aParently! A Podcast for Parents · Shawn Hopkins

aParently! A Conversation with Ashley Little

·1 hr 3 min·4 clips

Orion said he wondered if he really loved anyone and described old pictures he wanted deleted.

Sean opens the conversation by welcoming Ashley as both a fellow parent and a coach. Ashley talks about raising Orion as a single mom. She describes a recent moment when he shared something deep about what he was feeling. He had asked for some of his childhood pictures to be deleted so he could make room for more pictures. Ashley took that as a sign that he was noticing how the family has changed. She also heard a kind of loneliness in the way he was trying to make new memories. The exchange clearly stayed with her. She says it was the first time he had put such an internal feeling into words. Sean slows that moment down and asks what she does next as a parent. Ashley says she checks in with him. She asks how he is feeling and whether he still feels lonely. Orion later told her the feeling was temporary. Ashley keeps coming back to the idea of asking whether he feels supported. Another recent moment comes up. Orion was sitting at the table with his back to her and asked, "Am I home?" Ashley answered by turning the question back toward him. She asked whether he felt at home. He said yes. She then asked whether he feels at home with his dad, and he said yes again. Ashley reflects that home is not only a house or a location. She thinks of the saying that home is where the heart is. She connects Orion’s questions to the reality that the family has lived separately for two years or more. She thinks the emotional impact is landing more clearly now that he is developing mentally and emotionally. She notices more pushback around transitions. She also sees that he is struggling a little with the idea of changing homes. Sean and Ashley keep the tone open and conversational as they stay with these details. The conversation keeps returning to support, memory, and the slow work of helping a child feel secure across changing family structures. It ends with warmth and a shared sense that parents do not have to solve everything at once.

As heard by us

A steady, useful conversation about helping a child feel at home across changing family spaces.

The episode stays with a quieter kind of parenting strain: what happens when a family lives in two places, and a child starts putting words to that shift. The strength here is the patience.

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Why you'd press play

You want calm, usable language for a child asking where home is.

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