If you are wondering whether the guides are right for you, whether the research is solid, or who is behind all of this, the answers are here. If you have a question that isn’t, the contact page is always open.
About the guides
The Grounded Parenting guides are research-informed PDF downloads for parents of young children, from babies through to school age. They are written in plain language, without jargon or judgment, and grounded in developmental psychology, attachment theory, and early years practice.
They are for any parent who wants to understand what is happening for their child, not just manage the behaviour in front of them. You do not need any particular background or training to read them. You just need to be curious about your child.
No. Each guide stands completely alone. You can start with whichever one speaks most directly to where you are right now, whether that is the general Grounded Parenting guide, Ready if you are approaching the school transition, or In Between if daily transitions are the pressing thing.
Within each guide, chapters also stand alone. There is no need to read from beginning to end. Think of it less like a textbook and more like a trusted resource you can dip into when you need it.
Completely. The guides are written for any parent, regardless of whether their child attends a childminder, nursery, pre-school, or nothing at all. The principles they are built on, about how children develop, how relationships shape learning, how to support a child through difficulty, apply in every family context.
The chapter on home and setting together in the main Grounded Parenting guide is the one place where an early years setting is relevant, and even there the focus is on what you can take from the relationship rather than assuming you have one.
All three guides are PDF downloads. When you purchase through Payhip, you will receive an email within a few minutes containing your download link. The guide is yours to keep, read on any device, and return to whenever you need it.
If your download email does not arrive, please check your junk folder first. If it is not there, get in touch at info@groundedparenting.co.uk and I will sort it straight away.
Because the guides are digital downloads, refunds are not standard practice once the file has been accessed. However, if you feel the guide genuinely did not deliver what was described, please get in touch and we will find a way to make it right. That is a promise.
About the content
Both, and I think that is the right combination. The guides draw on a body of research spanning developmental psychology, attachment theory, neuroscience, and early years education. Every research box in the guides cites the specific studies and thinkers whose work underpins the ideas, Hart and Risley on language, Dan Siegel on the developing brain, Ed Tronick on repair, Judy Dunn on siblings, and many others.
But research alone does not make a useful guide for parents. What I bring alongside the research is nearly two decades of direct practice, watching children grow, sitting with families at handovers and in difficult moments, and testing these ideas against real life. The guides are grounded in both, and I try to be transparent about where one ends and the other begins.
Start with what feels most pressing. If you want the full picture, child development, behaviour, language, play, sleep, screens, siblings, the main Grounded Parenting guide is where to begin. It is the longest and most comprehensive of the three.
If your child is approaching school and that transition is on your mind, Ready is the one. If the daily gear-changes, drop-offs, pick-ups, the child who holds it together all day and falls apart at home, are what you are navigating, In Between speaks directly to that.
All three are designed to stand alone, so there is no wrong choice. You can always come back for the others.
The main Grounded Parenting guide is written for any parent, from babies through to school age, and speaks across those stages rather than being written for one age group alone. The developmental overview at the back covers each stage from birth to school transition.
Ready is most directly relevant in the year or two before and around the school start, though parents of slightly older children often find it useful for making sense of what happened at that transition. In Between is relevant at any age, transitions are a feature of childhood at every stage.
No, and the guides say so clearly. They are a resource, not a replacement. If you have concerns about your child’s development, health, or wellbeing, the right person to speak to is their health visitor, GP, or another qualified professional. The guides do not diagnose, assess, or make clinical recommendations.
What they can do is help you feel more informed and confident going into those conversations, and better able to recognise what you are seeing in your child. That is a different and genuinely useful thing, but it sits alongside professional support, not instead of it.
About Susanne and Grounded Parenting
I am a registered childminder based in Lincolnshire, England, and I have worked with children and families since 2007. I hold a Master of Education (MEd) and a Master of Research (MRes), alongside a Level 4 Early Years qualification. My setting, Little Puddings, holds a Good Ofsted grade.
Grounded Parenting grew directly from my practice and my research, from nearly two decades of sitting with families, watching children, and studying the evidence behind what actually helps. It is not a side project. It is the natural extension of work I have been doing all along.
Growing Curious Children (GCC) is the curriculum and assessment framework I developed for my childminding setting, Little Puddings. It is built around seven principles that reflect how I understand children to learn best, through play, curiosity, relationship, and a sense of their own competence.
Grounded Parenting is a sister brand of Growing Curious Children. The same values run through both: a belief in children as capable and curious, in relationships as the foundation of all learning, and in parents as their children’s first and most enduring educators. The guides translate those principles into language and ideas that are useful at home, not just in a setting.
It is rooted in the same values and the same approach. The guides draw on the same research and philosophy that underpins the work at Little Puddings. In that sense, yes, what you read here is connected to what your child experiences there.
The guides are written for any parent, not just those at Little Puddings. But if your child is with me, you may find the guides give useful context and language for the conversations we have at handover and in reviews. That bridge between home and setting is something I care about very much.
Yes. Grounded Parenting is a growing resource. There are topics I have not yet covered in guide form, and if you have a topic you would like to see addressed, the Suggest a topic page is exactly the right place to put it. The guides and articles that get written next are shaped by what parents are actually asking about.
The best way to know when something new is available is to visit the site. There is no newsletter at the moment, but that may change.
If something is not answered here, the contact page is always open. Or if your question might be useful to other parents, you could submit it to the Q&A page instead.