{"id":271678,"date":"2025-06-04T01:07:40","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T01:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/3-ways-to-lift-your-parenting-spirits-with-loryn-brantz\/"},"modified":"2025-06-04T01:07:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T01:07:40","slug":"3-ways-to-lift-your-parenting-spirits-with-loryn-brantz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=271678","title":{"rendered":"3 Ways to Lift Your Parenting Spirits (with Loryn Brantz)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"post-image\">\n     <a href=\"https:\/\/www.janetlansbury.com\/2025\/05\/3-ways-to-lift-your-parenting-spirits-with-loryn-brantz\/\" title=\"3 Ways to Lift Your Parenting Spirits (with Loryn Brantz)\"><br \/>\n        <img width=\"500\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/d3tkwokssgv28o.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/18173339\/UNRUFFLED-Podcast-Covers-6-500x500.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-top-slider size-top-slider wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d3tkwokssgv28o.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/18173339\/UNRUFFLED-Podcast-Covers-6-500x500.jpeg 500w, https:\/\/d3tkwokssgv28o.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/18173339\/UNRUFFLED-Podcast-Covers-6-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/d3tkwokssgv28o.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/18173339\/UNRUFFLED-Podcast-Covers-6-1024x1024.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/d3tkwokssgv28o.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/18173339\/UNRUFFLED-Podcast-Covers-6-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/d3tkwokssgv28o.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/18173339\/UNRUFFLED-Podcast-Covers-6-768x768.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/d3tkwokssgv28o.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/18173339\/UNRUFFLED-Podcast-Covers-6-234x234.jpeg 234w, https:\/\/d3tkwokssgv28o.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/18173339\/UNRUFFLED-Podcast-Covers-6-200x200.jpeg 200w, https:\/\/d3tkwokssgv28o.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/18173339\/UNRUFFLED-Podcast-Covers-6-120x120.jpeg 120w, https:\/\/d3tkwokssgv28o.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/18173339\/UNRUFFLED-Podcast-Covers-6.jpeg 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\"\/> <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>Loryn Brantz is an Emmy-winning author, illustrator, and mom of two, who once built puppets for Sesame Street. Loryn joined Janet on a previous episode of \u201cUnruffled\u201d to talk about parenting a child with disabilities, sharing the joys and challenges of her journey with honesty and her signature warmth and wit. Her new book \u201cPoems of Parenting\u201d is a funny, touching, and totally relatable collection about her ups and downs raising kids, the awkward and sometimes difficult moments she\u2019s come to cherish, and ultimately how she\u2019s come to embrace her role as a parent.<\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px; background: transparent;\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/id1030050704?i=1000705333111&amp;itsct=podcast_box_player&amp;itscg=30200&amp;ls=1&amp;theme=light\" height=\"175px\" frameborder=\"0\" sandbox=\"allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>Transcript of \u201c3 Ways to Lift Your Parenting Spirits (with Loryn Brantz)\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hi, this is Janet Lansbury. Welcome to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unruffled<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My guest today is a person who could be hugely intimidating if she weren\u2019t so kind and down to earth: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lorynbrantz.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. She\u2019s an uber-talented young mom of two children who\u2019s also an author and illustrator. She was a builder and designer at Jim Henson\u2019s workshop, creating props and puppets for PBS and Sesame Street. And for the latter, she won two Emmy awards for outstanding achievement in costume design and styling. She\u2019s also created successful webcomics and a series of delightful board books for children that I\u2019ve been collecting for my future grandchildren.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn joined me on the podcast a couple of years ago for the episode <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.janetlansbury.com\/2021\/12\/it-had-to-be-you-the-struggles-and-joys-of-raising-a-child-with-disabilities-with-loryn-brantz\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt Had to Be You \u2014 The Struggles and Joys of Raising a Child with Disabilities,\u201d<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> where we discussed the unique challenges she was facing parenting her first child. And Loryn\u2019s latest work is <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.harpercollins.com\/products\/poems-of-parenting-loryn-brantz?variant=42922801659938\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Poems of Parenting<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which is a book of short, insightful, amusing, incredibly relatable poems. It\u2019s at the top of my gift recommendations for Mother\u2019s Day or Father\u2019s Day or any day. We\u2019re going to talk all about why the perspectives in this book resonate and how they can help us to rise out of the everyday doldrums and frustrations, let\u2019s be honest, of raising kids.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So here she is. Hi there, Loryn.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Hi.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: I had so much fun with you the last time. First of all, we\u2019re going to talk about your book. I\u2019ve always been a fan of you, but this book is really, really special. I also wanted to find out what it\u2019s like now with two children. Two children with different challenges, or maybe one has less challenges than the other. How do you manage that? How are you managing that?