The FYBS Playbook: Big Feelings, Real Caregiving from Toddlers to Teens

We have been asking caregivers to stay regulated, to co-regulate, to repair, to notice, to show up. Today Sandy and Jess stop and ask: what makes that possible? When a caregiver is running on empty, co-regulation isn’t just hard — it is emotionally a... more

Clinginess at 4. Stomachaches at 9. Avoidance at 13. Shutdown at 17. These aren’t different problems — they’re anxiety showing up in different ways across development. In this episode, Sandy and Jess trace anxiety across the full span of childhood an... more

Loneliness isn't the absence of people. It's the absence of being truly seen — and we're finding it everywhere: in kids who are constantly connected and completely alone, in teachers nobody pours back into, in families invisible to the systems meant ... more

Every caregiving relationship breaks. The question isn't whether it will, it's what happens next. This episode is all about the rupture-repair cycle – what it looks likes across ages, from toddlers who can't yet process words to teenagers who can't p... more

Big feelings don't stay home. In Episode 2, Sandy and Jess dig into why the adults who meet children's emotions beyond the four walls of home — teachers, coaches, grandparents, mentors — are just as important to emotional development as parents. They... more

Every caregiver has been blindsided by a child’s emotions. In this episode, Sandy and Jess name why that happens, why it’s developmentally normal, and why it matters that we stop pretending anyone warned us.