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Sustainable Parenting | The kind AND firm solution that works when gentle parenting doesn’t. Calm, Confident & Connected
For cycle-breaking parents who still face battles at bedtime and beyond, Sustainable Parenting teaches tools that actually change behavior when gentle parenting doesn't work.
Research shows 1 in 3 parents who try gentle parenting still end the day begging kids to listen and blaming themselves when the scripts don’t stop the tantrums. So if your 6-year-old still ignores you, your toddler screams over a broken banana, and bedtime still ends in tears—it’s not you, it’s the gentle parenting advice that’s failing you.
Unlike other podcasts that only tell you to “stay calm” or “validate feelings” while your toddler is throwing dinosaurs at your head, here you’ll get strategies to set limits kids respect without crushing their spirit so they grow into kind, confident humans, and you finally feel like the calm, in-control parent you want to be.
I’m Flora McCormick—a counselor, parenting coach, and mom of two. After 20 years helping families worldwide, I’ve helped thousands of parents raise confident kids while practicing parenting without yelling or shame. Parenting will always have hard moments, but raising respectful, emotionally healthy kids doesn’t have to be a constant battle.
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Sustainable Parenting | The kind AND firm solution that works when gentle parenting doesn’t. Calm, Confident & Connected
131. How to End the Day Calmly Without Feeling Touched Out or Snappy
Do you ever end the day feeling touched out, snappy, or like you’ve run a marathon no one saw you train for?
This episode is your permission slip to stop trying to do it all.
Flora McCormick, LCPC — parenting coach and host of the Sustainable Parenting Podcast — shares simple Positive Parenting Strategies to help you end your day calmly, without guilt or exhaustion.
Instead of trying to be productive, present, and peaceful all at once (hello, burnout!), you’ll learn a gentle mindset shift that blends Kind and Firm Parenting and Positive Discipline principles — so you can stop power struggles, connect with your kids, and reclaim your peace.
By the end, you’ll know how to:
✨ Use Calm Parenting Tips to reset your evenings and your energy
✨ End the day with connection, not chaos — and Parent Without Yelling
✨ Focus on what matters most, so you can Raise Resilient, Confident Kids
✨ Finally feel like the calm, confident parent you’ve always wanted to be
Because when you stop beating yourself up for not doing everything for everyone, you unlock something better: joy, freedom, and that calm confidence that truly lasts. 🌿
✨Want more?
✨ Schedule a FREE 20 min clarity call with Sustainable Parenting, so we can answer any questions you may have. Together, we'll make a plan for your best next steps to have more calm & confidence in parenting - while having kids that listen!:)
✨ Download the FREE pdf. on getting kids to listen, for strategies that take you out of the "gentle mom - monster mom" cycle, with effective positive parenting strategies.
✨ Sign up for an upcoming LIVE ONLINE workshop with Flora, or purchase a past replay: https://sustainableparenting.com/workshop where you get 30 min. of learning and 30 min. of LIVE Q & A time, with replays sent afterwards.
✨ Buy a 3 session Coaching Bundle (saving you $100) - for THREE 30-min sessions 1:1 with ME, where we get right to the heart of your challenges, and give you small, powerful shifts that make a huge difference fast.
Tell me if this feels at all familiar. You get in this space at the end of the day where your kid is asking you to pick them up one more time, come see their Lego creation, or read one more story, and you are just over it. Like, kid, I love you so much, and absolutely not. I'm over it, I'm touched out, I am exhausted, I've been doing a thousand and four hundred and seventy-five things for you all day long. And then you feel so guilty. You're like, why am I ending the day so touched out, so overwhelmed, so burnt out. Friend, it's not because you're failing that you need to be more patient. Oh, that word. But I think what you're missing is something I want to invite you to today, which is to shift from that P-word of patience to a P-word that is so much more freeing, empowering, enlightening, and will help you be that calm, confident mom you really want to be. Friend, I'm Flora McCormick, licensed therapist, parenting coach, and early childhood mental health consultant with almost 20 years' experience helping families like yours. Hello, and welcome to the Sustainable Parenting Podcast. Let me tell you, friend, this place is different. We fill that gap between gentle parenting and harsh discipline that's really missing to parent with kindness and firmness at the same time. And give you the exact steps to be able to parent in ways that are more realistic and effective. And for that reason, finally feel sustainable. Welcome. I want to give you a P-word that is going to free you from this exhaustion of being so snappy and touched out by the end of the day. And it is something that involves three other P words, actually. So, side note: the first P-word is that we want to shift from thinking somehow we need to be more patient. God, that just like it's like nails on the chalkboard when I hear parents say they think they just need to be more patient. Because do you know, friend, what the definition of patience is? This shocked me. I went down this rabbit hole of having parents always asking me, How can I be more patient, Flora? I think that's what I need to do. Or they would describe to me how they've been losing their um temper on their kids, snapping at the end of the day. And the key thing they often believe they need is they'll say to me, I just need to be more patient. In this very like flogging, self-deprecating, like, what's wrong with me that I can't be more patient kind of way. And I just, it's like always been nails on the chalkboard because I just know that is not what's really missing. I know these are very capable, smart, amazing parents who are asking these questions and putting that pressure on themselves. So one day I was like, let me look up the word patience. Maybe I'm misunderstanding it. Looked it up. I'm not kidding you. The definition was something like patience