It's the season finale! I can't think of a better way to end this season than to have my son Zavier bless the mic with his thoughts. The theme of this season has been connection. Zavier lights up the mic by giving us parents tips on how to connect with your kids from his perspective.
I also wrap up the season by highlighting this seasons episodes while thank you for listening to the show.
This season is about Connections, which was needed in 2020.
The Parenting Cipher Podcast is here to support you with raising your special child.
Connection with your child ( Gahmya and Elizabeth)
Innovative with entrepreneurship ( Christine Job)
Private School ( Unique)
Sickle Cell (Elle Cole)
Advocacy ( Lajoy)
Speech Therapist ( Darius)
Check out my favorite song for this episode “ The World Is Yours” by Nas and all of the guests for this season click on the playlist below
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Genie 00:08
Welcome to the Parenting Cipher where each episode, we'll give you the tools and resources to help your child thrive in school and in life. Please rate and review this podcast. I love to hear your feedback and also hit the subscribe button so you don't miss any upcoming episodes.
Genie 00:24
So this is the very last episode of The Parenting Cipher for its very first season and I'd like to say thank you for everyone who has listened to the show this season. It's been such a joy to have everyone give their feedback and showing us love and I want to do a little review of the season, but before then, I have a special guest.
Zavier 00:56
Hi!
Genie 00:58
And this is my son, Zavier Lindsey, who step up to the mic. So Zavier, this season on the show, we talked about connection and you always are talking to me about connection. Isn't that right?
Zavier 01:14
I don't know.
Genie 01:15
Well, you're always telling me all the ways that I need to connect and spend more time with you.
Zavier 01:22
I would be honored would have tell you on the pocket of Yeah, I was doing a work.
Genie 01:31
Right! But at the same time, am I not here with you?
Zavier 01:36
You're here but we're not spending time.
Genie 01:39
So we're spending time, tell audience like, for a kid, what is spending time?
Zavier 01:43
Like going vacation and playing together.
Genie 01:48
Right.
Zavier 01:48
Do an activity.
Genie 01:50
Do an activity but we just came from...We just went on vacation. We just went to South Carolina. Is not quality time?
Zavier 01:58
But for that time, you are on work.
Genie 02:01
Oh, so it's not enough just for me to spend time with you like I help you with your work since you're doing virtual school, right?
Zavier 02:11
Yeah.
Genie 02:12
So instead, what you want me to do is you always have a list of activities that you are saying I need to do more. So I do watch animes with you guys.
Zavier 02:25
Do you? You only do one anime we like. I don't know about the name, then for some reason, we all forgot that. That'd be like the only time we want it. I see over time, all the time. I want you to learn but we're good.
Genie 02:42
OK, so would you have...I played video games. I don't last long because you take the remote control from me. So when you take the remote control, what you want me to do? You want me to sit there?
Zavier 02:53
You could talk.
Genie 02:54
So just sit there and give feedback?
Zavier 02:56
Yeah.
Genie 02:57
OK.
Zavier 03:00
I know Asar play games.
03:02 Genie
Oh OK.
Zavier 03:04
He told that he doesn't but it's wrong.
Genie 03:06
He does and I was telling Asar, that's a bad word, right? Your older brother isn't always nice, right?
Zavier 03:12
Yeah.
Genie 03:12
So do you think if we...Like you tell him how you feel?
Zavier 03:16
I do.
Genie 03:17
OK, so let's get back to this connection. So as a mom, the ways that I can better connect with you, because even though we do school work together and we are quarantine together and you see me all the time and I am talking to you all the time, you want to do more activities such as playing games?
Zavier 03:42
Yes.
Genie 03:43
What else?
Zavier 03:45
I'll go outside and playing games.
Genie 03:49
Would you say a vacation. So vacation isn't just about going somewhere. Vacation is -
Zavier 03:55
- doing stuff in one location. Before quarantine, you spend the whole day going out, we spend time, we actually talk.
Genie 04:08
- but we talk all the time. We do. Yeah, we do. We talk in the car. We talk all the time.
Zavier 04:14
No, we don't.
