March 28, 2025 • 34 mins
Unlock secrets to nurturing emotionally intelligent children with insights from Tina Lemon, an early childhood education authority. In our latest episode, Tina shares expert strategies for teaching self-regulation and emotional literacy, essential skills like writing or potty training. Gain practical tools to manage public speaking nerves with box breathing and self-assurance, while uncovering unnoticed anxieties.
Join us to unravel emotional regulation for children and adults. We discuss the adults' role in modeling respectful communication and empathy, helping children manage emotions in stressful situations. We highlight unrealistic expectations for children to handle emotions alone, stressing the importance of integrating emotional awareness into everyday life.
Explore scenarios like a child's refusal to eat by understanding causes like hunger or fatigue. Learn how offering choices can empower children and reduce conflict. Tina shares heartwarming anecdotes, including a TikTok video of mature communication between a mother and son. In a fun Q&A, she reveals her life, from completing mini triathlons to her kayaking passion, and hints at her new consulting venture. This episode equips you with skills to foster a compassionate, emotionally aware environment for the next generation.
Connect with Tina on Facebook:
https://m.facebook.com/groups/1139072966912684/?ref=share&mibextid=q5o4bk
- Have any questions? Reach out to us on Facebook, and Instagram, and check out the resources on our blog!
- If you’d like to join our newsletter to be the first to know about our new positions, click here.
- Are you looking for an exceptional nanny, newborn care specialist, or private educator? Get in touch!
- Do you have what it takes to be an Adventure Nanny? Apply Now!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
you're listening to adventure nannies on air in each
episode we'll dive into a topicfrom the wide world of nannying
from what to pack for your nextadventure, professional
development opportunities,industry standards, legal pay
and anything else we seecrossing our desks at adventure
nannies, the nationwide agencyfor families, nannies, private
educators and newborn carespecialists.
(00:30):
I'm Danielle, I'm Shenandoahand this is Adventure Nannies On
Air.
The policies and viewsexpressed in this episode are
those of the individuals and donot necessarily represent the
views of Adventure Nannies.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Also, this episode has a little salty language in
it and may not be appropriatefor kids.
Welcome, Tina Lemon.
It's so great to have you hereon the podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Thank you, I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Tina, I got to see you speak at the International
Nanny Training Day event inNashville, I guess about six
weeks ago, and you were one ofthe most captivating speakers
I've ever seen.
Everyone in the room was justkind of hanging on your every
word and and writing downfuriously.
I had talked right before youand just watching your
(01:30):
presentation I really was like,oh, like this is, this is really
good.
I think I texted Danielle thatnight of please, please, see if
you know Tina Lemon is availableor if she's now getting booked
on Conan O'Brien or whatever.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Oh, thank you.
It was great being there and Iwas actually really nervous.
So it's nice to hear thateverything came through good,
because I was really nervousabout speaking in public again.
It's been a long time sinceI've spoken public, so thank you
for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Do you mind just getting started out for folks
who are listening, who might notbe as familiar with some of the
terms we'll be talking abouttoday, and just telling us what
regulation is and why it matters?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Sure.
So regulation, especially whenwe're talking about children,
because that's my passion.
But regulation is being able toregulate your emotions and calm
your body during differentscenarios.
And along with that, we seem toforget that children have only
(02:45):
been here a short time, and sowe actually have to teach them
these skills.
So we have to teach them whatit means to regulate.
And so a couple things that thatreally stick out to me when I
think about self regulation andsocial emotional literacy is you
know, we hear a lot of teacherssay, and parents say stop doing
(03:08):
that.
Um, stop crying, you're fine,calm yourself down, use your
words.
But all of those things have tobe taught.
So in order to learnself-regulation, we first have
to learn what our body feelslike when it feels out of
control, and then, second, wehave to learn how to label those
(03:28):
emotions, and then there's awhole nother process that comes
along with that.
So that's what I've becomereally passionate about helping
teachers and families learnthose skills that we have to
teach children that, just likewe teach them how to write their
name, just like we teach themhow to write their names, just
like we teach them how to pottytrain the emotion and
(03:51):
self-regulation is also a taughtskill.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I'm going to just fly off script.
I'm curious because I alsoalways get nervous before public
speaking, and so I know thatyou are not a child.
But so you mentioned you got sonervous before that event that
we met at.
What do you?
What of this teaching do youimplement for yourself when you
start to get nervous aboutsomething Like what's your,
(04:19):
what's your sneaky secret inthose moments to?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
practice and I did talk about that this day a lot
of the strategy.
So a lot of deep breathing, alot of I like box breathing.
Are you familiar with that?
Speaker 1 (04:37):
But we should share, because I bet some people aren't
?
I love box breathing.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Okay.
So box breathing and I've seenit a lot of different ways, but
recently I've been using it,breathing in for four seconds,
breathing out for four secondsin and then out as you trace the
shape of a box.
I like for kids, actually themusing their fingers to do it.
As an adult, that probablywould not be appropriate when
(05:01):
I'm standing in a crowd ofpeople.
So I visually trace that boxmyself.
That's a big one that I use.
That really helps toself-regulate, bring my emotions
back down and then get me towhere I need to be.
Another thing that I use is Ialways say because I taught
students, adult students for along time and I always say the
(05:23):
crowd doesn't know what I'msupposed to say, so if I mess up
, they have no idea that I'vemessed up.
So I try to assure myself withthat.
And then actually one of thespeakers that went after me that
one day I shared that with herand she said oh, that's amazing.
Yeah, nobody knows you're gonnamess up because they don't know
what you're supposed to say.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
So that is such a good point and, I think, an
incredible reminder to alladults, because I think we've
all been in that situation wherewe're really anxious about how
we're going to appear or theperception that others have of
us in a public setting andreminding ourselves, kind of,
that some of the things thatwe're anxious about are really
not visible to other people andeven some of the mistakes that
(06:03):
we may make about are really notvisible to other people.
And even some of the mistakesthat we may make in public
speaking literally has no impacton anyone else unless it's just
this egregious like fly off thehandle, I think, more than
anything, you can just riff andkind of cover it, which is
awesome.
So I'm really curious this ismy first time getting to meet
you, tina, and I'm so excited tobe here, but I'd really love to
(06:25):
know kind of when didself-regulation and
co-regulation and this passionof working with children in this
way, when did this kind ofbecome your passion?
When was your like light bulbmoment?
Speaker 3 (06:39):
So I have been in the early childhood field for I
think it's been around 27 yearsnow.
I definitely have evolved overthat time.
I taught preschool for 17 yearsand what I noticed towards the
end of my teaching is thechildren were much different
than they were in the beginning.
