Episode 52: The Power of Fairy Tales with Timothy Stuetz

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
We think you should know that imperfect heroes Podcast is a production of Little Hearts Academy USA.

DJ Stutz  0:10  
Perfect. You're listening to Episode 52 of Imperfect Heroes - Insights Into Parenting, the perfect podcast for imperfect parents looking to find joy in their experience of raising children in an imperfect world. I'm your host DJ Stutz. And Timothy Stuetz not only has a great last name, but a great imagination. Timothy writes fairy tales. In fact, Timothy is one of the most prolific children's authors of all time, having just completed his 86 Fairy Tale of the heart, featuring Bliss Beary Bear, he is the creator of The Magical Miracle of You, a self empowered course for children and families. He also created The Power Animal Frolics, which is a yoga Tai Chi Chi Gong course for children. Timothy's programs and services inspire everyone to achieve their full mental, physical, emotional, and heartfelt potential. And they are enriched through his having held children and others at birth, and at death, and coaching people of all ages through a variety of life changes. There's so much to learn, so let's get started.

I love fairy tales. They teach values, inspire courage, and bring curiosity and imagination to the lives of our children. And if you are paying attention, they can do the same thing for parents as well. In today's conversation with author Timothy Stuetz, he will learn ways to incorporate fairy tales as you plan for play, and learn to be spontaneous with your kids. listen in and see what I mean. 

Welcome, everyone, and I am joined here today with Timothy Stuetz. Cool last Name, I got to admit, spelled a little bit differently, but it's pronounced the same. And I'm really excited. Timothy writes fairy tales, among other things, and that really, we've done some work on curiosity and imagination. And I think this really ties into that. So Timothy, why don't you just give us a little down low on what you got going on.

Timothy Stuetz  2:47  
So good to be with you. DJ. What I've got going on is writing and developing programs for children and families. And I've written over 86 children's stories.

DJ Stutz  3:01  
Wow. Yeah.

Timothy Stuetz  3:03  
And never never, never intended even right one of them.

DJ Stutz  3:08  
It just kind of happened.

Timothy Stuetz  3:11  
It just kind of happened. I owned a chocolate shop at the time, and actually opened the chocolate shop from being a CPA, I really followed my heart. I got a message one morning, I mean, right when I woke up, my eyes opened up and I said if Hershey's can make chocolate kisses, I can make chocolate French kisses. Oh, and

DJ Stutz  3:34  
France at the time.

Timothy Stuetz  3:35  
No, I was born in the United States. And that set me off on a adventure of learning how to get boxes designed for specialty chocolates and finding a company to make the chocolates which actually bailed out on me. So I had to learn how to make the chocolates myself, and opened up a little chocolate shop. And it was in that chocolate shop one day that I received a box of unknown goods that I didn't even order. And I opened it up. And it was full of little teddy bears. Wow. As a child, I loved Hardy boy books.

DJ Stutz  4:16  
So me too.

Timothy Stuetz  4:19  
I always loved an adventure and that coupled with my CPA background, I decided okay, I've got to find out who these bears belong to and and I get out and the people came and they actually left the bears with me. And I carry one of those little bears in the car with me. And after a couple of weeks I actually picked it up at a stop sign and I said who are you? And he said I'm poet bear. And that actually made sense to me because I wrote love poetry. I wrote philosophical poetry. So I got the idea of putting all my poetry together and in a little book and packing started in a box with the teddy bear and called it tails of the heart. Wow. Yeah. And when I got the whole thing together and put it on the counter of the candy shop, so my mom took one look at it. And she said, Wow, you just really blew it. You missed it. That should have been a children's book. And I said, Wow, mom. Yeah, but six months later, the first story popped into my head and Polar Bear turned into bliss, Berry bear from the Great Bear constellation travels the earth and a blue pearl starship to bring adventure and magic into children's lives, to inspire them to help them work through the different challenges that children face.

DJ Stutz  5:43  
That is amazing. Now, as a early childhood teacher, and raising all these kids and children being such a big part of my life, I know that fairy tales are fantastic. They're a great way to teach values, and morals. And it's also an opportunity to enhance their curiosity and inspire their imagination. And it's really, really fun, when I'm watching whether it's my grandchildren, or my students, when they get all dressed up. And they're doing their whole thing. And they come up with their own stories and answers to problems. And it's an amazing thing. And so I love fairy tales, and stories that inspire.