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: How am I managing it? I\u2019m pretty tired, but I\u2019m good. It has been different having a second child with very different needs. Sorry, I can hear them right now. I thought I\u2019d have a quiet place to do this.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: Well, you should bring them on if they want to be in this.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: They want to be on it, probably!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: I love that. That\u2019s my favorite thing, to have children in the podcast.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Actually I had planned this, the timing. We live in a pretty small apartment, so no one really gets to do anything alone. And I planned this because I thought my son wakes up and I usually need to hold him for a while, so he knows I\u2019m there and this or that. Then I can kind of pass him off to my mom or husband. But he hasn\u2019t woken up from his nap yet, so he\u2019s going to wake up and I\u2019m not going to be available. So we have this whole plan with pretzels and we\u2019ll see how it goes and see if he\u2019s okay with me not being there when he gets up for a little bit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: The pretzel plan. Well, if it doesn\u2019t work, feel free to bring him in. I\u2019m serious. I can talk to him. And how old is he now?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: He\u2019s two-and-a-half and he is very chatty.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: Already? Wow.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: He\u2019s very sweet. And I think some kids feel like you have the amount of more kids and other kids are easier. And my daughter is like maybe having five kids at once and my son is like having half a kid because he\u2019s just so easy. So it\u2019s like having five and a half kids.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: Five and a half. That\u2019s a good number!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Yes, I don\u2019t want any more. I\u2019m all done.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: Okay. Well, somebody said to me once, these parents that were my age, but they had I think already five kids or something and I didn\u2019t have any kids yet, or maybe I had one. And I remember I said, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How do you do it with all those kids?<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> And the dad said, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well, one child takes up every minute of your time and energy. Two children take up every minute of your time and energy.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> You get the point. It\u2019s like, well, it\u2019s still going to take up every bit of your time and energy whether you have one or five. So I thought that was an interesting perspective.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: True, true.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: So your book, let\u2019s talk a little about how it came about. I just have to say, it\u2019s so impressive. I don\u2019t know how you managed to do all of those things, these wonderful illustrations, your poetry. Did you say you did it during downtimes or when you were exhausted or in the middle of the night? What was the story again?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: It was kind of like an explosion out of me, this book. It was cool because I can remember exactly when I thought of it. My whole family, we were all sick, we all had terrible colds, flus, whatever. Nobody was sleeping. And I was working a lot too, so totally delirious, stretched way too thin. And I had finally gotten my son to sleep, or so I thought, and I went to my room and got into bed and I was like, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ah, finally<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. I had taken some NyQuil, I was ready to rest, and I started scrolling, looking at photos of him. As one does, because he\u2019s so cute, and Dalia. Then I heard him cry out for me and my first instinct was like, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oh my gosh, shut up. Shut your baby face. I can\u2019t do this right now.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> And that\u2019s when I thought of the first poem, \u201cPhotos of You.\u201d And I didn\u2019t go and get him, I actually wrote the poem. And he resettled himself, which was nice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And that night I thought of like 50 poems, I just couldn\u2019t stop writing them. From there, honestly, I couldn\u2019t focus. I was thinking of so many poems all the time and I couldn\u2019t focus in meetings. And I decided it was time to really take a step back from everything else and try to follow my dream of being a full-time writer and focus on this book and parenting, and that\u2019s what I did.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: Wow. Well, you do an amazing job of it. I wonder if maybe I should take NyQuil while I\u2019m writing. Maybe that will free me from the judges in my head that are getting in the way. I was thinking that when I heard a little of your story, I was thinking, gosh, maybe there\u2019s a freedom in being totally at your wit\u2019s end, so exhausted. There is kind of this emancipation from the bosses in our head or whatever the voice is, telling us that we have to do this and we have to do that, and it\u2019s got to be right and it\u2019s got to be good. You really took advantage of that energy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: I agree. I feel like when you\u2019re just so exhausted, it\u2019s like meditation: anything that gets you away from the voice in your head and more in your seat of consciousness, if you will.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: Yes. One thing I wanted to bring up because I thought it would be a really good, helpful message for everybody is that there are these different themes in your poems that I found. I always like to look at things and kind of make connections between one thing and another. And I noticed that there\u2019s these wonderful, uplifting messages that you offer. And there\u2019s three categories that I like, that I feel even if somebody didn\u2019t read your book, they could benefit from these uplifting ways of being and thinking.