And I'm a lifelong learner, Ilove education, and so the more
(07:06):
classes and training I took, themore I realized that these kids
did not really need so much tobe getting ready for
kindergarten per se with writingtheir names and ABCs and all of
those things are important.
But I noticed there wasdefinitely a lack of that social
emotional support.
And what did that mean?
(07:27):
So the agency that I worked atin Ohio so I'm from Ohio they
asked me to write a training forthe state using an organization
called CCEFL, so it's theCenter for Emotional and Social
Foundations of Early learning,and once I started to dive into
(07:47):
that and dive into all of theparticulars about children
needing to learn about emotionalliteracy and needing to learn
about self-regulation, it justbecame my passion then.
And then I had a grandson who issix and a half and has a lot of
big emotions, and so I thoughtI'm going to use this
(08:10):
information with him and it wasamazing how it works.
So I'm able to say that I'veused these things firsthand and
I've used them with my othergrandchildren as well, and any
other littles that I come incontact with, and it really does
work.
And so I want to empower youknow nannies, teachers, families
(08:32):
, anybody who comes in contactwith littles that that we can do
this.
We can help these children,teach them this most important
skill before they get into aschool setting.
And if you talk to teachers,they will say this is one of the
most important skill beforethey get into a school setting.
And if you talk to teachers,they will say this is one of the
most important things that theywant their kiddos to learn
before they go into anelementary school.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, I can imagine the impact it would have in a
setting at school with so manyyoung people.
If you've got a bunch oflittles that are not
particularly empowered to knowhow to self-regulate, that can
be a pretty wild learningenvironment.
So you mentioned co-regulation.
I wonder if some of ourlisteners might not know what
(09:15):
that means.
I'd love to hear if you couldhelp us understand what that
means.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Sure.
So in a nutshell, really,co-regulation is you're
regulated as the adult to helpthe child regulate.
Because I know from being a mom, I have three children that are
all adults and I know that whenthey were dysregulated and I
was dysregulated, thateverything went downhill rather
(09:40):
quickly.
So again, a learning process,rather quickly.
So again a learning process.
And I learned that me being intune with myself, or the adult
being in tune with themselves,their body, how they're feeling,
and even going as deep as whyis this triggering me so much?
Because, you know, we bring alot of stuff from our childhood
(10:01):
into when we parent or care forlittle ones, being very
intentional and very mindfulabout that.
Once we are regulated, then wecan regulate somebody else with
a child.
And I think about if we comeupon a situation where somebody
is crying, an adult is crying,and I walk in and I start crying
(10:23):
and I start having a meltdown.
We're a mess, right?
So why do we think that we canwalk into those things with
children and then children cannavigate through that?
So when I walk into situationsor when I'm talking to teachers
about different situations, Itry to do a lot of examples of
(10:44):
what we do with adults.
So, for example, if I walk intoa room and you're crying and I
say to you, you're fine, you'refine, it can't be that bad,
you're going to say to me that'srude, please leave my house.
But why do we do that tochildren?
And so it's the same thing withregulation.
If I walk in and I'm upset andI can feel myself at the top of
(11:07):
my anger level or whatever it is, and then I'm asking you to
calm yourself, that makes nosense at all, especially with a
little person who doesn't evenhave that skill.
So that's where my passioncomes from.
I want people to think about itlike that, and I've had a lot
of teachers have aha moments orparents when I talk about it
(11:31):
like that, like oh, that makessense.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
I love what you said about basically looking at the
way that we would treat littleones the same way that we as
adults would engage with otheradults.
I think it's so interesting howyou know it's pretty common to
sort of treat children as youknow, sort of half adults, where
, like they just aren't going toget it or they deserve or can
only understand a sort of likeminimized version of
(11:58):
communication or even, you know,self-regulation.
But I think what you're sayingis so powerful, because all of
us know what we want to betreated like and how we want to
be spoken to, and when we're inan upset situation, we know what
we would really like to receivefrom people that care about us.
So I think that reallydemystifies a lot of the process
(12:19):
for folks to kind of rememberthat.
Hey, this isn't supercomplicated.
Just think about if you werecrying and like throwing things
off of your chair.
What would you want someone tosay to you?
Right, right.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah, we just have this huge expectation of what
children should be able to do.
And if we understand childdevelopment and we know
developmentally that they'veonly been here for three, two,
three or four years, how couldthey possibly even be able to
name their emotions, let aloneunderstand how their bodies feel
?
We have many adults who cannoteven name emotions other than
(12:57):
happy, sad or mad.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
So I, you know, I really think it's so important
that we introduce all of thesewords and then connect.
How does our body feel when weare having these emotions?
Speaker 2 (13:11):
And how.
So I completely agree with youand I'm just I'm thinking about
a few meltdowns that that I'vewitnessed recently, and it's
always in the grocery store.
But I also live in a small townand the grocery store is just
kind of the only place thatpeople go to hang out to hear it
through that perspective, Ithink, gives me such a different
(13:34):
perception.
Understanding, you know, when aparent is, or a caregiver is,
combating a meltdown by saying,you know, stop crying or be
quiet or stop yelling, but it'sreally in that moment, like that
, all of those words are justcoming from the adult out of
shame or fear of beingembarrassed or you know these
(13:57):
kind of normal adult socialconstructs that we're all used
to like.
People should not scream in agrocery store.
People should not throw a canof tomato soup on the ground
right right um, so that the idea, you know, the idea of an adult
kind of needing to take aminute to regulate themselves in
that moment, because it soundslike if they're not regulated
(14:19):
and they're acting out of fearor shame or embarrassment or
frustration, you know, thenthey're not going to be able to
be like shut up, do like, do boxbreathing, make your box right
now right now.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Yeah, so the key is education and teaching before,
not in the moment.
We're not teaching boxbreathing in the moment.
We're not taking teaching bellybreaths.
We're not teaching that, we'redoing it ahead of time, we're
putting it in our everydaythings, that we're doing with
our children.
And again, I taught in aclassroom, so it was a little
different setting, you know,where we could introduce a lot
of things in the classroom thatfor the whole group but
(15:06):
definitely can be done, andone-on-one in the home, reading
a lot of books about feelingsand talking about those feelings
and as adults.
Saying, you know, right nowmommy is feeling really stressed
out and I know that I'm feelingstressed out because my belly
hurts or I have a headache, andso what I'm going to do right
now is I'm going to take somebreaths.
(15:27):
Would you like to take somebreaths with mommy to practice
or whoever the caregiver is soreally doing that every day.
And it's an everyday thing, justlike it is when we're teaching
a four and a five year old towrite their name.
We don't just do it once, and sothen when you get in those
meltdown situations, you can sayto the child how can I help you
(15:48):
, what can I do to help you?
