The Middle School Mary Poppins Podcast

💜☂️ Are Screens Evil or Not? Chocolate Cake, Dopamine & the Middle School Brain | SEL Summer Camp Week 2
Why do kids seem glued to their phones? Why do texts, group chats, likes, and social media feel so important during middle school? And are screens really harming kids—or is the answer more complicated than that?
In Week 2 of our SEL Summer Camp collaboration with Mightier, Suzanne Swain, EdS, LMSW sits down with developmental scientist Jason Kahn, PhD, co-founder of Mightier, to explore what brain science actually tells us about technology, screen time, dopamine, emotional regulation, social media, friendships, and adolescent development.
Together, we discuss:
 🧠 The middle school brain and dopamine
 📱 Why social media feels so powerful
 🍰 The “Chocolate Cake Theory” of technology
 💬 Why kids see phones differently than adults
 ❤️ The importance of belonging during adolescence
 🎮 Healthy technology habits and screen balance
 🌱 Boredom, creativity, and imagination
 🏕️ Family conversations that reduce conflict and build connection
This episode helps parents, educators, counselors, and caregivers better understand how technology interacts with the developing adolescent brain—and how to guide middle schoolers toward healthier digital habits without shame, fear, or constant power struggles.
Special SEL Summer Camp Partner: Mightier
Mightier uses biofeedback-powered video games to help kids build emotional regulation skills in real time. Middle School Mary Poppins listeners receive 15% off with code MARYPOPPINS at Mightier.com.
📥 Download this week’s Summer Camp activity guide:
 msmarypoppins.com
📧 Questions or stories?
 SuzanneSwain@gmail.com
#Parenting #MiddleSchool #ScreenTime #SocialMedia #Dopamine #AdolescentBrain #EmotionalRegulation #SEL #SocialEmotionalLearning #ExecutiveFunctioning #Neurodiversity #TweenParenting #TeenParenting #ChildDevelopment #DigitalWellness #Mightier #MiddleSchoolMaryPoppins #BrainScience #ParentingPodcast #FamilyConnection

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☀️ SEL Summer Camp is Here!
Pack your curiosity, grab your emotional toolkit, and join us for a one-of-a-kind summer adventure!
Middle School Mary Poppins is teaming up with Mightier for a special six-week SEL (Social Emotional Learning) Summer Camp designed specifically for middle school families.
Together, we’ll explore the fascinating world of emotions, friendships, technology, anxiety, anger, communication, and the developing adolescent brain through engaging conversations, family activities, brain science, and practical tools you can use right away.
Joining Suzanne throughout the series is Jason Kahn, PhD, Chief Science Officer at Mightier, who brings years of expertise in developmental psychology, emotional regulation, and helping kids build resilience through play.
Each week we’ll tackle a new topic:
🧠 Week 1: S2 EP 28 - SEL Summer Camp Week 1 - Adolescent Brains: A Powerful Engine, Sensitive Alarm, & Driver Still in Training
Understanding the middle school brain and why adolescents think, feel, and react differently than adults.
📚Camp Week 1 Download:
https://www.mightier.com/resources/5-steps-to-unstick-your-thinking-for-parents/