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first one is we talk so much about self-compassion and that\u2019s such an important thing that we try to give that to ourselves. And I know I struggle with that. But it is sort of conceptual, self-compassion. And the way I\u2019m translating it, based on your poems inspiring this thought in me, is as <\/span><b>giving ourselves permission<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Giving ourselves permission is something that\u2019s more in the here and now, that we can consider doing. For example, in your book, it\u2019s giving yourself permission to break the routine and celebrate. I\u2019m going to read one of the poems that reminds me of that. It\u2019s called \u201cTiny Bestie\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s cancel our plans<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And put small toys in a line<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s cancel our plans<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And stretch out some slime<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s cancel our plans<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And go to our local bakery<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Iced coffee for me<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cake pop for you<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Me and my fave<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tiny bestie<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I just love that thought of seizing the moment to celebrate and just give ourselves permission to let go of all these \u201cshoulds\u201d that we have going for us.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: That poem\u2019s definitely inspired by my daughter. I mean, she specifically slowed me down in a lot of ways, even just physically because it took her a long time to walk and she had the walker and everything. And I think any toddler will slow you down. When we go down the street, we just really take it all in and all these little moments become so special. And we live near a Starbucks, she\u2019ll get the cake pop, I get the iced coffee. It\u2019s such a special mommy-daughter date and we can do it anytime.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: Yes, so you both benefit from the celebration of it. Just like, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019re going to just do this because we want to and why not?<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> And you also have one about letting yourself be flabby and just a floppy, flabby mom.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Do you want me to read it?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: Yes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Okay:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mom Joy<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Almost forty<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finally realize<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">what my body is for<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s not for you<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">it\u2019s not for them<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My children come close, but not even then<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s really for me<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To carry my brain<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Which holds more than expected<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stroll around Target<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Solve big problems<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do nothing<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Soft fleshy mush<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Watch out everyone<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here comes my tush<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: You just capture so many feelings and little moments that I resonate with completely as the mom of, well, my kids are older now, but it just brings me back to all the bittersweet aspects of it. And I just love, again, this permission that you encourage giving ourselves with the little celebration at the end of the day, of the champagne, all of those things. It\u2019s so important to wake up every morning and say, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What can I give myself permission to do today?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: True. What\u2019s my little treat today? That one poem about putting one of the berries you buy for your kids in your drink at the end of the day. My son saw that I do that, and now he\u2019s just constantly trying to put fruit in anything I drink. Anytime he has a fruit and I have a glass of water or anything, he\u2019s plopping it in. He\u2019s like, oh, put a strawberry in your water.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: That\u2019s nice. And that\u2019s another thing, that when we do these things like give ourselves permission and have these special rituals that are ours that we like and maybe nobody else wants it that way, but we do. And then our child gets to enjoy that and give permission to themselves as well, feel like that\u2019s a part of being an adult. A lot of times they get this opinion of adults as it\u2019s this boring thing where you\u2019re always doing stuff for other people. Just another reason to let ourselves enjoy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The second theme\u2014I have three\u2014the second theme I wanted to bring up is this idea of <\/span><b>time traveling into the future<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Now, a lot of times we might tend to do that in this worry fashion, like, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oh my gosh, my child is going to be like this because they\u2019re doing this right now<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They\u2019re never going to share anything with anyone<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They\u2019re going