Mental Health and Raising Emotionally Aware Kids with Kendall Concini

What if your family had a shared language for hard days? One that told the truth without handing kids the weight of adult problems? That’s the heart of our conversation with Kendall Concini, mum, program design pro, and the voice behind Cloudy Day Chronicles, a children’s book co-created with her four-year-old to make mental health talkable, gentle and real.

Kendall shares how years in person-centred program work shaped a simple metaphor that sticks: emotions as weather. Clouds pass. Tornadoes whirl. Rocks need time. We unpack how that language transforms everyday friction like sleepless nights, shoe stand-offs and sensory overload, into moments of connection and repair. Instead of “cheer up mum,” kids learn to keep playing while respecting boundaries; parents learn to name states, take a reset and come back regulated. We also dive into the publishing journey: why Kendall chose self-publishing to protect her daughter’s voice, how “too big” words can help children feel powerful, and what happens when the market asks for happy-only stories that don’t match real life.

From early emotional literacy to practical scripts you can use today, this episode blends honest parenting, mental health advocacy and creative courage. You’ll hear concrete ways to introduce feelings, plus tips for bringing humane rhythms into work and home. If you’ve ever wondered how to talk to kids about depression without making them responsible for it, this warm, clear approach shows the way.

Subscribe for more candid, useful conversations, share this with a parent who needs hope, and leave a review to help others find the show. Got a “weather word” your family uses? Connect with Kendall on Instagram @cloudydaychronicles.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Beyond Organised
• 0:59 Meet Kendall Concini
• 1:27 Program Design to Mental Health Advocacy
• 2:38 Birth of Cloudy Day Chronicles
• 4:12 Explaining Mum’s Depression to Kids
• 6:12 Writing With a Four-Year-Old
• 7:43 Traditional vs Self-Publishing
• 9:21 Why Hard Feelings Belong in Kids’ Books
• 11:31 Teach Mental Health Early
• 13:33 Kids Aren’t Responsible for Fixing Adults
• 15:17 Holding Space at Home and Work
• 16:59 Tools, Questions, and Resources
• 18:44 Language for Big Feelings: Clouds & Tornadoes
• 21:10 Permission to Step Away
• 23:00 Where to Find Kendall & Closing

Transcript

Mel: 0:18

Welcome to Beyond Organised, the podcast that helps you simplify your life and amplify your purpose. I'm Mel Schenker, life coach, speaker, founder of She's Organised, but, more importantly, a wife and mum of four little kids. If you've ever felt overwhelmed, like you're constantly juggling everything but never quite catching up, this is the place for you. Here we go beyond just the tidying up and creating systems. We're talking about real life strategies that bring order to your life, but also we talk about the things beyond the organising, the things that really matter, like your parenting relationships and so much more. So grab your coffee and let's dive in. Welcome back to another episode of Beyond Organised. I have Kendall Concini here. She is a mum, but also a recent author. She has helped a lot of people in many different ways, and I am going to let her do the rest of the talking on this one. As you can probably tell, my voice isn't going to hold up much longer. So welcome, Kendall. Welcome to the show.

Kendall: 1:21

Yes, it was great chatting with you before this and getting to kind of share a lot of those experiences. My background is in program development and it's taken me to a lot of different nonprofit, profit, charter schools, education, hospitals. And so I've had the opportunity to, you know, as you do, life coaching. So program coaching and helping people to do person-centered approaches. So with that being my career for so long, I've embraced that in everyday life of just helping to understand people better. And it has helped me be I'm a really big mental health advocate. So I've taken that into my parenting, and that's where my author journey sort of came from. Oh, I love that.

Mel: 2:08

And I've been following you on Instagram, and you've got the Cloudy Day Chronicles. I would love to hear more about that, and I'm sure the listeners would too.

