96. How to Trust Your Child When Trust Feels Impossible

"Just trust your child." It's advice many parents hear when they begin questioning conventional education or exploring self-directed learning—but what if trust doesn't come naturally? What if your own experiences have taught you the opposite? In this episode, we answer a beautiful question from one of our listeners: How do you actually learn to trust? Beyond asking for reassurance from friends or reminding yourself to "stay calm," what helps trust become something you can genuinely feel? We share personal stories from our own parenting journeys and explore how trust isn't something you either have or don't have—it's something you gradually build through experience. We talk about fear, surrender, intuition, nature, and the small everyday moments that slowly reshape how we relate to our children—and to ourselves. In this episode we explore: • Why trusting your child is often harder than it sounds • How fear quietly shapes our parenting decisions • Why trust grows through practice, not certainty • The role of nature, intuition and slowing down • How surrender and observation can transform your relationship with your child • The difference between trusting your child and being negligent Wondering what keeps shaping your reactions when parenting gets hard? → Discover Your Parenting Archetype Have a parenting, homeschooling, or unschooling question? Send it to us and we may answer it in an upcoming newsletter: → Dear Sari & Becka → Follow us on Instagram and come hang out with us between episodes. → Check out our website and explore more of our work, resources, and support. Radical Learning Talks was named the #2 Democratic Education Podcast to Listen to in 2026 by FeedSpot. See the full list