Links: https://coparentingkids.com.au, https://change.coparentingkids.com.au/
Welcome to the first episode of the Co-Parenting Kids podcast where you’ll find support for how to co-parentin with someone who is high conflict, difficult or has narcissistic traits.
Transcription:
Welcome to the Co-parenting Kids Podcast, where you’ll hear all the tips and tricks to co-parent with someone who is difficult or has narcissistic traits. I’m your host, Kirsty Petersen, and I am a family mediator author and coach. Supporting parents to have more co-parenting harmony and less angst. Remember to subscribe so you don’t miss any of the episodes as they drop and head over to co-parentingkids.com.au for lots of free resources about co-parenting and mediation.
Well, welcome to the first episode of the Co-parenting Kids podcast. This is such a momentous moment for me because I have been talking about this show for five years and procrastinating launching it for about 18 months. I’m so pleased to have the support of a great producer who has stepped me through equipment planning and this launching the credit for my producers in the show notes.
So what is the Co-parenting Kids podcast about? Hopefully, the name is pretty self-explanatory, but just in case it’s all about the ups and downs, challenges, and surprises of co-parenting. Whether you’re a biological parent, a step-parent, guardian, or grandparent, you’re sure to find an answer to the question that’s been bothering you right here in the Co Parenting Kids podcast. We’ll go through things like, what is co-parenting? How do we do it when we don’t like each other? What if the other parent is abusive, controlling, or derogatory? We’ve also got a topic on why do I need to buy the other parent or birthday present if they’re no longer my partner? We’ll cover that in an interview with a real life co-parenting family. All these questions and more will be answered over the coming episodes. So please subscribe to make sure you don’t miss any of the Golden Nuggets of content dropping each fortnight.
Now, one fortnight will just be you and me having a chat and the next fortnight I’ll be introducing you to some of the families I work with in my coaching and some of the struggles they’ve faced on their co-parenting journey and what a journey it is. Personally, my marriage ended in 2009 in very unhappy circumstances for me anyway. And of course, I’m not going to give you all that dirty gossip right up. We need to get to know each other a little bit more before I delve into the history of my co-parenting struggle. But what do I do that gives me the authority to be able to have this podcast and talk to you from a place of expertise? Well, my primary job is mum to three amazing kids. My daughter is now 13. My second born is a 14-year old boy and my eldest is about to graduate high school. Being their mum is the greatest pleasure of my life, which is really easy to say now that they’re older because it wasn’t always like this, as I’m sure you all know. So you know that I have experienced co-parenting for a really long time, but I also have qualifications, so we’re not just going to talk about what’s worked for me in practice. We’ll also delve into the theory behind what works for a really great co-parenting relationship. I have a Bachelor of Business. I have a Masters in Law where I studied family law and dispute resolution. I’m also a nationally accredited mediator and a registered family dispute resolution practitioner. But what all these words really mean is just fancy titles to say that I mediate disputes and specialize in Australian family law matters. So when we’re talking about family law on this podcast, please remember that I’m an Aussie, and that means any legal information we talk about is Australian family law. Obviously, there’s different laws applied to different jurisdictions. So if you’re listening from the US, the UK or any other place do understand that the law is very likely to be quite different in your area. Just to be really clear, any law that we do talk about is just information. We’re not providing individual or specialized family law advice in any way. All the advice is focused on the co-parenting and how to deal with difficult behaviors and narcissistic traits. Legal advice needs to come from a specialist family lawyer in your jurisdiction. I also have some training qualifications because I work with students studying to become mediators. Plus, I’m part way through a Masters in Education so I can delve into the minds of high school students, but also so that I can get some theoretical knowledge about how to write programs and best deliver workshops and training for not just high school students, but also for adults. That’s it really, I suppose.
Why do I do what I do? Well, it’s really simple because family life is tough. But being a separated parent can be a struggle when we don’t get it right. It’s our gorgeous little kids who bear the brunt of our failings. And I definitely saw my eldest suffering because I didn’t know how to get co-parenting right. I didn’t know how to manage the trouble coming up in the co-parenting with my kids’ dad. I looked for support and what was available was either way too expensive for me to continue accessing. I was a single mum with three kids after all, but I also looked for free support, and that’s what this podcast is all about. It’s about giving you all the tools I couldn’t find or couldn’t afford to access in the darkest days of my co-parenting. So we’re going to travel on a bit of a journey. Really. You and I together while I listen to you and answer your questions and gift you the knowledge I have accumulated over the more than twelve years. If you’d like to send in some questions, please feel free to do that. Contact details are all in the show notes. I specialize in working with families who struggle to co-parent because one parent has difficult behavior and narcissistic traits that is born of theory and practice. I’ve studied and personally applied the things that we’re going to talk about and also applied those things and seen them applied by lots of other families who I’ve worked with and coached over the years.
So who is this podcast for? Well, anyone who finds themselves in a co-parenting relationship. It might be a mum, a dad, a stepparent, a grandparent, or even someone with a foster child who spends time with their biological family. Now, I’m not a woo woo person at all, but there’s one thing I know for sure. If you are struggling right now, today is a brand new day for you. You can do this. It is the beginning of something new for you. It won’t have to be Groundhog day any longer. If you’ve been struggling to communicate or reached a point where you just don’t think you can do things like this for one more day, there is light at the end of the tunnel. You absolutely can do this. You just need some new tools to manage and approach things in a different way. And that’s what we’re all about here on the Co-Parenting Kids podcast, and we’re just about to jump right into it. So join me in episode two, where I’ll give you the number one tip for co-parenting with someone who has difficult behaviors or narcissistic traits. See you then.
The Co-parenting Kids podcast is brought to you by Change, a program that takes your co-parenting from angst to harmony in just six weeks. If you’re co-parenting with someone who has difficult behaviors or narcissistic traits, this program will teach you practical strategies for disengaging from the drama and being able to live your own life. Find out more at change.coparentingkids.com.au.