SYPM 004: Conflicting cultures! with Dovilė Šafranauskė

My guest on today’s episode in the Sharing Your Parenting Mojo series is Dovilė Šafranauskė, who joins us from Lithuania. Dovilė has discovered respectful parenting and her husband is on board, but many of the central tenets of RIE go very much against how children are raised in Lithuanian culture. Dovilė wonders how she can work with her parents – who look after her children regularly – to help them feel more comfortable with RIE, as well as what to do with Aunty Mavis whom her toddler twins see a couple of times a year and who insists on a kiss as a greeting.   Dovilė is also a sensitive sleep coach with focus on following natural baby sleep paterns, advocating for gentle sleep interventions and finding tairored solutions that fit best with the needs of the whole family. Her business is called Miego Pelytes, which means Sleep Mice in Lithuanian, and refers to her twin daughters. Click here to learn about Sleep Mice   Parenting Membership  If parenting feels really hard, and it seems like you’ve read all the books and you’ve asked for advice in free communities and you’re tired of having to weed through all the stuff that isn’t aligned with your values to get to the few good nuggets, then the Parenting Membership will help you out.   The Parenting Membership is now open for immediate enrollment. Sign up now!   Jump to highlights 00:59 Introduction to the episode and guest Dovilė from Lithuania 02:53 How Alfie Kohn's Unconditional Parenting changed Dovilė's approach 05:01 Navigating conflict with grandparents over parenting style 08:15 The trigger: children who don't want to be touched or picked up 10:18 Dovilė's own childhood memory of discomfort with kissing relatives 17:09 What shifted the grandparents: modeling and calm conversations 19:40 Connecting body autonomy to the wider MeToo conversation 22:43 Addressing an incident later, instead of in the heated moment 24:20 A practical idea: physically shielding kids during greetings 26:09 Making a firm decision together as parents to hold a boundary