Keeping the Peace: Boundaries for LGBTQ+ Holiday Parenting

Are you feeling pulled between preserving family peace and protecting your mental health this holiday season?

You're not alone AND you're not doing it wrong. The holidays are often an emotional minefield, especially for parents of LGBTQ+ kids navigating outdated traditions, family dynamics, and identity stress. This episode is your permission slip to pause, breathe, and make room for something more aligned.

Heather Hester offers a powerful, practical conversation about what it means to evolve, not erase, traditions that no longer fit who you or your family are now.

Whether you're a mom, dad, caregiver, or fierce LGBTQ+ ally, you'll learn:

• How to recognize when a tradition has shifted from comforting to constricting
• Scripts for setting boundaries without guilt or apology
• Why honoring your truth is an act of love, not rejection
• How to build new, inclusive rituals rooted in empathy, safety, and healing
• What your child’s nervous system really needs from you this season

This episode offers more than parenting advice, it’s a reframe of what real love looks like during the holidays.

When you, as a parent or ally, set boundaries with clarity and compassion, you model inclusion, emotional regulation, and authenticity. You show your LGBTQ+ child and yourself that they belong just as they are.

You’ll also hear:

• A 5-step “Boundaries With Love” framework you can use today
• Real-life examples from Heather’s own parenting journey
• Tools to dismantle the myth that sameness equals love
• Gentle encouragement to prioritize your family's unique needs

Listen now and take one simple, powerful action: Release the guilt. Embrace the boundary. Rewrite the tradition.

Hi, I’m Heather Hester, and I’m so glad you’re here!

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At the heart of my work is a deep commitment to compassion, authenticity, and transformative allyship, especially for those navigating the complexities of parenting LGBTQ+ kids. Through this podcast, speaking, my writing, and the spaces I create, I help people unlearn bias, embrace their full humanity, and foster courageous, compassionate connection.

If you’re in the thick of parenting, allyship, or pioneering a way to lead with love and kindness, I’m here with true, messy, and heart-warming stories, real tools, and grounding support to help you move from fear to fierce, informed action.

Whether you’re listening in, working with me directly, or quietly taking it all in—I see you. And I’m so glad you’re part of this journey.

More Human. More Kind. formerly Just Breathe: Parenting Your LGBTQ Teen is a safe and supportive podcast and space where a mom and mental health advocate offers guidance on parenting with empathy, inclusion, and open-minded allyship, fostering growth, healing, and empowerment within the LGBTQ community—including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals—while addressing grief, boundaries, education, diversity, human rights, gender identity, sexual orientation, social justice, and the power of human kindness through a lens of ally support and community engagement.