to be hitting people<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or all of those scary things. So I definitely don\u2019t recommend doing it when it\u2019s coming from a fear place. But this idea that <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this too shall pass<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which of course can help us get through a lot of things. Because it really does pass, even though it feels like it\u2019s never going to pass and we\u2019re never going to be free. Well, we\u2019re never going to be free! I have adult children. We\u2019re never going to be free completely, but we\u2019re going to be a lot freer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But this way that you have in your writing of zooming ahead and looking back at the silliness of this moment, I feel like it\u2019s really helpful for us to do. Like the poem that you have, for example, about breastfeeding. You say:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes when I breastfeed<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I look down<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and think<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wow<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This will be a full-grown adult someday<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s really<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Really<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">really weird<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s called \u201cReally Really Really Weird.\u201d And you drew a picture of an adult sitting on your lap. Not breastfeeding, but sitting on your lap.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: That is one of my favorite ones. And I wanted that drawing to be the cover. The publisher was like, no, that\u2019s really too weird. Yes, it\u2019s funny though.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: That ability to do that, that you could kind of leave your body and look back on your life. That can be very healing and just really important, getting that perspective. There\u2019s another one where there\u2019s all the baby clothes and you\u2019re saying, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m with all these baby clothes. I\u2019m stacking all these little tiny clothes. What is that going to be like, looking back on that?<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I think it\u2019s really important.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Yes. I\u2019m really, really into mindfulness and meditation and being as present as I can. And I think the more present you are, the more you know how fleeting everything is. And I think that brings a lot to these poems, being mindful of what\u2019s going on while I\u2019m parenting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: Yes, you\u2019re mindful and then in these instances you\u2019re also looking at yourself from the future, though. It\u2019s interesting. Looking at your future, but not in a scary way, in an interested wonder kind of way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: This might all get edited out, but it\u2019s definitely opening a can of worms, talking about time travel with me. Because I\u2019m very interested in it. I meditate a lot and something I realized when I was doing that was a feeling, just an intuition I had was that I know time isn\u2019t linear, but I think when you meditate a lot, you feel that more. And I ended up getting really into reading about Einstein and physics and block universe theory and how everything that exists already exists. As a human, we experience, like, nothing. We only experience 0.0002% of what\u2019s happening. Time is like a building and we\u2019re like elevators experiencing it as we go, but really it\u2019s all already there. Which is the way a lot of theories are, and that\u2019s the feeling I get. And that\u2019s just something I feel really in tune to, the presence of all time. Which probably sounds a little bananas, but I just love it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: Not to me, I\u2019m totally with you. And I\u2019ve had very compelling things happen, that I won\u2019t get into here, where I know that I \u201cpredicted the future\u201d in that room that I was in that happened seven, eight years later. I mean something pretty traumatic. But in a way there was comfort in that idea of, oh gosh, time is not linear. I feel like that\u2019s the opposite of linear, what you\u2019re saying and what I believe, that it\u2019s all there all the time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: My baby book, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.harpercollins.com\/products\/it-had-to-be-you-loryn-brantz?variant=39285508505634\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It Had to Be You<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, I feel like that feeling of it had to be your child and when things feel like it\u2019s meant to be, it\u2019s because it kind of already exists and you\u2019re just experiencing it in a linear way. That\u2019s kind of, I think, where that feeling comes from.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: The reason I picked up on it and said this is because it does come through in what you\u2019re writing, that you see that way, and I feel it is comforting. For me, because I\u2019m a bit older than you, I sometimes think, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oh gosh, I look really old in the mirror.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> And then I think this actually isn\u2019t comforting! But then I think, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m going to look back and think how great I looked.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: It\u2019s true, that is true. Every year I\u2019ve tried to tell myself that and I\u2019m like, gosh. Like most women, I had eating disorders in my early twenties, teenage years, and luckily I am almost 40 and I finally get it. I\u2019m enjoying aging, I think it\u2019s great. I feel very lucky.