And what's going to happen isthey're going to scream at you
and say nothing, I hate you, andthrow things at you in the
grocery store, and then you canjust say you have this space.
You have this space to feel theway you want to feel.
I'm here when you need me tohelp you.
And if one of those things isto take you out of the store, we
(16:10):
can leave all of our groceriesand we can go out of the store.
Leave all of our groceries andwe can go out of the store.
So it's really being readybefore it happens and having the
education and introducing it tothe child.
So it's not just in that momentand I know that's really
difficult because you'reembarrassed and people are
thinking you're a terribleparent.
Actually, you're like the bestparent ever because you're
(16:33):
letting your child feel theirfeels Right and the impact of
that into adulthood is so huge.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
You know, as an adult we know when we're encountering
other adults who do not knowhow to appropriately manage
their feelings because they werenever taught or it was never
modeled for them and nobody evercreated space for them when
they were younger to learn thoseparameters and to understand
their feelings, and so then, asan adult, in meetings, you know,
(17:01):
at whatever sort of you knowfamily barbecues.
You're having theseinteractions going.
Wow, you probably should havehad a minute to cry and throw a
tantrum so that you could learnhow to manage this and that
someone could support youbecause it's not cool in your
forties.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
I'll tell you that to manage this and that someone
could support you because it'snot cool.
In your 40s I'll tell you that,right, it's not.
And then people think you'recrazy, but I look at it with
empathy.
I look at it like how sad thatyou've never been given the
opportunity to show how you feeland to learn how to calm
yourself.
And even when I've taughtteachers this content, there's a
(17:34):
lot of aha moments from theadult teachers that, oh gosh, I
never thought about that.
I never thought that I need tolearn how to regulate myself.
I think that's just the way Iam.
Well, no, there are strategiesto help you regulate yourself
and your feelings.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
I think that's so incredible and your feelings.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
I think that's so incredible.
So, tina, what I know, you know, something that we talk about a
lot on the podcast with otherguests is you know the concept
of respectful care and some ofthese alternative learning
philosophies and the idea oftreating children with respect,
and you know and a lot of timesI hear the phrase treating them
like adults or treating themlike tiny versions of adults,
(18:19):
and I'm really interested inthis approach because it still
has so much respect attached toit, but it's also saying, hey,
let's get real, a three-year-oldis not an adult.
So, with that in mind, what arethe kind of fair baseline
expectations for us to haveregarding children and their
socio-emotional literacy?
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Well, I think the most important thing when we
talk about that is reallyunderstanding what's
developmentally appropriate, andI feel like anybody who works
with children, anybody whobirths a child, anybody who
cares for a child, really shouldunderstand what's
developmentally appropriate.
It's not developmentallyappropriate to expect a
(19:02):
one-year-old to regulate theiremotions.
It's not really appropriate toexpect them all the way up to
age four and five, because thosethings are taught.
So I think that if we canunderstand what children are
capable of and what they can doand of course there's a lot of
(19:22):
resources out there formilestones and developmental
milestones socially, emotionallybut every child's an individual
and I've come across a lot ofchildren who can just freely
speak verbally.
I'm feeling very frustratedright now with you and it would
be helpful if you would walkaway, you know, or you can come
(19:42):
upon a child where they're justgrowling at you and trying to
bite you.
So really understanding wherethe child is at and what to
expect, I really think is thebase of everything, and there's
so many resources out there.
I personally like the CDCwebsite just because it gives
(20:04):
some great developmentalmilestones for every age, but
then it also talks about thatevery child develops
individually and then it talksabout if there are red flags as
well.
So really just having peopleeducate themselves so they
understand what's appropriate,and you know what we can expect
(20:25):
from a child.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
That's so helpful.
So, if you wouldn't mind, Iknow that you teach probably so
many different scenarios, so ifthere would be a way for you to
provide like a specific example,it would be so helpful.
Imagining, for example, that wehave a child who is maybe in
the like four to five range andthey're refusing to eat.
(20:51):
You're in the kitchen, they'rein their chair throwing things
and a tantrum sort of erupts.
Can you give us just like ageneral sense of course there
are so many facets that would bekind of weighing into this but
a general sense of how acaregiver should approach or
might approach the situation totry to tend to the child's
(21:11):
emotional needs but also notwreck the house.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Right, right, the first thing would be to ask
yourself is the child overlytired?
Is the child overly hungry?
Because you know, we use theterm hangry as adults.
Well, children definitely havethat, but they don't have the
words to say I'm feeling hangry,so they, hence they throw
(21:37):
things and things like that.
So, kind of, looking at thatenvironment, maybe they're
really not hungry.
So, thinking about all of thosethings, and then you get to the
point where do they just notlike the food.
So really going through a lot ofdifferent scenarios in your
mind before you even engage witha child, and then asking the
child you know, do you, is theresomething else that you would
(22:00):
like to eat, or did I give thema choice?
I believe people should havechoices, even little people.
If I come and I meet you forlunch and I tell you what you
have to eat, you're not going toeat it.
But if you're four, four andfive and your caregiver is
giving you the food, you don'treally have many choices.
So that would be a great time togive choices before, so that
(22:22):
doesn't start um, and then Iwould even go as far as just
ignoring the behavior and saying, very, this is where you have
to be very self-regulated andsay I see that you're upset, I
see that you don't like the foodthat I'm giving you, and I can
tell that you don't like thefood because you're throwing it
(22:43):
and you're screaming and you'reyelling.
If you choose not to eat it,that's fine and you can leave
the table.
But I need you to know thatwhen we all calm down, that
we're going to have to come backand clean this up, and this is
much easier said than done.
It's much easier to do whenit's not your child.
When it's your child, you havean emotional investment and
(23:05):
emotional attachment.
But really disconnectingyourself from the behavior and
just stepping back and justbeing very matter of fact about
it and then just ignoring it,Wow, that would be challenging,
but I can see the benefit to thechild, which I think is
everybody's goal, of course.
Right, because once you start toengage, then it escalates, and
(23:28):
it escalates.
And guess who the winner is?
The four or five year old isalways the winner, unless the
parent then takes it anotherlevel and then corporal
punishment becomes somethingwhich we definitely don't want
that to happen, and then it's aterrible situation for everybody
(23:49):
.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Then yeah, oh, absolutely.
I love that example and I thinkthat's really helpful.
And one of the things you keepmentioning that is kind of a
light bulb in my mind is thisidea of adults regulating
themselves and understandingthat your previous you know
childhood and the things thatyou've experienced throughout
your life are absolutely sort ofthe pavement that you're
(24:12):
standing on when you'reapproaching the situations.
