Your Kids Don’t Suck: Cultivating Closeness with your Kids through Non-Coercive, Conscious Parenting

Content Advisory: This episode discusses healing from childhood sexual abuse. While co-host Cara is on maternity leave, Rythea welcomes in Season 4 with a solo episode. Rythea weaves in and out of her horrific upbringing, her loving relationship with her daughter, the temporal news of the release of the Epstein files and how it is impacting her at this time. As she shares more about her abusive childhood and how she copes, she links her experiences to parenting and helping other parents.
Not only does Rythea draw parallels to details within the Epstein files to her own life, she also offers a bright light of hope, showing that unfreezing past wounds can—and inevitably will—lead to a more free, full, and beautiful experience of life. Rythea doesn’t sugar coat how difficult recalling suppressed memories has been (which are still happening to this day), but amidst a deeply difficult topic of abuse comes a passionate and inspired message of healing.
In this loving and generous episode, Rythea talks to you like a friend, allowing her vulnerability to lead her (and you) through questions and answers that cut to the core of what it means to be conscious, awake, and fighting the oppressive systems we live in, as a parent and as a person.
Key Topics
Unfreezing past wounds
Suppressed memories
Healing from a traumatic childhood
Breaking the cycle to generational abuse

Parenting Resources
Vivek Patel
Facebook Parent-Support group
Rythea’s parent-mentor sessions
Cara's Relationship Toolkit
Rythea's Support Material

Support YKDS: We (Rythea and Cara) are white, cis-gender, straight, middle-class women living with financial and societal privilege. Our perspectives are limited. We are committed to featuring guests from diverse lived experiences to reflect the realities of a broader parenting community. 25% of proceeds from this podcast go to creators of color who have shaped our work.
Rate & Review: Your feedback helps us reach more families who are parenting with presence, resistance, and love. Let us know what this episode stirred in you.

In this episode, we are joined by Amy Niemczyk, a parent (just like you!) whose family dynamic has drastically shifted since adopting the non-coercive, collaborative parenting philosophy. This is an excellent episode for parents who are searching for concrete tools for navigating kids’ physical expression (like biting) and resolving sibling struggles.
Amy and her partner are the parents to four young children who have been on this journey for just over three years. Amy shares how she struggled with letting go of screen time control as her seven year old autonomously navigated balance, and how she turned toward love and not shame to work through weeks of her three year old pinching her. Her stories go deeper than the parent-child dynamic, seeping into the sibling relationships as well.
Rythea and Cara are moved by Amy’s earnest and heart-felt admission of the changes she’s experienced with her children: how removing authority from her parenting paradigm revealed a deep love both with her children and within herself.
Key topics:
The tornado faze
Guiding kids toward their autonomy
Collaborative parenting as a model for repair after rupture
Non-coercive parenting as a deep act of self love and personal healing
Resources mentioned:
Vivek Patel
Rythea’s Facebook Parent-Support group
Rythea’s parent-mentor sessions
Cara's Relationship Toolkit

Support YKDS
We (Rythea and Cara) are white, cis-gender, straight, middle-class women living with financial and societal privilege. Our perspectives are limited. We are committed to featuring guests from diverse lived experiences to reflect the realities of a broader parenting community. 25% of proceeds from this podcast go to creators of color who have shaped our work.
Rate & Review: Your feedback helps us reach more families who are parenting with presence, resistance, and love. Let us know what this episode stirred in you.

In this episode, we explore how attachment wounds impact our ability to see our children as separate from us, and even from our own parents. We discuss the incredible, unconscious urge to replay our attachment pains onto our children, and what it takes to recognize (and change) those impulses within the non-coercive, collaborative approach.
Join Rythea and Cara as they get vulnerable about their personal attachment histories and current struggles as parents. They go deep about self-love and the challenge to heal after a childhood of broken attachments. Rythea offers a powerful parenting tool she calls “The Psychic Apology” where parents can take accountability through intention and visualization. Cara discusses life with a free-feeling toddler and how to recognize covert blocks to healthy attachment.
Key Topics:
Attachment to our caregivers is a survival need
Can we REALLY heal our attachment trauma?
Attachment styles and its relation to Internal Family Systems
Resources Mentioned:
The Will to Change by Bell Hooks
Vivek’s Parent-Support group
Rythea’s Facebook Parent-Support group:

Support YKDS
Book a mentor session with Rythea
Explore Cara's Relationship Toolkit

We (Rythea and Cara) are white, cis-gender, straight, middle-class women living with financial and societal privilege. Our perspectives are limited. We are committed to featuring guests from diverse lived experiences to reflect the realities of a broader parenting community. 25% of proceeds from this podcast go to creators of color who have shaped our work.
Rate & Review: Your feedback helps us reach more families who are parenting with presence, resistance, and love. Let us know what this episode stirred in you.