Timothy Stuetz  6:35  
And all of my stories are geared to do that. And they actually inspire children in ways that very few books do in that 99% of my stories have a beautiful cover illustration. But there are no pictures inside the books. Because I want the children to develop their own pictures without getting any input from an adult artists what they thought should be on a page so that the children can just literally listen to the words, read the words and create their own pictures without any outside stimulus. And that develops their neural networks and their creativity in ways far beyond what looking at a picture book would do.

DJ Stutz  7:24  
That is so amazing. In my mind, that makes them great bedtime stories, things are calming down. We're taking away that one element of stimuli without the pictures, but we're adding fodder for dreams, aren't we?

Timothy Stuetz  7:44  
We are and also fodder for conversations between whoever's reading the story and the child because you can take time between each page and just ask you know, what, what do you see what what's happening? How did you see that? Are you seeing colors are seen? What did you see on that page?

DJ Stutz  8:05  
What do you think this character looks like? It down to what color do you think their eyes are? And how tall? Do you think they are? Are they fat or skinny? Or you can ask them those questions, then by asking those questions, you get them thinking about those kinds of elements where they might not think about them so much on their own. I know I use when I when I still do it. When I teach a fairy tales unit. Whether it's kindergarten or pre K, you know, there's certain stories you just hit, right three little pigs, the three bears the three belly goat grubs. We call those the threes.

Timothy Stuetz  8:51  
I actually took the three little pigs, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears and turned them into coloring books for children with messages about drugs and tobacco and that I just rewrote the story a little bit.

DJ Stutz  9:07  
Well, we're gonna have to include all of those resources in our show notes because they just sound fantastic and something great for our families. Each of those stories, the three pigs, the three bears, and the Three Billy Goats all have problems within them, where people are making unwise decisions. And yes, so a couple of years ago, I was teaching kindergarten and we were doing the three billy goat graphs. And I was teaching in a very, very low income school, lots of gang activity. Everyone's in poverty. And every one of my kids was on free lunch program. And so they just had such an interesting take on the Thanks. So I asked them, Why do you think the troll is so grumpy and angry. And their take was amazing. It was. He works at night, and he's trying to sleep. And the goats are making too much noise. Or while he's homeless, he's living under a bridge. One of the girls that, well, they probably tease him because he's so ugly. Just they came up with all of these things. So we let them divide up into groups to try and solve the problems of this particular fairy tale. And they, Oh, it was amazing. They, one group of boys wanted to build him a house, so he wouldn't be on was anymore. And another group of kids said, well, we need to find him a job where he can work at daytime, and he can sleep at night. And the girls, there was like three or four girls. They wanted to give him a makeover, so he could be handsome, and people wouldn't tease him anymore. And what was the Oh, and there was the group of kids, they were concentrated on the noise that the goats were making. So they were trying to design the shoes to put on the goats feet. So that wouldn't be so noisy. It was amazing. I mean, I was just so pleased with their design and their inspiration and, and then at one point, we said, Well, is it okay to say, eat my brother, don't eat me. Go eat my we've talked about how we are loyal to our families, and what were some other choices they could make. And they said they could all three go together. And there's safety in numbers kind of a thing. But it was just really interesting to hear their take on it. And I think that stories like yours, really inspire kids to do some of that problem solving, if you're just asking the right questions to go along with it.

Timothy Stuetz  12:16  
Most definitely. And as you're saying that I I wrote one story where you know, there's this one boys bully and another boy. And the one that's doing the bullying ends up making a statement that says, no, nothing scares me. And Bloomsbury bear magically transports this little bully into a mouse's body. Oh, and he's the day mouse. And so, you know, it's kind of perplexing to begin with. But then he says, Okay, I'm in this mouse body, I'm just going to see what it's like to be a mouse. And, you know, he meets, he meets a girl mouse, who's a night mouse. And the night mouse entices him into staying out later than he should. So as a day mouse, he learned all the tricks of the day and when the Hawks fly over and everything, but as a night mouse and outs past, past his bedtime, he wasn't aware of the owls. And so he ends up being enticed into staying out, not following his own heart, and also getting picked up by an owl. And realizing as he's in the clutches of the owl, that there are some things that will scare him.

