The Whinypaluza Podcast

Sending a child to college changes parenting overnight. Parents want to stay involved, but college students need room to advocate for themselves, make decisions, handle conflict, and ask for help.

In this episode of The Whinypaluza Podcast, Rebecca Greene welcomes her special friend Kate Burrow, a higher education professional with more than 20 years of experience working with college students. Kate also helped Rebecca navigate Max’s first year of college, making this conversation especially personal.

Kate offers honest, practical advice about college move-in day, homesickness, academic expectations, roommate problems, campus resources, career exploration, internships, and the difficult transition from managing a child’s life to supporting a young adult.

Listeners will learn:

✓ Why students who struggled in high school may be better prepared to persist in college.

✓ How parents can support their college students without immediately stepping in and taking over.

✓ What to say when a student calls home and says, “I hate it here.”

✓ Why “optional” tutoring, study sessions, and review classes should rarely be treated as optional.

✓ How communication, practical life skills, and asking for help can determine whether a college student struggles or thrives.

Kate also reminds parents that an uncomfortable experience is not necessarily an unsafe one. College students need the confidence to handle hard moments, use available resources, communicate with roommates, and solve problems while knowing that their families remain firmly in their corner.

Listen to The Whinypaluza Podcast on Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-whinypaluza-podcast/id1534167756

Please like, follow, and share the podcast with another parent preparing for the college years.

About Kate Burrow

Kate Burrow holds a Master’s degree in Higher Education Administration and has more than 20 years of experience working with college students at colleges and universities across the country. She has taught numerous career and major exploration courses, as well as college success courses designed to help students navigate academic and personal transitions.

Kate has also earned a certificate in Leadership Coaching and is currently learning to become a Proactive Conversations conflict management communication facilitator.

She is a wife, a mother of two, and enjoys reading, attending theater events, and arts and crafts.

Summer can be joyful, chaotic, and surprisingly difficult for working moms. The children are home, schedules constantly change, the house is rarely quiet, and getting through a simple workday can feel nearly impossible.

In this Whinypaluza Wednesday episode, host Rebecca Greene and her husband, Seth Greene, share an honest and funny conversation about “summertime mom mode.” Rebecca explains why doing less during the summer does not mean you are failing. It may mean you are choosing connection, sunshine, friendship, and memories over an impossible standard of productivity.

Rebecca and Seth discuss making time for outdoor breaks, planning vacations and social activities, trying summer hobbies, protecting personal time, and giving yourself permission to serve an easy dinner and leave the laundry for a rainy day.

In this episode:

✓ Why being less productive during the summer does not make you lazy.
✓ How working parents can create small opportunities to enjoy the season.
✓ Why you should schedule the activities you keep talking about doing.
✓ How lowering expectations around meals, chores, and the perfect house creates room for connection.
✓ Why moms may need more personal time when family demands increase.

Listen to The Whinypaluza Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-whinypaluza-podcast/id1534167756

Remember to like, follow, and share this episode with another mom who is deep in summertime mom mode.

Technology is changing faster than most parents can keep up, and our children are growing up in a world unlike anything previous generations experienced.

In this powerful episode of Whinypaluza, Rebecca Greene welcomes Teodora Pavkovic, Director of Wellbeing and Parent Advocacy at Qustodio, for an honest conversation about raising children in today's digital world.

Together they explore the realities of screen time, social media, gaming, online bullying, sleep disruption, and the growing influence of artificial intelligence in children's lives. Rather than focusing on fear or guilt, Teodora explains why curiosity, communication, and connection remain a parent's greatest tools.

If you've ever wondered whether your child is spending too much time online, how to respond to cyberbullying, or why AI is becoming a trusted companion for many teenagers, this conversation will leave you informed, encouraged, and better prepared.

In this episode you'll learn:
✔ Why healthy technology use looks different for every child
✔ The warning signs that technology may be affecting emotional wellbeing
✔ How to respond when your child experiences online bullying
✔ Why conversations work better than knee-jerk reactions
✔ Practical ways to create healthy digital boundaries at home
✔ How late-night screen use affects sleep, emotions, and decision making
✔ Why more teens are turning to artificial intelligence for advice and companionship
✔ How parents can stay involved without constant conflict
✔ Ways to build digital resilience instead of relying only on restrictions
✔ Simple conversations every family should be having about technology

Technology is part of our children's future, but strong family relationships can remain the foundation that guides them through it.

Teodora Pavkovic is the Director of Wellbeing and Parent Advocacy at Qustodio, a global leader in digital safety and family wellbeing tools. With a background in psychology, child development, and parent advocacy, Teodora helps families better understand how technology, social media, gaming, and artificial intelligence are shaping children's emotional health, relationships, and development. She is passionate about helping parents raise digitally healthy kids while protecting the family connections that matter most.

Connect with Teodora

🌐 https://www.qustodio.com

Learn more about Qustodio's family safety resources, parental controls, and digital wellbeing tools.

If this episode helped you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with another parent navigating today's digital world.

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Confidence is not something parents can simply talk their children into having. It grows through action, practice, mistakes, hard moments, and the willingness to try again.

In this honest and practical Whinypaluza Wednesday conversation, Rebecca Greene and Seth Greene explore how parents can strengthen their own confidence while helping their children do the same. Rebecca shares why avoiding difficult situations can make fear grow, while taking action, even when nervous or uncertain, shows both parents and children what they are capable of.

They also discuss the hidden damage caused by constant criticism, comparison, overthinking, and taking other people’s behavior personally. Rebecca reminds parents that their voices often become their children’s inner voices. When parents recognize effort, normalize mistakes, and model resilience, children learn to trust themselves.

Confidence does not require the absence of fear. It comes from feeling the fear, doing the hard thing, and discovering that you can handle more than you thought.

In This Episode
✓ Why building a child’s confidence often begins with the parent.
✓ Why children need opportunities to do difficult things without being rescued.
✓ How avoidance allows fear and anxiety to grow.
✓ Why noticing what children do well is more powerful than constantly correcting them.
✓ How recovering quickly from disappointment builds resilience.

A Powerful Reminder for Parents

Children are always watching how the adults around them respond to uncertainty, mistakes, fear, and disappointment. Parents do not need to be perfectly confident. They need to demonstrate what it looks like to move forward despite feeling uncomfortable.

Let children try. Let them struggle appropriately. Let them make decisions, learn from the outcome, and discover their own abilities. The goal is not to remove every hard experience. The goal is to help children believe they can handle hard experiences.

Listen, follow, and share this episode with a parent who may need the reminder that confidence is built one brave decision at a time.

https://linktr.ee/whinypaluzamom

What if becoming a better parent has less to do with changing your child and more to do with healing yourself?

In this powerful conversation, Rebecca sits down with Janet Philbin to explore conscious parenting, emotional healing, and why the relationship you have with yourself shapes every relationship you have with your children. Janet shares practical ways parents can pause rather than react, set healthy boundaries without punishment, and begin to break generational patterns with compassion rather than guilt.

Key Takeaways
Why conscious parenting starts with the parent, not the child
How unresolved emotional wounds affect everyday parenting
The difference between reacting and responding
Why naturally occurring consequences work better than punishment
Simple ways to practice self-compassion and emotional regulation

Final Thoughts

Parenting isn't about being perfect. It's about becoming more aware, more connected, and more compassionate with yourself so you can show up differently for the people you love most.

Connect with Janet Philbin
Website: https://janetphilbin.com
Book: Show Up for Yourself
Instagram: @janetphilbin
Facebook: Janet Philbin

Listen to more episodes of Whinypaluza:
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