💜This article contains a list of strategies for parents & families that prompt them to stop and reflect in the moment of disagreement or miscommunication with their child. The strategies help families separate out their own emotions and perspective in order to better see their child's perspective. 
Future Camp Sessions & Topics:
📱 Week 2: Are Screens Evil or Not?
Technology, dopamine, gaming, and finding healthy family balance.
🌊 Week 3: Oceans of Emotion
Exploring feelings, emotional awareness, and the surprising ways emotions work together.
🌱 Week 4: Garden of Weedy Thoughts
Understanding anxiety, self-esteem, and those pesky cognitive distortions that can take over our thinking.
🌋 Week 5: Volcano of Anger
Learning what lives underneath anger and how to regulate big emotions before they erupt.
🤝 Week 6: Social Skills Lab
Building friendships, communication skills, empathy, and confidence through connection.
Throughout the summer, families will receive conversation starters, activities, reflection questions, and practical strategies that make Social Emotional Learning fun, meaningful, and accessible.
Why MSMP is Partnering with Mightier
At Middle School Mary Poppins, we believe emotional regulation isn’t something kids magically know how to do.
It’s a skill.
And skills require practice.
That’s why we’re excited to partner with Mightier, a program that helps children build emotional regulation skills through biofeedback-powered games that teach kids how to recognize what’s happening inside their bodies and practice calming strategies in real time.
💜 Special Offer for Middle School Mary Poppins Families
Receive 15% OFF Mightier with code: MARYPOPPINS
Whether you’re a parent, grandparent, teacher, counselor, therapist, or simply someone who loves a middle schooler, this series is for you.
So grab your camp gear, bring your curiosity, and join us as we spend six weeks exploring the most important classroom your child will ever have:
Their brain.
See you at camp!
☂️ Suzanne Swain, EdS, LMSW
 Middle School Mary Poppins
🦊 Stay clever, little foxes
🏆Shoutout to StellaMix Studios for making this possible! 🤗🔥💜
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Middle school can feel like a daily showdown… until you realize the kid isn’t always the problem. Sometimes the kid is the signal.
In this episode of The Middle School Mary Poppins Podcast, Suzanne Swain, EDS LMSW explores the moments that make adults throw their hands in the air and ask, “Seriously?!” — and why that reaction is understandable, but often aimed at the wrong target. When behavior goes sideways, we tend to place the full weight of the situation on a 12- or 13-year-old navigating hormones, identity development, social pressure, emotional overwhelm, and a brain that is still developing impulse control and executive functioning. That isn’t an excuse for harmful behavior… it’s a roadmap for understanding it.
Drawing from years of real middle school classroom management experience, Suzanne walks listeners through a systems-based approach to behavior that focuses on emotional safety, clear expectations, simple procedures, and consistent boundaries. You’ll hear why consistency matters more than intensity, why fewer rules often work better than dozens of threats, and how becoming “annoyingly predictable” can actually help kids feel safer and more regulated. The episode also explores metacognition — the adult skill of noticing what’s happening internally before reacting externally — and how our own regulation often shapes the emotional climate around children.
But structure alone is never enough. Kids also need connection. This episode unpacks the idea of “connection before correction” and why trust, co-regulation, and emotional repair are critical parts of accountability. Suzanne also discusses some of the hidden stressors affecting today’s tweens and teens, including chronic sleep deprivation, overstimulation, emotional exhaustion, and constant screen saturation.
Blending neuroscience, humor, emotional critical thinking, and real classroom insight, this conversation offers a more compassionate lens for understanding middle schoolers without removing accountability or structure.
💜 ND Friendly Listening Note: MSMP is designed with neurodivergent listeners in mind. Ads and interruptions are intentionally kept to a minimum and placed thoughtfully for continuity and emotional regulation support.
☂️ ENTER THE NEW CONTEST: head to the website and join the mailing list for a chance to win a 45 minute family session with Suzanne! 
💜☂️Visit msmarypoppins.com for resources, updates, and ways to support the show.
Produced by StellaMix Podcast Productions. Reach out to my high school buddy Janine for all of your podcast needs as she is the wizard you need!
 🌐 stellamix.com
🦊Stay clever, little foxes. You got this! 

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Internet Culture & Emotional Health: The Safety Dance
feat. Adam Brooks, Program Coordinator from BARK Technologies adamb@bark.us
Special MSMP listener offer:
Use code POPPINS25 for $25 off any Bark phone model or watch (limit 2).  Learn more at: www.bark.us
Part 3 of our “Reimagining Screen Time” technology series focuses on one of the biggest modern parenting challenges of all: keeping kids safe online while still building trust, communication, and healthy independence.
Balancing screens with quality family time, creating intentional technology plans, and opening ongoing family discussions about devices and boundaries has become just as essential as having a family fire safety plan.
As an educational technologist and former middle school educator, Suzanne recently took a deep dive into researching modern family technology tools and discovered BARK Technologies. 
BARK has: more than 7 million users, strong professional reviews, extensive educational resources, and a kid & family-forward philosophy towatd devices and screen time.

BARK stood out as an innovative and highly acclained option for helping families navigate the digital world more safely together. 
What especially impressed Suzanne was Bark’s willingness to provide schools and educators with professional development and technology safety resources—even when schools are not purchasing products or services. That commitment to education, accessibility, and family discussion deserved a closer look.
So Suzanne invited Adam Brooks, Bark’s Program Coordinator and a former teacher himself, onto the podcast to discuss current research, internet culture, emotional health, and practical ways families can create healthier digital habits together.
Let’s face facts: middle schoolers are growing up in a digital environment that moves faster than most adults can realistically keep up with. Between social media pressure, group chats, cyberbullying, AI-generated content, online predators, and nonstop notifications, families are navigating challenges that simply did not exist a generation ago.
In this episode, Suzanne and Adam discuss:
Why middle school brains are especially vulnerable online
The emotional impact of social media and comparison culture
Cyberbullying, online predators, and digital safety
Healthy monitoring vs. invasive parenting
How to build trust instead of constant power struggles
Practical tools families can begin using immediately
Creating collaborative family technology plans that encourage communication and emotional safety
Bark Technologies offers monitoring tools, parental controls, screen time management, content filtering, and affordable kid-safe phones and watches designed to help families navigate technology in a healthier and more balanced way.
As always, Suzanne takes ethics very seriously. BARK Technologies did not pay for this review, testimonial, or discussion. This episode reflects Suzanne’s independent professional opinion after personally researching family technology options that are affordable, highly regarded, innovative, and capable of encouraging stronger communication and healthier family relationships around technology use.
🎉 Special MSMP listener offer:
Use code POPPINS25 for $25 off any Bark phone model or watch (limit 2).
Learn more at: www.bark.us
Questions about Bark’s services or educational partnerships can also be directed to Adam Brooks at adam.b@bark.us. He is excited to hear from you! Come back anytime! 

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Plain Talk: Dogs, Cats, & the Neurodivergent Brain (Unscripted & Unedited) 🐶💕🐱🥹
This episode is a different one, y’all!
No outline.
No “cheat sheet.”
No editing out the pauses or the “you knows.” 🤓🤫
Just a real “plain” conversation. I thought it would be fun to see what happens without my safe bullet points. 
💜 Give me about two minutes on this one—it settles in and gets really good. Besides, it’s all about FURRY FAMILY! 🤩 Animals are everything. Stepping out of your comfort zone can be a great experience. 
Middle school is a time when life feels unpredictable—friendships shift, social rules change by the hour, and for neurodivergent kids, sensory overload can turn an ordinary day into a storm.
So why do animals help so much?
In this off-the-cuff episode, we talk about dogs and cats not as “pets,” but as teammates—partners that help regulate a child’s nervous system in real, measurable ways.
We break down the neuroscience in plain language:
Petting an animal can lower cortisol, raise oxytocin, and help the brain feel safer. The limbic system begins to settle. The world feels different.
Then we get into what almost sounds unbelievable about dogs—their ability to detect emotional states through scent, track routines by “smelling time,” respond to subtle pressure changes, and hear what the rest of us miss.
If you’ve ever felt like your dog knew you were having a bad day before you did… you’re not imagining it.
And yes—we give cats their due.
Cats aren’t “less social.” They’re selectively social—wired for predictable, low-pressure connection. From the slow blink to their carefully chosen moments of closeness, we explore why cats can be exactly what an anxious brain needs.
You’ll also hear stories about Neville, a little “street council” energy, and the very real truth about loving animals—even knowing loss is part of the deal.
💬 Tell me: which animal has helped you (or your child) feel safe?
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New here? Start with “Ridiculous Joy” to get a feel for the heart of the show.
Want to reach out?
Suzanne M. Swain, EdS, LMSW
📧 suzanneswain@gmail.com
🌐 msmarypoppins.com
Produced by StellaMix Podcast Productions: https://stellamix.com/
Support the show:
If this episode helped your family or classroom, visit msmarypoppins.com and click Support the Show.
Your support keeps this podcast free, research-based, and centered on emotional health for kids—especially neurodivergent tweens and teens. 
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