ASK MAMMA

Paula
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Ask Mamma is a podcast for parents of teens who are done with advice that sounds good but doesn't survive contact with a real teenager. Host Paula - Balkan mom, strategist by trade - applies two decades of professional experience in communication, negotiation, and crisis management to the hardest years of parenting. Strategic, upfront conversations about decoding your teen, fixing the connection, and building something that actually holds up. New episodes weekly.

  1. Aug 10

    How to Negotiate with Your Teen Like a PRO

    Every argument with a teenager feels like a courtroom battle, and somehow you're the one losing. In this episode, I break down how to stop the endless power struggles and transform your communication. Whether you're trying to get them to clean their room, set a curfew, or put their phone down, or they are pushing for more freedom, you need a strategy that doesn't rely on screaming or caving. In this episode, you'll learn: - 4 moves for when you're the one asking (chores, rules, phones). - 4 moves for when they're the one asking (curfews, outings, privileges). - 2 universal moves to separate the person from the problem and find the real need behind the demand. - The one line that ends the shouting matches for good.JOIN THE STRATEGY: https://askmammapodcast.com/SUBSCRIBE here for The Weekly Bit for parents who'd rather be useful than right: https://preview.mailerlite.io/forms/1870992/185543592196966262/shareMy TEEN Resources here: https://askmamma.etsy.com #parentingteens #Teenager #ParentingAdvice #FamilyDynamics #GentleParenting #AskMamma #TeenBehavior

  2. Aug 3

    Parenting Mistakes: What Kids Hear When You Talk About Them

    Discover the silent damage of overheard conversations and what your teenager actually hears when you talk about them. In this episode I explore why the words you say when you think the room is empty carry the most weight. CHAPTERS:- The SHADOW- The first trap- Telling the world- Telling each other- Telling their secret- What you can't see, you can't repair- Lay the good words lying around- What Else You Can Do- How to repairJOIN THE STRATEGYhttps://askmammapodcast.com/SUBSCRIBE here for The Weekly Bit for parents who'd rather be useful than right: https://preview.mailerlite.io/forms/1870992/185543592196966262/shareMy TEEN Resources: https://www.etsy.com/shop/AskMammaMusic from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/ilya-kuznetsov/expansionLicense code: FX1JSKIPZGQ2OUVD

  3. Jul 29

    Who’s REALLY Influencing Your Teen??

    Peer influence rarely looks like dramatic peer pressure - it happens silently through proximity and what becomes "normal" inside a friend group.In this episode I dive into a practical, low-pressure strategy to know your teen’s inner circle without interrogating or surveilling them. Discover how turning your home into the ultimate "Hangout House" gives you an invisible front-row seat to your teen's world.What You'll Learn in This Episode:- The Silent Power of Proximity: Why close friends shape your teen more than teachers or values taught at home.- The "Hangout House" Setup: Why the moving parent is invisible and how to design common spaces teens actually want to stay in.- The 1-Day Advance Rule: Creating practical agreements with your teen so you can prepare the right environment.- Kitchen & Table Operations: Using proper meals and warm pancakes to lower guard and extend conversations naturally.- Car Ride Intelligence: Why teenagers talk open-heartedly in moving vehicles.- Friend Group Red & Green Flags: Watching who makes your teen feel "larger" vs. "smaller".- Handling Problematic Friends: What to do when you don't like a friend (without driving your teen away). FREE: The Teen Decoder - what they're actually saying when they say nothing: https://askmammapodcast.com/decoderSUBSCRIBE HERE for The Weekly Bit - one useful thing a week for parents of teenagers: https://preview.mailerlite.io/forms/1870992/185543592196966262/share

  4. Jul 28

    The Social Skill Chat Can't Teach Your Teen

    Your teen has four thousand messages going this week. Group chats at midnight, six people, a conversation that never ends. And a friend twenty minutes away they'll text forty times and never see.It doesn't look like a problem. It looks like a thriving social life.This episode is about what's underneath all that talking - why the most connected generation in history is arriving at adulthood unable to read a face, sit in silence, or repair a friendship. And why the damage is silent at fourteen and deafening at twenty-two.Chat isn't the villain. For a lot of kids it's a lifeline. The problem isn't that they chat, it's what else is in the diet.You'll leave with one question that tells you in ten seconds whether your kid's texting is healthy or whether it's quietly become the whole show. And the low-effort move that fixes it without taking a single thing away.Put the social skills back in your teen's hands: the teen-facing sheets, the social toolkit, and the communication system. The stuff chat will never teach them: https://www.etsy.com/shop/AskMamma FREE: The Teen Decoder — what they're actually saying when they say nothing: https://askmammapodcast.com/decoderSUBSCRIBE HERE for The Weekly Bit — one useful thing a week for parents of teenagers: https://preview.mailerlite.io/forms/1870992/185543592196966262/share

