Breast cancer transformed Terri Fedonczak’s life by creating clarity that helped her release her pursuit of money and status. She instead began to focus on cultivating deep relationships with her four daughters and her patient husband.
On a trip to South Africa, Terri witnessed the power of lionesses as they supported each other within the pride. It was a lightning bolt of realization that led her on a mission to help cultivate similar support systems in people’s families, especially between parents and teenagers.
Terri’s book, Field Guide to Plugged-In Parenting, pulls together her 22 year experience of raising children. She teaches the reader how you can grow up in an unsupportive family of origin and still change your own family’s trajectory by learning new skills and getting clear on your values.
In this episode, which originally aired in 2014, Terri and I discuss how you can repair your relationship with your teenager. It’s never too late to rebuild and repair that connection.
Join us this week as Terri and I have a conversation about parenting mistakes, parenting from a place of shame, and how to banish that shame. We discuss perfectionism and feeling like you have to give it all or nothing, ways to create a happy home, and two takeaways for parents who are trying to rebuild a relationship with their teenager.
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LISTEN HERE
WHAT YOU WILL DISCOVER
- How to move on from parenting mistakes
- How a cancer diagnosis changed Terri’s outlook on life
- Why Terri decided to write a parenting book
- Parenting from a place of shame
- How your family of origin can be the root of shame in your parenting
- Why we believe it has to be all or nothing
- Perfectionism and how it gets in the way
- How to become a plugged in parent
- Two takeaways for parents trying to rebuild a relationship with their teenager
RESOURCES FOR YOU
- Terri’s book: Field Guide to Plugged-In Parenting
- Terri’s website
- Brené Brown interview
- Heidi Grant Halvorson interview
- Sign up here to receive Friday Podcast updates, Sunday Love letters, and Wisdom Wednesdays.