Happier motherhood starts here.
So here we are, fellow moms: Accidental homeschoolers armed with Pinterest ideas and daily schedules, ready to keep our children’s minds active and their screen-time limited. We’ve bookmarked all the sites and printed all the checklists (unless we’re low on printer ink), and now begins the actual work of overseeing remote learning while parenting in a time of national stress.
Can I gently suggest that we not turn this new venture into a competitive sport?
And that behind-the-scenes work you’re doing? The work you do when the rest of the world isn’t watching, the hundreds of small decisions and clever shortcuts you employ in the name of raising an eventual adult or three? Like Laurence’s simple but incredibly thoughtful salad dressing, it’s where the good stuff happens. Your patient explanations and your sibling squabble mediation, the chore charts you design and the sleep training program you try really really hard to follow, the grapes you cut into quarters and the late-night behavior strategy sessions with your co-parent: these things matter.
Feeling distracted, forgetful, or just sorta fuzzy? We’ve been there. Listener Erin asked about “mom brain” and how we’ve handled it over the years, as well as how to keep your adult conversation skills from completely atrophying when you’re in a phase of life that doesn’t provide a lot of opportunity for intellectually stimulating discussions. We dive into small talk, how to navigate awkwardness in groups of adults where everyone seems to know each other, and how to nurture interesting conversations in mixed company.
Heartburn in pregnancy means babies born with lots of hair; boys are harder when they’re little, girls are harder later on; third babies are super chill: These are just a few myths and supposed truths that beg to be tested by reality. We asked YOU, our listeners, to help us come up with as many mom myths as possible, and in Episode 234 Meagan and Sarah discuss whether they’ve held true for our combined eight kids.
The fear of missing out is real, and it preys on new moms in particular. Whether your FOMO flares up when you see other moms’ lives play out on Instagram, or you feel it most when it seems like everyone else’s kid is on a path to greatness, we can relate (and we’ve been there). In this episode, Meagan and Sarah look at the types of FOMO that come with motherhood, how we’ve personally experienced them, and how we’ve learned to manage the fear of missing out.
Four years to the day after dropping our very first episode of The Mom Hour, Meagan and Sarah are here with our 200th show. Join us as we reflect on what we’ve learned from each other, our guests, and you: our community. We also play voicemails from listeners, team members, and fellow podcasters from around the world. It’s a four-year-old birthday party and a bicentennial all rolled into one…join us for the celebration!