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: That\u2019s great. Yes, I enjoy many aspects of it, the self-acceptance, feeling my place in the world, feeling comfortable with who I am in ways that I never did. But there are just some other physical, boring things, like having sleep be hard and all those kinds of things that I miss. But yes, it is what it is. And I just love this idea that we can zoom all around with our children.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And this is the third thing I was going to mention: <\/span><b>seeing the humor<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in all the ridiculousness and the irony of this time when our children are little. That you really, really capture in this book.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Thank you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: The first one that you wrote for this, \u201cPhotos of You\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Late at night<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I look at photos of my kids<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are so cute<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So precious<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So pure<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I hear a cry in the dark<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And I think<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Omg shut up I\u2019m trying to look<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At photos of you<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It reminds me of when I finally had someone to help me with my first baby and I could get out of the house and do something. I would find myself in some baby shop looking at baby clothes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Oh my gosh, I know. Every time since I\u2019ve had kids, if I have a minute to shop for myself, which is never, I\u2019m like, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ooh wait, look at the kids section. Look at that little sparkly skirt.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It\u2019s so hard.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: You just can\u2019t get them out of your head, and so even your relaxing time when you\u2019re away, you\u2019re not away. You\u2019re enjoying them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: I\u2019m glad you said that because that\u2019s definitely something I\u2019m hoping this book brings to people is seeing as much humor as they can in the chaos that is having small kids. I mean, sometimes things get so chaotic. We\u2019re just trying to leave the house and one kid\u2019s tantruming, the other kid\u2019s doing who knows what, and me and my husband, we just look at each other and start laughing. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is even happening?<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> We\u2019re both really gentle, calm people and our kids will be going off the wall, both of them screaming about something. And you can\u2019t help but laugh, because what is even happening right now?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: There\u2019s so many moments like that where you\u2019re just like, is this really happening? Again, it\u2019s getting that perspective, which you\u2019re so good at. Stepping back and going, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our house has become this other thing. This is it.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is it.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> That\u2019s something I say to myself whenever everything\u2019s however it is, I just say to myself, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is it, baby. This is it. This is your life. Good, bad, however. This is it.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: You have a poem about Mother\u2019s Day that to me has so many layers in it. And I totally related to it and just again, it\u2019s an example of the honesty in this book:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I never knew<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">when I served breakfast in bed<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">what was really going on<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in my mother\u2019s head<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now I know better<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now that I\u2019m Mom<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The crumbly toast<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and spilling juice<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is actually kind of stressful<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But she was still happy<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">even if it wasn\u2019t<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">really<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0so<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0restful<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: I have such fond memories of bringing my mom breakfast in bed on Mother\u2019s Day. We did it every year. She had this little table thing and we\u2019d all climb on the bed and she\u2019d try to eat. And I really had no idea what it was like until I was Mom. I mean, this poem is exactly that, but my kids bring me breakfast in bed now and it is not relaxing at all. It\u2019s really adorable, but oh my gosh, they get in the bed, they\u2019re eating it, with the juices spilling, the bed bounces, there\u2019s crumbs everywhere. And I\u2019m like, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thank you so much. I love this relaxing treat of not making breakfast.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is really sweet, but different than I imagined it from my mom\u2019s perspective as a kid.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: And can\u2019t we all just eat down in the kitchen?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Maybe a restaurant!