And being so cognizant of thatand kind of facing that not just
in the moment when things areflying in the air, but prior to
that, really being able to sitwith you know why is this so
like upsetting to me on like aguttural level that they're not
wanting their spaghetti, youknow and kind of thinking
(24:32):
through the impact of your ownchildhood experiences and then
kind of working through that soyou're able to kind of provide
your best self who's regulatedand really able to support the
child in that moment wherethey're having feelings that
they don't know how to expressand that would be terrifying as
an adult.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Yes, yes, and that's where the hard work comes in.
That's where a lot of adultsdon't want to go and would
rather stay with.
I'm the adult, and because Isaid so, because they don't want
to examine the fact that it'sreally hard for them to watch
their child throw the food, whenmaybe they were disciplined and
forced to eat food or maybethey were hungry at some point
(25:15):
and didn't have food.
That's really hard work to do,but in the long run, we're going
to end up having healthieradults, and that's really what
we want, right?
We want our children to grow upand be healthy, with their
social, emotional literacy, andbe able to express how they feel
.
It'll just make such a betterworld Really.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Absolutely.
I saw a Tik TOK recently, whichyou know.
I basically get all my newsfrom TikTok, so take that with a
grain of salt, but I waswatching this TikTok about.
It was this really sweet littlesix-year-old buddy with his
mother and they were justsitting side by side and she was
just very, not talking to himat all in a baby voice, but in a
very respectful voice, justsaying you know what's going on
(26:00):
with you today.
I can tell that you seem upset,your face is making an
expression, your body looks likeit's really anxious.
And then this little boy, withmore emotional maturity than 90%
of the adults I know, was likeyes, mama, I was feeling very
angry and I said things thatwere not nice to you because I
was very upset in my body and Icould feel it in my chest and in
(26:22):
my stomach.
But now I went to my corner andI looked at my wheel and then
they show he had like a wheel ofdifferent emotions and he was
like I was feeling like this.
And then points at the wheeland then the mother is just like
okay, yeah, I understand you,that makes sense, I hear you.
And then he went through thewhole cycle of I was feeling
this, I was feeling this andthat's why I said this mean
thing to you.
And then he was like thatmight've hurt your feelings.
(26:45):
Mama, I'm so sorry.
I said that when I was veryupset.
I'm feeling much better now.
Can we lay down together?
And I just started crying.
I was like what's going on?
Yeah, yeah, that means thatlike kind of the result of the
sort of work you're talkingabout.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Yes, and those types of things make me so excited
because it does work.
Now you see something like thaton TikTok and you're like, oh,
that's so amazing, that happenedovernight.
No, that was a lot of work thatthat mother has put into,
probably since he was a baby allthe way up until that time, and
being very consistent andnaming her own emotions and
(27:24):
coming back and apologizing toyour child.
That's a big one.
You know, as caregivers we makemistakes and so we can come
back and we can apologize forthose mistakes, which then helps
our children be able to do thatas well.
But it's a lot of work, it's alot of consistency, and so
sometimes with adults it'seasier just to approach it in a
(27:48):
different way.
That's not as helpful.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Well, tina, with your permission, we would love to
ask you a few questions that wejust like to ask our guests here
on this podcast.
Sure, they're yeah, they'repretty tough questions coming
out of left field.
Danielle, do you want to kickus off?
Speaker 1 (28:12):
We are very excited to ask you these questions.
They're super hard hittinginvestigative questions.
So, Tina, when you were fouryears old, who would your dream
nanny have been?
Speaker 3 (28:23):
My dream nanny, if you could pick anyone.
If I could pick anyone, whatare my choices?
I need choices.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Anyone, dead or alive , past, present, future, your
four your parents.
We're going to Singapore fortwo years.
Someone's going to come hangout with you all the time.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
When I was four years old.
It would be the adult versionof me now.
Yes, With all of the knowledgethat I have.
Yes, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
I mean honestly, now that you mention it.
Previously I said PippiLongstocking, but I actually
want to change my answer to youas well.
Oh, you'd be my ideal nanny.
So we also ask all of thecandidates at Adventure Nannies
to list out 10 fun facts aboutthemselves so that we can kind
of get to know them better, butalso so that hiring families can
(29:15):
get a better sense of who theyare.
Would you be able to nameanywhere from one to three fun
facts about yourself?
These can be anything from Iride a unicycle to I love
zucchini, like whatever the funfacts are.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Okay, the first one is I've completed 10 mini
triathlons.
I think that's a fun fact.
Mini triathlon I think that's afun fact.
Yeah, I did that in my forties.
The second fun fact is wow, I'man adoptive mother.
I adopted a baby right from thehospital, picked her up and she
(29:55):
was in her little incubator.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
So that's a fun fact that's so cool incubator.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
So that's so cool, yeah.
And then probably the third oneI just learned how to kayak
last summer when we moved hereto Tennessee and my husband and
I actually watched a YouTubevideo before we got in the kayak
and had to keep watching itwhile we were trying to get in
the kayak because we had no ideawhat we were doing, and then we
did not finish the video anddid not know how to get out of
the kayak.
So that's a fun fact.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
That would have been very fun to watch, for sure.
It was definitely fun.
Yeah, it's so funny that youmentioned kayaking in Tennessee.
I went to college inChattanooga and almost everybody
I knew was really into kayaking.
It's such a cool sport but veryhard to get in and out of those
boats.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
I just did that same thing, Cause I moved to North
Carolina from Seattle lastsummer and I did that exact same
thing with paddle boarding lastsummer, like got up early and I
put my phone in the waterproofbag and it was just like step
one, here's how you get on thepaddle board, Like okay, I can
do it.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
That's exactly what we did, and I'm sure there were
people watching us.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Honestly, I think that's so admirable and cool to
be just constantly seeking newchallenges.
I love that yeah it was fun.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Well, tina, if folks have questions for you or they
want to get in touch and pickyour brain or do some consulting
or just bother you and ask youfor advice, share their life
story.
Where is the best place forpeople to find you?
Speaker 3 (31:32):
So I do have a consulting business.
That's just brand new, reallyhaven't done anything with it,
but I'm in the process ofgetting that started.
So that's Tina Lemon,consultconsulting at gmailcom.
And then I also run a Facebookgroup called Kids Corner that
people can join and I only postthings that are developmentally
(31:54):
appropriate on there, so theycan be anything from activities
all the way up to socialemotional information.
So those are probably the twobest ways to get a hold of me,
and I love sharing informationwith people and I love when I
was presenting at the NannyConference.
I had a lot of the ladies joinimmediately when I told them
(32:18):
about that, about the Facebookgroup.
