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Peace and Parenting: How to Parent without Punishments

Michelle Kenney, M. Ed
Peace and Parenting: How to Parent without Punishments
Latest episode

452 episodes

  • Peace and Parenting: How to Parent without Punishments

    Case Study: What If You're Already Enough?

    18/08/2026 | 29 mins.
    Most of us carry a quiet belief that we have to be everything for our kids. If the other parent isn't showing up the way we wish they would, we tell ourselves it's on us to fill every gap. To be the nurturer and the rough-and-tumble one. To make up for what they didn't get, so they never feel the lack we felt. And we run ourselves into the ground trying.

    In this conversation, Mary, a mom of three, brings Michelle exactly that ache. She feels responsible for holding every role, and she's exhausted. What unfolds is a gentle unraveling of the belief underneath it. You cannot give your child everything, and you were never supposed to. The one thing they actually need is connection, and connection is not about quantity or covering every base. It's about being your fullest, most grounded self, and letting that be enough.

    Join us on our Weekly Training every Thursday at 9:30 am PT live on Zoom
    Interested in coaching? Let's have a conversation
    Check out my book UNPUNISHED
    Join us inside Skool

    Follow Peace and Parenting:
    Instagram: @peaceandparenting
    Facebook: @peaceandparentingla
    YouTube: @peaceandparentingla

    💌 Enjoy today’s episode? Please share it with a fellow parent or leave a rating and a review.

    Feeling called to bring this work to other parents? Our Coaching Certification Program trains you to do exactly that. DM me CERTIFICATION on Instagram for details.

    Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

    Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
  • Peace and Parenting: How to Parent without Punishments

    Your Kid Doesn't Need Two Houses That Agree, They Need One That's Safe

    11/08/2026 | 23 mins.
    We've all been told the same thing. Kids need consistency above everything else. The same rules, the same bedtime, the same consequences in every home they live in. So when the other parent won't get on the same page, we panic. We send the articles. We lecture. We build the case. We pour ourselves into a fight we were never going to win, and we call it love.

    But here is the truth. Your child is not destabilized by two different sets of rules. They already know the rules at school are not the rules at Grandma's. They code-switch all day long, and it does not break them. What actually costs them is the whiplash of two adults at war. You do not have to parent the same. You just have to build one safe home, and that is entirely yours to do.

    Join us on our Weekly Training every Thursday at 9:30 am PT live on Zoom
    Interested in coaching? Let's have a conversation
    Check out my book UNPUNISHED
    Join us inside Skool

    Follow Peace and Parenting:
    Instagram: @peaceandparenting
    Facebook: @peaceandparentingla
    YouTube: @peaceandparentingla

    💌 Enjoy today’s episode? Please share it with a fellow parent or leave a rating and a review.

    Feeling called to bring this work to other parents? Our Coaching Certification Program trains you to do exactly that. DM me CERTIFICATION on Instagram for details.

    Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

    Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
  • Peace and Parenting: How to Parent without Punishments

    Rewards Are Punishments in Disguise

    04/08/2026 | 10 mins.
    For years, I thought I was doing everything right. I had left the yelling behind. I praised my girls constantly; I made star charts. I was a trained teacher and a school counselor, and I believed with my whole heart that catching kids being good was the kind, positive way to parent. I thought I was building my daughters up. What I could not see was that I was quietly teaching them that my warmth was something they had to earn.

    The thing that cracked it open for me was watching my sensitive oldest, Esme. She had decided her teacher loved her or hated her depending on how many stars she got that day, and she was holding it together at school and falling apart the second she got home to me. That was when I realized the reward system I was fighting at her school was the same one I had been running at home. In this episode, I share what I learned: why praise and punishment are not opposites, why the carrot stops working, and what to say to your child instead so they grow up knowing who they are rather than watching you to find out who to be.

    Join us on our Weekly Training every Thursday at 9:30 am PT live on Zoom
    Interested in coaching? Let's have a conversation
    Check out my book UNPUNISHED
    Join us inside Skool

    Follow Peace and Parenting:
    Instagram: @peaceandparenting
    Facebook: @peaceandparentingla
    YouTube: @peaceandparentingla

    💌 Enjoy today’s episode? Please share it with a fellow parent or leave a rating and a review.

    Feeling called to bring this work to other parents? Our Coaching Certification Program trains you to do exactly that. DM me CERTIFICATION on Instagram for details.

    Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

    Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
  • Peace and Parenting: How to Parent without Punishments

    Play Instead of Punishment

    28/07/2026 | 18 mins.
    When your child is being hard, what is the first tool you reach for? A countdown. A consequence. A lecture. A raised voice. Almost every one of those is a version of the same instinct: when my child gets hard, I get harder. It makes complete sense, because that is exactly what we were taught to do. In this episode, I am making the case for the opposite. The single most powerful thing you can do in your hardest parenting moments is not bring more pressure. It is to bring more play.

    I know exactly what some of you are thinking: play rewards bad behavior. Actually, it does the opposite. A hard behavior is a child who is stuck, and play dissolves the stuckness. Hard moments call for seriousness. Actually, a serious face reads as more of a threat to your child's nervous system, and threat escalates behavior. Play is for little kids. Your teenager did not stop playing. You did.

    This episode dismantles the three biggest myths that keep parents stuck, then hands you the tools to try tonight.

    Download the Play Guide
    Join us on our Weekly Training every Thursday at 9:30 am PT live on Zoom
    Interested in coaching? Let's have a conversation
    Check out my book UNPUNISHED

    Follow Peace and Parenting:
    Instagram: @peaceandparenting
    Facebook: @peaceandparentingla
    YouTube: @peaceandparentingla

    💌 Enjoy today’s episode? Please share it with a fellow parent or leave a rating and a review.

    Feeling called to bring this work to other parents? Our Coaching Certification Program trains you to do exactly that. DM me CERTIFICATION on Instagram for details.

    Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

    Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
  • Peace and Parenting: How to Parent without Punishments

    Your Neurodivergent Child Doesn’t Need a Different Parent

    21/07/2026 | 20 mins.
    When Cammie's son began struggling with school, anxiety, and sensory challenges, she heard the same message so many parents hear: maybe he needed a different approach. But instead of abandoning connection, she leaned into it, and watched something remarkable happen.

    In this episode, Coach Cammie shares her family's journey, from heartbreaking school drop-offs to the moment her son was finally ready to walk into school on his own. Together, we explore why neurodivergent children don't need a different kind of parent, they need the same foundation of connection, offered with even more understanding, patience, and trust.

    Join us on our Weekly Training every Thursday at 9:30 am PT live on Zoom
    Interested in coaching? Let's have a conversation
    Check out my book UNPUNISHED

    Follow Peace and Parenting:
    Instagram: @peaceandparenting
    Facebook: @peaceandparentingla
    YouTube: @peaceandparentingla

    💌 Enjoy today’s episode? Please share it with a fellow parent or leave a rating and a review.

    Feeling called to bring this work to other parents? Our Coaching Certification Program trains you to do exactly that. DM me CERTIFICATION on Instagram for details.

    Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

    Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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About Peace and Parenting: How to Parent without Punishments
Are you sick of parenting with the ideas of yelling and shame and looking for something that feels better, is different, but still has a sense of boundaries and limits?Welcome to Peace and Parenting! Michelle is a former teacher, counselor, certified parenting coach, mom of two teens, recovering yeller, and perfectionist who parents without using punishments altogether. And guess what? It works! On this show, you’ll learn the how behind having kids who are entirely UNPUNISHED but who are also successful, kind, loving, and know how to follow directions. Once a week, Michelle shares her insights and expertise on connective parenting through solo episodes and interviews with experts and other struggling parents. If you have exhausted all other options and don't know what to do next, this could be the parenting strategy you've been searching for.
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