Parents Making Time with Anthony & Jennifer Craiker | Intentional Parenting for Busy Parents

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• Facing Mental Health Issues Together as a Family 05.06.2026 15dk

  What happens when one child's struggles affect the entire family? Mental health challenges among children and teens are more common than many parents realize. Yet many parents feel overwhelmed when a child is dealing with mental health challenges. It's easy to become so focused on helping the child who is struggling that siblings feel forgotten, communication breaks down, and parents end up carrying the burden alone. In this deeply personal episode, Anthony and Jennifer share their fami...
• Motherhood | An Interview with Jennifer Craiker 08.05.2026 20dk

  Have you ever wondered how motherhood changes you over time? Not just through the sleepless nights, busy schedules, teenage struggles, and constant responsibilities, but deep down, in the person you become along the way? In this deeply personal episode Anthony sits down with Jennifer for an honest conversation about more than 22 years of motherhood, parenting teenagers, building strong family relationships, and preparing for the empty nest season. Together, they talk about the emotional highs...
• The Importance of Parenting with High Love & High Expectations 24.04.2026 13dk

  What if the very thing you think is “loving” your kids… is actually holding them back? As busy parents, it’s easy to fall into the trap of making life easier for our kids. We may step in when things get hard, lower expectations to avoid conflict, or prioritize their happiness over their growth. But over time, this well-intentioned approach can leave kids unprepared, less resilient, and unsure of what they’re truly capable of. The truth? Many of us unknowingly separate love and expectations, b...
• How to Overcome Marital Dissatisfaction While Raising Kids 10.04.2026 16dk

  Is your marriage getting lost in the rhythm of everyday life? In the middle of busy parenting, managing schedules, responsibilities, and constant demands, it’s easy for your marriage to slowly shift into the background. Not because anything is “wrong.” But because everything else feels more urgent. That’s the mistake many couples don’t even realize they’re making: Letting their relationship run on autopilot while they focus on being great parents. Over time, conversations become about logisti...
• The 60 Seconds that Shape Your Relationship with Your Kids 27.03.2026 16dk

  When everything goes wrong in a parenting moment, what matters more—the mistake or your response to it? As busy parents, it’s easy to react in the heat of the moment, especially when our kids make mistakes that cost time, money, or peace of mind. In those tense situations, frustration can take over before we even realize it. But what if those same moments, the ones that feel overwhelming, are actually some of the most powerful opportunities we have to shape our relationship with our kids? In ...
• 5 Keys to Connecting with Your Kids in the Car 13.03.2026 15dk

  Have you ever noticed that some of the most meaningful conversations with your kids happen when you least expect them, like during a car ride? For many busy parents, the car is simply a place to manage logistics. You're getting kids from school to activities and back home again. But what if those ordinary drives could become one of the most powerful opportunities for intentional parenting and connection? In this episode of Parents Making Time, Anthony and Jennifer Craiker explore how si...
• Listener Announcements 06.03.2026 1dk

  Check out our new website at https://www.parentsmakingtime.com/ Easily improve your intentional parenting efforts at mealtime with our FREE resource, Dinner Conversation Starters. Download our FREE resource, 30-Second Micro Moments of Intention with Your Kids, created for busy parents like you who need easy, actionable ways to have daily meaningful connections with their kids in less than a minute! Parenting Questions? Email us at parentsmakingtime@gmail.com (Please note, your question may be...
• Why Parent Burnout Doesn't Mean You're Failing 27.02.2026 10dk

  Have you ever had one of those weeks where you’re technically “showing up" but you don’t feel like yourself? For busy parents, burnout doesn’t usually explode into your life. It builds quietly. You start forgetting small things. Your patience gets thinner. You feel stretched in ways you can’t quite explain. And then comes the dangerous thought: “I should be handling this better.” So many intentional parents assume that if they’re overwhelmed, they must be doing something wrong. We compa...
• 5 Steps for Solving Any Parenting Problem 20.02.2026 13dk

  Have you ever been so desperate to solve a problem with your child that the harder you tried, the worse everything seemed to get? As busy parents, we feel a deep responsibility to protect, guide, and help our children. Whether it’s anxiety, school, or preparing for adulthood, we instinctively jump into problem-solving mode when they are struggling. We research, we analyze, and we worry. But often, the more intensely we focus on the problem, the more frustrated, overwhelmed, and emotionally dr...
• 3 Parenting Shifts to Make as Your Kids Grow Up 13.02.2026 14dk

  What happens when your child no longer needs you—but still needs you? For years, you’ve guided, protected, corrected, and directed. You’ve worked hard to practice to intentionally parent your infant, toddler, teenager. But when your child becomes an adult, everything changes. And here’s the mistake many busy parents make: We don’t adjust. We keep controlling instead of influencing. We keep fixing instead of coaching. We hold on to being needed instead of embracing being chos...
• A Simple Way to Create a Lasting Legacy 06.02.2026 12dk

