CTFD | Bridget Barrett-Parker

Bridget Barrett-Parker found out when she was 25 years old that she was pregnant. As she became a single mom, she grappled with what was happening, how she got there and how to move forward. In this episode of Prickly and Blooming, Bridget talks to host Jessie Browning about this experience and how parenting and becoming a Montessori teacher formed her business, Stable Bow Consulting, that she describes as helping parents CTFD ("calm the fuck down").

Episode Timeline:

• [00:03] Intro
• [03:33] Meet Bridget Barrett-Parker
• [04:22] Becoming a single mom
• [06:11] Finding out she was pregnant
• [09:08] Returning to the states
• [14:33] The pandemic opened her eyes
• [20:54] Being home with her children
• [29:10] Starting Stable Bow Consulting
• [34:38] The mindset is the most important piece
• [42:24] A learned helplessness
• [47:09] What she does with her consulting business
• [52:19] Contacting Bridget Barrett-Parker
• [52:56] Jessie's rapid fire questions
• [57:34] Outro

Resources Mentioned:

• Montessori education
• Aaron Carter
• Go, Dog. Go! by P. D. Eastman
• Kahlil Gibran
• On Children by Kahlil Gibran
• Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself by Melody Beattie

Standout Quotes:

• "For the next 10 years, just kind of buckling down, diving into my role as montessori teacher and learning as much as I could, committing fully, and then stepping away and saying, ‘You know what, my family needs me right now. I'm home. I'm dedicated to what I'm doing,' and just realizing again like ,'Wow, I really don't like being a stay-at-home mom.'" -Bridget Barrett-Parker [04:11]
• "COVID brought up so much in this beautiful opportunity that I don't think that we necessarily get, you know, when the bus is running full steam, but it's also really painful. It's really painful to step back and to pause and to question, to constantly question yourself as exhausting." -Bridget Barrett-Parker [17:52]
• "Having that experience earlier in life of going through, again what felt like rock bottom, gives you the perspective and the space to say ‘Pause, I've done hard things before and I can do hard things again, and this won't last forever.'" -Bridget Barrett-Parker [21:42]

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Learn more about Bridget Barrett-Parker:

Stable Bow Consulting website

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