Knot Parenting with Carrie Contey, PhD

Navigating boundaries and technology for you and your family is the work of modern parenting. It’s an opportunity to examine what’s really happening with you and your children and clarify value-based guidelines and develop self-awareness around what truly matters. These skills are what will safeguard your children as they move into life beyond the growing years. There's no way to prepare them for the technological worl...

Young people today are growing up with devices and technology in a way that most adult people never did. It’s a part of our lives whether we want it or not, so taking the time to examine what’s really happening with you, and your children when it comes to screen time is an important step in moving toward a healthy relationship with technology. In this episode, Kristen and I talk about how parents can shift from a place...

It all starts with you. Being the guide for your kids requires a certain level of consideration and clarity of your habits. In this episode, we discuss the importance of sorting out your own relationship with devices and technology. We know one thing for sure, they are always watching! In order to be a steady guide for your children, understanding how devices add to, or take away, from your own life is the first step. ...

What would it mean to feel clear, calm and confident in your role as the family guide navigating the ever-changing landscape of technology? In this episode, Carrie and Kristen dive into one of the top parenting struggles of today: devices. It’s the aspect of modern life that has most parents tangled up. The truth is, we are all in relationship with these devices ...

Guess what? This parenting thing can feel really good. As Carrie wraps up this mini-series, she reviews some of her foundational concepts (understanding the nervous system, self-awareness, transcending fear, finding your way, etc.). Turns out that in the midst of all of this child development there’s a lot of parent development going on, too. We’re evolving, growing, and learning right alongside our kids. How cool is t...

What role do appreciation, love, and savoring play in this parenting journey? They are the things that bring richness, joy, and meaning to family life. In this episode, Carrie shares her insights on the importance of paying attention to what really matters and focusing on what’s working and what’s good. We all know what it’s like to get stuck in a drudgery mindset of raising our kids. But when we learn to train our foc...

Imagine approaching parenting like a curious researcher running experiments and greeting the results with openness and non-attachment. In this episode, Carrie shares her insights on seeing the parenting journey like it’s one big experiment. When we cultivate a spirit of play, curiosity, and non-attachment–instead of resisting how life unfolds–we gain access to a lightness that brings ease and grace t...

Who hasn’t wondered… Is there a right way to parent? Am I doing this right? Am I doing enough? In this episode, Carrie shares her insights on there being no “right way” to parent, that it’s more about cultivating healthy ways of relating and building a family life that works for each of us individually. When we find our way through the noise of experts, norms, and opinions, we tap into an inner knowi...

Parenting can feel very high stakes. There can be so much gripping and anxiety to get it right. We can become fixated on doing enough and comparing ourselves to others. And, with no shortage of parenting advice everywhere we turn, it’s no wonder that parents can often feel lost, afraid, and overwhelmed. In this episode, Carrie focuses on how we can change our mindset about our role and our approach s...

While self-care is a critical tool for being the steady, sturdy parent we aim to be, its precursor is self-awareness. In this episode, Carrie shares her insights on the practices of pausing, noticing and tending, all functions of developing self-awareness. As we learn to pause and tune into our inner and outer experience in any given moment, we begin to gain access to our steadier selves, our inner k...

Let's face it... family life gets pretty tangled up and knotted sometimes. Inside our grown-up adult bodies and the still-growing bodies of children is a great big nervous system that regulates our emotions, thoughts, and behaviors all day long. Having an understanding of how we all regulate ourselves gives us a broader perspective of what’s really going on when we’re dysregulated. This awareness giv...

In this introductory episode, Carrie lays the foundation of her parenting philosophy and explores what it means to knot parent. She unpacks her five Ps for approaching parent development (paradigm, paradox, perspective, process, and practice) and offers a new model for parenting, one rooted in creating healthy relationships that endure. Carrie invites parents to see themselves as growing and evolving...