So I love sharing thatinformation.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
That's so wonderful and I've learned so much from
you today already, tina, so Ithink anybody listening it would
be such a great addition toyour, your skill set and your
toolbox to go and check outTina's Facebook and you know the
email address for herconsulting, which is kicking off
, and be sure to check the shownotes.
We'll have all of thatinformation in there for you,
(32:45):
tina.
Thank you so much for your timetoday and for all of the great
information that you shared withus.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Thank you for having me.
This was great.
I appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Thanks for listening.
You can find all of ourepisodes on Apple Music, spotify
and wherever podcasts arestreamed.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
And you can find Adventure Nannies off air on our
website AdventureNanniescom, oryou can follow us on Facebook
and Instagram to stay up to dateon our latest opportunities.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
If you love this episode, please give us a review
if you're feeling so inclined.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
And if you hated this episode, well, sorry.
Thanks for listening.
you're listening to adventure nannies on air in each
episode we'll dive into a topicfrom the wide world of nannying
from what to pack for your nextadventure, professional
development opportunities,industry standards, legal pay
and anything else we seecrossing our desks at adventure
nannies, the nationwide agencyfor families, nannies, private
educators and newborn carespecialists.
(00:30):
I'm Danielle, I'm Shenandoahand this is Adventure Nannies On
Air.
The policies and viewsexpressed in this episode are
those of the individuals and donot necessarily represent the
views of Adventure Nannies.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Also, this episode has a little salty language in
it and may not be appropriatefor kids.
Welcome, Tina Lemon.
It's so great to have you hereon the podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Thank you, I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Tina, I got to see you speak at the International
Nanny Training Day event inNashville, I guess about six
weeks ago, and you were one ofthe most captivating speakers
I've ever seen.
Everyone in the room was justkind of hanging on your every
word and and writing downfuriously.
I had talked right before youand just watching your
(01:30):
presentation I really was like,oh, like this is, this is really
good.
I think I texted Danielle thatnight of please, please, see if
you know Tina Lemon is availableor if she's now getting booked
on Conan O'Brien or whatever.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Oh, thank you.
It was great being there and Iwas actually really nervous.
So it's nice to hear thateverything came through good,
because I was really nervousabout speaking in public again.
It's been a long time sinceI've spoken public, so thank you
for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Do you mind just getting started out for folks
who are listening, who might notbe as familiar with some of the
terms we'll be talking abouttoday, and just telling us what
regulation is and why it matters?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Sure.
So regulation, especially whenwe're talking about children,
because that's my passion.
But regulation is being able toregulate your emotions and calm
your body during differentscenarios.
And along with that, we seem toforget that children have only
(02:45):
been here a short time, and sowe actually have to teach them
these skills.
So we have to teach them whatit means to regulate.
And so a couple things that thatreally stick out to me when I
think about self regulation andsocial emotional literacy is you
know, we hear a lot of teacherssay, and parents say stop doing
(03:08):
that.
Um, stop crying, you're fine,calm yourself down, use your
words.
But all of those things have tobe taught.
So in order to learnself-regulation, we first have
to learn what our body feelslike when it feels out of
control, and then, second, wehave to learn how to label those
(03:28):
emotions, and then there's awhole nother process that comes
along with that.
So that's what I've becomereally passionate about helping
teachers and families learnthose skills that we have to
teach children that, just likewe teach them how to write their
name, just like we teach themhow to write their names, just
like we teach them how to pottytrain the emotion and
(03:51):
self-regulation is also a taughtskill.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I'm going to just fly off script.
I'm curious because I alsoalways get nervous before public
speaking, and so I know thatyou are not a child.
But so you mentioned you got sonervous before that event that
we met at.
What do you?
What of this teaching do youimplement for yourself when you
start to get nervous aboutsomething Like what's your,
(04:19):
what's your sneaky secret inthose moments to?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
practice and I did talk about that this day a lot
of the strategy.
So a lot of deep breathing, alot of I like box breathing.
Are you familiar with that?
Speaker 1 (04:37):
But we should share, because I bet some people aren't
?
I love box breathing.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Okay.
So box breathing and I've seenit a lot of different ways, but
recently I've been using it,breathing in for four seconds,
breathing out for four secondsin and then out as you trace the
shape of a box.
I like for kids, actually themusing their fingers to do it.
As an adult, that probablywould not be appropriate when
(05:01):
I'm standing in a crowd ofpeople.
So I visually trace that boxmyself.
That's a big one that I use.
That really helps toself-regulate, bring my emotions
back down and then get me towhere I need to be.
Another thing that I use is Ialways say because I taught
students, adult students for along time and I always say the
(05:23):
crowd doesn't know what I'msupposed to say, so if I mess up
, they have no idea that I'vemessed up.
So I try to assure myself withthat.
And then actually one of thespeakers that went after me that
one day I shared that with herand she said oh, that's amazing.
Yeah, nobody knows you're gonnamess up because they don't know
what you're supposed to say.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
So that is such a good point and, I think, an
incredible reminder to alladults, because I think we've
all been in that situation wherewe're really anxious about how
we're going to appear or theperception that others have of
us in a public setting andreminding ourselves, kind of,
that some of the things thatwe're anxious about are really
not visible to other people andeven some of the mistakes that
(06:03):
we may make about are really notvisible to other people.
And even some of the mistakesthat we may make in public
speaking literally has no impacton anyone else unless it's just
this egregious like fly off thehandle, I think, more than
anything, you can just riff andkind of cover it, which is
awesome.
So I'm really curious this ismy first time getting to meet
you, tina, and I'm so excited tobe here, but I'd really love to
(06:25):
know kind of when didself-regulation and
co-regulation and this passionof working with children in this
way, when did this kind ofbecome your passion?
When was your like light bulbmoment?
Speaker 3 (06:39):
So I have been in the early childhood field for I
think it's been around 27 yearsnow.
I definitely have evolved overthat time.
I taught preschool for 17 yearsand what I noticed towards the
end of my teaching is thechildren were much different
than they were in the beginning.
And I'm a lifelong learner, Ilove education, and so the more
(07:06):
classes and training I took, themore I realized that these kids
did not really need so much tobe getting ready for
kindergarten per se with writingtheir names and ABCs and all of
those things are important.
But I noticed there wasdefinitely a lack of that social
emotional support.
And what did that mean?
(07:27):
So the agency that I worked atin Ohio so I'm from Ohio they
asked me to write a training forthe state using an organization
called CCEFL, so it's theCenter for Emotional and Social
Foundations of Early learning,and once I started to dive into
(07:47):
that and dive into all of theparticulars about children
needing to learn about emotionalliteracy and needing to learn
about self-regulation, it justbecame my passion then.
And then I had a grandson who issix and a half and has a lot of
big emotions, and so I thoughtI'm going to use this
(08:10):
information with him and it wasamazing how it works.
