(Mostly) Mindful Parenting: My 2-Year-Old Eats A Lot Of Weird Things

We know it’s hard to be a conscious parent in this day and age. There are so many pressures, a plethora of choices, and someone right around the corner who always seems to be doing it better. This back-to-school season, we're here to tell you: Relax, they’re not. Here, we teamed up with Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid—the first-ever hybrid minivan—to bring you real talk with leading experts and real parents on how they navigate the beautiful, messy work of raising a family. Welcome to (Mostly) Mindful Parenting.

Before she co-founded FPC, a prenatal fitness studio in New York, Joanie Johnson spent nine years dancing professionally. So it’s not surprising that her daughter, Adina, can nail a relevé and port de bra at 2 years old. Getting through the grocery store, on the other hand, can be a little less graceful.

For Joanie, life with a toddler has meant letting go of a ton of lofty expectations. "I thought I was going to be this zenned-out mom, and it’s the exact opposite of that," she says. "A glass of wine at the end of every day, that’s my meditation.” But she has plenty of parenting wins to celebrate, too. While Adina "eats a lot of weird things," she also still breastfeeds—which, after two years, is still Joanie's favorite part of the day.

"My husband and I just want to raise her to be loving and open-hearted and instill in her a love for life and the world, so we show her a ton of love, and she's very affectionate," Joanie says. "But aside from physical affection like hugs and kisses, we treat her like an equal person in our household. It's important to us that we don't talk down to her or force things on her, but we explain what's coming and give her choices—within reason. Her vocabulary is through the roof, so it's like, wow, you're just soaking all of this up!"