  What will your kids still have from you when you’re no longer there to guide them? So many of us spend years chasing accomplishments, careers, and milestones. We think we know what success looks like. But when you slow down and really think about it those aren’t the things your children will treasure most. Here’s the hard truth: If you don’t intentionally capture your stories they will disappear. Busy parents often assume journaling takes too much time, requires great writing skil...
• The 3 Most Important Phrases You Can Say As a Parent 30.01.2026 10dk

  Have you ever assumed your kids just know you love them even if you don’t always say it out loud? As busy parents, it’s easy to focus on schedules, discipline, homework, and getting through the day only to miss the small, intentional words that actually build trust and connection. Maybe you’ve lost your patience. Maybe pride made it hard to apologize.Maybe you thought, “They already know how I feel.” But the truth is that unspoken love, unspoken gratitude, and unspoken repair slowly create di...
• Should You Monitor Your Kid's Phone? 23.01.2026 9dk

  When you hand your child their first phone, are you trusting them or protecting them? For many busy parents, giving kids a smartphone feels like a parenting milestone you’re never fully ready for. You want to build trust. You want to respect privacy. You don’t want to be “that parent.” But today’s phones aren’t just phones. They’re constant access to social media, messaging apps, strangers, addictive algorithms, and content our kids’ developing brains aren’t prepared to handle alone. And if y...
• 3 Easy Ways to Create Core Memories with Your Kids 16.01.2026 13dk

  Are you a busy parent who feels pressure to create “perfect” family moments—but still worries you’re missing what really matters in parenting? In the middle of full schedules, work demands, and daily responsibilities, many busy parents believe meaningful memories require big trips, extra money, or elaborate planning. That mindset can quietly pull us away from intentional parenting and leave families feeling disconnected—even when everyone is technically together. The truth is, some of the mos...
• 1 Habit to Quickly Improve Your Marriage and Parenting 09.01.2026 11dk

  What if the tension you’re feeling at home isn’t just about your kids, but about the connection you’ve lost with your spouse? As parents, we spend so much time pouring into our children that our marriage often gets whatever is left over—if anything at all. Date nights feel inconvenient, expensive, or impossible, especially when life is busy and you’re already exhausted. But here’s the truth: when your marriage relationship suffers, everything in your home feels harder. It affects your patienc...
• Debunking the Myth of "Balance" in Parenting 02.01.2026 11dk

  What if the reason parenting feels so overwhelming isn’t because you’re doing it wrong, but because you’re chasing a version of “balance” that was never realistic to begin with? So many busy parents feel like they’re failing because life doesn’t look perfectly balanced — work, kids, marriage, home, hobbies, all neatly managed at once. When reality doesn’t match that picture, guilt and stress creep in fast. In today’s episode of Parents Making Time, we challenge the myth of balance in parentin...
• Merry Christmas! 23.12.2025

  No new episode of Parents Making Time this week. Merry Christmas to you and your family! Make time to become the parent you want to be! Easily improve your intentional parenting efforts at mealtime with our FREE resource, Dinner Conversation Starters. Download our FREE resource, 30-Second Micro Moments of Intention with Your Kids, created for busy parents like you who need easy, actionable ways to have daily meaningful connections with their kids in less than a minute! Parenting Questions? Em...
• How to Easily Prevent Parental Burnout 19.12.2025 14dk

  What if the parenting stress you feel isn’t from parenting itself, but from being the only one holding everything together? So many busy parents fall into the quiet habit of carrying the entire load—the dishes, the laundry, the dog, the clutter, the schedules—while hoping their kids will “just pitch in.” But without clear expectations, kids don’t know how to help, and parents end up exhausted, frustrated, and burned out. In this episode, we’re sharing simple, practical strategies for teaching...
• How to Manage the Unnecessary Anxiety of Parenting 12.12.2025 11dk

  Parents, have you ever felt torn between expert parenting advice and your own motherly or fatherly instincts? Recommendations that once felt like hard rules can completely reverse over the years. When advice changes, parenting can feel confusing and overwhelming. Parenting anxiety can be a real challenge. So many parents rely solely on experts and forget the powerful intuition they already have. When advice constantly changes—from peanut butter rules to sleep positions to breastfeeding recomm...
• Simple Ways to Improve Family Connection 05.12.2025 16dk

  What if the strongest memories your kids carry into adulthood come not from vacations, but from small everyday traditions at home? We often think family traditions are reserved for holidays—Christmas, birthdays, vacations—but research shows that rituals and routines play a powerful role in shaping family culture, kids’ identity, emotional wellbeing, and long-term connection. When life gets busy, family bonding and intentional parenting often take a back seat. Before we know it, we’re missing ...