Loving Our Inner Child

This week we're discussing Loving Our Inner Child Even when you are doing your best as a parent, old reactions keep surfacing. You respond bigger than the moment calls for. Patterns you thought you had outgrown show back up. In this conversation, Robert Beeson, Founder & CEO of Solo Parent, and Elizabeth Cole, single parent, sit down with Michelle Chalfant, licensed therapist, holistic life coach, and author of The Adult Chair, to talk about the inner child, what it is, why it still shapes your daily life, and how doing this work can bring more peace to you and your home. A lot of solo parents are trying so hard to show up well, but underneath the effort are old beliefs quietly running the show. Harsh self-talk, disproportionate reactions, triggers that seem to come out of nowhere. These things matter because they do not just affect you. They shape the environment your kids grow up in. Understanding where they come from is the first step to changing them. Today, we cover three main points: The inner child is not a concept. It is a part of you. From birth to about age six, we form a roadmap of beliefs about ourselves and the world. That roadmap does not disappear when we grow up. It keeps running in the background, shaping how we parent, how we respond, and what we believe we deserve. The good news is it can be updated. Triggers are gifts in disguise. When something sets you off, it is not really about what just happened. It is a belief from early childhood rising to the surface. Michelle walks through a practical process for following that trigger all the way down to its root, transforming it, and climbing back up with something new and true in its place. Reparenting your inner child does not take hours. Consistency matters more than duration. A two-minute check-in, a quiet question, a moment of gentleness toward the younger version of yourself. These small acts begin to repair old wounds and slowly change the patterns you bring into your parenting. This work is not about going back and reliving the past. It is about finally giving that younger part of you what it needed, so the adult you are today has more room to breathe, more steadiness to offer, and more peace to pass on. Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Michelle Chalfant: The Adult Chair The Adult Chair by Michelle Chalfant Free inner child guided meditations and journaling prompts: theadultchair.com/innerchild The Michelle Chalfant Show podcast Metamorphosis Live Event (Charlotte, NC) — use code SOLO for $200 off: theadultchair.com/liveevent The Adult Chair Inner Child Course: theadultchair.com Stay Connected + Get Support: Download our Solo Parent App  Join a Solo Parent Online Group Learn more about Solo Parent Follow us on Instagram