Eps 543: Building a parent community with Melissa Esposito

Episode 543



My guest today is Melissa Esposito, and we’re talking about the power of nature & the power of building a parent community.  We discuss expanding the relationships that our adolescents have and the benefits of other adults in your children’s lives.  Melissa shares about how and where to find parent and family community so our youth have other adults in their life to support them.  We talk about when you just don’t understand your kid. We wrap up this episode with some suggestions for places & opportunities to volunteer & connect with youth.


Guest Description 

Melissa Esposito is cofounder and lead mentor of Feather and Frond forest school, an outdoor wilderness school in Bellingham, WA.

Melissa was raised in Suburban Long Island and had a pretty typical upbringing as a kiddo of the 80s/90s. She started to be drawn into nature and learning about the natural world during her teen years. After spending some time teaching outdoor programs for kids after college, she longed for a deeper understanding of the natural world, which led her to a 9 month nature immersion program at Wilderness Awareness School in Washington State.

By the end of that program Melissa was a much different human. She found herself knowing all sorts of things about nature, like what coyote poop looks like, how to make medicine from Oregon Grape roots, and that birds aren’t just singing when they make noises.  She also healed some of her childhood trauma by connecting so deeply with the natural world. 

Melissa has been using the 8 Shields/Coyote Mentoring philosophy to connect children with nature ever since her time at WAS.  Over the years, she’s received training in Waldorf and Enki philosophies, and liberally sprinkles bits and pieces of those teachings into her outdoor “classroom” as well.  

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Takeaways from the show

  • BUILD a village for your kid and BE the village for other kids in your community 
  • What is wilderness school? 
  • The overlap between toddler & adolescent years
  • The auntie revolution
  • We’re not meant to parent alone
  • There’s capacity for community everywhere
  • Showing up for kids that aren’t yours 
  • There are many opportunities and places are available to volunteer & connect with children in your community 
  • We’ve got to be in it for all of us and not just ourselves 
  • The connection between nature & community

What does joyful courage mean to you

I think joyful courage means honoring all our parts, the different parts of ourselves, and honoring and embracing all the different parts of ourselves, knowing that we are worthy of living this beautiful life, of being in this way with our community, and being joyful about it.  It’s being inclusive and inviting all of these things into our lives in a way that feels good, vulnerable, authentic, and maybe even a little scary.

 

Resources

Feather and Frond Forest School 

Feather and Frond on Instagram

Feather and Frond on Facebook 

Melissa’s Bio

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