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Journalist, consultant, podcaster, blogger, lecturer and writer. But, "first and foremost," he recalls, "mother and wife. Míriam Tirado (Manresa, 1976) is not willing to give up any of these roles; Nor does it have to. His personal life and his professional life pass in perfect synchrony, he says: that's why he helps other parents achieve this desired balance, however impossible it may seem. His is, throughout the interview, a smile of satisfaction. Míriam Tirado smiles because she has managed to make a living from what she is passionate about. When he left his permanent position at a radio station in Barcelona to start a family, he didn't think he would do that well. "I left with one hand in front and one behind, but with a very clear idea in my head."

Faced with the multiple challenges presented by motherhood and fatherhood, Tirado stands as a superheroine capable of solving family problems "from the root" through a consulting process that advocates introspection and, above all, for "taking things with humor". With almost 120,000 followers on Instagram and 45,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel, the Catalan has become the trusted influencer for many Spanish parents.

Her different professional projects revolve around the concept of "conscious parenting", that is, "raising ourselves by taking responsibility for what is our fault and not the fault of the children". The parenting model proposed by Tirado provides a series of keys to improving paternal-filial relationships, without subverting the roles of authority or blurring the boundaries between the permissible and the intolerable. "We often complain that our children's behaviors drive us crazy. But we are the ones who carry the weight of their education, and many times we transmit our expectations, frustrations, deficiencies and childhood traumas, "he explains. He says that, when they do not know how to act, parents adopt childish attitudes, "as if they were also four years old, instead of behaving like adults."

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Tirado embarked on the path of writing with her mother in 2005, and is already the author of 14 illustrated stories -among them, the successful Sensible and The invisible thread- and five books aimed at adults, such as Limits and Tantrums. Looking into the world of teenagers was a pending task that he can already cross off his list: he has just published his first novel for young audiences, My Name is Goa (B de Blok), a portrait of his 12-year-old self.

Using fiction as an excuse, he seeks that young readers empathize with the characters and thus can "understand them and their environment a little better", without having to resort to self-help books, "which cause them a tremendous repelús". In its pages she talks about divorce and anxiety, as well as the identity crisis that emerges at that stage of life, full of ups and downs: "It is the book that I would like my daughter to have read at the time, so that she would feel that she was not alone and that behind all the chaos there is a perfectly normal explanation."

He says that accompanying families is one of the "most complicated, although rewarding" tasks of his work. In her consulting sessions, she acts as a mediator between parents and pre-adolescent children. She herself deals at home with two girls aged nine and 14. "Not enough is said about the emotional change of leaving childhood behind. Parents summarize it with a 'you've become more edge' or 'you're moving away from me'. We seem to have lost our memory." This lack of understanding, he says, translates into increased conflict. "It is clear that looking at the precipice is dizzying, but we cannot ignore the relationship with our children," he says.

Conciliation is, in many cases, a chimera. "Due to the dizzying pace of work and the high levels of stress we suffer, we are less present in the lives of our children," summarizes Tirado. It does not consider that this reality should be criminalized; in fact, she supports the work of groups such as the Malasmadres Club: "Their work of de-blaming and supporting motherhood outside the traditional canons is very valuable and powerful, a respite from the exhausting demands of perfection that fall on us." He does believe, however, in the importance of dedicating free time to talking with children, instead of looking at screens as an escape route for worries. "We resort to the wild card of technology so as not to argue, we let our children get away with it as long as they leave us alone, and that doesn't work like that."

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