So I'm able to say that I'veused these things firsthand and
I've used them with my othergrandchildren as well, and any
other littles that I come incontact with, and it really does
work.
And so I want to empower youknow nannies, teachers, families
(08:32):
, anybody who comes in contactwith littles that that we can do
this.
We can help these children,teach them this most important
skill before they get into aschool setting.
And if you talk to teachers,they will say this is one of the
most important skill beforethey get into a school setting.
And if you talk to teachers,they will say this is one of the
most important things that theywant their kiddos to learn
before they go into anelementary school.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, I can imagine the impact it would have in a
setting at school with so manyyoung people.
If you've got a bunch oflittles that are not
particularly empowered to knowhow to self-regulate, that can
be a pretty wild learningenvironment.
So you mentioned co-regulation.
I wonder if some of ourlisteners might not know what
(09:15):
that means.
I'd love to hear if you couldhelp us understand what that
means.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Sure.
So in a nutshell, really,co-regulation is you're
regulated as the adult to helpthe child regulate.
Because I know from being a mom, I have three children that are
all adults and I know that whenthey were dysregulated and I
was dysregulated, thateverything went downhill rather
(09:40):
quickly.
So again, a learning process,rather quickly.
So again a learning process.
And I learned that me being intune with myself, or the adult
being in tune with themselves,their body, how they're feeling,
and even going as deep as whyis this triggering me so much?
Because, you know, we bring alot of stuff from our childhood
(10:01):
into when we parent or care forlittle ones, being very
intentional and very mindfulabout that.
Once we are regulated, then wecan regulate somebody else with
a child.
And I think about if we comeupon a situation where somebody
is crying, an adult is crying,and I walk in and I start crying
(10:23):
and I start having a meltdown.
We're a mess, right?
So why do we think that we canwalk into those things with
children and then children cannavigate through that?
So when I walk into situationsor when I'm talking to teachers
about different situations, Itry to do a lot of examples of
(10:44):
what we do with adults.
So, for example, if I walk intoa room and you're crying and I
say to you, you're fine, you'refine, it can't be that bad,
you're going to say to me that'srude, please leave my house.
But why do we do that tochildren?
And so it's the same thing withregulation.
If I walk in and I'm upset andI can feel myself at the top of
(11:07):
my anger level or whatever it is, and then I'm asking you to
calm yourself, that makes nosense at all, especially with a
little person who doesn't evenhave that skill.
So that's where my passioncomes from.
I want people to think about itlike that, and I've had a lot
of teachers have aha moments orparents when I talk about it
(11:31):
like that, like oh, that makessense.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
I love what you said about basically looking at the
way that we would treat littleones the same way that we as
adults would engage with otheradults.
I think it's so interesting howyou know it's pretty common to
sort of treat children as youknow, sort of half adults, where
, like they just aren't going toget it or they deserve or can
only understand a sort of likeminimized version of
(11:58):
communication or even, you know,self-regulation.
But I think what you're sayingis so powerful, because all of
us know what we want to betreated like and how we want to
be spoken to, and when we're inan upset situation, we know what
we would really like to receivefrom people that care about us.
So I think that reallydemystifies a lot of the process
(12:19):
for folks to kind of rememberthat.
Hey, this isn't supercomplicated.
Just think about if you werecrying and like throwing things
off of your chair.
What would you want someone tosay to you?
Right, right.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah, we just have this huge expectation of what
children should be able to do.
And if we understand childdevelopment and we know
developmentally that they'veonly been here for three, two,
three or four years, how couldthey possibly even be able to
name their emotions, let aloneunderstand how their bodies feel
?
We have many adults who cannoteven name emotions other than
(12:57):
happy, sad or mad.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
So I, you know, I really think it's so important
that we introduce all of thesewords and then connect.
How does our body feel when weare having these emotions?
Speaker 2 (13:11):
And how.
So I completely agree with youand I'm just I'm thinking about
a few meltdowns that that I'vewitnessed recently, and it's
always in the grocery store.
But I also live in a small townand the grocery store is just
kind of the only place thatpeople go to hang out to hear it
through that perspective, Ithink, gives me such a different
(13:34):
perception.
Understanding, you know, when aparent is, or a caregiver is,
combating a meltdown by saying,you know, stop crying or be
quiet or stop yelling, but it'sreally in that moment, like that
, all of those words are justcoming from the adult out of
shame or fear of beingembarrassed or you know these
(13:57):
kind of normal adult socialconstructs that we're all used
to like.
People should not scream in agrocery store.
People should not throw a canof tomato soup on the ground
right right um, so that the idea, you know, the idea of an adult
kind of needing to take aminute to regulate themselves in
that moment, because it soundslike if they're not regulated
(14:19):
and they're acting out of fearor shame or embarrassment or
frustration, you know, thenthey're not going to be able to
be like shut up, do like, do boxbreathing, make your box right
now right now.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Yeah, so the key is education and teaching before,
not in the moment.
We're not teaching boxbreathing in the moment.
We're not taking teaching bellybreaths.
We're not teaching that, we'redoing it ahead of time, we're
putting it in our everydaythings, that we're doing with
our children.
And again, I taught in aclassroom, so it was a little
different setting, you know,where we could introduce a lot
of things in the classroom thatfor the whole group but
(15:06):
definitely can be done, andone-on-one in the home, reading
a lot of books about feelingsand talking about those feelings
and as adults.
Saying, you know, right nowmommy is feeling really stressed
out and I know that I'm feelingstressed out because my belly
hurts or I have a headache, andso what I'm going to do right
now is I'm going to take somebreaths.
(15:27):
Would you like to take somebreaths with mommy to practice
or whoever the caregiver is soreally doing that every day.
And it's an everyday thing, justlike it is when we're teaching
a four and a five year old towrite their name.
We don't just do it once, and sothen when you get in those
meltdown situations, you can sayto the child how can I help you
(15:48):
, what can I do to help you?
And what's going to happen isthey're going to scream at you
and say nothing, I hate you, andthrow things at you in the
grocery store, and then you canjust say you have this space.
You have this space to feel theway you want to feel.
I'm here when you need me tohelp you.
And if one of those things isto take you out of the store, we
(16:10):
can leave all of our groceriesand we can go out of the store.
Leave all of our groceries andwe can go out of the store.
So it's really being readybefore it happens and having the
education and introducing it tothe child.
So it's not just in that momentand I know that's really
difficult because you'reembarrassed and people are
thinking you're a terribleparent.