DJ Stutz  13:44  
I love I love that there's so gosh, I mean, just listening to the short part of it. There are so many angles, you could take building those conversations with your kids. And that's what I really love. Great stories really offer that possibility, that option to broaden and to ask interesting questions and, and to make your kids think through Oh, I didn't think about that. And it's nice because as your kids grow old are they are able to think of the same story but in a more mature way, with perhaps a different point of view, because they've had now different experiences.

Timothy Stuetz  14:30  
Exactly. And that's even for me, I mean, I've been writing these stories now since 1982. Holy smokes. And even even when I go back and read them, I see things in there that I might not have seen when I wrote them. Yeah.

DJ Stutz  14:49  
Yeah, so little insight. I'm a Harry Potter freak. I love Harry Potter, but I am a purist on my stories. I Don't buy into a lot of the sidelines that they're coming up with afterwards. But I am finishing book seven for like the fourth time. And it's interesting to me though you're right, each time I read it, I'll see something different a different point of view different kinds of knowledge. And a lot of that actually comes from my work with teaching and with my grandkids, and watching their reactions and how they do things. And so, yeah, that life experience really engages them. And I think that's why some of those traditional stories like Little Red Riding Hood and the Hans Christian Andersen books, and stories and stuff, that they stand the test of time, because they offer that opportunity to look at it with that different point of view, and engage a whole different kind of story.

Timothy Stuetz  15:54  
Yes. And as you're saying that I'm kind of jealous that you have the opportunity to read all these children's books and share them with children. And since my daughter was little, I've only read one children's story in the last 45 years. Wow. And it's because I don't want anything to get into my mind that would stimulate my mind in the way something's already been written. Yeah, so I've stayed away from all the children's books, just so that I know that what's coming into me is original. Yeah,

DJ Stutz  16:36  
well, that's probably very wise. But I get to have that freedom because I don't write children's books, right. And I'm really drawn to fantasy of like, the early reader books, the caddy house wars in the janitor series, and a bunch of those things that just offer so much pageantry and intrigue and all of that. But I'll tell you, one of the funnest experiences I had, I have a granddaughter graduating from high school this year. And when she was six years old, she was spending some time with me, and we went to the zoo, and had a little adventure, and she wandered off. And, you know, it was exciting. And so but when we went home, we sat down, and she started telling me her story. And she embellished his six year olds do and it was all these big things. And, and we wrote a book together. And so she and her siblings helped illustrate it. And I went to the, like Kinkos and had it bound up and stuff for her. And she was so excited. I did one for me, as well, of course, you know. And it was fun taking that even into some of my kindergarten classes and showing them a six year old wrote this book, you can be an author too. And so I think kids have great imaginations. And letting them write their own stories is pretty significant.

Timothy Stuetz  18:17  
It is my my daughter was the inspiration for a lot of the stories that I've written. And one of the major aspects of the book club that I have is we do a live storytime every month. And then the children get to submit their own illustrations. They get to take that next month until the next storytime, develop their own illustrations, using whatever they want colored pencils, oils, crafts, fabrics, and submit their pictures. And then I'm going to create an illustrated by children's book out of each of the story's

DJ Stutz  18:55  
i Crazy love that idea. That is, is so amazing. And I think the work that you're doing, and parents can take from that, and really build on some of those great ideas. You know, you can be a great parent, just not a very creative parents sometimes, because we're all built differently, aren't we? Exactly. And so we all have strengths, and we all have weaknesses, and I've have my own strengths. And I have my own weaknesses, that things that I'm not really good at and things that I'm very good at. And so sometimes when you're wanting to do something for your kids that isn't in the realm of what you're good at, you can always go to things like your workshops and other places that you can get these creative ideas and they're not your idea but who cares.

Timothy Stuetz  19:52  
And you can find the creativity with your child. You know, you're reading the story together and you're getting ideas and the child might I'd have an idea on the paper and what's happening and you can help them create their own. And you can come up with your own at the same time and come up with a joint illustration. And yeah, I remember my mom, I wasn't the most creative child in the world as far as talented with crafts and that, so I could come up with wonderful ideas, but actually turning it into something with my hands was another subject. So I remember my mom helped me a lot and doing projects for school.

