Episode 173: Bravery Begins at Home: Parenting Tips to Teach Children Courage with Dinalynn Rosenbush

DJ Stutz  0:01  

Welcome everyone, and thank you for joining us at Imperfect Heroes, and I appreciate you taking the time to join and especially the time to learn more about the art of parenting. And so before we get started, though, I would love to tell you I'm so excited. Anyway, thank you for everyone for helping us get our podcast to this point where we're starting to get some recognition and some feedback that is very positive and exciting and good. All right, this month we are talking about bravery and what does that mean with our kids. Now, I know we've already talked about taking risks, which has an element of bravery to it, and then last month, we were talking about kindness, and we even mentioned elements of bravery that it takes sometimes to be kind, especially to be kind to someone who's maybe being picked on or standing up for somebody, and knowing how to do that properly. And so that takes an element of bravery. But we're going to really talk about bravery today. So Dinalynn, I've had you before. In fact, you were most recently on Episode 159 not so far long ago, and we were talking about that, taking risks, and we had such a great conversation that I wanted to have you come back and let's talk about bravery and how that's different, how that's the same, and how it pushes into all other parts of our lives and our kids' lives as well. So Dinalynn, thank you. And now, for those who may not have maybe listened to Episode 159 yet you can go back and do that. But Dinalynn, will you let people in on what you do and what you've got going on?

Dinalynn Rosenbush  1:50  

Absolutely thank you. First, I want to say thank you for letting me be here again. I love what you do, and I so am honored by your request to have me back. I just love it. So pretty good for you. Yeah, and I love talking about this topic. My podcast is The Language of Play, and one of the parts of play is this exploration and being courageous and taking some risks, because play is also the discovery, and to be able to go into that mindset of, I'm going to do something new, something I don't really understand, something I don't know the outcome of, but I'm going to do it anyway. Maybe it's painting, maybe it's a communication with somebody, maybe it's climbing rocks, whatever it is going on a stage. We are taking risks. We are being brave. We are being courageous, and all of those things are a way that we play. And so I do love talking about it, because I think our language, the way we discuss play and the way we discuss bravery, matters. It matters tremendously, yeah,

DJ Stutz  2:52  

Yeah. So it really does. And one of the things I love sharing with my kids, students, grandkids, you know whatever, is that you cannot be brave unless you're afraid. 

Dinalynn Rosenbush  3:06  

Exactly, yes, you are not being brave in the absence of fear. It's called being brave because fear is present. And when we step forward in the presence of fear, the character trait we're developing is courage, and the behavior is being brave. Yeah, and very often, when I'm coaching parents, we talk about what words it is that we can use to help our kiddos find their courage, to find their bravery. And we also talk about words that can discourage and we talked a lot about that in episode 159 and so if people want to review that, that's a real good thing. But yeah, the idea of encouraging our kiddos to step forward and acknowledging that fear is here is a really good thing. To teach our children that things can coexist is really important. And even opposing things coexist, and that is super important, because that's true in all the world. It's true in life, but sometimes it doesn't feel like it ought to be true within our bodies.

DJ Stutz  4:10  

That's so true.

Dinalynn Rosenbush  4:15  

Yeah, we talked about this just before I got on how our families have different opinions about many parts of life, whether we're talking religion and politics and probably the weather, whatever it is, our families have different opinions. But yet, can we have unity coexist with disagreement, and so we can have many coexisting things also be good at the same time, and it takes courage to accept it.

DJ Stutz  4:39  

Yeah, for sure. And I think too, as we talk about being brave, being brave enough to put forth your thoughts, opinions or whatever, even when you know it might not be completely accepted, or that you might have to say, this is how I came to this conclusion. This. Is why I think this, rather than just trying to force it down someone's throat, but having the bravery to have a conversation with somebody, even if it's the Rams versus the Chiefs. You know, people can get pretty hot about that, by the way, Rams are the appropriate team, but and so as we encourage our kids to when they're little, they're not going to have big political disagreements or religious philosophy disagreements they but what they are going to have is my team's better than your team, or I like this game better than that game, or I like this child, this other friend in my classroom better than another friend, and so that's kind of where you have to help your kids step up to the plate, be able to articulate what they feel, why they feel that way, and then they may convert someone they may not, but that's okay. We can have the bravery to accept them for their differences.

Dinalynn Rosenbush  6:03  

I love that you bring this up, and so let's rewind that, and let's think about what it is that comes a little bit before that, and that is a parent thing, and part of it is knowing yourself. You talk about being able to explain why we think what we think, but even before that, we have to know ourselves and to look at yourself in the mirror and to realize, oh, I had a bad attitude, and it really wasn't the other person's fault. I got into a funk and behaved in whatever way or discipline, however we discipline, and it really was about me that takes an immense amount of bravery, then to step forward and to admit and to know yourself. And when we do that, we exemplify for our children how they can be brave, and if they can get these, not if, when they get these foundations to be able to know themself. And then we build the language by showing them how we handle error, showing them how we handle discussion and disagreement, then they will be able to step into it and practice it. They will have a little more courage to do it if they see us doing it, and if they're afraid of the outcome, if we have already taught them we've got their back when they're truthful to themselves, then they will have little bit more oomph in their ability to be brave, because, of course, there's going to still be some fear. Sometimes we feel ashamed or dumb when we behave in a certain way, when we realize it's still our fault, and the knee jerk reaction then would be to blame. That does not take courage that is not brave if we're blaming somebody else for our feelings inside. So our example for our kids helps them to build that muscle of bravery inside them, and that would be where we can stand up for the kid like you're talking about the one that is being bullied, or the child that we want to show kindness to but we're scared too. We can instill some of that at home so that later on, when our child is at school and they see something happening, they will be able to put their feet in the sand and say, I'm going to stand by this kid because he's not doing something wrong, right. That takes a lot of courage, but it's a courage we can instill very early on, I've seen many times preschoolers, kindergartners, doing this kind of thing where they see somebody wronged, and they will easily stand up. And then you've got some kids that shirk away and they're afraid. And then it gets less as kids get older that they have the bravery, because maybe they haven't been supported as they were brave, but we can also, from home, affirm them for stepping in, for being brave. Now, if we take that back, can we take that back? DJ, for a little bit? Because, yeah, this part is really a hard part, and this is kind of like the culmination of what we want when we think about bravery. But if we trim this back, it starts with how we talk to our kids and letting them do things that make them afraid. Will you let them walk on the log even though they might fall that 12 inches off? Will you allow them to climb on the rocks even if they might skin their knees? Do we allow them to go outside, to get dirty, to go out in public with their shoes on the wrong feet, or their shirt inside out because they have dressed themselves so very early on, are we teaching them that we care what other people think more than we care about their independence, their skills and abilities? So when we allow them to just be who they are, they put their shirt on backwards. An d I mean, obviously, if it's uncomfortable backwards, we say, hey, 

DJ Stutz  9:43  

Right, how's that feeling on you?

Dinalynn Rosenbush  9:46  

But at the same time, a lot of kiddos are not going to notice whatsoever. And some kids, like my grandson, he had his toes turned in a little bit, and so very intentionally, we put his feet in the wrong shoes. I. Yeah, and it corrected his feet. His feet are straight now, and so it worked perfectly. So when we see, as a teacher working in the schools, and you know this, when you see the kiddos that come to school that have dressed themselves, you know it. But I'm always very proud of those parents that allow it, yeah, absolutely, because the kiddos are growing and learning, and they, frankly, none of the other kids notice if the shoes are on the wrong feet or the churches backwards or inside out. And when they do, they can just ask for help, or they can switch it. They don't care when the preschool and kindergarten ages. 

DJ Stutz  10:33  

No, it's usually once they hit probably around first grade is when other kids might start noticing your shirts on inside out, and if they say something, okay, then a child has a chance to choose, well, I want to leave it that way, or ask the teacher, can I go and fix my shirt? But I know some kids will do a shirt inside out. Not so much. Now, when they just print the information, we don't have so many tags, but I know, like, some kids were sensory and the tags really bother them. And and so then we had parents who said, their shirts inside out because the tags bother them. And even when I cut it, the what's left still bothers them. That's fine with me. I don't care. And even if I had to explain if someone noticed. And so I explain it to another child, it's like, his shirts inside out, and it's like, yeah, yeah, that tag just really bothers him, so he's just gonna wear a shirt that way. Oh, okay. And then off they go. I mean, they really don't care. 

Dinalynn Rosenbush  11:28  

Exactly. And so that's where it starts. Are we teaching our kids to be more concerned about what other people think of us, or are we teaching our kids to be more concerned about what do they actually want? Are they being brave? Are you allowing them to build the skills try things new, or are we saying to them, stay in the house, and are we worried about bruises? There is a balance. Obviously, we don't want our kids injured, but at the same time, we do want them to be able to be courageous on those risk taking minor things. And that would be more with their bodies, and then it builds the muscle so that when they get to the emotional risk taking and bravery, they become courageous to do it, because it's all linked together, just like you said, right? 

