Leadership Parenting- Resilient Moms Raise Resilient Kids
Welcome to Leadership Parenting, the podcast for the mom who wants to stop yelling, feel less overwhelmed, and show up as the calm, connected parent she knows she can be: a resilient mom who raises resilient kids. Hosted by Leigh Germann, licensed therapist, resilience coach, and mom of five grown children, this show is your weekly guide to building emotional strength, navigating tough moments, and leading your family with confidence. With over 30 years of experience helping thousands of women, Leigh brings you practical tools, compassionate insights, and the science of resilience—so you can feel better, parent smarter, and model strength to your children. Here, we talk about the real stuff: how to manage stress, anxiety, anger, and self-doubt… without losing yourself in the process. You’ll learn how to care for your mind and body, set healthy boundaries, and rise strong through the challenges of motherhood. Most importantly, you’ll discover how to teach your kids these same life-changing skills so they can grow into confident, capable, and emotionally healthy adults. If you're ready to be a better mom without trying harder- you're in the right place. Resilient moms raise resilient kids—and Leadership Parenting shows you how. Hit subscribe, and let’s walk this path together.
Episodes
In this episode we walk you through what's actually happening in your brain the moment stress takes over, and why your reactions make complete sense once you understand the system underneath them. I'll show you the five ways your nervous system steps in to protect you and why your thinking brain goes quiet right when you need it most. We'll look at one surprising trigger behind so much of our daily stress, and I'll ...
Screen time doesn't have to be a source of guilt, negotiation, or constant battle — and the research is finally catching up to what many moms already sense. In this episode, we walk through a values-based approach to family screen use this summer, including why screen-free days aren't automatically good days, what screens as a reward are actually teaching your kids, and how to run a family screen meeting that ...
It's the end of May and I've been sitting with moms all month who are half excited about summer and half quietly dreading it — and I noticed the same handful of questions coming up again and again. So in this episode I take the most common summer struggles I hear from real moms and work through them together, because there is something genuinely helpful about knowing that what you're carrying isn't a personal ...
So many of us moms are trying to build resilience while living completely disconnected from our own bodies. We push through stress, override exhaustion, ignore anxiety, and keep functioning until our nervous systems finally demand our attention. In this episode of Leadership Parenting, we explore the powerful connection between resilience, nervous system regulation, and body awareness. Drawing from neuroscience rese...
Shame doesn’t usually show up as a clear thought. It shows up as a heavy feeling that tells you you’re the problem, and it can take one messy parenting moment and turn it into a whole identity. In this episode, we slow that process down and name what’s actually happening when you get stuck replaying a conversation, judging yourself, and wondering why “I’m whole and valuable and wi...
Becoming a mother doesn't just change your life — it permanently enhances your brain, expands your identity, and reshapes the way you move through the world. In this tender Mother's Day episode, I walk through the concept of matrescence — the profound developmental passage every woman undergoes when she becomes a mother — including the fascinating neuroscience behind how pregnancy literally rewires...
There is a story running quietly in the background of your parenting. You may not even know it's there. But it's shaping everything — how you respond in hard moments, how you recover from mistakes, and what you believe you're capable of as a mom.
For the mom overwhelmed by self-criticism and parenting anxiety — this episode gets underneath both.
As a resilient mom, you're not broken. You're running an old ...
If you want to stop yelling at your kids and be a calmer mom— this episode is where it starts.
Every mom has had that moment — the reaction that came out of nowhere, bigger than the situation called for, that left you wondering what just happened inside you.
As a resilient mom, you're not broken — you're just working with a nervous system that nobody taught you how to read. I walk you through what's ...
If you'd like to get the show notes for this episode, head to:
https://leighgermann.com
Do you ever find yourself doing all the things—laundry, carpool, volunteering, saying yes again—and feeling resentful, even though you care deeply about your family and your life?
In this episode, I explore why the reason behind what you do shapes how you feel while doing it. Drawing from my social work training and real-life parenting examples, I explain why guilt-based decisions often feel rational in t...
If you've been parenting in performance mode — measuring yourself against impossible standards, running the replay of every imperfect moment, trying harder and feeling worse — this episode is your exhale. In this follow-up to Episode 135 on perfectionism, Leigh unpacks what she calls the Performance Trap: the invisible pressure to parent like you're always on stage. Using the Five Pillars of the Resilien...
You've read the books. You've tried the strategies. And sometimes they work — and sometimes, for reasons you can't quite explain, they completely fall flat. In this episode, Leigh Germann reveals why: because the most important parenting skill isn't a method. It's understanding. When we truly study our child — their patterns, their triggers, their sensitivities, what lights them up and what shuts them do...
You can cry easily, snap quickly, or feel “flooded” all day and still not be truly feeling your feelings. That sounds backwards, but it explains why so many of us walk around exhausted, reactive, and secretly ashamed of how big our emotions get. In today's episode, we slow this down and unpack a simple truth that changes everything: having feelings isn’t the same as feeling them, and resilience gro...
If you’ve ever found yourself repeating the same instruction three, four, or five times while your child seems to completely ignore you, you’re not alone. In this episode, I walk you through a brain-first parenting framework that helps children actually hear, process, and act on what you ask the first time. Instead of escalating, repeating, or assuming defiance, we look at what’s really happening i...
If you'd like to get the show notes for this episode, head to:
https://leighgermann.com
What if you could keep your high standards as a mom and lose the constant pressure that says you’re never enough? That’s the promise of a research-backed shift from perfectionism’s heavy “concerns” to its healthy “strivings,” and it can change the way you parent—and how you feel—starting today.
In this episode, I show you how to protect the part of you that wants ...
Some seasons of life are meant to be intense—but temporary. We tell ourselves, I can do this for a little while, and we push through on adrenaline, determination, and grit. But what happens when that season doesn’t end?
In this episode, I talk about what happens when a sprint quietly becomes a marathon—and why the strategies that helped you survive short-term stress can actually start working agains...
We have two jobs as parents — loving and teaching — and most of us blur them together without realizing it. When you understand which job you're doing in the moment, everything shifts. Parenting becomes clearer, calmer, and so much more connected so that we can love our kids in the two ways our children need the most!
If you'd like to get the show notes for this episode, head to:
...
If your home feels endlessly chaotic — toys everywhere, dishes piling up, laundry that never ends — and it leaves you feeling overstimulated, irritable, or ashamed, you’re not alone. In this episode, I break down why this experience has nothing to do with personal failure or not “handling it well enough,” and everything to do with how your nervous system responds to visual clutter, ment...
When your inner critic gets loud, it doesn’t feel like a thought—it feels like reality.
It feels urgent, convincing, and personal.
In this episode of the Leadership Parenting Podcast, I’m breaking down why the inner critic gets so intense under pressure—and why trying to “argue with it” often makes things worse.
You’ll learn how nervous system activation gives the critic a ...
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