Power of Families Radio

Power of Families Radio is a parenting podcast that treats the household as the place where character actually gets built. Host Saren Loosley works from the specific toward the general. A tuck-in, a savings jar or a pile of Santa letters becomes the way into a bigger question about gratitude, responsibility or generosity. Episodes take a few different forms. In some, Saren talks through a practice her own family has tried, like the bedtime habit in 'Two Game-Changing Daily Parenting Practices', where a parent tells a child about something good they noticed that day. She describes the payoff as working both ways: the child drifts off feeling appreciated, and the parent spends the day looking for the good instead of only noticing the mess. Others are encores from the archives, conversations with April, who runs the sister website Power of Moms. These cover the feelings that come with sending kids back to school, and a family trip that took in 12 national parks during a month of camping. The back-to-school conversation includes a memory of a make-believe preschool, complete with a backpack, a cubby by the front door and a walk around a tree to get there. It is a small scene, and typical of how the show makes a point. Guest interviews carry the heavier subjects. In 'How To Porn Proof Our Kids', Kristen Jensen, author of Good Pictures, Bad Pictures, takes on the worry that mentioning pornography might make a young child more curious. Her answer is that curiosity is safer with a parent close by than alone on the internet or with a friend. In 'Teaching Kids to Share, Save and Spend Smart', John Lanza describes money as a tool and argues that children need physical money in hand to practice with, because otherwise the lessons stay abstract. 'Less Materialism and More Joy at Christmas' answers a season of sales and wish lists with a family tradition: a yearly children's concert that raised money for an organization helping orphans in Bulgaria, with Saren's own children taking on more of the planning each year. The pacing is unhurried, and conversations leave room for asides, second thoughts and small confessions before they settle on advice. The tone stays warm even when the subject turns serious, and the advice is framed to reassure rather than scold. For a first listen, the tuck-in episode offers the easiest practice to try the same night. The Kristen Jensen interview is the one to hear before a young child gets regular time with a phone. Most episodes close by pointing to poweroffamilies.com for articles and more episodes.