DJ Stutz  20:31  
Yeah. And it's allowing your kids to have that. I remember back when I was in kindergarten, and my mom would so a lot moms back then did steal a lot. And I would go and sneak her her scraps. You know, she tossed out her scraps, and I sneak them out of the trash. And I had this place in my bedroom that I found was a perfect tidying place and, and I had all this material. And I'd go in my bedroom. I didn't know why I thought I had to be sneaky about it. But I was and I would just like so and and make these little things. And I'm sure they were just awful things but it to me. I loved it. And I wound up becoming someone who sews clothes I made all my mike Well, not all my girls, but most of their prom dresses and homecoming dresses then had just had a lot of fun with that kind of stuff. And so it was built on but they they will show you very early, I think where their talents lie. And you can allow that to happen.

Timothy Stuetz  21:48  
And no nurture it when we see it. Yes, yeah, yeah.

DJ Stutz  21:52  
And allow them to take some risk in that, like drawing a picture or drawing a book and then having them share it with another family member or with friends, or whatever, that is a risk to a child. What if they don't like it? What if they think my idea is stupid? What if they, they all these things go on in their mind. And so helping them take that idea that they've gotten and move with it?

Timothy Stuetz  22:23  
Yes. And empower them with it. It's like I I was traumatized by my father one time when I was a very. i My father was an excellent artist. I mean, he could have gone to art school, and he wanted to design clothing. And he really was a fantastic artist, but I drew something one day and couldn't wait for him to come home to show him. You know, it's like, I was just so pumped up. I was like, I really wanted to show him. He took one look at what I did. Walked away, came back with some of his artwork and said, No, this is how art should

DJ Stutz  23:02  
be. Oh, no.

Timothy Stuetz  23:03  
I never drew another thing in my life. Yeah. Yeah. And so you know, as parents, we have the power to empower our children. Or the power to, to not empower them.

DJ Stutz  23:19  
Yeah. And bless their hearts. I think that he thought he was doing a good thing and trying to educate you. And it did not work in his favor. I remember my dad, so he had his doctorate from Berkeley in electro chemical engineering, and, and was a professor at UCLA the whole time I was growing up crazy, like, awkward, intelligent guy, right. And this was me in high school, though. But I started I told you the story about when I was five. And I just move forward with that. And when I graduated from high school, I got the award of outstanding senior in homemaking, arts. And I was so proud of it. And my dad just looked at it and said, so you're good at basket weaving. Because it wasn't chemistry. And it wasn't science. But it was what I was good at. And, you know, Dad was doing the best. He knew how and it was from a whole different generation. And he didn't see much of the value added, but I didn't let it deter me. went on and wound up doing a lot of fun things. But you bring up that good point that you we may say things to our kids and to us it just seems innocuous and it ruins their world.

Timothy Stuetz  24:42  
Yeah, I actually wrote one of the children's stories I wrote is called Heart fire. And it's about a little boy whose dad takes him to the circus. And he's just so enamored with the circus, and he wants to be a clown. You know, it's like right then and there. The little boy just says, I want to be a clown. And dad wants him to be an accountant.

DJ Stutz  25:06  
My dad wanted me to be a lawyer.

Timothy Stuetz  25:10  
So Dad, just kind of poo poos the clown bit, and everything. And the little boy starts doubting his own desire to be a clown. Yeah, so let's very comes down to empower and inspire the child to hold on to his dreams, and to show him why his dad wants him to be an accountant. Okay. So it gets to see the whole picture of things, but to literally hold on to his dream, and don't give up your dreams for anybody.

DJ Stutz  25:42  
Right? Right. I love hearing the stories that you're writing and hearing about some of these characters, and just imagining in my head, how the conversations that can be developed from that and building that fearless desire to move forward no matter what and all of those things. It's very intriguing to me, and I think it's a such a great idea for our little guys. And helping them. So the idea of your book club, and having the clubs draw those pictures, you know, and that's taking risks, we've got to a place right now, I think with our kids that they're so risk averse, oh, don't do that you might get hurt, don't do that people will shut you down or get mad at you would call you names or whatever, that we're winding up right now with a lot of young adults and kids who are, they're willing to take the bad risks. Not Not those really great risks that are going to change the world and make a difference than I really like the fairy tale with a kid who stands strong and changes the world or saves the town or rescues their dad from the beast or whatever it's going to be. I really love those and talking about being brave. And what does that mean, and can't be brave if you're not scared? Because if you're not scared, it's easy. Uh huh. So being brave is all about taking risk, isn't it?

Timothy Stuetz  27:23  
It is. So I'm a risk taker.

DJ Stutz  27:27  
Yes, obviously, man, you've done chocolate, you've done book. Poetry.

