Welcome to the very first episode of TMIT Teammates—our new segment where we talk with real families we love and admire about how they’re building culture at home.

Our first guest is our brilliant and adventurous friend Jennifer Zelman. Jen is raising a blended family across two continents—splitting time between New York and Rome—and in this episode, she shares what that experience has taught her about parenting, presence, and letting go of perfection.

We talk about everything from raising culturally open kids to releasing the pressure to optimize, and what it means to stay connected as a family when your environment is constantly shifting.

• How Jen and her husband decided to move their family to Rome
• What it’s like raising four kids in a blended household
• Letting travel shape your family values (without over-planning it)
• Teaching kids inclusion, resilience, and perspective through experience
• How Jen’s childhood shaped the kind of mother she wants to be today
• The beauty of doing hard things together—and the gift of slowing down

TMIT Teammates is about making the invisible visible—talking honestly about how families actually work, grow, and support one another in real life.

Thanks for listening—and thank you Jen for kicking this off with us. 🧡

“I want you to know joy, so together we will practice gratitude. I want you to feel joy, so together we will learn how to be vulnerable.” — Brené Brown, Wholehearted Parenting Manifesto

This week, we’re talking about Joy—what it feels like, why it can be so hard to stay with, and how we’re learning to welcome more of it into our family life. We talk about the kind of joy that sneaks up on you, the kind that’s layered with memory and meaning, and the kind that feels a little scary to fully experience.

We also talk about foreboding joy (thanks Brené), how joy has changed since becoming parents, and why practicing vulnerability and gratitude actually expands our capacity to feel it. Greg opens up about how mental health plays a role in how he relates to joy—and Danielle reflects on how she’s reclaiming personal joy outside of motherhood.

Plus: We introduce a new segment!
TMIT Teammates kicks off with our dear friend Jennifer Zelman, whose story of raising a blended family across Rome and New York is full of perspective, humor, and wisdom. She shares what living abroad has taught her about parenting, presence, and letting go of the pressure to optimize everything.

💡 Episode Highlights

• The difference between joy and happiness (and why it matters)
• “Layered joy” and the power of nostalgic moments
• Foreboding joy: when our brains rehearse tragedy instead of presence
• How Greg’s diagnosis shaped his relationship to joy
• The value of silly, spontaneous moments in building family culture
• Jen Zelman on travel, resilience, and raising culturally open kids

🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.
And stay tuned after the episode for TMIT Teammates—real talk with real families we love and admire.

🧡 As always, thanks for being here. If this resonated with you, share it with a friend or drop us a review—it really helps.

🎙️ Episode 15: Accountability & Respect

This week, we’re diving into two words that carry a lot of weight—and often get misunderstood in parenting: accountability and respect.

We unpack what these concepts really mean in a family setting (hint: it’s not about obedience), and how we’re trying to model them at home—imperfectly, but intentionally.

From birth stories to playground conflicts, we talk about:

• Why impact matters more than intent
• What Heart Repair looks like in real life (and how it’s based on Nonviolent Communication)
• How peer orientation pulled Greg away from his family too early
• And why “respect” might need a serious rebrand

We’re also sharing an experiment we’re trying with our kids—a Family Heart Repair Journal—to help build the muscles for empathy, reflection, and repair.

This one’s about power, connection, and the tools kids need to own their actions and stay close.

Resources Mentioned:

• The Wholehearted Parenting Manifesto – Brené Brown
• Nonviolent Communication – Marshall Rosenberg
• Conscious Discipline – Dr. Becky Bailey
• The Road Less Traveled – M. Scott Peck (concept of “bracketing”)

🎧 Listen now and let us know what shows up for you. And if it resonates, share it with someone else building family culture on purpose.