One Hour a Week: How Storytelling Helped a Mother and Son Rebuild Their Bond | Kate Markland

Send us Fan MailOne hour a week with your child is a heartbreaking reality — especially when it is court-ordered. For Kate Markland, that painful limitation became the beginning of something unexpectedly beautiful: a mother and son rebuilding their bond through stories.In this episode of Women Like Me Stories & Business, Julie Fairhurst sits down with Kate Markland to talk about parenting connection, children’s creativity, storytelling, writing confidence, and the power of giving children permission to become the hero of their own story.Kate shares how she began reading aloud to her son over FaceTime, and how that simple act of connection grew into published children’s books and a classroom-tested method she calls StoryQuest.We talk about the heart and structure behind her approach, including:The storyteller and the scribe Why open-ended questions matter How messy bullet points can unlock creativity Why perfect paragraphs are not the starting point How illustrations can help reluctant writers How AI art tools can support imagination Why spelling and grammar should not be the gatekeepers of creativityThis conversation goes far beyond children’s writing. Kate explains why the blank page is not only a writing problem — it can also be a self-leadership problem.We discuss what happens when children are constantly corrected, how rules and bias can shrink young voices, and why girls especially may grow into women who silence parts of themselves long before they ever realize it.Kate also shares practical tools for hard seasons, including choosing one thing to win the day and naming three wins at night to build confidence, momentum, and resilience.This episode is for parents, teachers, writers, creatives, and anyone who cares about children’s voices, imagination, emotional connection, and reclaiming the parts of ourselves that were corrected, quieted, or left behind.Because sometimes a story is not just a story. Sometimes it is a bridge back to love.Subscribe for more conversations about women’s stories, writing, healing, parenting, creativity, business, and the courage to be heard.StoryQuesthttps://www.storyquestglobal.com/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kate-marklandIf this conversation stirred something in you… good. That’s where change begins.Make sure you’re subscribed, share this with someone who needs it, and if you’re ready to tell your story, step into your voice, or build a life that actually feels like yours… You’re in the right place.I’m Julie Fairhurst, and this is where stories turn into power.Go to my website if you would like to be a guest on the Women Like Me Stories & Business in the toolbar click Let's PodcastJulie's Website