Actually, you're like the bestparent ever because you're
(16:33):
letting your child feel theirfeels Right and the impact of
that into adulthood is so huge.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
You know, as an adult we know when we're encountering
other adults who do not knowhow to appropriately manage
their feelings because they werenever taught or it was never
modeled for them and nobody evercreated space for them when
they were younger to learn thoseparameters and to understand
their feelings, and so then, asan adult, in meetings, you know,
(17:01):
at whatever sort of you knowfamily barbecues.
You're having theseinteractions going.
Wow, you probably should havehad a minute to cry and throw a
tantrum so that you could learnhow to manage this and that
someone could support youbecause it's not cool in your
forties.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
I'll tell you that to manage this and that someone
could support you because it'snot cool.
In your 40s I'll tell you that,right, it's not.
And then people think you'recrazy, but I look at it with
empathy.
I look at it like how sad thatyou've never been given the
opportunity to show how you feeland to learn how to calm
yourself.
And even when I've taughtteachers this content, there's a
(17:34):
lot of aha moments from theadult teachers that, oh gosh, I
never thought about that.
I never thought that I need tolearn how to regulate myself.
I think that's just the way Iam.
Well, no, there are strategiesto help you regulate yourself
and your feelings.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
I think that's so incredible and your feelings.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
I think that's so incredible.
So, tina, what I know, you know, something that we talk about a
lot on the podcast with otherguests is you know the concept
of respectful care and some ofthese alternative learning
philosophies and the idea oftreating children with respect,
and you know and a lot of timesI hear the phrase treating them
like adults or treating themlike tiny versions of adults,
(18:19):
and I'm really interested inthis approach because it still
has so much respect attached toit, but it's also saying, hey,
let's get real, a three-year-oldis not an adult.
So, with that in mind, what arethe kind of fair baseline
expectations for us to haveregarding children and their
socio-emotional literacy?
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Well, I think the most important thing when we
talk about that is reallyunderstanding what's
developmentally appropriate, andI feel like anybody who works
with children, anybody whobirths a child, anybody who
cares for a child, really shouldunderstand what's
developmentally appropriate.
It's not developmentallyappropriate to expect a
(19:02):
one-year-old to regulate theiremotions.
It's not really appropriate toexpect them all the way up to
age four and five, because thosethings are taught.
So I think that if we canunderstand what children are
capable of and what they can doand of course there's a lot of
(19:22):
resources out there formilestones and developmental
milestones socially, emotionallybut every child's an individual
and I've come across a lot ofchildren who can just freely
speak verbally.
I'm feeling very frustratedright now with you and it would
be helpful if you would walkaway, you know, or you can come
(19:42):
upon a child where they're justgrowling at you and trying to
bite you.
So really understanding wherethe child is at and what to
expect, I really think is thebase of everything, and there's
so many resources out there.
I personally like the CDCwebsite just because it gives
(20:04):
some great developmentalmilestones for every age, but
then it also talks about thatevery child develops
individually and then it talksabout if there are red flags as
well.
So really just having peopleeducate themselves so they
understand what's appropriate,and you know what we can expect
(20:25):
from a child.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
That's so helpful.
So, if you wouldn't mind, Iknow that you teach probably so
many different scenarios, so ifthere would be a way for you to
provide like a specific example,it would be so helpful.
Imagining, for example, that wehave a child who is maybe in
the like four to five range andthey're refusing to eat.
(20:51):
You're in the kitchen, they'rein their chair throwing things
and a tantrum sort of erupts.
Can you give us just like ageneral sense of course there
are so many facets that would bekind of weighing into this but
a general sense of how acaregiver should approach or
might approach the situation totry to tend to the child's
(21:11):
emotional needs but also notwreck the house.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Right, right, the first thing would be to ask
yourself is the child overlytired?
Is the child overly hungry?
Because you know, we use theterm hangry as adults.
Well, children definitely havethat, but they don't have the
words to say I'm feeling hangry,so they, hence they throw
(21:37):
things and things like that.
So, kind of, looking at thatenvironment, maybe they're
really not hungry.
So, thinking about all of thosethings, and then you get to the
point where do they just notlike the food.
So really going through a lot ofdifferent scenarios in your
mind before you even engage witha child, and then asking the
child you know, do you, is theresomething else that you would
(22:00):
like to eat, or did I give thema choice?
I believe people should havechoices, even little people.
If I come and I meet you forlunch and I tell you what you
have to eat, you're not going toeat it.
But if you're four, four andfive and your caregiver is
giving you the food, you don'treally have many choices.
So that would be a great time togive choices before, so that
(22:22):
doesn't start um, and then Iwould even go as far as just
ignoring the behavior and saying, very, this is where you have
to be very self-regulated andsay I see that you're upset, I
see that you don't like the foodthat I'm giving you, and I can
tell that you don't like thefood because you're throwing it
(22:43):
and you're screaming and you'reyelling.
If you choose not to eat it,that's fine and you can leave
the table.
But I need you to know thatwhen we all calm down, that
we're going to have to come backand clean this up, and this is
much easier said than done.
It's much easier to do whenit's not your child.
When it's your child, you havean emotional investment and
(23:05):
emotional attachment.
But really disconnectingyourself from the behavior and
just stepping back and justbeing very matter of fact about
it and then just ignoring it,Wow, that would be challenging,
but I can see the benefit to thechild, which I think is
everybody's goal, of course.
Right, because once you start toengage, then it escalates, and
(23:28):
it escalates.
And guess who the winner is?
The four or five year old isalways the winner, unless the
parent then takes it anotherlevel and then corporal
punishment becomes somethingwhich we definitely don't want
that to happen, and then it's aterrible situation for everybody
(23:49):
.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Then yeah, oh, absolutely.
I love that example and I thinkthat's really helpful.
And one of the things you keepmentioning that is kind of a
light bulb in my mind is thisidea of adults regulating
themselves and understandingthat your previous you know
childhood and the things thatyou've experienced throughout
your life are absolutely sort ofthe pavement that you're
(24:12):
standing on when you'reapproaching the situations.
And being so cognizant of thatand kind of facing that not just
in the moment when things areflying in the air, but prior to
that, really being able to sitwith you know why is this so
like upsetting to me on like aguttural level that they're not
wanting their spaghetti, youknow and kind of thinking
(24:32):
through the impact of your ownchildhood experiences and then
kind of working through that soyou're able to kind of provide
your best self who's regulatedand really able to support the
child in that moment wherethey're having feelings that
they don't know how to expressand that would be terrifying as
an adult.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Yes, yes, and that's where the hard work comes in.
That's where a lot of adultsdon't want to go and would
rather stay with.
I'm the adult, and because Isaid so, because they don't want
to examine the fact that it'sreally hard for them to watch
their child throw the food, whenmaybe they were disciplined and
forced to eat food or maybethey were hungry at some point
(25:15):
and didn't have food.
