262804066 175. Why You Keep Avoiding Playtime With Your Kids | 5 Min Journal Prompts - Beyond Awareness: Closing the Gap Between Knowing and Doing

Episode 175

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Published on:

4th Sep 2025

175. Why You Keep Avoiding Playtime With Your Kids | 5 Min Journal Prompts

You love your kids, but somehow you keep finding reasons to avoid actually playing with them. The dishes need doing. Emails need answering. That toy bin needs organizing. Sound familiar?

What if the real issue ISN'T that you're too busy or too responsible? What if you're actually using those tasks to avoid something much deeper?

In this 5-minute strategic journaling session, we're digging into why you feel internal resistance when your child asks you to play - even when you desperately want to be that present, patient mom who enjoys these moments.

Strategic Journal Prompts:

  1. Identify what you convince yourself is more important than playtime
  2. Explore your specific fears about engaging fully with your kids
  3. Discover if you're using productivity to avoid deeper feelings

Perfect for working moms who feel guilty about always being half-present during family time but can't seem to break the pattern.

👭 Register for a workshop with Sam:

Permission Slips for Ambitious Women hosted at Meraki Beauty in Batavia, NY. In this 90-min strategic journaling workshop, you'll go from daily overwhelm & doing everything for everyone else to peacefully pursuing your true desires (guilt & people-pleasing officially evicted) — without adding more to your already full plate.

You'll experience a guided meditation, strategic journaling prompts, real-time breakthroughs & mimosas!🥂

📌 Sunday, Sept. 21st @ 10am EST, 12 spots only

Register here: https://www.samanthapenkoff.com/permissionslipsworkshop

Resources Mentioned:

Ways to work with Samantha:

1:1 coaching: Now accepting applications, 1 spot open. Learn More here: https://www.samanthapenkoff.com/privatecoaching

Connect with Sam on IG: https://www.instagram.com/samantha.s.says

DM Sam on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoachSamanthaHawley/

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About the Podcast

Beyond Awareness: Closing the Gap Between Knowing and Doing
Closing the Gap Between Knowing and Doing
Beyond Awareness (formerly Journal Entries) is for successful women in leadership and business who know exactly what they need to do but can't make themselves do it.

You know you need to prioritize yourself, delegate more, set boundaries, stop bringing work home. You've tried therapy, coaching, retreats. You know the solution - but you either can't follow through, or when you DO, it doesn't stick.

Host Samantha Hawley helps business owners and executives earning $100k+ excavate the root beliefs underneath the execution gap. Why do you keep not doing the thing? Why doesn't it feel better when you do? Using strategic journaling and emotional excavation, we go beyond awareness into why you're actually stuck in the pattern.

This isn't about more tactics or tips. This is about understanding why awareness isn't enough and what actually needs to shift for you to change.

You'll hear about: decision fatigue, why you can't prioritize yourself, nervous system regulation, being present with your kids, root cause of overwhelm, why boundaries don't stick, self-sabotage patterns, and how your internal state impacts everything.

Perfect for: Female CFOs, VPs, directors, executives, business owners, and women in leadership who are tired of knowing what's wrong but not being able to change it.
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Samantha Hawley