Emotionally
Classy

About Us
Unfiltered, authenticity
Gabrielle and Paisley

“Paisley was my third, born in the tub in the Topanga mountains in California, 2003”

"A Pikler parent to a bright, joyful, light source, Paisley Rose was an exceptional child and has grown into an extraordinary young woman."

"My mom, the epitome of "untraditional," redefined motherhood. She is my best friend. Turns out you can have your refined sugar & gluten free cake and eat it too."

Together mother & daughter teach each other much, while learning more and more about the other. Exchanging optimism and encouragement.


The Latest

Paisley

Adult, new age, Californian, boho child ‘03, Gen Z

Gabrielle

Adult ‘70’s, British, hippie child, Gen X

Paisley
“She'll listen to me for hours”
Gabrielle
“We talk about everything.”

Our Story

Gabrielle and Paisley

Recently my daughter was experiencing some social discomfort, and I said, well you know, your friend is just not emotionally classy like you are.

Paisley laughed and shrugged her shoulders. I get it, she said, and I thought to myself, where are all the mentors of emotional class? The wise women, the elders?

It seems our emotional etiquette has all but disappeared as we all demand illogical safety and immense comfort in order to function. Putting both before our pride. And I mean deep pride, not superficial, ego pride. I'm talking about soulful pride.

That soulful pride seems lacking in our current influences. And influencers. Here Paisley and I would like to find ways to feel good about adversity without regrettable behavior and emotional explosiveness. It's immature & embarrassing to let your emotions make you their bitch!

Don't let your emotions make you their bitch
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Gabrielle and Paisley

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Questions? New topics? Ideas?

Who We Are

When I was Paisley's age, I was about to become a mother. Not something I would encourage her to do so young.

Those tumultuous years as a single mother with undiagnosed bipolar disorder were as far from emotionally classy as I could have been. I was a heathen, a self proclaimed pagan with a distinct spirituality that I refused to call new age.

I gave myself agency to follow my heart and left a tsunami of emotional wasteland in my wake. Particularly with my immediate family.

It has been a long journey with a vast variety of modalities of "therapies" from traditional, to illegal and a rainbow of "enlightenment" in between.

My marriage of the last eleven years has been a miracle in self regulation and for that I am incredibly grateful to my loving husband. And my shrink.

Paisley and I thought it would be of service to expose our intimate quest for true emotional class in a world full of emotional vulgarity.

“The Pikler approach changed my parenting and my life”
Baby Gabrielle, 1970
1970
Baby Gabrielle

I am 22 years old. College is over. And I have no idea what I'm doing.

Instead of sprinting to the next "impressive" thing, I'm moving home to Miami to figure it out. I'm convinced that I am allergic to New York. I'm like a plant. I need sun, water, a nice quiet breeze to thrive, and New York is… a relentless, over-stimulating, concrete heat vortex that slowly drains my will to photosynthesize.

For most of my life, I've been "perfect Paisley." Great grades. Top of my class. Every extracurricular you could imagine. I did it all. And I did it well. But I'm done performing perfection. I'm turning down my "once in a lifetime" corporate marketing job and starting a chocolate covered date brand. Cause I want to.

The foundation remains. The discipline. The drive. But now I'm doing what makes me happy.

I care. About people. I feel everything. I treat people really well cause how could you not? I would classify myself as highly emotionally classy for sure. I've had great teachers. But I'm learning that a lot of people aren't… and that's crazy to me.

This is where we talk about all of it.

Baby Paisley
Baby Paisley, 2003
2003

What is Pikler?

Paisley was raised with the Pikler approach from birth, along with her older brother, Hugo. They went to RIE (Resource for Infant Educarers) class every week until they were 3. And then we went to a Pikler preschool in Topanga.

Pikler changed my life.

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