Genie 04:17
Yes, we do. OK, so for the parents out there who are listening, who are working and we think that we're doing all the things. Like we're working, we trying to make sure that you guys are entertained and basically, what you're saying to me is that's not enough no show from your perception, which is good, because sometimes as a parent, we think that we are doing a good job and it's not that I'm not doing a good job, is if I could do better, I could be better. So for the parents out there who want to do a better job with connecting with their child, what are your suggestions?
Zavier 04:58
Spend time with them, watching shows, talking, virtual playing, physical playing games and sports, and it's for the Dad out there and complete is you spend time.
Genie 05:16
You spend time. OK, out of the mouths of babes, that is Zavier Lindsey, guys. He's my youngest and my brightest, that was his name means.
Zavier 05:27
Does is really mean that?
Genie 05:31
It does. So this season, unknowingly has been all about connection, which was definitely needed in 2020. Creating the podcast this year was not planned, but most definitely appreciated, especially as a parent who tends to be really busy and I don't necessarily have a community, but that's something that I was inspired to create because when you are a trailblazer and you're doing all the things, you tend to think a lot in your mind and you may have the chance to speak to other parents about what's going on at home.
Genie 06:11
But what was a joy for me, especially during this quarantine time in 2020, was actually connecting with so many great people and learning that I'm not alone. And hopefully this season, when you listen to it, either now or if you've been with us the entire season, you will feel that way as well with how you think or perceive things.
Genie 06:40
And I started off, we started off the season with Gahmya Drummond-Bey and Elizabeth, and they were just both a joy international educators discussing the value of curriculums and digital parenting. And one of the things that I loved throughout the entire interview was the conversation of connecting with who you are and then connecting with your child and as you heard before from my son and sometimes the way that we think that we're connecting with our children is really not that deep.
Genie 07:19
Sometimes the things that we're doing the most, they just want something as simple and most definitely something that I'm mindful of. As you can hear from Mr. Zavier, I'm still working on it and that's something to take note of, is that we are all works in progress. And as Elizabeth said, it's not about how much time your child spends on a game or TV or tablet. It's about the quality of time. And that is an opportunity for us as parents, as my son would say, to get up in there and connect.
Genie 07:57
I also had a conversation with Christine who came on the show and talked about being an entrepreneur and if you want to have these dreams of being entrepreneurship and she gave us all of the tea and that was important this year because let's be real, y'all. It was rocky. It was real rocky. Some of us lost our jobs, some of us our unemployment. Some of us, were OK, but we can't see the assurity of working for someone else.
Genie 08:25
And Christine came out here and she really shared the three ways that you can step into entrepreneurship and rock it out. Almost definitely, if you have time, check out her episode. I had Unique who actually reached out to me, such a beautiful soul, who came on a show and talked about her daughter's journey and to get into a private school.
Genie 08:47
And it was a great conversation because once again, you are not alone. You may see people who have children or heard of people who have their children in private school. And you're like, how do I do that? Well, in that conversation, we gave up the tea, but we also discussed the politics in private school placement. And one of the things that we also pulled out of that was community and resources and basically, talking it out.
Genie 09:17
And that's what we did in this particular episode. We talked about the things that you may come across and if that's something that you always dreamed of for your child, check out the episode. I had Elle Cole on, came on the show, talked about Sickle-Cell. It was awesome because we talked about Sickle-Cell, which, ironically enough, it's a disease that you heard of.
Genie 09:40
You may place with an individual for me is T-Boz. I ain't gonna lie, but for her to bring up the Black Panther Party and all the things that they have done for our community to move us forward, health-wise was astonishing and for us to have this conversation about diabetes and if you're listening to the show right now, you know, check out Elle Cole, check out her Instagram because she's given up tea this month because it's Diabetes Month and as a culture, as a race, diabetes is serious. As the old people say, you know, don't nobody want their sugar?
Genie 10:20
So if you are that old or you have an older person in your life, they call diabetes the sugar. Real funny story with that is I remember I was working in public assistance and I was working with, like, older person and honestly, she must've been like 80 and she was like, yeah, baby, you know, how about that the sugar, and took my feet in the sugar and took my toes and then I am like, what's that sugar? What that is, I'm a better person.