Kendall: 2:18

Yeah, so it started with um, and I've a lot of people know this, but I do love kind of saying it because it seemed taboo to talk about struggling and parenting. Um you're supposed to just have your kids and glow the entire time. Smile. Um and I did not. I it took me a while to come around to having the idea of children because I struggled with mental health and finding my inner strength to say it's okay for me to exist in the world and reproduce. And so when my husband and I had children, you know, I went through my normal depression, then I went through PPD. And when my daughter's kind of memory and language took off, I needed a way to talk to her about it. That mom wasn't crying because something she did was something else, but not dumping that on her from my now, I want to parentified child. Yeah. We started with she's a water baby, she loves everything water, swimming, playing in splash beds. Sounds like my daughter. Yes. I am not the water parent. I not enjoy it. It is like a where's your dad? We use the analogy of a cloud. So we would say, you know, we're at the beach and you love it. Mom doesn't love it. So I have a little cloudy day over here. And that sort of resonated. And it took to then if I was having a really hard day, telling her, like, my cloud's just here, um, and explaining my emotions to her through it. And so the cloudy day chronicles came from having those conversations, admitting to people, like, I just this is what's going on today, and I don't want to hide behind it and kind of feel shame about not being able to just smile. Um, and so then I decided in about really bad like health stuff, I'm gonna distract myself by actually writing that book I said I was always going to do. So um my daughter Alma and I we started with a rhyming version and we were rhyming back and forth, and then it developed into a bigger children's picture book, and now we're working on publishing it around January of 2026. So exciting. So you actually did it with your daughter. I did. There was a few hard parts. Um, I did go to traditional publishing querying to begin. Uh, and just that control, it was so hard to be asked to cut some parts that were like the heartbeat of the story, or just the idea of talking to children. So, like almost four, and she helped me make the book and hearing like, well, you have to cut it because that's too many words. I'm like, she wrote the word. Yeah, and it's to relate to the children. Yeah. Yeah. And some like tags she used. So at one point we had like proclaimed, and I remember because it was the day she learned it, she was so excited, and she'd be like, I proclaim this. And they're like, You can't use that word for kids. I'm like, Yes, you can, if if you want them to be smarter. Yeah. So I ended up going um self-publishing because it was just you know kind of a little different. And and so I've had the I found a fantastic illustrator. What she is gonna do like blows my mind. I don't even want to like, I don't take credit for the whole book. She she's shading and she is the way she created the cloud as a character and it takes different shapes and stuff. It's just been an incredible to like see it transformed.

Mel: 5:59

Bring it to life, yeah. And that is so cool. And I love I love that you sooner got rid of your publisher than change all the things that your daughter did. Like, because at the end of the day, it's not just about making a book for money, right? It's the experience with your daughter. Like, how many kids can say they wrote a book with their mum? And at that age, that's really cool. I'm I can't wait for this book to get out. I want to have a look at it. Um, that is so good. What do you think is sort of the main thing that people experience?

Kendall: 6:33

I'm writing the book and I'm doing like the Crani Day Chronicles because I couldn't find it. So I was going through the depression and parenting, and I tried really hard to find something to talk to her about it, not in a let's go sit in a therapist's office way. And when I couldn't find it, I had started using my own kind of story to tell her. And part of it was I felt an intense shame. Like in traditional publishing, when people are declining the book and saying it's not a fit for me, what they're saying is like, well, this isn't mass marketable. I can't connect to this. We just want something happier. And I and I sit and I think, like, I wish I can do that. I wish I can just give my kids an only happy story. But I also don't want them to yes, and and for a while that stopped me. That's what stopped me from wanting to have kids. But it got to a point where I'm like, I want to feel all my feelings and also enjoy the sunny days with my kids. So maybe mom has a cloudy day every now and then, but I have to remind myself, and one of the big lines from the book is clouds don't last forever. And so the idea that we can feel that, we can have that emotion, we can process it. We can tell kids is it exists because it does. And then we can tell them how to enjoy the other days. And if we wait until what the market thinks is we can't have that conversation until she's in her tens and she's in her 16, she's 18. It is. And you know, you look at what they're doing in school, that is the easier stuff. So they're starting languages in school. We used to start at what high school. Now languages are in elementary school. They have music. It used to be you get your instrument in ninth grade, now you get it earlier. I'm like, but we're not doing that for mental health. And the way the world is now, we need it earlier more than ever.

Mel: 8:36

Yeah. Yeah. I I think what you're doing is brave because even though I think the world is so much more accepting now of where people are at with their mental health, there is still so much that I think we still get told to almost keep it quiet from the kids, protect them from it, keep it separate, don't put adult issues onto children. But we're not exactly talking about the fact that kids are so smart, they pick up on every emotion, everything. And if we're going around telling them that feeling sad or feeling angry or scared or all these things are bad, then what's that really teaching them? That's teaching them to go, I'm feeling those things, I'm not allowed to feel those things, there's something wrong with me, or I can't talk to anyone about this because I don't want to get in trouble. Like there's just all those, it the knock-on effect is huge. And I think what you're doing in just breaking that cycle and just going, there is a way to have a healthy conversation about this. We're not fixating on it, but we are talking about it. And if anything, doesn't that just make your sunny days all the more sunnier?