Timothy Stuetz  27:36  
And astrologer once told me and unfortunately, I didn't see him until I was in my mid 40s. But he said, You don't change jobs, you change careers. And any, and he happened to be right.

DJ Stutz  27:51  
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Sounds like it. But isn't that a great gift to give to? You know, our little guys is set them on that path of, oh, this sounds interesting. Well, let's see, let's try it out. Even if you know, it's not going to work exactly the way they want. Let them have that experience and figure out and maybe why didn't it work this way? And maybe are there some changes we can do to try it?

Timothy Stuetz  28:15  
Exactly. The chocolate shop didn't work out for me. You know, it's like, I got in over my head. I didn't know that I was using chocolates. I didn't know people put wax in chocolates. Okay. I didn't know there was so much wax and chocolates. That's what keeps the chocolate from melting. Right. So I was using good chocolate. So I could only ship during certain times of the year or I had to dry ice. And there were other things that came along. But just following my dream for the chocolate shop, brought those bears to me. Right? It's like, it's like following the dream. Keep following it. And if that dream doesn't work out, then maybe there's a reason it's bringing something else into your life.

DJ Stutz  29:01  
Absolutely. And actually, don't you think you live far more from your failures than you do your successes?

Timothy Stuetz  29:07  
Oh, yes.

DJ Stutz  29:10  
Yeah, yeah. And so if we're keeping our children from having to deal with failure, where their big learning curves, right? And so I love that idea of people like your What was the name of the bear that comes from outer space and

Timothy Stuetz  29:26  
bliss, Barry bear? He's actually the stories.

DJ Stutz  29:30  
Yeah. And so he's taking a huge risk. He's leaving this planet and coming down and how brave that is and wanting to enrich somebody else enrich their lives. So I really enjoy the aspect of fairy tales and fairy tales are important. It would have been a lie for someone to say 100 years ago that man could get to the moon. It was a fairy tale. It was a fairy tale

Timothy Stuetz  29:57  
and my fairy tales do they they're A mixture of fantasy and reality and adventure in science fiction and poetry and proven principles of child development and heroes and heroines. So it's all worked in there get it gives a broad title to do just about anything.

DJ Stutz  30:16  
Exactly. Now you have something new that's coming up workshop or something. For parents, I have

Timothy Stuetz  30:25  
a webinar called three magic wands to increase your young children's freeness and spiritual connection. Yes,

DJ Stutz  30:34  
so tell me a little bit about that. And what's going on with that? Oh, it's

Timothy Stuetz  30:39  
magical. I just got done creating all of it and putting it together today and the slides for the webinar. And so it leads parents not only into stimulating their own children's creativity, and happiness and spiritual connection, but it also brings the parent into that realm too. So it shows them a way that they can learn to trust their own decisions. So I teach the parents how to tune into their heart, and how to tune into their heart when they're making decisions about their children and their family. And then give them the number one ways that children get their creativity stimulated, which is basically fairy tales, yep. And then move into ways that they can solidify their children's happiness that children can stay happy, no matter what, most young children unless it's taken out of them in one way or another will laugh 300 times a day. Yeah, and we don't do that as adults. So it's, everything's a reminder to the parents do that, wow, man, we should be laughing 300 times a day too. And there are ways to tune in to the fact that we are nothing but laughter inside of us. And it's accessible at any time that doesn't have to be stimulated by anyone or anything. So that's built into the webinar, and then the importance of maintaining the child's original magic, their connection with spirit when they're born, and ways that that can be built upon afterwards, and some family rituals. And yes, so it's a wonderful webinar.

DJ Stutz  32:39  
It sounds fantastic. And of course, we're gonna have that information in our show notes. So if anyone is interested in finding out more, you can always just pop down to the show notes. And you'll be able to find that information. So Timothy, when I pull everything together, at the end of every episode, I always ask my guests the same question. And that is, how would you define a successful parent,

Timothy Stuetz  33:07  
a successful parent is one who is open and present to the magic of their child every moment, and tuning in to just the beauty and the magic and the innocence and the creative aspects that are there right in front of them and to let go of any preconceived ideas of what that beautiful human being and child is. And yeah, just seeing the magic and let them reawaken your own magic. Like my daughter was the one who reawakened the magic within me. So I know that children have that. And if we can just let go and realize that we have the most beautiful reflection in front of us of who we are inside of us, and to nurture that in ourselves, nurture our children. Yeah, that that's, that's the magic.