DJ Stutz

Well, and so too. I want to kind of jump back, because I know this is something that is important to both you and I as how we approach things. Is, is that as parents, even when our kids are really young and they're just beginning to develop language, but they hear what you say, they understand more than they're able to express when they're really little. And so when you say something like, Oh, I'm really nervous about this, or I'm a little bit scared about this, I'm gonna have to be brave, and you're verbalizing, and the kids are hearing your process of how you move forward, even when you're a little afraid. Then they get it, and it becomes, actually fairly normal to them, is that we do hard things, we are brave, but I know I'm a brave person, and even though I'm scared, I'm going to do this, and they pick up on that, and if that's the language that they're hearing from the very beginning as they are just developing these kinds of awarenesses, that's going to help them develop that as they grow and get older.

Dinalynn Rosenbush

Right? To be able to let your child hear often enough, some version of I'm scared, but I'm doing it anyway. Teaches them they can do it anyway when they're scared. There's lots of different ways to phrase that, as you just gave examples. And so if we can embed that kind of thing into our life, rather than, I don't want to, I'm scared, that is a stop versus the other one is a let's go ahead. 

DJ Stutz  13:38  

Right.  Or even if they say something like, I'm scared, it's like, Oh, that's awesome. You know what that means, you have a chance to be brave. I'm so excited to see how you do this. And they feel like, oh, wait, what? And so when you say, handle it, or they say, This is too hard. Isn't that cool? Because we do hard things, you're going to feel so good when you accomplish this. And so if you can come at it with that attitude and embrace that I'm scared or it's too hard, and show them, this is an awesome opportunity for us to do something brave or something hard or something big.

Dinalynn Rosenbush  14:18  

Absolutely, yeah, a language increases the feeling of being brave, or your language will decrease the feeling of their ability to be brave. It goes either way. The language we use, the energy we come at it with, changes their energy and their ability to perform the way they want to, or the way you want them to. It really matters. And I love your examples, because when they do say that they're scared to celebrate, that is a huge win. It also stops them in their tracks and causes them to think, oh, it's not something be afraid of. Because one of the things that I know too is that kids often, especially young ones, when they have a feeling and it's a big feeling and they're not. So their feelings are big when they're little. Yes, they are. They become afraid of what is going on inside my body. So they don't know the feeling that well. And so when it's a big feeling, it can magnify within them, because they become afraid of the feeling, because the feeling is kind of foreign. And then as they get afraid of the feeling, then the feeling gets bigger. So then they get more afraid of it, and it gets bigger. And then we have tantrums, meltdowns, whatever it is, and it's not actually the situation that they're yelling about. It's this thing that's going on inside their body that is so foreign they don't know what to do with and so how good is it for us to be able to say something about fear? Because that's a big one. That feeling is often big. So they start to recognize little fears. They hear you say, you get afraid, but do it anyway. And then they start to learn, oh, this feeling I'm feeling is called fear. There's a name for it. And when I feel it, I don't have to be afraid of it. And when I feel it, I can still do the next thing. Yeah, it's all embedded in how we talk about it. 

DJ Stutz  16:03  

Yeah, it totally is. And then the way that we even admit it, or we notice it, maybe in a movie, or in the neighborhood, or some kid does something, or we just had the Olympics, and things that would be a little frightening to some people. They're doing, and they're overcoming those fears. So when you see examples, either in real life or in a movie or a show or something, and you see those examples, it's really worthwhile to stop and pause for a moment and really pay attention to that. Did you see that? Did you see what just happened there, and

Dinalynn Rosenbush  16:42  

Then the Olympics was a fantastic time. 

DJ Stutz  16:45  

It does. It does. But even when you see something at school, or your child tells you a story about something that happened at school, and this one kid did something, or you're like, wow, they were really brave when they did that, I wonder if they were scared or nervous. And so when you have these conversations and these things happen around us all the time, there's so many opportunities to talk about real life examples of really everything, gratitude and kindness and patience and bravery, all of those things. When we see those things and we take that opportunity to point it out to our kids, or even if someone is being unkind,