  5. Jul 16

    You CAN'T Take The Phone Away

    You took your teenager's phone away, and within a week it was back and nothing had changed. Here's why confiscation, screen-time apps, and phone contracts all fail with teens, and what actually builds a kid who can put it down on their own.The problem was never your teen's willpower. It's that the phone was engineered by some of the smartest, best-funded people alive to be impossible to put down - and a house rule can't beat that. In this episode I break down why taking the phone away backfires three ways (more wanting, no skill, less visibility), why screen-time locks stop working the moment your teen turns about fifteen, and the shift that actually works.🎧 The TEENS & SCREENS bundle - the business-model explainer, the noticing log, and the exact conversation scripts, done for you: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4465062677/screen-time-reset-for-teens-phone-habitJOIN THE STRATEGYRead the AskMamma Notes & My Story: https://askmammapodcast.com/SUBSCRIBE HERE for The Weekly Bit for parents who'd rather be useful than right: https://preview.mailerlite.io/forms/1870992/185543592196966262/share

  6. Jun 29

    Why Your Teenager Ruins Every Family Vacation and How to Fix It on the Spot

    You planned it for months. And your sulking teenager is standing in front of something beautiful, staring at their phone, not caring a bit. The family holiday they didn't choose, don't want to be on, and can't get out of - and somehow everyone ends up miserable in paradise, then goes home and calls it "lovely."Here's the part most parents miss: the sulk isn't about the destination, and it isn't ingratitude. It's about a trip that was decided for them and announced to them - all take, no stake. In this episode I break down why the holiday meltdown is actually rational from where your teen is sitting, why "do you know how lucky you are?" makes it worse, and the one move that turns it around, even three or six days into a trip you already planned without them.No gentle-parenting scripts, no guilt. Just what actually works when you're stuck in a beautiful place with a kid who won't get off the phone. My FREE PDF 'Teen Behavior Decoder': https://askmammapodcast.com/behavior

  7. Jun 22

    Surviving a Teenager Home All Summer (Without the Power Struggle) - Whose Summer is This?

    Your teenager is home all summer: sleeping till noon, glued to the phone, and somehow every single day turns into the same small fight. Here's how to handle it without nagging, without surrendering, and without it taking over the whole break.Summer pulls the structure out from under everyone overnight. School ran the day for ten months; now it's gone, and you're left renegotiating screens, sleep, and the shape of the day every morning. In this episode I break down why that fight is so exhausting, why it's not really about the screens at all, and the few things actually worth holding the line on.📄 FREE companion — "Pick One Thing": a teen summer skill-app list, with the time-wasting apps flagged honestly. → https://drive.google.com/file/d/16a09dAXArtxZ4nwhkcDTTZ-DPsahBurs/view?usp=sharing🗓️ Teen Summer Routine (printable set) — the floor, done for you: morning & evening anchors, bedroom reset, activity menu, and an 8-week log. → https://www.etsy.com/listing/4514030053/teen-summer-routine-editable-dailyWe get into:– Why "whose summer wins" is the real fight (and how naming it ends half of it)– The floor, not a cage: the 3–4 anchors that keep the summer from rotting– The one conversation worth having about not wasting the summer — said once, never nagged– Screens: why the battle isn't about hours, and what to negotiate instead– Restorative drift vs. real withdrawal — how to tell resting from disappearing🎧 New here? Ask Mamma is the parenting-teens podcast for parents who'd rather be useful than right. Direct, honest, no fluff.https://askmammapodcast.com/Subscribe here for The Weekly Bit for parents who'd rather be useful than right: https://preview.mailerlite.io/forms/1870992/185543592196966262/share#parentingteens #teenagers #summerbreak

  8. Jun 12

    How to Raise a Teen Who Gets Invited Back -The Guest Skills No One Teaches

    My FREE PDF 'Teen Behavior Decoder': https://askmammapodcast.com/behaviorMy TEEN GUEST PDF KIT: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4514627099/teen-sleepover-guide-guest-etiquette-for Most parents think they've covered this. "Be polite, say thank you, don't be noisy." That was the briefing for a 7-year-old - and it's nowhere near enough for a teenager staying overnight in someone else's home.Being a good guest is a skill, not an instinct. And when a teen gets it wrong, nobody laughs it off, they just quietly decide not to invite them back, and your teen never finds out why. This episode is the full briefing that should happen before the bag gets packed - covering all three sides almost everyone misses:🔹 THE SENDING PARENT - what to check, what to tell the host family, and the two very different kinds of "hovering" (one is distrust of the family; the other is your own separation anxiety routed straight through your kid).🔹 THE RECEIVING FAMILY - how to actually prepare to host someone else's teenager, why bedtime has to apply to everyone, and the trust that makes future stays possible.🔹 WHAT YOUR TEEN NEEDS TO KNOW - the real social skills: which rules don't travel, how to speak up instead of shrugging, how to handle small talk with the adults, when politeness must NEVER override saying "I'm allergic to that," and the behaviors that get teens quietly uninvited.Plus the one question to ask when they come home - and it's not "did you have fun?"

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About

Ask Mamma is a podcast for parents of teens who are done with advice that sounds good but doesn't survive contact with a real teenager. Host Paula - Balkan mom, strategist by trade - applies two decades of professional experience in communication, negotiation, and crisis management to the hardest years of parenting. Strategic, upfront conversations about decoding your teen, fixing the connection, and building something that actually holds up. New episodes weekly.

Information

  • Creator
    Paula
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Paula
  • Show Website
    ASK MAMMA