Kendall: 9:53

That's a big part of the book, is I wrote it in a way that the kids aren't expected to cheer mom up. So it's not, and that and that's sort of what I did grow up with. I grew up with when when one person was sad, my dad would go, go, you know, cheer up your mom. Yeah. Yep. And it's not their responsibility. So a big part of the book was the kids see mom sad and mom says, go play. I'm just gonna sit and I'm gonna join you when I'm ready. And the kids accept that and they say, Okay, when you're ready, mom. And so part of it is just they can recognize the emotion. They do invite her to do things, but they invite her to do it her way. So they want to play in the sand. They say, Mom, you lay down, we'll put sand on top of you. And so it's the idea that if emotions happen, you don't have to solve them, you don't have to tell mom to go home. You just let someone come the way they need to be there. And so a big part of that, I think, is where mental health needs to be more accepting. You know, I can get into the throes of like jobs and the nine to five and like eight. It's just there's no, you know, back in the day you get smoke breaks. There's no mental health break. There's no, I need a second to step away from all of these emails and be over here, or I need to, you know, teleworks kind of a thing, but there's not a can I telework today because the world's a lot and I'm gonna get my job done, but can I get it done in the space that I need? And that is a goal of teaching, like holding space for someone and learning how to support them. And so I'm trying, and the back of the book is what I'm most excited about because we have like discussion questions to kind of spark that. Um, and we have some resources from I have a merriment maker, and she has like a 30 days of joy challenge we've put in there. And so the idea is just a mentality shift to say, here's how to react to people with emotions. And so, yes, the book is about a family and mom, but it could be it just any loved one learning to recognize emotions in others and let them feel those feelings.

Mel: 12:05

Yeah. But I'm just thinking like how well adjusted your daughter will be when she goes into her teenage years. Well, I remember being a teenager. Well, we're certainly hoping, right? But like I remember being a teenager and I mean a girl for starters, there's already a lot of emotions to deal with and everything. But if she's learning these foundational human behaviors and emotions and feelings and that at this age, she's gonna be so emotionally mature when her friends are going through stuff, when she's going through stuff and all of that, and actually be able to process it healthier. She might still have her moments where she's gonna learn and all of that too. But I I I would think as a mum, I would feel like I've done the absolute best I can to prepare her for the world ahead because we don't want to shelter them from it. They're they're part of it, but it's just equipping them and not scaring them. And I just I love your message and I think it's hard as a parent myself. I kind of don't know when to bring things up or what to say, because there are people in in my life and close to my children who do have uh various disabilities that are not physical but neurological, that have depression, all of those kind of things. And I kind of don't know how to talk about it. And it's not that I'm trying to avoid it or I'm saying that it's bad. I kind of just don't know how to bring it up in a healthy way. And I think you have done something that so many of us just have struggled to do and struggled to find. And because you're certainly not the only woman that's experienced depression and and as a mum as well, there are millions, millions, and but it doesn't mean you don't want to be a mum, that you don't want to be here, that there's all these things that it's so complex. But the way that you have just brought it down into something that's just so digestible, even for adults that maybe can't even comprehend properly, I think what you're doing can seriously impact a lot of lives. And I'm very humbled to have you on this show because I think what you're doing is gonna take off.

Kendall: 14:35

I need to like put the asterisk too though. I think there needs to be a vulnerability for people to also say, like, I'm not that good at it. So we have like my daughter has this emotional awareness, and sometimes it does backfire because I have shared the story before. She now identified that her emotions are a tornado. So she is a four-year-old. We are looking at how kind of advanced her language and her memory and stuff are. So, you know, they don't kind of do the neurological testing, but she's very ahead. And with that comes she still has the raging emotions of a four-year-old. So we have a lot of meltdowns. Right now, it's actually been a very hard month because she won't sleep. Like she just doesn't like it. And it her mind just keeps going. So she has a lot of emotions and she will scream and say, This is my tornado, and it's a four-year-old meltdown, but she has that awareness. Yeah. And so and that's kind of the positive part, is me knowing, like, okay, I snapped at her in that moment because I'm not great keeping my cool when she has been screaming for, you know, from two A. Two and everyone else. No judgment here. But but the idea is because of what we've been able to talk about, I am able to prompt her in that moment. And I will tell her, like, Alma, if I have to come back in here, I'm probably coming in with a storm cloud because I'm not gonna be happy. And so she can know then that happy mom is coming back stressed because this is still going on. And so when we had that rough night, the next morning we're on our way to school, and she hit me with like the teenage angst of like, I wish I had a house that didn't yell. And I was like, Well, why did I yell? And she goes, Well, I didn't put my shoes on and you got a stormy cloud. And I was like, Yes, and what could I have done differently? And she's like, Well, I could have gotten my shoes. And I said, Okay, but you had a tornado and you were everywhere. And so it was kind of using what we identify to break the cycle that my family hadn't, because the answer was, I'm your parent. I told you to do this, you should have done it. And I'm like, Well, I had so many emotions. Why aren't mine valid? And so part of it is I'm not good at this. I don't have like the therapist's name on the back on some days, but it's being able to be vulnerable and telling her, hey, mom screwed up because this is what was going on in my and what are you feeling too? And then recognizing her tornado and saying, okay, let's talk that through because you're not just losing your mind, you are finding your voice to say, I am experiencing something bigger than just I'm tired. It's a lot of processing.

