
Parent Driven Development
Episode 067: Goodbye, for now.
1:00 Parent Driven Development reflects on what it’s like being a panelist on the podcast
Imposter syndrome
Multiple purposes to be an effective parent
Expanding perspectives, ideas, and parenting techniques
Ability to relate with one another
8:40 What we hope to our listeners take away from the podcast
There is no one way to parent
You’ll continue to grow as a parent
You are not alone - every parent, kid, family, circumstances are different
13:30 What would we have done differently?
Earlier sponsorship
Episode format
16:15 Parting words for listeners
Thank you!!
You’re doing a great job.
17:17 Final genius and fail moments
Chris Sexton’s daughter uses the word arithmetic with her peers, but no one knows the word leading her to question whether her parents played a prank on her.
Allison calms down her family with deep breathing after her daughter has a potty accident.
KWu’s 3-year-old son feels super proud after helping shovel the snow, and he helped!
Chris Arcand finds the perfect snow sled for his son to be towed around in the deep Minnesota snow.
How can I support the podcast?
Please follow us @parentdrivendev on Twitter or email us at [email protected].
Our website is at ParentDrivenDevelopment.com.
Chris Arcand
Chris Sexton
KWu
Allison
Mar 31, 2021
28 min

Parent Driven Development
66: Finding a new job during the pandemic.
Welcome, Jean Hsu!
Jean Hsu is a writer, coach, and software engineer turned leadership coach after working for a decade in Silicon Valley. She is the VP of engineering at Range Labs and Co-founder of Co Leadership, which focuses on filling the gaps in leadership development in the tech industry. Jean doesn’t miss writing code, but she does miss deleting it.
0:53 Finding a new job during the pandemic
Desire strikes for leadership
The hiring process
5:20 How did the pandemic change your thought process
Intentionality of specific desires - management, leadership, flexibility
Enjoying the journey rather than letting comparison or stress take over
7:30 What would Jean do differently now?
Finding ways to lean into async communication with a remote team in different time zones, while keeping the team engaged and connected with each other
Hybrid mix of in-person and remote is the future for companies
13:13 Pre-pandemic commute tales
Feels like a different lifetime
15:40 New expectations for Range during the pandemic
Getting rid of the 9-5; windowed work with colored labels
Core hours for team meetings
Setting boundaries
19:40 Genius and fail moments
KWu closed her son’s fingers between a door hinge… #fail
Allison’s daughter turns 3 and shines at her yearly doctor's appointment. #genius
Jean downloaded TikTok and discovered the best parenting hack to tell your kids to do a task, rather than ask. #genius
Chris brings back his daughter's love of Star Wars. #genius
How can I support the podcast?
Please follow us @parentdrivendev on Twitter or email us at [email protected].
Our website is at ParentDrivenDevelopment.com.
Allison
KWu
Chris SextonSpecial Guest: Jean Hsu.
Mar 17, 2021
29 min

Parent Driven Development
Episode 065: Teaching Programming to Kids with Felienne
Welcome, Felienne!
Felienne is the creator of the Hedy programming language, and was one of the founders of the Joy of Coding conference. Since 2016, she has been a host at SE radio, one of the most popular software engineering podcasts on the web. Felienne is the author of “The Programmer’s Brain” a book that helps programmers understand how their brains work and how to use it more effectively. In 2021, Felienne was awarded the Dutch Prize for ICT research.
0:50 How does Felienne become interested in programming education?
Research field towards programming education
Love of kids
3:33 Methods and strategies to help kids understand
Relevant for professionals
Full concentration disables full memory, so she lowers the cognitive load
After time, memory starts to build and functioning increases
6:02 Maximizing different learning styles in kids
Learn their preferences
Challenges their default learning style
9:57 Felienne’s new book
How people learn programming
The more information you know about your brain can help you understand how you learn
11:40 Interesting findings
Cognitive load
14:00 Top tips related to programming
Refactoring for personal comprehension
Let go of one golden standard that code is suppose to look like
17:29 Specific differences between professionals and kids
Motivation
Concrete vs open ended expression
20:50 - 1 take away
Take the kids hands, and guide them
22:20
Allison and her husband score a few days each solo as they transition back into their home #genius
Felienne’s students fuss over the different symbols of division in coding #fail
How can I support the podcast?
Please follow us @parentdrivendev on Twitter or email us at [email protected].
Our website is at ParentDrivenDevelopment.com.
Allison Special Guest: Felienne Hermans.
Mar 3, 2021
27 min

