Megan Barella

🌟 Free Reconnect with your Teen Virtual Summit starts tomorrow! 🌟

Here is the link to join us:
https://meganbarella--peacefulhome.thrivecart.com/best-of-reconnect-teen-summit-vip/6030af27ff090/

50 speakers! I'll be talking about Parenting as Healing. 🩷

🩷 Free Events for Parents 🩷
Join us. ✨

❇️ For Parents of Young Children:
Growing Together in the Early Years
Tuesday, May 12th at 6 pm
Click here for the details and to register:
https://library.cedarmill.org/adults/parent-info-series/
Cedar Mill & Bethany Community Libraries

❇️ For Parents of Teens:
Reconnect with your Teen Virtual Summit
Begins May 18th.
Click here to register:
https://meganbarella--peacefulhome.thrivecart.com/best-of-reconnect-teen-summit-vip/6030af27ff090/

Hope to see you there, and invite your community.
🩷✨❇️🩷

The world is on fire.
Everything is ssssooo expensive.
Parenting has never been more stressful.

That's why I'm happy to be partnering with two great events to offer FREE parenting support for parents!!

Parent Information Series - Cedar Mill & Bethany Community Libraries You are your child’s most important teacher, and we’re here to help. Our Parenting Collection is full of materials about growth and development from birth through teen years. Our youth services librarians have expertise in early literacy, child development and children’s and young adult liter...

Best practices in school (and at home) for neurodiverse learners are best practices for all students.

Individual students' IEPs and accommodations that: can take years to obtain; schools may/may not have the support and education to implement; will eventually sink under-resourced schools is NOT the goal imo.

The goal IS rather widespread transformation in the shift from behaviorism to brain-based discipline in schools.

Where does that begin?

A small, but big step is instead of asking:
"What is the consequence for that?"

We start asking:
"What is the solution?"
"What unmet needs is this behavior communicating?"

This shift takes no more/less time to implement, but it is more effective!

It also requires training and support for staff - and the belief that we can consciously choose to invest time and energy into our young people proactively, rather than reactively. ❤️🚸❤️

Discipline means to teach and guide, not punish.
And remember that in 2021 a National State of Emergency was declared on Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Young people today have been through a lot and it is our duty as their stewards to protect and guide them to the best of our ability.

We are parenting in a world we were never raised for.

It is possible to:

▪️Align our parenting values with our discipline practices.
▪️Lead with both empathy and empowerment at the same time.
▪️ Be that secure base for our kids that we never had growing up.

It just might take some time to get there.

So, if you're struggling with your young person, please know that you're not alone.

I'm here to support you every step of the way, and am just a message or an email away.

You can start your Happy Home journey today, embodying the unconditional love and mutual respect that this generation is here to teach us. 🩷

The promise and the potential of parenting this generation. 🩷

We are parenting in a world we were never raised for.

It is possible to:

▪️Align our parenting values with our discipline practices.
▪️Lead with both empathy and empowerment at the same time.
▪️ Be that secure base for our kids that we never had growing up.

It just might take some time to get there.

So, if you're struggling with your young person, please know that you're not alone.

I'm here to support you every step of the way, and am just a message or an email away.

You can start your Happy Home journey today, embodying the unconditional love and mutual respect that this generation is here to teach us. 🩷

2016 was about...
Wooden blocks for hours
Sand boxes
Art and science projects
Library and scooters
almost every day after school
House full of kids all day everyday

2016 was about...
Living in 3 different homes 🤷‍♀️
Learning how to use the riding lawn mower
Unexpectedly trying on wedding dresses to raise awareness for victims of trafficking
Online dating before the pandemic made people weird

2016 was about...
Family visiting from abroad
Endless beach days
Friends that are still family

2016 was about...
Blogging
Working at my son's school
Teaching in the community

2016 was about....
Loving the kids who are teens now when they were littles.

A decade ago that feels both like a lifetime and a blink of an eye. 🩷

A legal observer is not a protestor.
Not that any protestor should ever be shot and killed.
Protesting is protected under this shaky Constitution of ours.

As someone who has gone through the legal observer training, it is strictly enforced that we do NOT EVER interfere with ICE activities.

That is NOT the role of the legal observer.
Being a legal observer is a volunteer, professional role.

To say that Renee Nicole Good was trying to run over ICE agents is an outright lie.

ICE is a terrorist organization.

As we mourn Renee's life, let's also remember the 32 people who died in ICE detention in 2025 alone.

Renee's life is no more or less valuable than the innocent people slaughtered in ICE detention.

And if ICE felt comfortable murdering an innocent person in PUBLIC yesterday and then denying her medical access, what are the ICE terrorists doing behind closed doors?

Now is an important time to get involved with the Immigrant Rights Coalition and/or Migrant Watch in your community. Donate, train, show up, even just getting on the email list.

The irony of 2025?
My intention/words for the year were "Be alive 2025."

And this year, I often felt exhausted, disengaged, internal, inertia, uninspired. The state of the world, this country, policies of fear, chaos and oppression definitely had a large part to do with it.

But, on a personal level, I've seen it myself and with clients too ... Often the intentions we set test us. And to get to the other side, to light at the end of the tunnel, we go through the opposite. That's the healing.

That was part of 2025 for me.

Here is what 2025 taught me.
The 7 lessons I'm carrying with me into 2026.

🩷 May we experience more love and joy in 2026
than the year before.

May pain give way to wisdom and compassion.

May ICE be abolished.
May this administration end.
May justice give way to peace.

May all beings be happy and free.
May the road rise up to meet us.

May we support and uphold one another.
May we carve time for laughter and dance.

May we create our happy homes
and a bright future for the next generation.

To all good things to you and your family in 2026 and beyond. 🩷

Love,
Megan

PS Would you share your top lessons from 2025 with me? I'd love to hear! 🩷✨⤵️