is the ability to endure suffering. The ability to endure suffering. Is that really what I think my role is in parenting? If I didn't think parenting was also about being a teacher, a guide, an authority, a yes, a loving authority, then yeah, maybe I just need to put up with whatever's happening. But it's not. That's only half of the equation. Yeah, we have to put up with smelly diapers and earlier bedtimes than we'd like to have in the summer when we want to be at a barbecue. But I think we're putting up with a lot more than we need to. Need to is a form of should. So let me pause and shift that. I think we are asking ourselves to be patient when that is not actually the guide into more peace and joy. And here's what is I want you to think about being able to choose priorities instead of patience. And that that priority is just about what am I gonna choose in this moment to focus on related to being one of three things. I want to pick one. Priority is pick one. I want to pick either to be productive, present, or peaceful. Let me define these and unpack them a little bit here for you. But the fact of the matter is, we often are just like beating ourselves up thinking, yeah, that's good motherhood, right? I should be productive, I should be present, I should be peaceful. I'm trying to do all those things. I want to be present with my kid. I want to be peaceful in my body and enjoying how I'm living my life and my partnership and my motherhood. And I want to be hella productive. I want to get shit done, excuse me. I want to get stuff done. And I want to be seen as someone who has a clean house, kids that are dressed well, and you know, providing the best snack at the recent event or whatever. We're trying to do so much. And yet, that is unrealistic, friend. If you are expecting yourself to somehow deal with all that pressure without exploding via the pathway of just being patient, hell no. The pathway of feeling more peace, the pathway of getting to that calm, confident mom you want to be is to just choose one. To know that we can stop the guilt spiral, we can stop the sense of feeling behind and feel good about ourselves if we set the bar at this. It is my role in this moment to choose which one of these three things I'm really focusing on because I cannot do all three at once. I cannot be productive and present and peaceful. Nobody can. Productive might mean, okay, in this day, I'm realizing I really want to clean out all the summer shorts and flip-flops that are, you know, in the drawers, in the mud room. And I want to make sure we've got all the winter coats, ski pants, snow weather gear, you know, where we need it. That's gonna help our lives. And that may pull away from me in this moment being super present when during that clean out, my kids, like, will you play a game with me? Will you come over here? Um, if a friend asks if I can go on a walk or go to yoga class, I might be like, uh, I'm choosing right now. My moment here is to be productive. Similarly, you might choose presence. You might be having a kid that's been having a really hard time, and you're like, you know what? Now is not the day that I'm going to go through all the old Halloween costumes that we have. So it's narrowed down to just the one we're wearing this year and selling the others. I'm going to take some space today to know my kid is extra grumpy and I want to be present through the upset and navigating it in the way that I've been working on. Side note, if you've been looking for more guidance there because you've tried a lot of things and it's not getting better. Ooh, that's where I see parent coaching helping people get so much further faster. So you might be choosing presence. I'm going to be present today. It's not the cleanout day, it's not the self-care day. Or you might choose the third. You know what? I've been doing a lot being present, being productive in my motherhood. And today is a day I'm going to focus on being peaceful. Or I like to say a caveat, peaceful or playful. Today's a day I want to play with a friend and go on a mountain bike ride. Or today's a day I want to go on a long walk in the sunshine because the weather's good and just feed my soul. Or today's a day I'm going to embrace some sense of peacefulness by just being silly, putting on dance music and playing with my kids, or taking a moment to be peaceful with myself. Say, I cannot pick you up for the 17th time. I'm mommy just needs to take five minutes for a breather and walking away. That is gifting yourself a piece of being and feeling peaceful. So shift from lecturing yourself, flogging yourself, that you're losing it at the end of the day because that you're losing it at the end of the day because you're just not patient. And I invite you to consider what it would be like instead to say, my new goal is to be setting a priority either in this day or possibly even just in an hour, and it can shift each hour. Am I choosing to focus on being productive, present, or peaceful slash playful? I'm not gonna beat myself up for not doing the other two when I have chosen that one thing in that one moment. When we stop beating ourselves up for not doing everything for everyone in every moment, we unlock something so much better: joy, freedom, and ultimately, I believe that calm, confident energy that makes us feel like the mom or dad we really want to be. Friend, if this mo mess friend, if this message spoke to you, would you please share it with a friend? You can go to the top of the episode, top right corner, should be a share button. Share this with a mom friend who you know could use this message today. She just has not really noticed or received a clear invitation that she can just choose one thing at a time, and that that's gonna actually help her do so much more in the way that she really wants to do it. Choosing one thing at a time. Friend, calm confident friend, calm, confident parenting here in sustainable parenting isn't about perfection. It's about permission to be human, to breathe, to choose. And you're doing better than you think, friend. I want you to know that today. Pat yourself on the back, give yourself a squeeze hug, tell yourself you're pretty damn awesome. Because I think you are. And please join me next week as I have a special guest, Karen Winter, helping us to master how to get kids to sleep in their own beds, even if they beg you to stay.