Parent Driven Development
Episode 064: Moving and Renovating
0:30 Moving and renting realities
KWu moves
Allison’s home renovations
Preparation before the kids
4:30 Toys
Ethical parenting of getting rid of toys
Hiding and cleaning out old toys from the kids (out of sight out of mind)
10:05 Establishing new house rules
Setting realistic expectations on new floors, new rooms, new finishes
Furniture socks
Furniture caster cups
Respect and Take Care of Things
Learning to get along book series
18:35 Caution police in new house
Acceptance is key
Roommates with no impulse control.. your kids. ;)
22:40 Genius and fail moments
KWu’s kids got into some old and slimy carrots meant for the compost.. But at least they’re eating vegetables!
Allison’s son gets shut down from her parenting synchronicity with her husband.
How can I support the podcast?
Please follow us @parentdrivendev on Twitter or email us at [email protected].
Our website is at ParentDrivenDevelopment.com.
KWu
Allison
Feb 17, 2021
27 min

Parent Driven Development
Episode 063: Fear in Parenting
0:40 Fear and stress of parenting
From independent… to having dependents
Trends of becoming more conservative once a parent
2:50 Decision making process
High alert, more burden than non-parents
Different decisions and problems at different stages of the kids
Background buzz of constant anxiety
6:40 Different stresses
Physical dangers for smaller kids, choking hazards
Trying to avoid helicopter parenting
Screen interest, programming, and patience
10:55 Big anxieties
Screen time !! Constant worry and stress for modern parents with kids
Augmenting reality through screens - stress for middle school aged parents
How to foster new sibling relationships
Siblings Without Rivalry - book
How to avoid middle child syndrome with three kids, carve out alone time with each child
Feeling guilty to tell kids to play by themselves.. But it’s also important to learn
21:35 Genius and fail moments from the last week
KWu moves to a new house and her son is waking every night from terrors or feeling too cold as she’s been keeping the thermostat down real low. #fail
Jess’s son is a pretty adventurous eater and recently discovered balsamic vinegar which is now a new favorite! #genius
Chris makes biscuits and conjures a family night which turned into a great family time. #genius
How can I support the podcast?
Please follow us @parentdrivendev on Twitter or email us at [email protected].
Our website is at ParentDrivenDevelopment.com.
Jess
Chris S
KWu
Feb 3, 2021
28 min

Parent Driven Development
062: Celebrating Our Favorite Episodes from the past 3 Years!
Episode Highlights
KWu, Chris, Josh, and Allison reflect on the past 3-years of podcasting. They touch on their favorite episodes and guests over the years, as well as some favorite parenting genius and fail moments!
1:30 Episode 43 - Managing parents on your team with Nick Means
3:10 Episode 19 - Being Adults, Live from Ruby Conf with Jonan Scheffler
7:25 Episode 11 - Being a Trans-Parent with Jess Szmajda
10:35 Episode 26 - Breastfeeding with Allison, Mandy, and KWu
13:06 Episode 13 - Babies at Work Program with Leah Silber
14:38 Episode 39 - Parenting Roles and Gender Equity with Richard Schneeman
15:50 Episode 34 - Extracurricular Activities with Barrett Clark
18:18 Episode 20 - Fertility Struggles with Adam Cuppy
19:55 Josh's rememberable genuis and fail moments
22:40 Genius / fails
Allison questions herself as a parent due to a Hanukkah gift gone wrong
Josh bans Elf on Shelf and his daughter starts to question Santa Claus
Chris nails the Christmas lights on his son’s bed.. But then begins to question everything when he begins to struggle getting his son out of the car to go to school.
KWu and her son enjoy a fresh snowfall!
How can I support the podcast?
Please follow us @parentdrivendev on Twitter or email us at [email protected].
Our website is at ParentDrivenDevelopment.com.
KWu
Josh
Allison
Chris S
Jan 20, 2021
37 min

Ep 61 : DHH on being Internet Famous with Kids
1:48 Welcome, DHH
David is the creator of Ruby on Rails, cofounder & CTO at Basecamp, best-selling author, Le Mans class-winning racing driver, frequent podcast guest, and family man.
2:50 Security concerns
Social Media
COVID times
Parenting boundaries
13:45 Privacy
Picture surplus
Authenticity
16:45 Engagement with parenting on the web
The highlight parenting reel
Avoid the humble brag as a parent
Internet jousts
DHH recommended books:
The Myth of the Spoiled Child - Alfie Kohn
Punished by Rewards - Alfie Kohn
* The Self-Driven Child - Ned Johnson
26:30 Introducing privileges to his kids
Capitalism
Against artificial constraints placed on by parents
A life not centered around materialism
The Road To Wigan Pier - George Orwell
38:38 Genius / Fails
Arit makes a crib boundary with a creative new upcycle
KWu wrestles with a photo book for her kids
Chris fails on fail this week
DHH is off by an hour as his kids come home right as this podcast starts
Allison’s daughter challenges her patience during bed time
How can I support the podcast?
Please follow us @parentdrivendev on Twitter or email us at [email protected].
Our website is at ParentDrivenDevelopment.com.
Allison
Chris S
Arit
KWuSpecial Guest: David Heinemeier Hansson .Sponsored By:Honeybadger: So Let’s face it, your code is going to have errors, even code written by an amazing developer such as yourself. When errors happen, it's nice to know that Honeybadger has your back.
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The included uptime and cron monitoring also lets you know when your external services are having issues or your background jobs go missing or silently fail.
Go to Honeybadger.io and discover how Starr, Josh, and Ben created a 100% bootstrapped monitoring solution.
Why is this important? Self funding means they only answer to you, the developer, rather than a venture capital overlord.
Visit Honeybadger.io today and mention this podcast to get started for 30% off
Jan 6, 2021
47 min

Ep 60 : Must Haves for Parents
Facebook Rabbit Holes for Parents + Kid Toys
Subculture for wooden toys
The Nugget couch
Parents become hyper focused on specific products
Careful what your Google
How to choose your Facebook groups
The Social Dilemma
Social media groups are "bad"/addicting, but also useful..
Geo-fencing - creating fairer ways for international purchases
The lottery
Lucie's List
Pandemic toys for the New Year
More pressure for parents
Moms targeted mostly in the Facebook Groups
Marketing kids toys with trigger language: “Investment piece”
Parents: You are doing a GREAT job.
Genius / Fails
KWu tries to rotate out toys and clothes for her son, but things aren’t going well.
Allison smoothly close out virtual Ruby conf while managing multiple interruptions from her kids
How can I support the podcast?
Please follow us @parentdrivendev on Twitter or email us at [email protected].
Our website is at ParentDrivenDevelopment.com.
KWu
Allison
Dec 23, 2020
28 min

Parent Driven Development
059: Hiring and Interviewing
Jess, Chris S, and Allison discuss the hiring and interviewing process in tech. They share their experience as the interviewee, as well as the interviewer. The team identifies the underlying bias in the process, good signs and bad signs, and why it's important to set up a potential interviewee in the best environment possible.
01:45 Hiring and Interviewing in tech
Jess writes a book and gets a new job
How to reduce bias in interviewing process
03:33 Tech interviews hinder parents and caregivers
Take-home vs pairing session
Hiring managers should set up the interviewee in the best possible scenario
6-8 hours for a take-home test, unrealistic for caregivings
09:50 How to access talent
Everyway is flawed
Take-home - kids constantly interrupting
Paired - many engineers are introverted
Solutions: Short at-home mixed with pairing, or problem prompt
13:30 Bias
How to reduce: rubric for every round, being aware of the bias
Allison asks about parental leave, and feels the tone shift drastically
Legal protection, but a lot of fuzzy areas
16:45 Good signs for parents interviewing
Its a non-event when a child pops into the room while on a call
Companies reward evenly
Talk with team members outside the interviewing committee
Talk with someone you relate to on the team, mom, trans, BIPOC, etc
20:30 Bad signs for parents interviewing
The entire tone changes after asking about parental leave..
Judgmental, leadership team of non-parents
22:00 Handing flexibility
Ask about parental leave, primary and secondary leave
Be honest with needs
Workplace flexibility
28:37 Genius / fail
Jess deals with her son having accidents constantly
Chris and his kids play board games and jam out to all songs names satellite
Allison’s daughter sparks chaos when she leaves her room after bedtime… but soon learns to stay in her room to tire herself out.
How can I support the podcast?
Please follow us @parentdrivendev on Twitter or email us at [email protected].
Our website is at ParentDrivenDevelopment.com.
Jess
Allison
Chris SSponsored By:The Preschool Box: Hey parents, whether you are going back to school or learning from home, the Preschool Box is here to help!
The Preschool Box is all about helping children unlock their potential by making learning FUN!
Each month, The Preschool Box will send you a box packed full of engaging and educational activities with a focus on reading and math skills that will prepare your little one for success in school. It’s AMAZING!
These monthly “work at your own pace” activities encourage learning, reading, and creativity in kiddos ages 3-6 and each box has an array of hands on activities, crafts, and worksheets -- which you can structure to match your child’s pace and level of development!
And the best part is that every box has a set of focus skills so each month you get new and exciting material to work on!
The work you do at home NOW with your kids is SO important for their future!
Let The Preschool Box help you and your child have fun learning together!
Head over right now to:
thepreschoolbox.com
and use code "PARENTDRIVEN" to get $5 off your first preschool box! Promo Code: PARENTDRIVEN
Dec 9, 2020
37 min

Parent Driven Development
Episode 058: Co-parenting with Brandon Hays
Welcome Brandon!
Brandon Hays is a dad and engineering leader based in Austin, TX. His professional mission is to help the tech industry improve by organizing people to accomplish things together in environments that recognize and support their "human-ness". His personal mission is to survive parenthood until the kids are in college.
02:40 Brandon's co-parenting
Starting with traditional gender roles
Co-parenting was a foriegn concept until remote work..
The invisible work becomes more visible
Covid has forced parents to confront the amount of work it takes to raise kids
06:30 Co-parenting during the pandemic
Awareness that things changed… kids cannot return to school
Brandon becomes the educator during the pandemic
The amount of work to parent became too high when everything shut down
Reworking the home dynamic when one partner needs help
Asking for flexibility in places where he had previous thought was not available before
10:53 Working out responsibility between partners
Clear contracts
Splitting up tasks and making them known to each partner
Alternating cooking dinner and clean up
Family clean day
Creating activities for kids, even after a long day
Check in with your partner, how are you feeling burden?
14:05 Recognize your partner's strengths
Being comfortable with how each partner co-parents
Recognition of each partner
Optimize each parenting style and continue to check in
Asking and taking the self-care when it is needed
17:30 Working together
19:10 How has Covid refocused things?!
Strengthened the team mentality
Hard to sustain the intensity of the pandemic
Constant change, the on-call parent
24:40 Prioritization - Do our actions line up with our values?
27:00 Take away: preserve time for planning and reflection
28:35 Genius / fail moments
Allison checks in while her son is in virtual school and feels major mom guilt…
Chris’s family visits and brings his camper for a huge win!
Arit slyly phases out her daughters stuffed animal #genius
Jess’s son goes full into minecraft, but it may be too much.. #possiblegenius
KWu repurposed geotags for wooden toys for her kids #genius
Brandon get creative taking pictures of his kids in their natural habitat
How can I support the podcast?
Please follow us @parentdrivendev on Twitter or email us at [email protected].
Our website is at ParentDrivenDevelopment.com.
Chris Arcand
Jess
Arit
Allison
KWuSpecial Guest: Brandon Hays.Sponsored By:The Preschool Box: Hey parents, whether you are going back to school or learning from home, the Preschool Box is here to help!
The Preschool Box is all about helping children unlock their potential by making learning FUN!
Each month, The Preschool Box will send you a box packed full of engaging and educational activities with a focus on reading and math skills that will prepare your little one for success in school. It’s AMAZING!
These monthly “work at your own pace” activities encourage learning, reading, and creativity in kiddos ages 3-6 and each box has an array of hands on activities, crafts, and worksheets -- which you can structure to match your child’s pace and level of development!
And the best part is that every box has a set of focus skills so each month you get new and exciting material to work on!
The work you do at home NOW with your kids is SO important for their future!
Let The Preschool Box help you and your child have fun learning together!
Head over right now to:
thepreschoolbox.com
and use code "PARENTDRIVEN" to get $5 off your first preschool box! Promo Code: PARENTDRIVEN
Nov 25, 2020
40 min
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