Have you ever eaten chocolate or chips when you feel stressed?

Rewarded yourself for a job well done with a little sticky celebration?

Hid from sadness with a whole box of ice cream to yourself?

The term "emotional eating" might be new to you, but I'm sure you can see how it works. This interview with Tricia Nelson, author of Heal Your Hunger, is powerful in that we unlock the hidden truth behind why many of us can't lose weight --

It's not about the food.

It's not about self-discipline.

It's about feelings.

In this chat, we focus on the adults, on how to get through our own emotional eating, and although we touch upon how this impacts our parenting, it's not about kids' health today.

Super quick note that this isn't a kid-friendly interview, nothing huge, but you might not want to have this one on with kids in the background.

Resources We Mention to End Emotional Eating

• Tricia’s book: Heal Your Hunger
• Is sugar addiction real?
• How we’ve broken our metabolism: tips for cutting out sugar
• Tips for summer snacking
• Master your stress: Intro to stress mastery, make stress your BFF, stress mastery for busy moms
• Avoiding emotional eating in kids
• Connect with Trish on her website
• Take the quiz to find out if you are an emotional eater or food addict
• Follow her on Facebook
• Join the Secret Sauce to Emotional Eating Facebook group (It’s free! Anyone can join!)
• Trish has generously offered you listeners a complimentary 30-minute session: Emotional Eating Breakthrough Session

Check out the cookbook FOR kids, BY kids at kidscookrealfood.com/chefjr.

Get four free life skills workshops now at raisinghealthyfamilies.com/skills

• Kitchen Stewardship
• Raising Healthy Families
• follow Katie on Instagram or Facebook
• Subscribe to the newsletter to get weekly updates
• YouTube shorts channel for HPH
• Find the Healthy Parenting Handbook at raisinghealthyfamilies.com/podcast

Affiliate links used here. Thanks for supporting the Healthy Parenting Handbook!

If you’ve ever looked at your child’s behavior and thought, “What is going on right now?”—you’re not alone.

In this episode, we go beyond surface-level parenting advice and get into something deeper: what your child’s behavior is actually trying to communicate.

Wendy Snyder introduces a powerful framework that helps you “translate” your child’s actions in real time. Instead of reacting with frustration, you’ll start to see patterns, unmet needs, and opportunities to teach life skills. It’s a shift that can completely change how you experience everyday parenting moments.

Along the way, you may find yourself rethinking what it really means to be a “strict” parent, and whether the strategies you’ve been using are actually helping in the long run.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The four hidden reasons behind most misbehavior
• How to tell if your child is seeking attention, power, revenge, or support
• Why punishment often makes behavior worse instead of better
• What to do when your child says hurtful or dramatic things
• How to stay calm when your child is upset with your rules
• The difference between firm boundaries and “strict” parenting
• How to stop power struggles before they escalate
• Why your mindset matters just as much as your parenting strategy

If you’ve been feeling stuck in cycles of frustration or wondering why nothing seems to “work,” this conversation will give you a new lens to look through ... and a few moments that might just change how you respond the next time your child pushes back.

Did you miss part 1 of this episode? Watch or listen here.

Resources We Mention for Understanding Your Child's Behavior

• Pre-order Wendy's new book at Amazon, Bookshop.org, or wherever you find your books, and then grab the preorder bonuses here.
• My mini-episode about boundaries especially for teens
• Scripts for calm connection with Bryanna Kappadakunnel
• Listen to Wendy's episode on parenting "cactus kids"
• More on power struggles, positive parenting, and forgoing traditional discipline in this episode with Amy McCready
• My episode on the Fresh St

Check out the cookbook FOR kids, BY kids at kidscookrealfood.com/chefjr.

Get four free life skills workshops now at raisinghealthyfamilies.com/skills

• Kitchen Stewardship
• Raising Healthy Families
• follow Katie on Instagram or Facebook
• Subscribe to the newsletter to get weekly updates
• YouTube shorts channel for HPH
• Find the Healthy Parenting Handbook at raisinghealthyfamilies.com/podcast

Affiliate links used here. Thanks for supporting the Healthy Parenting Handbook!

There’s a moment in this conversation I can’t quite shake.

A mom drops her child’s favorite stuffed animal into the trash while her four-year-old begs her not to. If that makes your stomach tighten, you’re not alone.

Because even if you’ve never had a “trash can moment,” you’ve probably had that moment. The one where you hear yourself and think, “Wait…is this how I want to parent?”

That’s exactly where this conversation with Wendy Snyder begins. Not from perfection, but from honesty, growth, and a deep desire to do better than what we were handed.

And the surprising part? She doesn’t just share what went wrong. She shows us what to do instead in a way that feels doable and hopeful.

If you’ve ever wondered why punishment doesn’t work, why strong-willed kids push every button, or why you keep reacting in ways you swore you wouldn’t, this episode will meet you right there.

Inside, we talk about:

• The story behind that “trash can moment” and why it changed everything
• What’s really happening during power struggles
• The discipline belief most of us inherited and why it backfires
• A simple 4-step process to set limits without yelling or shame
• Why connection changes everything
• How to support strong-willed kids without breaking their spirit
• What breaking generational cycles actually looks like
• The long game of parenting and what success really means

Underneath it all is a quiet shift. Maybe parenting isn’t about controlling our kids better, but understanding them and ourselves more deeply.

If that’s the kind of change you’ve been craving, you’re in the right place.

Resources We Mention for Respectful Discipline

• Pre-order Wendy’s new book at Amazon, Bookshop.org, or wherever you find your books, and then grab the preorder bonuses here.
• Listen to Michele Borba’s interview about helping our kids build empathy.
• Scripts for calm connection with Bryanna Kappadakunnel
• Listen to Wendy’s episode on parenting “cactus kids”
• My episode on the Fresh Start Family podcast about building connection through cooking

Check out the cookbook FOR kids, BY kids at kidscookrealfood.com/chefjr.

Get four free life skills workshops now at raisinghealthyfamilies.com/skills

• Kitchen Stewardship
• Raising Healthy Families
• follow Katie on Instagram or Facebook
• Subscribe to the newsletter to get weekly updates
• YouTube shorts channel for HPH
• Find the Healthy Parenting Handbook at raisinghealthyfamilies.com/podcast

Affiliate links used here. Thanks for supporting the Healthy Parenting Handbook!