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: But the effort is so sweet and like you said, you just want to kind of be performative and make it all work for them. Wait, who is this for? Here\u2019s a really honest message to give our friends and family about parenting. It\u2019s called \u201cWeekends\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do not tell me<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You hope<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">my weekend<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is restful<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do not tell me<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You hope<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I recharge<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tell me<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">you hope<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0I survive<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Yes, weekends are brutal. You leave work on Friday and everyone\u2019s like, \u201cHave a restful weekend!\u201d And you\u2019re like, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Um, I\u2019m going to be getting up at 5:00 AM both days and it\u2019s going to be nonstop.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I feel like Sunday late afternoon is the hardest. We put on movies now, but when my kids were littler, when Dalia was little and we didn\u2019t have movie time and we were just pushing through, it is hard.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: It definitely needs to be rebranded when we have children, weekends and holidays and traveling together.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: And then Monday morning they go to school and you\u2019re like, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ahhh<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It is the most relaxing part of your week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: For sure, and there\u2019s no shame in that at all, obviously. I feel it\u2019s obvious, but maybe it isn\u2019t to some people, that they feel that way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: I should probably feel more shame. They are a lot. I love them so much, but they are.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: It\u2019s clear that you love them so much in this. And this is actually what I wanted to say, that the main reason I love this book, that I think it\u2019s so unique and special, is that somehow you manage to do this really incredible thing. And I can\u2019t honestly recall anyone else being able to manage this. And that is sharing so honestly about how difficult children can be, bluntly and with humor, but without in any way demeaning them, without laughing at them, at their expense. This is so rare. Maybe you know what\u2019s out there. You capture how impossible kids can be, but there\u2019s always this love for them underneath. So I\u2019m applauding here, quietly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Thank you. I really do, I respect my kids a lot, so it just wouldn\u2019t come out that way. They\u2019re little people, and I love them. I\u2019m so proud of them and everything they do, with Dalia, and I\u2019m glad that comes through in the book.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: It totally does, and again, it\u2019s a really hard line. It seems to be hard because other people that are being funny about children and parenting tend to go over that line into something that doesn\u2019t seem respectful to me. Then I\u2019m accused of not having a sense of humor. But that\u2019s why I love your book, because you really capture the actual humor with the love that\u2019s there and never disrespecting them. Because they are a vulnerable population, they can\u2019t talk back to all these things that we say. And besides that, I feel like it\u2019s not helpful to us as parents when we get into that thing of othering our children or perceiving them as drunken adults or whatever those comparisons can be that are for humor. It doesn\u2019t help us. It makes it harder for us to join and connect with them in the ways they need us to when they are having those screaming fits or they\u2019re doing other things that we don\u2019t want them to do or just exhausting us. So we\u2019re not doing ourselves any favors either.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Yes, it\u2019s true. I always remind myself that me and my husband, we\u2019re on the same team. We\u2019re on the same team when everything\u2019s crazy. And you and your child are on the same team too. They don\u2019t want to be having a tantrum, they\u2019re so innately good. And whenever there\u2019s crazy dysregulated behavior, this or that\u2014especially with my daughter\u2019s disability, she has a lot of emotional dysregulation and impulse control issues. I know she doesn\u2019t want to do that and be like that, and we have to work together to get her out of that and to have her grow out of that. And she\u2019s getting there, she\u2019s growing and learning, and it\u2019s not like she is trying to hurt me or the family.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: Of course not.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: She\u2019s just dysregulated, and a toddler or a kid.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: Yes. And maybe that\u2019s a little easier for you to recognize when you know that she has disabilities. Maybe that makes it easier, I don\u2019t know.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Yes, I think that that does make a difference. She is also very clever and all of these things, so sometimes I forget that she has disabilities and I have to remind myself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: There\u2019s a range with all children and while it may be harder to see with a typically developing child, but there\u2019s always a reason. And the reason is never that they want to be doing that and they\u2019re trying to get at us or hurt us in any way or offend us. I mean, that\u2019s the last thing that any child would do.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: My son, he\u2019s two-and-a-half and he has these tantrums, but he just wants to be able to do stuff himself and can\u2019t yet, or he wants some sort of control over his life, which he doesn\u2019t have much of right now. And I see where he\u2019s coming from and I just sort of be there for him through it. I don\u2019t know, just get through it. He\u2019s so little, it\u2019s kind of adorable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: How does he handle the tendency to get dysregulated that his sister has? Does that come up?