Supporting the Parenthood Journey: A conversation with Ann Douglas and Aman...
Event Information
Description
Join Ann and Amanda for an in-depth conversation about the intersection of parenthood and mental health and how we can support each other as parents, colleagues, and neighbours.
*Please note this event is scheduled at a family-friendly time, will include snacks and non-alcoholic beverages. Childcare is available for this event - please contact hello@theworkaround.ca to reserve your spot."
Happy Parents, Happy Kids and Day Nine: a postpartum depression memoir will be available for purchase at this event, and there will be an opportunity for book signing after the Q&A with Ann and Amanda.
About Happy Parents, Happy Kids:
The book is a guide to boosting your enjoyment of parenting while maximizing the health and happiness of your entire family at the same time. It zeroes in on how you feel about parenting; how you think about parenting; what strategies you use to manage your moods, minimize stress, increase your energy level, and safeguard your physical and mental health — and how you encourage your kids to do the same.
It also talks about choosing the most effective parenting strategies (parenting strategies that work for parents and kids as opposed to parents or kids).
The book — which is based on in-depth interviews with more than 75 Canadian parents and other experts — explores the tremendous pressures that parents are facing these days (all the anxiety, guilt, and feelings of overwhelm) and then proceeds to offer a series of parent-proven solutions that can be tackled at the individual, family, and community level.
About Ann Douglas:
Ann Douglas is a bestselling parenting author and the weekend parenting columnist for CBC Radio. She is the creator of The Mother of All Book series and the author of Parenting Through the Storm. In February 2019, HarperCollins Canada published her latest book, Happy Parents, Happy Kids.
“ANN DOUGLAS IS CANADA’S MOST TRUSTED PARENTING WRITER.”— BRANDIE WEIKLE, FORMER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF CANADIAN FAMILY
About Amanda Munday:
Amanda Munday is the sole owner and founder of The Workaround, a coworking space with childcare in Toronto. She is a skilled storyteller with years of experience growing companies through social media, traditional marketing and public relations. Her first memoir Day Nine details her experience of severe postpartum depression which culminated in an 18-day involuntary stay in a Toronto psychiatric ward.
Amanda has received international media coverage including being named an inspirational speaker in Forbes Magazine. She is also a regular contributor to the Globe and Mail on topics related to economic opportunities for women and universal childcare. In November 2017 she secured a federal petition on universal childcare which was tabled in the House of Commons.
Nine days after the birth of her daughter, Amanda was involuntarily admitted to a Toronto psychiatric ward for postpartum depression. The typical hold-and-release process in Ontario is seventy-two hours. She stayed eighteen days.
New parent sleep deprivation is familiar, but Munday’s tumultuous experience with depression is one rarely discussed within parent communities. Any mental illness comes with a strong public stigma, and with mental illness connected to motherhood, the judgments run deep. Through her experiences, Munday presents the harsh realities of new parenthood and the quiet suffering postpartum depression commands.
Day Nine is an intimate memoir that reads like a freight train, revealing how common life transitions — childbirth and parenthood — can unravel into a medical emergency few new parents are prepared for.
