Plot Twist Parenting
Confident in most areas of life—but raising teens feels like a whole different story? Plot Twist Parenting gives you encouragement and real-life strategies to navigate the unexpected with hope.
1 / Hi!
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Is anyone talking about what it's really like to parent teenagers? I think we should. In this first episode of Plot Twist Parenting, I share a bit of my own story, an overview of the five pillars that help me hold on through the ups and downs, and a few hard-won lessons. PTP weaves together personal experience, tools from corporate leadership, evidence-based insights from social science, and the wisdom of faith traditions to help us hold it all together on this journey.
I know I said I wouldn't cry when I told the story about my daughter's graduation season--let me just say, bear with me on this first episode's editing. You'll hear the voice of a devoted mom as she's launching her kids into this big wide world. I edited out the tears.
And if nobody's told you this lately: what you're doing matters so much.
2 / Connection
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What if we were to identify the single most important component of parenting teenagers? I think it would be connection.
Connection can help us decrease distance to increase influence and trust. We know that busyness at work or at home doesn't necessarily translate to impact. How can we build meaningful connection, moving beyond the busyness of everyday life to real connection? This episode offers some specific ways to create connection, identifies ties to how connection helps us succeed at work, and acknowledges that the whole thing can just be hard. But we can do it, and I believe in you.
Let's dive in.
3 / Connection: Date Day
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Connection is one of the five practices that can radically change parenting teenagers.
BUT HOW? How do you connect with a cranky teen, or after a hardship? Or just through routine times? My offer: Date Day.
Date Day is a weekly practice of 1:1 time with an individual teenager. For us it was usually before school, enjoying a delicious breakfast (waffles, lattes) that was usually out of the question on a school day.
This episode walks through the big picture of Date Day, and reinforces the key concept that decreasing distance increases influence. I share some tactics and strategies that can help get you started creating a tradition of connection of your own, including what to do when it's hard to connect at all.
4 / Truth: Knowing and Living Family Values
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What do you really value as a family—and are you living it out in daily life? Truth, the second core practice, is all about clarity and alignment: What do we value, and how do our choices reflect those values?
This episode explores where values come from (culture, faith, and intentional decision-making), and how to live them out with teenagers in real, practical ways. I share simple tools like value “experiments,” family check-ins, and repair scripts—plus a reminder that this is not about perfection. It’s about honesty, integrity, and creating a home where truth and grace can grow side-by-side.
Let’s dive in.
5 / Trust: Being Trustable
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34/ Trust: Trusting Teens
This episode is not published to any podcast network yet.
Connection builds trust, but it's easy for trust to erode., and trust is a two-way street. How do we build trust in our teens (and reduce our own anxiety)? What are some trust-builders (and busters) that impact the ways our teens do or don't trust us?
7 / Joy
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