Welcome to the home of The Balanced Parent Podcast!

Parenting is often lived in the extremes. It's either Great Joy or chaotic overwhelmed. In one moment you’re nailing it and the next you're losing your cool I want to help you find your way to the messy middle, to a place of balance. You see, balance is a verb not a state of being. it is a thing you do not a thing you are. it is an action a process a series of micro-corrections each and every day to keep ourselves feeling centered. We are never truly balanced. We are engaged in the process of balancing.

Hello, I’m Dr. Laura Froyen and this is the Balanced Parent podcast, where overwhelmed stressed out and disconnected parents go to find tools, mindset shifts and practices to help them stop yelling at the people they love and start connecting on a deeper level, all delivered with heaping doses of grace and compassion. Join me in conversations that will help you get clear on your goals and values and start showing up in your parenting, your relationships, YOUR LIFE, with open-hearted authenticity and balance. Let’s go!

In this week’s episode of The Balanced Parent Podcast, I’m so excited to dive into a topic that’s very close to my heart: how to build strong, lasting connections between our kids and the elders in their lives, whether that’s grandparents or other important older adults. To guide this conversation, I’m joined by Isabel Tom, a mom, author, and advocate for strengthening family ties across generations. She wrote a beautiful book called The Value of Wrinkles, which inspired this discussion.

Here are some of the topics we covered in this episode:

Importance of meaningful relationships between kids and elders
Importance and challenges of growing up in a multi-generational family and modeling elder relationships
Navigating unresolved parent-child issues while fostering healthy grandparent-grandchild relationships
Parenting differently while managing boundaries with grandparents
Understanding and compassionately navigating relationships with emotionally distant or “checked out” grandparents by recognizing their life stage, losses, and needs

Resources:

The Value of Wrinkles: A Young Perspective on How Loving the Old Will Change Your Life

If you found this episode meaningful, visit Isabel’s website at valueofwrinkles.com and follow her on Instagram @isabelctom and Facebook @thevalueofwrinkles.

Remember, helping kids connect with elders builds empathy, honors family stories, and deepens lifelong bonds.

Laura Froyen, PhD

Laura Froyen, PhD

Balanced Parent Podcast

Laura Froyen, PhD

Welcome to the home of The Balanced Parent Podcast!

Episode 231: How to Foster Strong Relationships Between Kids and Elders with Isabel Tom