Lael Stone

And we're often not because we're thinking about the future.

We're thinking about what this should be.

We're sitting thinking about the past and what we've done wrong.

What children do is they bring us into the present moment if we can allow ourselves to be there, which is not always easy when you're a parent because you're juggling all the other things.

I mean, I love so much about what you're both saying and I'm very aware that it could sound like to people that, you know, it was just all love and joy in our family growing up.

It was not.

No, it wasn't.

Like there were hard times.

There were arguments.

There were big feelings.

There were times when dad and I were not, you know, being really the example of what we wanted to be.

And we also had boundaries for you guys.

Like I think parenting in this way where we're not using punishments and rewards and we're really about connection doesn't mean that we don't say no.

Like we said no plenty of times before.

We'd set boundaries with things.

But then I hope what we would do is we would say no to something, but we would be there to hear how that felt for you.

So, you know, it was like, no, you can't go to that party or no, you can't do that.

And we would, you know, we'd always make sure that you would repair if you've messed up.

There was accountability.

It's a big thing.