DJ Stutz  34:06  
I am so glad you said that. I totally agree with it, that children are just the magic and if we can just allow ourselves to be open to kind of how they see the world and how they are so awed by different things that we just take for granted. It's

Timothy Stuetz  34:25  
my dad, when I took my daughter on a road trip. She was three and a half years old. Maybe she I mean, she was really young, okay. And we stopped at a rest stop. Get out of the car. And she immediately bends down onto the pavement and start scooping something up with her finger. And my initial reaction was Melanie, don't do that. And with the most and the most innocent face Ever she turned, she looked up at me and she said, Daddy, how do you expect me to learn what things are if I can't feel and touch them? I'll wash my hands in the bathroom. It's like, okay.

DJ Stutz  35:16  
And it's true that our skin washable, clean up mud and dirt and whatever it is, you know. I'll just kind of pop in this story I was I had this was years ago, I was with my grandsons. And we were walking through. It's called, I think, did more Park. It's in Northern California. And we're just having a good time walking around the park. And there's a river that kind of goes through it and walking along. And no kidding. A bird pooped on me. My grandson's thought it was most as Darrell thing that ever happened in the whole entire world. And I'm running over and sticking my head in the river. poop off my head. But they like they were amazed that birds poop while they're flying. And they had all these great questions. And it was. So it's something that we like, totally laugh out when we're when we're looking back and they still remember it. And but it's that experience and letting an and seeing it through the kids eyes. And not my disgusted. But hair washes and clothes washed and let them do it. I love your answer. Well, yes, Timothy studs, thank you so much for spending this time with us and enlightening us with all the cool things that you've got going on. And like I said, Be sure everyone be sure to look in our show notes, and investigate Timothy and his website and his book club and all of those great things that are going on that will open the doors of imagination for your own child.

Timothy Stuetz  37:09  
Thank you, DJ, it's such a pleasure to be with you and all the listeners today. Just very enjoyable. So lovely. Thank you.

DJ Stutz  37:16  
Thank you. And I'm sure we'll talk again sometime. Yes. All right. Timothy has so many great ideas. And I love the idea of letting kids create their own illustrations for their favorite stories. And it doesn't mean that they are just using crayons, but they can use all kinds of items to make their ideas come to life. It could be paints, it could be clay, it could be fabric, it could be photos, anything that they have around. Another idea of letting children identify some of the problems in the stories, and then come up with their own solutions is a lot of fun. And it really helps our children engage with their executive functioning, that is learning to plan out to plot ahead to see how their decisions affect others. It's a really good way of helping them to understand that fairy tales open a wide and exciting world of imagination. And you can be part of it with your child, as you read, discuss and create together. If you want to know more about Timothy, all of the information is in the show notes below. 

I know that as I was raising my kids, I had a habit of raising my voice way too often. And when was the last time you really paid attention to someone who was yelling at you? Were you inspired to draw closer to that person? Did you feel comfortable with your relationship with that person? Do you feel like your kids don't listen to you unless you are yelling at them? Do you feel like yelling promotes your relationships with your kids? Or would you like to learn how to get them to listen to you, as you just talked to them? July 25, I am going to start a 10 day challenge to help people learn tools and techniques to stop yelling at their kids and build stronger relationships with strong boundaries in peace and kindness. And during these 10 days, we're going to connect with five live events on a Facebook group just for you and others who are learning to have a calm loving home for everyone. If you are interested in this, you can just go to my website and register for this free resource. Just click on the link in the show notes. And we are going to have fun and learn a ton. I keep asking but while you're looking over the show notes, go ahead and leave a rating and review and follow our podcast. Taking the time to give the podcast a five star rating. And a review makes the podcast easier to find and we're able to help have more people and more families. So I've opened up a new Facebook page. It's been up for about a month now. And it's just for the podcast. So now you can find me on Facebook at Imperfect Heroes podcast, and my Tuesday night live events are there now instead of the Little Hearts Academy page, check it out at 7pm Mountain Time, and we can have a great conversation. Next week. I am talking with author, Portia Claire, she is amazing. And she is so upbeat and kind you can just feel her gentleness as we talk. And we're going to be talking about how to help your kids work through the grief of losing a loved pet. And she has an amazing book out about that. And so I hope that you'll join us next week. And until that time, let's find joy in parenting.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai