The Family Lab

Mar 03 2025 136 ep. 33 mins 53
The Family Lab Podcast artwork

Whitney Archibald, a mother of five, is on a quest to find out how different moms connect with their kids and manage their homes. She collects ideas so can you take them home to your own family laboratory and experiment like a mad scientist.

  Kids & Family  Society & Culture
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Lab: Discovering Your Parenting Superpowers

Mar 03 2025 51 mins  
So you have never been a room mom. (Guilty!) Look how many books you read with your kids, or magnificent meals you made, or epic hikes you went on. In this episode Maria Eckersley and Whitney Archibald talk about the tradeoffs that come with discovering and leaning into our superpowers. You can't do everything all at once. But you can build different strengths in different seasons

Top 5 Tech Tools

Feb 24 2025 47 mins  
How do you run your family calendar? Manage projects around the house? Keep track of kids' money? Whitney and guest Sami Bedell-Mulhern talk about the top 5 tech tools they use to help their homes run smoothly. Here's the link for my weekly Open Studio time, Wednesdays at 10:00 MT. Hope to see you there! https://riverside.fm/studio/listener-ideas?t=880793c622433a15fcce This week

The Family Lab Philosophy

Feb 18 2025 28 mins  
This week I boil down the Family Lab philosophy into ten different ideas--mostly things I've learned the hard way through lots of first-hand experimentation. Here are some links for things I mention in the episode: Open Studio Wednesdays at 10:00 MDT--Please join in! American Man, Age 10 by Susan Orlean How She Shares Family Work How You Do Laundry

Book Club: The Art of Gathering Part 2 (Chapters 2-4)

Feb 11 2025 68 mins  
When you're hosting an event are you Inclusive or exclusive? Chill or bossy? These are a few of the controversies we'll cover in today's discussion about the Art of Gathering by Priya Parker, with Whitney Archibald, Angela Halliday, and Emily Bean. Watch Part 1: The Art of Gathering Part 1 (Intro and Chapter 1) Other episodes about gathering: How She Builds a Village How She Spends

Lab: Teaching Kids to "Notice and Do"

Feb 03 2025 48 mins  
Sure, your kid is capable of picking up his socks. But does he notice those socks are on the floor in the first place? This aspect of carrying the mental load--noticing what needs to be done and then doing it--is the foundation of Sam Kelly's strategy for teaching kids to work in the home. In this episode, Sam and Whitney investigate how to help kids develop this skill, talk about

Top 5 Kid Podcasts

Jan 27 2025 55 mins  
Have you discovered the amazing and ever-expanding world of kid podcasts? In this episode Whitney gets recommendations from two kid podcast experts, Merideth Kelly (founder of Storitopia.com) and Andi Smiley (host of The Friendly Podcast Guide). All three of us share our top five (Ok, I shared eight) podcasts for kids, and we talk about how we use podcasts with our kids in our dail

How Whitney Experiments: Survival Mode (2023-2024)

Jan 21 2025 39 mins  
It's been a wild year and a half in the Archibald home--deep in survival mode. Here's a peek into the experiments--intentional and unintentional--that we've tried in the wake of my rock-climbing accident. Including simplifying, kitchen cleaning experiments, new hobbies, and more. Episodes mentioned: How She Falls Off a Cliff How Jessica Goes from Surviving to Thriving Essentiall

Book Club: The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker (Part 1: Intro-Chapter 1)

Jan 13 2025 41 mins  
How do you gather with your family? And how could you make gatherings like dinnertime, family scripture study, driving kids around, and family meetings more purposeful? Join Whitney and her friend Angela Halliday as they discuss the intro and first chapter of The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker. This episode will focus on gatherings of your nuclear family. Here's the schedule for

Lab: Connecting with Kids

Jan 07 2025 44 mins  
Connecting with your kids takes effort, creativity, patience--and a lot of experimentation! Whitney Archibald, Angelynn Singley, and Paola Jellings, who have (gasp) 18 children between them, talk about experiments they've tested to connect with their kids, and come up with a few for you to try. Then four contributors share their ideas as well. Here are the books mentioned in this e

How Mary Helps Kids (and Parents) Manage Anxiety

Feb 05 2024 40 mins  
If your child struggles with anxiety, you know the balancing act between helping them feel safe and helping them become more resilient. Dr. Mary Wilde is here to help. In this episode she explains what anxiety is and teaches us how to focus on building our kids' (and our own) resources rather than putting our energy into minimizing risk. Dr. Mary Wilde is a licensced integrative p