S1 EP7 re-release: In this episode, we dive into a Q&A format, addressing two thought-provoking questions from our listeners.
Question one comes from a non-parent who comes to terms with the ways in which their own parents hurt them. Many of us grapple with the realization that our parents may have unintentionally or intentionally hurt us in the past, but the decision to confront them as an adult is a complex one. We share our insights on whether it's the right time for one listener to tackle this emotionally charged issue. Drawing from our experience as therapists, we discuss the potential benefits and risks of such a conversation.
Question two, we discuss another listener’s question around effective ways to apologize and reconnect with your child after moments of rupture where we feel we’ve acted out of alignment with our values. We provide practical tips for repairing the parent-child relationship and explore what a sincere, relationship-focused, and deeply meaningful apology looks and sounds like.
Stay tuned for more Q&A episodes in Season 4, and write us your questions at [email protected]
Key Topics:
Confronting parents about past harm: timing, risks, and potential benefits
Navigating the complexity of deciding whether or not to bring up a painful history with your parents
Therapist insights on healing past wounds without re-traumatizing yourself
Repairing connection with your child after rupture
What a meaningful, values-aligned apology to your child sounds like in practice
Practical strategies for rebuilding trust and modeling accountability between parent and child
Support YKDS https://buymeacoffee.com/yourkidsdontsuck
Book a mentor session with Rythea https://calendly.com/rythea
Connect with Cara https://www.caratedstonetherapy.com/
We (Rythea and Cara) are white, cis-gender, straight, middle-class women living with financial and societal privilege. Our perspectives are limited. We are committed to featuring guests from diverse lived experiences to reflect the realities of a broader parenting community. 25% of proceeds from this podcast go to creators of color who have shaped our work.
Rate & Review: Your feedback helps us reach more families who are parenting with presence, resistance, and love. Let us know what this episode stirred in you.

S2 EP1 re-release: In this episode of Your Kids Don't Suck, hosts Rythea Lee and Cara Tedstone dive deep into the world of non-coercive parenting within the framework of coparenting relationships. Joined by Rythea's partner Will and Cara's husband Sanjay, the conversation unfolds into a heartfelt exploration of parenting dynamics and philosophies.
Sanjay and Will offer unique perspectives on parenting, bringing diverse backgrounds and value systems to the table. Together, they share their personal journeys into the realm of non-coercive parenting, shedding light on the challenges and triumphs encountered along the way. Listeners gain insight into the reasons behind Will and Sanjay's embrace of non-coercive parenting as a guiding philosophy. Drawing from their own experiences and upbringing, they reflect on how traditional parenting models shaped their worldview and the pivotal moments that led them to explore alternative approaches. You'll hear about the nuances of non-coercive parenting, with Will and Sanjay candidly discussing the toughest aspects of adopting this mindset.
From confronting societal norms to reconciling with their own upbringing, they offer a raw and honest portrayal of the obstacles faced on their journey. Tune in to this heartfelt and illuminating episode of YKDS to discover what it's like for non-mothers to parent in a way that challenges convention and nurtures connection!

Key Topics:
What non-coercive parenting looks like within co-parenting relationships
How traditional parenting models shape current parenting choices
The pivotal moments that led Will and Sanjay to embrace non-coercive parenting
Challenges of practicing non-coercive parenting in a society built on control
Honest reflections on reconciling past experiences with new parenting philosophies
Building connection and collaboration in parenting while resisting convention

Support YKDS https://buymeacoffee.com/yourkidsdontsuck
Book a mentor session with Rythea https://calendly.com/rythea
Connect with Cara https://www.caratedstonetherapy.com/
We (Rythea and Cara) are white, cis-gender, straight, middle-class women living with financial and societal privilege. Our perspectives are limited. We are committed to featuring guests from diverse lived experiences to reflect the realities of a broader parenting community. 25% of proceeds from this podcast go to creators of color who have shaped our work.
Rate & Review: Your feedback helps us reach more families who are parenting with presence, resistance, and love. Let us know what this episode stirred in you.