Dinalynn Rosenbush  17:27  

Yeah, it's about turning on our radar for it, isn't it? It is so that we start to recognize it. And we have pre prepared our thought that we are going to point it out. We've pre prepared our mind that when I notice I'm going to call attention to it, shine a spotlight on it. Now, you just mentioned the Olympics, and it made me think of something that was really, really valuable for our kids. And so as we're recording right now, the Olympics are going on. So of course, it's in top of mind when one of the things that I love about the Olympics is when the interviews are being done with the performers. And if the performers are being I shouldn't call them performers, the athletes. When the athletes are talking about their journey that got them to where they're at, and they tell about the struggle, the injury, the support for mom and dad, the way things happened, how they were afraid, how they overcame. And we start giving that language to our kids too, overcomer they can still do and they had this hard journey, but look at them now. Now this kind of idea of listening to a biography, that would be a short interview, but also reading biographies, and you can get them in all different levels of reading that teaches our children too, what other people have really gone through when they've been brave, because people don't write a biography or an autobiography unless there's an element of courage in it. They've had to be brave at some point to do something. There's always a problem in a story, right? So biographies, at whatever level your child is at, is a great way also to get into the conversations, to be able to talk about, how did they overcome? What did they have to do? What was their thinking pattern? Yeah,

DJ Stutz  19:04  

I remember when my kids were little and growing up, and we bought this whole series of books, and it was about just different people in history. There was Florence Nightingale and how she had to overcome her shyness and fear and all of that, and George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and just a ton of different people. Walt Disney was in there, and it just talked about their life as kids, and how they got to where they were and how they overcome. But it was written for children. And I know there's a ton of series that you can find things like that out there. 

Dinalynn Rosenbush  19:38  

And yeah, you can get this kind of series at every at preschool level, at first grade level, at third grade level, and everywhere between. 

DJ Stutz  19:44  

Yeah, absolutely and so not only then are you encouraging understanding, bravery and kindness and whatever through the books, but you're also encouraging reading and vocabulary and history and all of those great things they can. All be lumped in to one, but there's some awesome examples of bravery in history, both from our country and other countries that are out there that could really engage a child and help them to see yes, that it's okay to be brave. In fact, it's important,

Dinalynn Rosenbush  20:17  

It's good, it's important, it's right, yes and it's to be celebrated 

DJ Stutz  20:22  

Absolutely it is. And celebrate it even within your family. And even if a child is afraid of something and they may try and then back off, that's great. You tried, and next time you're going to get even farther, or you're going to get even better, or whatever, but I'm so proud of you that you even tried that was awesome, acknowledging even those smaller efforts as they're beginning to put themselves out there instead. Well, you didn't finish it well, whatever they tried, and that's a huge step. 

Dinalynn Rosenbush  20:56  

Yeah, I love that, and I think that's super important. And a way to ramp up that language is to not really use that word try, but rather to acknowledge what part of it that they did. You got this far. That's farther than you've ever been before. You got to set G. You got halfway up the rock. You got to tell what they actually did, not just that they tried, because try also implies fail sometimes. And so even though you tried, and I'm proud of you for effort is what you meant, I know that and effort is super important, and we actually when we parent, it's more important to parent on whether or not there's effort than whether or not there's success, right? But there's something about that word try that doesn't always work the way we expect it to. And so I always advocate for the parents to notice the littlest step and say, You did it so they got their toes in the shoe. Your heel didn't get in that time. That's fine. You got your toes in, or you went and found your shoes, or you whatever it was that they were capable how far they did get, and then we have to pick it up and finish. Is fine,

DJ Stutz  22:01  

Absolutely. And then I think, too, I think of the social implications of being brave, that there are situations, oh gosh, this was years ago, and I was helping out in the nursery at church. Right? We had things for the little guys and parents could go to their classes, the sermon, whatever, and I was helping out in there, and there was, I think there were, like seven kids in the classroom at the time, and one little boy went and shoved another little boy away from a toy because he wanted the toy. And I saw a third child. It was a little girl, and she came over like, no, no, no, no, no, no. You know, telling the boy who pushed she didn't have a ton of language, I think, was she even too? I don't think she was even too. But even at that young age, seeing something, understanding that, Oh, this isn't good. And then having the courage at that very young age, and she just came, and she wasn't aggressive or anything. Was just like, No, no, no. But then I got to sit down with her and say, You were so good to help so and so and to make sure that he was being safe. And so you're using language that they can relate to. But I was amazed that even though she didn't really have the language to express exactly what needed to happen, she still had the bravery to step in, and who knows if that other little boy would have pushed her to or whatever, but she stepped in, and I'm just so amazed at the capabilities of Our kids, even at young age that they are able to do so many more things than we give them credit for, and at a much earlier age than we would think. 

Dinalynn Rosenbush  23:50  

Yeah, kids are super intuitive early on, and if we learn how to foster what it is that's already there, rather than shut it down, which is how most of us have been taught is shut down this thinking or behavior and build up this other so that you become in this box, in this mold. I'm of an age that that would have happened to me. You're of an age that probably happened to you, that you're set in the mold of how you're supposed to behave. But I think we know now that if we can identify with our kiddos, the energy, the motivation, rather than just the behavior, we end up teaching our kids to listen deeper within themselves, to listen to their own intuition, to acknowledge what's going on in the world around them differently, and when we go at parenting from that realm, we end up raising kiddos that trust themselves much more than say, I grew up being able to trust myself and probably most of the listeners, just because this new way of thinking, I shouldn't even say it. It's a new way thinking. It's more that we understand about the world and energy and the way things are, and when we understand more, we do differently, don't we? The more we learn, the better we do. Do, right, exactly. And so now there is a much more global understanding of what's always been there. And so I see that the children very young ages, can do a lot of the things that I was raised being told kids can't do that. And some of the that that I'm referring to is that which comes through intuition, the natural personality, the natural let me call it temperament, something like that of the person, such as your little girl who says, no, no, no, she has a natural defender in her, doesn't she? She's kind of a natural protector or defender. And you've got other kids that are more natural at their creativity and their ability to maybe somebody else, recognize nature and play with animals and whatever it is, you start to see when you allow them to be brave and to be who they are and to listen internally, you get to see who they actually are made to be. And that is a knowledge base that I think wasn't there as a global society when you and I were young, but it's much more prevalent now, and that takes bravery for a parent that wasn't raised that way, to go ahead and say, Okay, I will listen and allow and I will ask questions or lean into believing my child didn't mean bad towards the kid he pushed when he wanted the toy to rather think about, in his undeveloped mind, what was he actually doing? And probably in his mind he was really thinking about the toy, because he's got a young, undeveloped mind, right? So he probably really didn't have a whole lot of understanding of the outcome of pushing another child. He's only got the tunnel vision of I want that this object is in my way, so we bring them out into understanding how it is that their behavior impacts another, rather than punish that behavior and leave them wondering what I do, wrong, right?

DJ Stutz  26:55  

Well, and I think too, that comes back to something that I very often advocate for and that is practice. So I say, you know, our once a week family meeting or even just maybe something on the spur, but if you see your child doing something like, oh, let's practice this instead of getting mad at them, let me show you a different way to do this. So whether it's practicing asking for a toy or asking to join in play with another group of kids. That's very scary for kiddos, but like, they're new in a class, they're new in the neighborhood, whatever. So we can practice. How do I come in and say, Hey, can I play? Right? That's very scary for our kids, for a lot of our kids. So when we see these opportunities come up, it's like, oh, that's something we need to practice. That's something we need to work on. So at a time when tempers are not high, that they are not angry or whatever or frightened, then we can come back and say, Hey, I wanted to practice something with you, or you be the mom, and I'll be the kiddo, and giving them a chance to learn that language, to put it into practice, so that when the real event happens, they have a better inkling of, oh, yeah, this is what I do. 

Dinalynn Rosenbush  28:16  

I love that you bring that up too, because a lot of times when I'm coaching parents, I see parents understand clearly that we practice with a ball to catch, because it's a physical object outside the body and it needs practice. We practice on the balance beam. We practice putting our shoes on and tying, but you're talking about practicing the language, practicing the interaction, practicing the way to get what it is that we're trying to get. What do we want? How do we ask for a glass of milk? What is the right way to ask somebody to move over if they're in our way, and you're having practice on the language of the interaction, and that is something that I need to teach often to the parents, that we can practice language that way. Sometimes I say, well, it feels like it's inauthentic. And I say, No, it's not actually inauthentic, because you're telling the child, we're going to practice this, and then you go practice it. And so we have to shift the mind of the parent in order for them to realize, oh, this is the same thing as practicing any other skill. It is simply a learned skill. And then once they shift their mind, they all do, great, right?

DJ Stutz  29:19  

Absolutely. And this is too something that our kids aren't going to get the opportunity to practice ahead of time when they're out, whether they're at a childcare, preschool, kindy, first or second grade, that they'll get penalized real quick, yeah, if they don't handle something correctly, or whatever

Dinalynn Rosenbush  29:42  

the traditional way, isn't it?

DJ Stutz  29:45  

It is. And so what we want to do as mom and dad is to give them the opportunity to practice that I want on the swing, so mommy can be on the swing. So how are you going to ask me to get off the swing? And so then come up with. Ideas, or maybe if I push you three times or five times or whatever, now we're bringing counting in on it, but ever the teacher, then it's my turn, and you push me and having them learn about coming up with these ideas that really in the very young mind wouldn't even enter their head on their own. They need us to help place those ideas into their head so that then they have a tool to use when they're in these situations,

Dinalynn Rosenbush  30:26  

Right. Because for a three year old mind to push something out of the way that is in the way in order to get what you want, is logical. Absolutely year old to take an ice cream cone out of somebody's hands and start eating it themselves when they want it. There's nothing mean about that. There's nothing selfish about that. It's just logical, because that's as much as their brain has developed so far.

DJ Stutz  30:49  

Right. I love that. Well, gosh, I know we always good talking and keep wanting to go further, and our time is coming close. So if you had one last thing that you would really want a parent to understand on instilling bravery into their kids, what would be the one thing that you would really want to make sure you brought home. 

Dinalynn Rosenbush  30:49  

To remember that bravery happens only in the presence of fear. So you also experience this fear, because we all get fearful at times of certain things, maybe it's on stage, whatever, but say the word, I'm feeling scared, and I'm going to do it anyway, or some version of that, I'm nervous, but let's go or we can do hard things. However you say it, to let the child know that in the presence of discomfort, I am able to be brave. 

DJ Stutz  31:40  

I love it absolutely. So now, Dina Lynn, remind us of how our followers can get in touch with you, and what are some great things that you can help them with.

Dinalynn Rosenbush  31:52  

Oh, thank you. So yeah, I coach parents. I help parents, primarily of kiddos that have speech and language delays, but often just parents that want to improve speech, language and listening skills with their kiddos. I have webinars, I've got a podcast, and anybody can get a hold of me at hello, at the language of play.com, and yeah, and then you can look at my podcast and listen there at the language of play, and I'm on all the players, yeah, so that's how people can get a hold of me always. And you'll probably have the link in the show notes. Absolutely we will. And if people get on my newsletter, which goes out about three times a month until there's an event, and then it'll go out a little bit more, that's where they'll find out about webinars and upcoming events and things, and the website working on, but not up yet.

DJ Stutz 32:43  

You'll get there. We're in the process of updating ours for imperfect heroes as well. So I know it's a lot of

Dinalynn Rosenbush  32:50  

I haven't launched it

DJ Stutz  32:53  

well, and we're changing it. So the website has been Little Hearts Academy USA, but now we're just bringing everything under the umbrella of imperfect heroes, so it's not the confusion, but yeah, and guys do listen to her podcast. It is a great podcast. It's informative, it's fun, and I do recommend it. So the language of play, and that's great. Well, Dinaynn, I know I asked you this just a couple of weeks ago, well, more than a couple, but just a little bit ago. But I'm going to ask you again, and it'll be interesting to go and see how things change with the topic and what's on our mind. But how would you describe a successful parent?

Dinalynn Rosenbush  33:35  

I love it. I love that question. A successful parent is one, and I don't know what I said last time. Now I'm wondering what

DJ Stutz  33:43  

 I was trying to remember,

Dinalynn Rosenbush  33:47  

But I think of a successful parent as one that has connected to the heart of their child. They understand the heart of what their child intended. And this takes practice, but I think that's why it makes it successful too, is because we're practicing to really connect and communicate with our kiddos, and as we get good at that, then we become more and more successful. A lot of times, behavior and all kinds of things are an outgrowth of a child feeling disconnected. And so when we learn how to connect to that heart and communicate that way with our kiddos, then there's a lot more that comes within our realm of success. And all of that is why I developed my podcast too, because I want the connection and the communication with the heart of the child, and oops, when you do that, you are able to teach them just about anything, including, how do you do the very hard thing? And for my students, it's often learning to speak, yeah, but it's teaching them, how do you do the very hard things? 

DJ Stutz  34:47  

I love it. Yeah. Dinalynn, you are amazing. Thank you so much for being such a prominent part of our Imperfect Heroes. And I thank you so much. I'm sure I. This isn't the last time we're going to talk. 

Dinalynn Rosenbush  35:01  

No,  I'm gonna have you on my podcast. I don't remember the day coming up soon.

DJ Stutz 35:05  

It is all right. Well, that sounds good. We'll talk again soon. And so everyone until next time, let's find joy in parenting. See ya. Thank you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai