Eight Meet Nine: A Parenting Podcast Jess and Jeff Johnson

 After finishing college, I taught high school English for seven years. And these years were, without question, some of the best years of my professional life. Now as you can imagine, with a love for classroom education that shaped the trajectory of my college years, post-graduate years, and early professional life, the decision to home school my own kids… feels… a little… in-congruent. But when you are married, and raising kids, there are usually two stories at work. Sometimes in conflict, sometimes in concert… but there are two. 

Jess attended school in just about every way one possibly could.... private school... cyber school... home school. And one thing is for certain... she knew education didn’t have to be conventional at all.

This episode isn’t about the conflict and discussions and arguments that landed us at the decision to homeschool. I’m sure that will come someday. But with so many folks now considering (perhaps unwillingly) the homeschool, blended learning context, I am interested in how Jess has invited our kids into this world of learning and how she has approached integrating education into our every day lives in these formative years.


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Of all the questions we ask ourselves as we age, there is one thread that haunts us with a familiar type of dread... "Am I becoming my mom? Am I becoming my dad?"  And it is a strange thing to behold as the virtues and vices of our own parents start to show up in the way we manage our own children. In some cases it seems almost subversive as we recall those moments when we were children, promising oursleves, "I will never be like my parents!" 

In this episode we sit down with Chris Morrow and explore this question... Are we destined to become our own parents? And if not, are there steps we can take to address our own childhood wounds in an attempt to raise our own children in a healthful way?


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Here is the full interview with Kelly LaPorta, LMFT on imaginary play. Kelly unpacks the developmental benefits of this play form and gives shape to the different ways we, as parents, can access our kids needs in this context.

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Imaginary play is something that comes easier to some parents than others. Jeff seems to wield this power to capture our kids attention and imagination by creating worlds missions, and games with simply the props he has at his disposal. I want to know if he has any strategies that I can use to be better at this type of play and have more fun doing it.


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More often than not, all of our kids' needs tend to align as they compete with demands, and needs, and requests. On this episode, we discuss these moments of alignment. I want to know how Jess triages the simultaneous demands of our children when they all pour in at the same time.


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This is a show about being married and being a parent, and it’s also a show about discovery and transformation amidst the chaos of two people approaching marriage and kids from vastly different angles. This is a space dedicated to those conversations.


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