That's really hard work to do,but in the long run, we're going
to end up having healthieradults, and that's really what
we want, right?
We want our children to grow upand be healthy, with their
social, emotional literacy, andbe able to express how they feel
.
It'll just make such a betterworld Really.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Absolutely.
I saw a Tik TOK recently, whichyou know.
I basically get all my newsfrom TikTok, so take that with a
grain of salt, but I waswatching this TikTok about.
It was this really sweet littlesix-year-old buddy with his
mother and they were justsitting side by side and she was
just very, not talking to himat all in a baby voice, but in a
very respectful voice, justsaying you know what's going on
(26:00):
with you today.
I can tell that you seem upset,your face is making an
expression, your body looks likeit's really anxious.
And then this little boy, withmore emotional maturity than 90%
of the adults I know, was likeyes, mama, I was feeling very
angry and I said things thatwere not nice to you because I
was very upset in my body and Icould feel it in my chest and in
(26:22):
my stomach.
But now I went to my corner andI looked at my wheel and then
they show he had like a wheel ofdifferent emotions and he was
like I was feeling like this.
And then points at the wheeland then the mother is just like
okay, yeah, I understand you,that makes sense, I hear you.
And then he went through thewhole cycle of I was feeling
this, I was feeling this andthat's why I said this mean
thing to you.
And then he was like thatmight've hurt your feelings.
(26:45):
Mama, I'm so sorry.
I said that when I was veryupset.
I'm feeling much better now.
Can we lay down together?
And I just started crying.
I was like what's going on?
Yeah, yeah, that means thatlike kind of the result of the
sort of work you're talkingabout.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Yes, and those types of things make me so excited
because it does work.
Now you see something like thaton TikTok and you're like, oh,
that's so amazing, that happenedovernight.
No, that was a lot of work thatthat mother has put into,
probably since he was a baby allthe way up until that time, and
being very consistent andnaming her own emotions and
(27:24):
coming back and apologizing toyour child.
That's a big one.
You know, as caregivers we makemistakes and so we can come
back and we can apologize forthose mistakes, which then helps
our children be able to do thatas well.
But it's a lot of work, it's alot of consistency, and so
sometimes with adults it'seasier just to approach it in a
(27:48):
different way.
That's not as helpful.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Well, tina, with your permission, we would love to
ask you a few questions that wejust like to ask our guests here
on this podcast.
Sure, they're yeah, they'repretty tough questions coming
out of left field.
Danielle, do you want to kickus off?
Speaker 1 (28:12):
We are very excited to ask you these questions.
They're super hard hittinginvestigative questions.
So, Tina, when you were fouryears old, who would your dream
nanny have been?
Speaker 3 (28:23):
My dream nanny, if you could pick anyone.
If I could pick anyone, whatare my choices?
I need choices.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Anyone, dead or alive , past, present, future, your
four your parents.
We're going to Singapore fortwo years.
Someone's going to come hangout with you all the time.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
When I was four years old.
It would be the adult versionof me now.
Yes, With all of the knowledgethat I have.
Yes, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
I mean honestly, now that you mention it.
Previously I said PippiLongstocking, but I actually
want to change my answer to youas well.
Oh, you'd be my ideal nanny.
So we also ask all of thecandidates at Adventure Nannies
to list out 10 fun facts aboutthemselves so that we can kind
of get to know them better, butalso so that hiring families can
(29:15):
get a better sense of who theyare.
Would you be able to nameanywhere from one to three fun
facts about yourself?
These can be anything from Iride a unicycle to I love
zucchini, like whatever the funfacts are.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Okay, the first one is I've completed 10 mini
triathlons.
I think that's a fun fact.
Mini triathlon I think that's afun fact.
Yeah, I did that in my forties.
The second fun fact is wow, I'man adoptive mother.
I adopted a baby right from thehospital, picked her up and she
(29:55):
was in her little incubator.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
So that's a fun fact that's so cool incubator.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
So that's so cool, yeah.
And then probably the third oneI just learned how to kayak
last summer when we moved hereto Tennessee and my husband and
I actually watched a YouTubevideo before we got in the kayak
and had to keep watching itwhile we were trying to get in
the kayak because we had no ideawhat we were doing, and then we
did not finish the video anddid not know how to get out of
the kayak.
So that's a fun fact.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
That would have been very fun to watch, for sure.
It was definitely fun.
Yeah, it's so funny that youmentioned kayaking in Tennessee.
I went to college inChattanooga and almost everybody
I knew was really into kayaking.
It's such a cool sport but veryhard to get in and out of those
boats.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
I just did that same thing, Cause I moved to North
Carolina from Seattle lastsummer and I did that exact same
thing with paddle boarding lastsummer, like got up early and I
put my phone in the waterproofbag and it was just like step
one, here's how you get on thepaddle board, Like okay, I can
do it.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
That's exactly what we did, and I'm sure there were
people watching us.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Honestly, I think that's so admirable and cool to
be just constantly seeking newchallenges.
I love that yeah it was fun.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Well, tina, if folks have questions for you or they
want to get in touch and pickyour brain or do some consulting
or just bother you and ask youfor advice, share their life
story.
Where is the best place forpeople to find you?
Speaker 3 (31:32):
So I do have a consulting business.
That's just brand new, reallyhaven't done anything with it,
but I'm in the process ofgetting that started.
So that's Tina Lemon,consultconsulting at gmailcom.
And then I also run a Facebookgroup called Kids Corner that
people can join and I only postthings that are developmentally
(31:54):
appropriate on there, so theycan be anything from activities
all the way up to socialemotional information.
So those are probably the twobest ways to get a hold of me,
and I love sharing informationwith people and I love when I
was presenting at the NannyConference.
I had a lot of the ladies joinimmediately when I told them
(32:18):
about that, about the Facebookgroup.
So I love sharing thatinformation.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
That's so wonderful and I've learned so much from
you today already, tina, so Ithink anybody listening it would
be such a great addition toyour, your skill set and your
toolbox to go and check outTina's Facebook and you know the
email address for herconsulting, which is kicking off
, and be sure to check the shownotes.
We'll have all of thatinformation in there for you,
(32:45):
tina.
Thank you so much for your timetoday and for all of the great
information that you shared withus.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Thank you for having me.
This was great.
I appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Thanks for listening.
You can find all of ourepisodes on Apple Music, spotify
and wherever podcasts arestreamed.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
And you can find Adventure Nannies off air on our
website AdventureNanniescom, oryou can follow us on Facebook
and Instagram to stay up to dateon our latest opportunities.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
If you love this episode, please give us a review
if you're feeling so inclined.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
And if you hated this episode, well, sorry.
Thanks for listening.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.