Mel: 17:39

That in itself is huge. And yeah, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that your daughter's not gonna have a bad day. She's still a typical child. Um, but it's more that you've equipped her with a language to be able to express that. But you're giving her the space as well to express it because yes, the the generation of our parents, it was very much just do as I say, and no buts, no excuses, just do it. And they they meant well, but they also did not know how to handle us as kids and all of that. I I get that, especially being a mom now myself. Totally respect my parents and I love them. But I also I want to have that healthy balance of them not necessarily questioning everything I do, but when there is that thing that we need to talk about, that we can talk it through. As I was saying, you you've created this language that I love and I want to adopt into my family to be able to help with those difficult conversations that I just haven't known how to address before. So thank you for being able to give me the language to then help my children express that as well.

Kendall: 19:00

You know, I think it started way back when I was in therapy. My therapist described my emotions like a wave. And it was, you know, the waves are going and you can play in them, but you can also feel the undertow. And for a while that made sense. But when I was working on it, I was like, it's not a wave because waves are like in one place. And so the cloud made more sense to me because I did like my personal cloud research, but don't ask me any of the like exact names, not that into them. That's okay. That's okay. It was fascinating to like the different environments clouds show up in, the different ways they show up, and the sunny ones and the you know dark ones, and and so saying that that is how your emotions can show up too just kind of clicked with me, and it was an easier way to talk to them. And then, yes, like my daughter wants a tornado. My son's only two, and he's like new to his language, so he wants a rock, which isn't like the best analogy, but he does just lay down, he gets in this little like rock pose, and he's just like, and I'm like, I'm gonna go. Oh, bless him. Oh, that is so adorable. That's kind of part of the hope is you know, he has that's the emotions of a two-year-old though, where they like pout and sit. And I'm like, okay, I'll see you in a couple of minutes. And you know what?

Mel: 20:24

They can be stubborn. I say that word lightly, as a rock sometimes. I'm not budging. I know what I'm talking about. I've been here two whole years. Oh man, that is so good. So, what is one thing that you would love every mom out there to know who is perhaps struggling with depression, whether it's postpartum or something that they've been dealing with for years? What's something that you would love the mums out there to know?

Kendall: 20:53

So it's sort of a spoiler from the book too, but the quote, it's okay to not be okay, like that's the biggest one. I think moms, we think, and we do, we think we have to sit in it 24-7, and we do sit in it 24-7 because we have that extreme guilt to walk away. And a big piece of it was recognizing that the cloud is a part of me. It's not all of me. And some days it's gonna feel like it's all of me, but it's not who I am, and having a bad day doesn't define your entirety of motherhood. And what I have been able to do from recognizing that is giving myself permission to know that a cloud is kind of rolling in. And so if we are going through something hard at home, I will, as much as it gives me the mom guilt, I'll tell my daughter, like, if this doesn't stop, mom needs to walk away for five seconds and come back. And I will like leave a stressful room or I am very triggered because she went through like colic phase. So the crying is just like DD emotion. I know that. Yeah. And so now if she starts again, I say I was like, mom can't take this. I need to come back when this is quieter. And so it's being able to just say that. And it's not that suddenly my daughter's never gonna love me because mom walked away in a chaos. And it's just it's hard because the mom guilt is deep. But recognizing that it is okay to tell someone I need to step away from this for a minute because the mom that stays in it 24-7 is strong, but not as strong as the one who walked away and came back with a little reset. Yeah, regret. Yes. And so that's been something through this book I've been able to do because once we really took to like, we have a cloud pillow too. And so if we are really kind of like in this rut, I can go grab it and just say, all right, like we need to stop for a second. And we are able to recognize that visually, and now with her kind of learning more language, we're able to talk it through.

Mel: 23:09

So good. Oh, that is so good. So I hate to wrap this up, but what is the best way for people out there to find you?

Kendall: 23:20

So I am on Instagram at Cloudy Day Chronicles. Um, and then there's also a link to, I'm doing a blog post that is cloudydaychronicles.wordpress. And that is more about the kind of adult side of where I want moms to read to resonate, where I want parents to read and resonate, and people to kind of talk and see those days that are here's what I went through, and it's still okay. Like here, so I write the post about the depth of it, and then I put a happy photo of me and the family because we went through this, but here's the the happy memories we took away.

Mel: 23:57

Yeah, that is so good. Well, I'll make sure all the information is in the notes there. So just head to the description and they can find that and get in touch with you. But thank you so much, Kendall, for coming on and sharing your message. I really appreciate it.

Kendall: 24:14

Yeah.

Mel: 24:15

If you like this episode, don't forget to hit subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you want to continue the conversation, you can connect with me on Instagram at is.organized. Offer some free resources, head over to beocorganized.com slash toolkit. Remember, organizing is a tool to risk the perfect school life beyond it. See you next time.