keep things open? What resources have been most helpful to you? Please share over on Instagram @eyresisters! 

Show Notes:

How to Talk to your Child about Sex - Linda and Richard Eyre

Shawni’s blog post

Good Pictures, Bad Pictures

Protect Young Eyes

Instagram: @kristinbhodson

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, we decided to discuss some of the joys and challenges of parenting alongside our Valentines. We discuss how to prioritize your spouse, how to handle the inevitable disagreements, differing ideas about parenting, and what works for us when it comes to division of labor. The challenge this week is to do something for your partner that will be really helpful for them. Hop on Instagram and let us know what you decide to do. Happy Valentine's Day! 

Show Notes:

Gottman institute: The Four Horsemen  

Brooke Romney Post: His Yin to My Yang

Shawni’s Blog Post: Valentine's Edition

Love Languages

Little Dad painting by Brian Kershisnik

Dr. Becky, Good Inside

In this week's episode, we share some key aspects of the religious beliefs and attitudes we grew up with and how our parents' take on the gospel and our church affected the development of our faith and our desire to remain active members of our church. We discuss transactional religion vs. transformational religion and share what matters most to us about our faith. We also talk about how to nurture healthy spirituality so our children can have the capacity to really connect with God and Jesus. We would love to hear your thoughts over on Instagram. How do you nurture faith and spirituality in your home? What are the key ideas you hope your children are getting about religion and about Jesus?

Show Notes:

The Chosen Series

God's Many Voices (Michael Wilcox): Searching Foot Podcast

Richard Rohr Meditations

Patricia Holland, "A Quiet Heart"

Blog Post about Lucy

What Mother Teresa Teaches About Prayer

This week we talk about how much or how little we should try to control various aspects of our kids' lives. It can be tough! We want to protect and guide them but we also want to help them become confident and independent as they make their own decisions. Join us as we discuss our parents' approach to control in our family growing up examine the approach we each take in our mothering. Do you lean more towards helicopter or lawnmower parenting? Or do you tend to be more permissive? What tips do you have for striking the balance? Hop onto Instagram and let us know your thoughts! 

References:

Country Bunny and the Golden Shoes

Destiny of the Republic - Candice Millard

Parents.com - Why the Best Parenting Style isn’t one style at all, but many

Welcome back for Season 2! This week we talk with our parents about questions that came up during Season 1 - questions like, "Mom, how did you actually feel about Dad surprising you with the land at Bear Lake?!" We also ask them questions about how they came up with their parenting approaches and if they have any regrets. Join us for an entertaining, inspiring episode that will have you laughing at stories of living in the Eyre house, as well as feeling emotional at beautiful reminders like "each child is a seedling."

Don't forget to join us on Instagram @eyresisters! 

Come join us for a fun discussion on traditions as we wrap up Season 1. We really enjoyed talking about traditions we had growing up around birthdays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. We also shared evolved and new traditions we have in our homes now. Traditions don't have to be fancy or stressful - they just need to be something that connects your family. We challenge you to do a tradition inventory so you and your family can decide which traditions to keep, which to get rid of, and maybe talk about some new ones to add. We'll be doing this too! Come share with us your meaningful family traditions on our instagram account! 

Show Notes: 

It can be really tricky to know how to get our kids to listen and obey. In today's episode, we discuss ways our parents helped us to "buy in" to the family legal system, how they implemented consequences, and what overall what discipline looked like in our home growing up. We also talk about ways we discipline in our own homes. After reflecting on all of this, we all agree on the key to discipline - connection!

What ways do you build connections and create environments where kids want to behave in your homes? Head over to Instagram and share with us! 

Resources Mentioned:

- Saren's "Home Environment Assessment" to help you see what more you can do to set your kids up for good behavior

- Shawni's Blog Page About Mothering Tips She Loves

Teaching our kids to manage money well is vital! Come join our discussion as we share the way we were raised within the Eyre house money system, as well as ways we've tweaked things for our own families. We've also included a special audio guest appearance! We share snippets of our Dad, Richard Eyre, and his first home video describing the money system we grew up with. 

How do you teach your kids about money management? Come share with us on Instagram! 

Today's episode focuses on the teen years! Saren, Shawni, and Saydi share experiences from their growing-up years, as well as things they're implementing in their own homes now. What do you tips do you have for the teen phase? Come share with us on Instagram! 

Resources We Mentioned:

- How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk

- The Miracle of Mindfulness

We all want our kids to like each other, but, as Saydi put it in this week's episode, it can often feel like we're in a true arena with all of the fighting in our homes! During this episode, we list some of the things our parents did during our growing-up years that we think might have helped foster the friendships we have as adults. What things do you do in your home to help build sibling relationships? Come share with us on Instagram! 

This week we continue our discussion about our family motto: broaden and contribute. Listen in as we talk about how our parents instilled a contributing-to-the-world mindset in our family growing up, and ways we're continuing that with our children. We want our kids to feel for others and feel empowered to know they can do something to make a difference. In what ways do you help your children contribute? 

Listed below are movies & books we recommend to help your family develop a desire to contribute:

- Thirst

- Kisses from Katie

- The Promise of a Pencil 

- Shawni's blog has a post discussing these books here

- The Good Lie

- Queen of Katwe

- The Blind Side

Listed below are organizations we recommend if you're looking for ways to contribute: 

Growing up, our parents were passionate about broadening our minds - whether through travel, music and art, or setting goals. They encouraged us to push past our comfort zones and learn new things. They taught us that new people, places, and ideas are exciting! 

In this week's episode, we explore how our parents instilled a thirst for learning and experiencing new things in us and also how we've chosen to implement the idea of broadening in our own homes. In what ways do you help broaden the knowledge and perspectives of your family? What can you add to your family life to encourage more broadening? Hop onto Instagram and let us know!

This week's topic is one dear to our hearts. Just as our parents did, we feel strongly about teaching our children to be citizens of the world - to love and accept differences! Join us as we talk about our adventures growing up in England, Mexico, Japan, and the Philippines. We also discuss ways to be a citizen of the world from home. The world is wonderful, and there's so much to learn and embrace. How do you plan to bring this into your home this week? Plan a trip? Eat at a different restaurant? Attend a class about a culture you don't know about? Have international night at the dinner table? There are so many options - we just need to get creative and intentional. 

Today we look back on rituals we had as a family - some daily, some weekly, some not-so-consistent. We talk about morning rituals, dinner rituals, car rides, Sundays, and nighttime. Some of our family rituals were pretty common - scripture study, mommy/daddy dates, and reading books together. Some are a little quirky, like our dinner speeches, nighttime visits from The Monster Man, and our Sunday award ceremonies. Whatever the rituals, the point is that they created a space for connection. Even small things can make a big difference. They help kids feel bonded and feel like they're part of something bigger than themselves. What rituals do you have in your family? 

Today we discuss the summers we spent building a log cabin in the middle of nowhere. We laugh about the living conditions and the creative cooking as well as discussing how being pushed outside our comfort zones taught us important lessons and how doing something a little bit crazy created amazing memories and connections. What can you do to bring some discomfort and out-of-the box experiences into your family life?