TPP 083a: A Conversation with Melissa Wardy About Raising Anxious Kids
episode
Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
54 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 14 hours ago
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Who is Melissa Wardy and what inspired her to discuss raising anxious kids?
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Hey there, it's Debbie. Today's episode is a special re-release of a favorite conversation from the archives. Unless you're a longtime listener of the show, there's a good chance you haven't heard this one before. And even if you have, you just might get something completely different from it this time around.
I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden something in her just switched and turned off. And it was like this bright glimmer that had been in her eyes was gone forever. And her eyes took this flat, dead look to them. And that sounds like so melodramatic, but it's really true. Even when I look back through pictures, the shape of her eyes are different. It was just so much stress in this tiny body. You know, looking back, I just sometimes I just want to cry. I just think about what she had to be going through and pushing through each day to try to make some benchmark of normalcy while she was in school.
Welcome to Tilt Parenting, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed at inspiring, informing, and supporting parents raising differently wired kids. I'm your host, Debbie Reber, and today I'm sitting down with a fellow parent in the trenches and the author of the book, Redefining Girly, How Parents Can Fight the Stereotyping and Sexualizing of Girlhood from Birth to Tween, Melissa Wardy. In this conversation today, we're going to be talking about how Melissa has navigated the journey of learning how to support her own full of awesome kids, both of whom have anxiety disorders. This is an honest dialogue about the challenges kids with anxiety face, the stigma surrounding it and lack of understanding in schools and in society and much more.
And I wanted to share that Melissa has just published a powerful article about her journey on the website Grok Nation. So definitely check that out too. I will leave a link for that in the show notes page. So here's my conversation about raising anxious kids with Melissa Warty. Hello, Melissa, and welcome to the podcast. Hello, thank you for having me. Yes, this has been a long time coming. And I've known you for many years. And I'm just really excited to bring your voice and experience onto the show today. And just as a way to introduce you to our listeners, could you tell us a little bit about who you are? I'm always curious to know people's, you know, their family makeup, who your kids are, how old they are, and what's going on with them.
Sure.
So I, uh, am married to my husband, Jason, and we live in El Paso, Texas following a 10 year stint in Wisconsin. Um, and we have two children, Amelia, who is 11 and Benjamin, who is nine. Um, we homeschool down here, uh, which is an interesting experience being a, uh, liberal secular family homeschooling in Texas. Um, but we, uh, We're loving it. And so when I'm not busy doing the mom thing, I work as an author and speaker in the girl empowerment and confidence community.
Yes. And you, you have a book that came out a couple, when did your book Redefining Girlie come out? Yeah, I think it was 2014. It's
been a whirlwind ever since.
Wow. Yeah. Yes. I mean, just watching you, you know, we've been Facebook friends. We met in person probably 10 years ago and we've been more kind of online friends since that time. And you your world has seemed like a bit of a whirlwind since your book came out. Do you want to tell us about your transition? Because I know you weren't always homeschooling. And you also had a very busy business and full time gig going on.
Yeah, so in 2009, when my kids were three and one, I started a t shirt company that was originally just for girls. And then we branched out to include boys.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Who is Melissa Wardy and what inspired her to discuss raising anxious kids?
0:00–6:48
2
How did Melissa first realize her daughter was struggling with anxiety?
6:48–14:20
3
What factors led Melissa to pause her career and focus on homeschooling?
14:20–21:05
4
How did the family navigate school challenges and social stigma for an anxious child?
21:05–28:07
5
What role did therapy and medication play in Amelia’s progress?
28:07–35:20
6
How did community support (Girl Scouts, friends, mentors) help the family cope?
35:20–41:55
7
What strategies does Melissa use now to communicate with her anxious children?
41:55–47:58
8
What advice does Melissa give parents about finding a path for kids with anxiety?
47:58–54:56
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
TPP 266a: A Conversation with Poet and Advocate LeDerick Horne
TPP 522: A Whole Child Approach to ADHD with Phil Boucher, M.D.
TPP 091a: A Conversation With Steve Silberman About His Book “Neurotribes”
TPP 521: A Conversation with Dr. Peter Gray About Restoring Childhood
TPP 253a: Advocate and Author Jonathan Mooney on Why Normal Sucks
TPP 520: Dr. Özgür Bolat on Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids