I met Marcy Axness on Twitter, when my childhood hero Raffi had glowing things to say about her. Did you know that Raffi and I are totally Twitter buddies? It’s true. It may also be true that my inner six-year-old lets out an audible shriek every time he replies to me. But this is all an aside, because today I’m all about Marcy.
Before she had kids, Marcy was an Emmy-winning documentary writer and producer. Post-kids, she is an educator with a private counseling and consulting practice. Plus she has a PhD. This woman is no slouch. She’s also the author of the recently-released book Parenting for Peace, about raising our children to be peacemakers. It all sounds a little bit woo woo, but it’s based on hard science. Basically, it’s about using what we know about infant and child development to raise kids who are intelligent, imaginative, trusting, empathetic and have a strong inner balance.
When I sat down to interview Marcy for our podcast, I was planning to speak to her for 20 or 30 minutes. Somewhere around the 27 minute mark I knew I was nowhere near finished. I found Marcy to be a really compelling person to speak with. In fact, our conversation caused me to make a fairly fundamental shift in how I parent. She breaks down a lot of complex research into easy-to-understand pieces, and helps parents to work through their own feelings around how they approach life with their children. 
Marcy is authentic and easy to relate to. When she talked about her feelings of rage as a new mom, I found myself nodding along. She’s not sugar-coating parenting here, she’s giving you useful tools to make it better. In the process, she doesn’t just help to create more peaceful kids, she helps to create more peaceful parents. If you could use a little more peace in your life (and really, what parent couldn’t?) you’ll want to listen to my interview with Marcy Axness:
Interview with Marcy Axness, Author of Parenting for Peace [ 27:49 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadNext week on the podcast I’ll be sharing the rest of my interview with Marcy Axness. She’ll be talking about the three biggest mistakes that she sees parents making. This is the part that caused me to totally shift the way I parent my own kids, and you don’t want to miss it. Subscribe to the Strocel.com podcast in iTunes, and you’ll hear every last bit!
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Amber…
I just want to say how extraordinary I think our conversation was… not because of me, but because of YOU. You allowed yourself to be open to… to be moved through… and be changed by some of these basic Parenting for Peace principles. And there is the beauty of this approach: it isn’t some monolithic, stand-alone body of brilliant work, but rather a SYNERGY of scientific, evidence-based guidelines interacting with a parent’s own inner life. And you embraced that right in the real-time moment of our conversation, which was simply gorgeous. Thank you.
Twitter: AmberStrocel
says:
Aw, thank you so much Marcy. I have a feeling we could have talked for HOURS.
Twitter: kellynaturally
says:
…your own self-awareness helps shape your child… & …guilt is sometimes easier to feel than sadness… <– WOW.
This was a really awesome interview, Amber & I can't wait to hear the 2nd part! ((hugs))
ps: Now, I really want to read this book!!!!
Twitter: AmberStrocel
says:
Isn’t Marcy great? I really want to read this book, too!