When Life Derails Our Parenting
Sep 10, 2025
When Life Derails Our Parenting - A few months ago, I had a client who created a plan to approach mornings differently after battling chaotic school departures for years. Fifteen minutes before they needed to leave on the first morning, her husband decided to make the kids finish their chores from last night - NOT part of the new plan. In a matter of seconds, she went from confident to frazzled. The plan was abandoned, and it ended up being another crazy morning.
When Life Derails Our Parenting
What was this mom’s goal in coaching? Getting her husband to back off, of course!
“How can I do this with him coming in like a whirlwind in the middle of everything? I ended up frantically grabbing the kids’ stuff for school while they argued with him about their chores.”
Frantic
While it’s true that things probably would have gone better if Dad hadn’t messed with the program, the important thing in her story was the word “FRANTIC”. If she had been grounded, she could have calmly set a boundary and continued with her plan.
When life rattles us, most of us have the default logic:
I’m freaked out. I need to change what’s freaking me out.
This logic derailed my client’s morning. She focused on her husband instead of herself and her plan. She couldn’t get him to stop frazzling her. She forgot that she could “unfrazzle” herself and that she could proceed how she wanted to.
I teach my clients to change their default logic and cultivate a new approach:
I’m freaked out. I need to “unfreak” myself.
No one knows more than a parent how unpredictable and full of monkey wrenches life can be. Thinking that we have to control everything so our parenting doesn’t derail is completely unsustainable! Shifting our internal logic allows us to parent with integrity, no matter what life throws at us.
Ready to create this for yourself?
Set up a free Discovery Call with me, and I’ll show you exactly how to get the ball rolling. We’ll talk about what you’re up against, what gets in the way, what you want things to be like, and how to make it happen. I can’t wait to meet you.
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