How Not to Screw Up Your Kids
Channel Details
How Not to Screw Up Your Kids
Hello, I'm psychologist and parenting expert Dr Maryhan and this is How Not To Screw Up Your Kids, the podcast for parents, grandparents, educators, and anyone else who wants to be part of a movement to raise confident children who grow up believing in themselves.Follow now for twice weekly episodes...
Recent Episodes
448 episodes
The One Conversation Every Parent Should Have With Their Child Before September
Whether your child is starting reception, moving into secondary school, returning to a familiar classroom, or stepping into a brand‑new environment li...
3 Conversation to Have with Your Child After Results (For Any Grade)
Results week doesn’t end on results day - in fact, the days and weeks following results day is where the real emotional work happens.
In today’s...
GCSE Results Day: What Your Child Needs From You in the Next 24 Hours
GCSE results day isn’t really about grades - it’s about emotions. Everyone is feeling a lot of things, from the moment you wake up, to opening that en...
Bucket Emptying: 5 Ways to Support Your Teenager When Plans Change
If your teenager’s exam results were not what you expected, your plans might be making some sudden changes. That’s ok, and this episode is for you.
What to Say to Your Teenager on Results Day (Whatever the Grades)
Results Day is one of the most emotionally-charged moments in your teenager’s life, and what you say in the first hours after they open that envelope...
Bucket Emptying: One Rule for Screens This Summer
A must‑listen for every parent navigating the screen‑time battle this summer!
Today, I cut through the overwhelm with one simple, highly effecti...
Screen Time, Sleep, and Your Child's Mood: What You Are Missing
Screens aren’t just distracting your child - they’re quietly disrupting the one thing their brain and body cannot function without: sleep. And when sl...
Bucket Emptying: 5 Things to Say When Your Child Won't Try Something
Fear of failure is one of the most misunderstood challenges parents face, especially when you’re raising a bright, capable child who refuses to try an...
When Your Child Won't Try Anything New: Fear of Failure and the Resilience Gap
If you’re watching your bright, capable child refuse to try anything unless success is guaranteed, this episode is going to feel like oxygen.
I’...
Bucket Emptying: Five Ways to Support Your Sensitive Child Without Wrapping Them in Cotton Wool
In this episode, I’m tackling one of the most confusing challenges parents face: how to support a highly sensitive child without wrapping them in cott...
Highly Sensitive Children: Is It Anxiety, Neurodivergence or Just Who They Are?
In this episode, I’m diving into one of the most misunderstood traits I see in children every single week: high sensitivity.
If your child feels...
How to Survive the First Week of the Holidays
In this episode, I will walk you through the real first week of the school holidays - the meltdowns, the boredom, the clinginess, the explosions over...
Why Anxious Children Struggle in the Holidays (and What Actually Helps)
Summer holidays are tough for parents, but it can be a hidden superpower! In this episode, I explain exactly why anxious children struggle the moment...
What to Say When Your Child Says "I Give Up"
In today’s bucket‑emptying episode, I’m giving you the exact words to use in one of the hardest parenting moments: when your child looks at you and sa...
Why I'm Only Just Being Diagnosed: Neurodivergence, Perimenopause and Parenting
If you’re a woman in your 40s or 50s who feels like everything has suddenly become harder - the brain fog, the overwhelm, the burnout, the emotional c...
Three Signs Your Daughter Needs an ADHD Test
If your daughter is “fine at school” but falling apart at home - the meltdowns, the morning battles, the homework explosions, the constant need for yo...
ADHD in Girls: Why It's So Often Missed and What Parents Need to Know
If you’re parenting a girl who is anxious, overwhelmed, explosive at home, masking at school, or constantly burning out, this episode will give you an...
My Child Won't Stop Comparing Themselves to Their Sibling
If your child is constantly shouting “It’s not fair!”, measuring every biscuit, bedtime or privilege against their sibling, and turning every moment i...
Who's the Favourite? Birth Order, Sibling Rivalry and Why It Matters
If you’ve ever worried about sibling rivalry, felt guilty about how your attention is divided, or wondered whether your children secretly believe you...
What to Say When Your Child Says 'I'm Not Good Enough'
When your child looks at you and says, “I’m not good enough,” it hits you in the chest. Every instinct you have wants to fix it, to tell them they’re...
My Child is a Perfectionist: When High Standards Become Anxiety
If your child is melting down over tiny mistakes, refusing to start homework, or abandoning activities the moment they stop being “naturally good,” th...
Three Practical Strategies to Help Your Distracted Child Focus
If your child can spend 45 minutes sharpening pencils, rearranging their desk, or “revising” without absorbing a single thing, you are not imagining i...
Why Your Child Can't Concentrate: Focus, Distraction and ADHD with Professor Sam Wass
If you’ve ever wondered why your child can spend 40 minutes talking about Minecraft but can’t concentrate for four minutes on homework, this episode e...
5 Questions to Ask Your Worried Child Tonight
If your child is anxious, you already know how hard evenings can be. You sit beside them wanting desperately to help, but every time you try to reassu...
When Your Child Won't Stop Worrying
If your child is melting down over homework, asking endless “what if” questions, getting mysterious tummy aches, refusing school, withdrawing from act...
Bucket Empyting: One Thing to Say to Your Son Every Day to Build His Confidence
If you’re raising a boy, you already know this: you can believe in him with your whole heart, and still watch him struggle to believe in himself.
How Not to Screw Up Your Kids - A Podcast for Parents from a Child Psychologist Who Gets You
If your child is melting down, shutting down, refusing school, avoiding sleep, snapping back, or clinging to you because something feels “wrong” but t...
Raising Confident Boys
If you’re raising a boy right now, you already know this: the world he’s growing up in is tougher, louder, and more confusing than ever, and the crack...
When Siblings Are Stuck Together
If your children have been at each other all week, this episode will change everything.
I’m diving into one of the biggest sources of family str...
Why Parenting Feels Harder Than Ever
You don’t need more time with your child. You just need five intentional minutes.
And in this episode, I’ll show you exactly why those tiny mome...
Back-Chat, Boundaries, and What Your Child is Really Trying to Tell You
Back‑chat isn’t your child being “difficult” - it’s a message. And in this episode, I’m going to show you how to finally hear it.
If you’re deal...
The Meals That Carry Us Through Hard Seasons with Helen Hopkins
In this episode, you’ll discover a completely different way to think about feeding your family - one that saves you time, money, stress, and emotional...
Good Parents Doubt Themselves Too
We all have an inner critic. Even us parents.
In today’s episode, I explore one of the most overlooked but powerful ways to lighten your emotion...
Homework: Building Persistence, Resilience & Independence
Hands up if you like homework…
Me neither.
But homework isn’t just a task to be completed. It’s a powerful opportunity to build persistenc...
Bucket Emptying: Living with Parental Guilt
In today’s bucket‑emptying episode, I explore what it really means to live with parental guilt - that ever‑present tug that arrives the moment we beco...
What Every Parent Needs to Know About Siblings
Do you have more than one child?
Are they constantly fighting for your time and energy?
So how do you parent siblings?
In today’s ep...
Bucket Emptying: Does Distraction Tame a Tantrum?
In this episode, I will explain the viral “Where’s Jessica?” distraction trend and discover whether it truly helps your child manage big emotions.
Helping Children Manage Uncertainty
In today’s episode, we will explore how to help your child navigate life’s inevitable uncertainties, from exam results and friendship turbulence to sc...
Bucket Emptying: Foundations to Building Confidence
In today’s bucket-emptying episode, you’ll learn the three essential foundations your child needs before confidence can grow.
If you’ve got a ch...
What I Know for Sure About Raising Confident Kids
Today is my birthday, and it’s become a tradition of mine to reflect on life and what I’ve learned. So this year I’m reflecting in public, on the podc...