The Bloom Room: An Early Childhood Podcast
The Bloom Room: An Early Childhood Podcast · Jul 13, 2026 · 52:16
Listen in the Podli app 🎧
Follow your favourite podcasts, listen offline and in the car with CarPlay and Android Auto, and always pick up where you left off. Free to try.
Most of us begin this work because we care deeply about children but, at some point, many of us discover that caring isn't as simple as we thought.
In this episode, I sit down with Sarah Louise Nelson - early childhood educator, researcher, university lecturer and PhD candidate - to explore the concept of professional love, and why relationships aren't just a nice addition to education; they're the foundation that everything else is built upon.
You'll hear:
✨ What professional love really means (and why it's so often misunderstood)
✨ Why relationships are an ethical commitment, not just a teaching strategy
✨ The connection between professional love, behaviour support and belonging
✨ How compassion fatigue changes the way we show up for children
✨ Why care has become undervalued in education, despite being essential for learning
✨ Why reconnecting with the relational heart of our work gives Sarah Louise hope for the future of early childhood
This conversation is thoughtful, challenging and incredibly hopeful. If you've ever wondered how to keep caring deeply without losing yourself in the process, or what it really means to bring love into professional practice, this episode will leave you thinking long after it ends.
Connect with Sarah Louise on LinkedIn
Let's Connect!
Want to feel joy in your teaching again (and not like you're spending every moment putting out behaviour spot fires)? Join the waitlist for my course: The Behaviour Reset
Want to know how to respond to baffling behaviours better? Download my free guide with 90 behaviour scripts
Join me on Instagram: @littlebloom.consultancy
Episodes: The Bloom Room: An Early Childhood Podcast