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: He is a very happy kid. And one of the first things he started saying a lot was, \u201cSister\u2019s angry, sister\u2019s angry.\u201d And we\u2019re like, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">yes<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. And it is hard because we want him to grow up in a calm household, so we usually try to move him away from the situation, but it is really hard. He doesn\u2019t seem to react to it that much right now other than pointing out that she\u2019s angry. And he\u2019s so little, he\u2019ll just kind of laugh. He doesn\u2019t seem to be really understanding it or have a big reaction. One time she took my phone and threw it and he was like, \u201cMommy\u2019s phone!\u201d and was so upset and I was like, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">it\u2019s okay<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. I don\u2019t know, it\u2019s something we\u2019re learning as we go. And they have a lot of sweet moments too, but yes, it\u2019s hard. We try to protect him from it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: And I think also the empathy that you have for your daughter around it, that\u2019s what he\u2019s picking up on, that <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">you\u2019re<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> not too dysregulated. That\u2019s what he\u2019s basing his sense of safety on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Yes, he seems to feel very safe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: Yes, I\u2019m sure he does.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Both kids do.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: Yes, you\u2019re doing a wonderful job. I have a couple more that I just wanted to read. This one that I really relate to, and it comes into all three of those categories that I was talking about: giving ourselves permission, the time traveling, and seeing humor in the ridiculous and the irony of things. It\u2019s called \u201cMom Fashion\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Crocs and socks<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Baggy jumper<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hair in knots<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No regrets<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">you still look hot<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mom fashion<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Is just fine<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take that picture<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">aged like wine<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If you don\u2019t<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You will regret<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not having photos<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">from<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0this<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0time<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: I really need to take more pictures because I look back and there\u2019s barely any, I\u2019m always the one taking the picture of course. And then the pictures of me, I\u2019m like, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wow, I look like a dishrag<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. But I will look back on it fondly and you\u2019ve got to take those pictures. Kind of like what we were talking about, recognizing that every age you are, you\u2019re going to look back and be like, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wow, I looked really good then. Why didn\u2019t I appreciate it?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: That\u2019s right. Okay, and for one more, I want to read this. I feel this so much. I mean, it could make me cry right now thinking about it. This feeling of how excited we are for our kids to just spread their wings and how exciting that is. And this is another thing about trying to be mindful and enjoy what\u2019s right now, because we get so excited about them doing the next thing. And of course we want to be a part of that. And then there\u2019s this thing called preschool, where we really want to be a fly on the wall, or I did. But anyway, this is what you said:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your Days<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The little photos I get<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During the day<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">featuring you<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Excited for<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bits of string<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ripped paper and things<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Circle time sitting<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Singing and snacks<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dancing<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Backpacks<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are the best thing<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ever<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ever<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">seen<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Yes, those pictures are everything. Oops, we\u2019ve got a child here. Do you want to come say hi? Come say hi and then go back.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: I\u2019m Janet. I\u2019m having a nice talk with your mom about all the sweet work she does and those pictures she draws. What do you think of those? They\u2019re pretty good, right?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dalia: Yes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Dalia actually loves to draw too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: Lovely to meet you, Dalia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: I\u2019ll come out soon, okay?