Genie 10:51
I have a conversation with you and I don't know what you're talking about, but I figure if you talk long enough, I'll kick context, hopefully on that alone so we had this entire conversation and she's telling me about the sugar but when I speak to someone else, he's talking about the sugar. Go back to my test and I am like, yes. Say them to my supervisor that time. I said, what is this sugar that these clients keep talking about?
Genie 11:16
She was like, girl let's talk about diabetes. I was like, Oh, she was like, older folks call it sugar but the point of this conversation is prevalent in our community so if you know more, you can prevent more. Check out Elle Cole on Cleverly changing this month. We also had Lajoy Law come through, giving us all this advocacy fire in discussing...This is so real right now because we know we just came out of this past week.
Genie 11:48
Who has the power? Who has the power? Is it the school, is it the principal? Is it the vice principal? It's always a bigger picture that we may not see, we may not know exist and she broke that down like she broke down a trail of like who is actually affecting these laws that at the lowest here is your school's principal? Is the special educator?
Genie 12:13
And for us to get more change, we have to know who is holding the power. You either have and we get no seats. How can we talk to them and that was is a very powerful thing to know when you are advocating for your child and as a community, we need to really know those things so that we can do better and I am not say go out here and run for office because we all know Lajoy, you listen to what she ran for, Board of Education, but there are other ways to advocate and the one of the main ways is knowledge and one of the things you need to know is who can make things happen for you, baby?
Genie 12:51
Just saying and we had Darius Thomas such as sweet man. Come on, talk to us about speech therapy. What is it? What is speech therapy? It is not just speaking. It is so many degrees to it and he gave us such great tips. But one of the things that I love the most is when he spoke to cultural competency and I was like. And I'm just highlighting this because who is testing your child and do they have cultural competency? What is the measurement that they're using when they testing your child? It's something for you to think about. You know, it can affect the results. If anything, I learned from Darius that day and check out his episode fall is when someone says they're testing your child, ask them if they have cultural competency and if you want to know more about it, check it out.
Genie 13:47
But this season was such fire for everyone who came on the show. I just want to say thank you again. Definitely create a community and really fulfilled one of the things that I wanted for the Cipher this season was to provide references for everyone in conversation and connection with anyone who listens. And as I'm closing out this season, I had so many songs because, you know, this is the Cipher so I got to give up the hit and so many songs came to mind.
Genie 14:20
But I decided since we are coming out of 2020 because it's now November and we're going into 2021 and the second season of the Cipher will be coming in January 2021, the song I chose is The World is Yours by NAS and for the 90s, this is just a joint. Whose world is this? The world is yours. The world is yours. It's mine and I just wanted to let you know that the world is yours which what you make of it, which you create in it and if you need someone to listen to you, you want to share some ideas, you have some thoughts, different ways to make this world yours. You know, they most definitely hit up the Cipher. We are on Instagram.
Genie 15:09
And one of the things that I'm creating while on break for the next month and in the next season is that we will be introducing live calls and conversations. So I would love if everyone would come in and join us and build. Let me know what you think in. What do you want to talk about? What do you want to build around? Because trust, you building something.
Genie 15:36
So season 2, January 2021, we're going to start off with fire. The guest I have that we're going to come in and talk about health, wealth, entrepreneurship, black culture, all those things is going to set 2021 off for you and help you sustain those goals, baby because one of the problems I have is I come in 2021 with all these goals like , oh my I am gonna do this, I am gonna do that and then waa,waa,aa so just like this podcast and everything else that I've created to raise money. I've be working on sustainability. So it's not about perfection based on anyone else. It's about what's perfect for you and that perfection for you is what's sustainable.
Genie 16:25
So until January 2021, I'll be seeing you and even though the season's over. I will be launching a four-week live course in December. So just check out the website for any details and until then, always remember you're doing the best with what you have. Remember to be patient with yourself and your child. Did you know you can support the show from patreon so The Parenting Cipher can keep bringing you great content and guest, just click on the patreon link in the show notes. 'Till next time!