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: Yes, we\u2019re going to sign off. Thank you for letting us talk.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Oh, here comes the other one. Okay, I\u2019ll be out soon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: Well, I\u2019m going to let you go. I just want to say that I picture many more volumes of this book.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Thank you. I am working on the second one. I\u2019m just going to grab Ronan. He can sit with me, it\u2019s okay.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: I love it. The more, the merrier.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: I just wanted to say about that one poem that you just read. It was inspired by a photo from Dalia\u2019s class where they had put netting on the wall and all the kids had little bits of string and they were putting it through the holes. And they looked so excited and it was just the cutest thing I\u2019ve ever seen. It\u2019s just little bits of string and fabric, but the world is new, everything feels so magical for them. I just love pictures from school, seeing them be independent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: And just wondering what it feels like to be them right there and all the things that are going on. Because they\u2019re not going to come home and report, unfortunately! <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well, we did this and we did that.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They\u2019re okay, and then they come home and just blast us.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Yes, let it all out. My daughter is queen of\u2014what\u2019s it called?\u2014constraint collapse. She\u2019s really, really great at school and really keeps it together and it\u2019s hard on her, and then she comes home and just lets loose.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: It makes sense. And I think the more we can kind of welcome that and put it in perspective for ourselves, the easier it\u2019s all going to be. Just letting her go for it, but it\u2019s tough.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well, thank you so much for everything, Loryn.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Thank you for having me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: And everybody should buy your book, especially for maybe a Mother\u2019s Day gift or a Father\u2019s Day gift, because it really captures all these moments that even as a parent of adults you can resonate with and make you feel that we\u2019re not alone. These feelings are something that we all share as parents.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: That is something I\u2019m hoping people get from this book too. You\u2019re not alone. It is so hard. It\u2019s magical, but so hard.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: And it\u2019s okay to feel whatever you feel about it. I love that. Thank you so much, Loryn.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Thank you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: We\u2019ll talk again soon, I hope. But in the meantime, I hope you\u2019re enjoying all the success and giving yourself lots of permission.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Thank you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Janet Lansbury: Bye.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loryn Brantz: Bye.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-meta-data\">\n<p>Originally published by Janet Lansbury on May 18, 2025<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Loryn Brantz is an Emmy-winning author, illustrator, and mom of two, who once built puppets for Sesame Street. Loryn joined Janet on a previous episode of \u201cUnruffled\u201d to talk about parenting a child with disabilities, sharing the joys and challenges of her journey with honesty and her signature warmth and wit. Her new book \u201cPoems [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":271679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11932,97416],"tags":[97418,17658,97417,4677,16238,8023],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-271678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parenting","category-podcasts","tag-brantz","tag-lift","tag-loryn","tag-parenting","tag-spirits","tag-ways"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>3 Ways to Lift Your Parenting Spirits (with Loryn Brantz) - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=271678\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3 Ways to Lift Your Parenting Spirits (with Loryn Brantz) - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Loryn Brantz is an Emmy-winning author, illustrator, and mom of two, who once built puppets for Sesame Street. Loryn joined Janet on a previous episode of \u201cUnruffled\u201d to talk about parenting a child with disabilities, sharing the joys and challenges of her journey with honesty and her signature warmth and wit. Her new book \u201cPoems [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=271678\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-04T01:07:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/UNRUFFLED-Podcast-Covers-6.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"30 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=271678#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=271678\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"3 Ways to Lift Your Parenting Spirits (with Loryn Brantz)\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-04T01:07:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=271678\"},\"wordCount\":6013,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=271678#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/UNRUFFLED-Podcast-Covers-6.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"Brantz\",\"Lift\",\"Loryn\",\"Parenting\",\"spirits\",\"Ways\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Parenting\",\"podcasts\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=271678#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=271678\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=271678\",\"name\":\"3 Ways to Lift Your Parenting Spirits (with Loryn Brantz) - 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