You're Doing Great Mom: Recent Episodes
MaryAnne Shiozawa
Motherhood is something that all women will think about at one point in their lives. For many, it’s not even a thought. It’s a ‘when’. For some, it’s a clear ‘not for me’. For every other woman who falls in between, there was a journey which led them and may still be leading them to the ultimate conclusion. And, as we know, the experience of motherhood always keeps flowing, changing, and growing along with our children. Almost all of us can say it’s the hardest thing we’ve ever done, and it’s true when we say it takes a village. Using that analogy and today’s technology, this podcast is for women, mothers, and (sometimes) for men so they can listen and hear personal and heartfelt stories told by real, everyday women.
Chantal Challenger lives a different life from many of us, traveling around the world with her husband and two kids. She and her husband work in the hospitality/hotel industry, and have chosen a life as expats currently living in Jakarta. She shares about how they chose to move from their home in Australia, and how they’ve adapted to raising their family in a different culture.
She had her children in Singapore, which is a very different birth culture where up to 45% of births are c-sections. Chantal was surprised to learn that many women choose an elective c-section, and for her it posed a slight challenge in finding a doctor who was supportive of natural birth. She also talks about the breastfeeding culture which is also very different than what she thought, where most babies are fed formula as the ‘norm’. So when she wanted to breastfeed her babies, she often had other women asking her why she was doing something so abnormal.
It was fascinating to listen to Chantal talk about her life, and the cool thing about her was that she’s just another mom doing the best that she can, raising her children, being a wife, and living her day to day life just like all of us moms in the world.
What I love about Chantal’s attitude and philosophy of life is how she makes choices even in the face of doubt and fear, with no regrets, and goes in with 100% commitment. We can only gain from following our hearts and going for it.
If you’d like to ask Chantal a question, send her an email at Chantal.waddington@gmail.com
Anyone who has written their own book deserves lots of congratulations. And lots of book sales. Especially if it took them ten years to research and write it.
Well, that's what my husband Julian Wiseman has just completed. And it's now on sale.
It's called Port Vintages.
There's a lot of things that I didn't know about port wine. For example, I had no idea that it's not made every year. You'll learn more about that from this episode. I also didn't know what the differences are between Tawny Port, Crusted Port, Late Bottled Vintage Port, and finally, Vintage Port.
Many listeners have loved my past episodes with my husband (here and here), and I've had some requests that he continue to be a regular 'guest'. We always have fun with it, and it always seems like a good time to spend together.
Julian's book is a substantial and impressive reference book on Port Vintages. In fact, it's the only reference book on the subject. He went around to many different sources, including old libraries at universities, archives, department stores, auction houses, and many more. Ten years of researching and gathering data to find all the port vintages ever declared.
If you are a wine lover and you also enjoy port, this episode is so interesting with so much information about wine and Vintage Port. And you will see how much of a port geek he is.
Check out www.portvintages.com to buy your copy (or 10) of Port Vintages. Any questions or requests for bulk orders. email me at sales@portvintages.com
Enjoy!
Keith Wassung's got one of those stories. Ex-navy, super athlete, weightlifting champion, and on his way to fame, life was on a pretty extraordinary path. Then, at age 22, his body started to slowly break down, first with sinus headaches, then digestion problems, loss of hearing, and more, which eventually led him to be dependant on 18 different drugs. His health deteriorated so badly that he lost nearly all hope. He thought that was it. What more could he do? What saved him was a random chance encounter with a chiropractor who told him that he wanted to help him. Keith thought he was crazy. What’s a chiropractor going to do for him?
Keith’s story is incredible and inspiring. After regaining his health and getting back his strength from his regular chiropractic adjustments, his passion for sharing his experience with chiropractic was born. He researched and studied everything he could possibly learn about what chiropractic is, and how he can tell as many people as possible. And now, after 30 years of spreading the chiropractic message by selling information and educational material, he has built a huge empire and well-known brand within the chiropractic profession.
I remember being in chiropractic school hearing about Keith’s work. In fact, I always thought he was a chiropractor himself and he had a huge practice. In the profession, he is well-respected and is often seen lecturing at some of the biggest and most popular chiropractic seminars in the world.
In this episode with Keith, he talks about his family, his six children, and his how he has built his life full of passion, prosperity, love, and dedication to serving and giving to people.
It was an honor to have him on my podcast. This is an awesome episode and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Keith's website: http://keithwassung.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keith.wassung
— Dr MaryAnne
Tom’s the kinda guy that you can hang out with, have a beer with, and chat about anything. His energy fuels you each and every minute. He’s also the guy you could call up and ask his advice and he’d give you his 100% with a solid answer. And he’s also the guy you’d see on a stage in front of thousands of people. He’s unstoppable.
In this episode, I’m speaking with Thomas Waller. He’s a dynamic successful chiropractor in Lincoln, UK and he owns and runs his practice with his wife Sarah (at the time of the recording, they were planning their wedding and about to get married). The very first time I heard about Tom was, serendipitously, a few years ago. A close friend of mine was in need of a good chiropractor and she asked me if I knew anyone near her in Bristol. So I asked some colleagues and everyone recommended Tom. He was practicing in Bristol at the time and he was highly recommended. I had no idea who he was. I just trusted my chiropractic friends. Each time I checked in with my friend, she told me how great Tom is and how he was helping her tremendously. She only said wonderful things about him. Over time, Tom kept on popping up on my radar on Facebook, as well as among mutual friends at seminars, yet I had never actually got the chance to meet him face to face.
I was so happy when Tom volunteered to be a part of my podcast to talk about fatherhood and parenting. I was so looking forward to what he’d say about those topics, and I also knew we’d spend a lot of time talking about chiropractic.
A few weeks after we recorded the episode, we finally got a chance to meet in person at a seminar. It was such a pleasure to do this episode with him, and I’m very much looking forward to following and supporting him in his plans, as well as our continued friendship.
You can connect and reach out to Tom by going to his website: www.epochcentres.co.uk
Facebook: Thomas Waller Dc and facebook.com/epochlincoln
Instagram: dr_tom_dc33
Craig Peterson is American who lives in Rome Italy. He’s 35 years old and he’s a Network Spinal Chiropractor. He is not a father, and he’s in a relationship with a woman who doesn’t want children. He’s thought about having kids, and it was his current girlfriend who gave him the deeper thought of why he wants kids, and why not live life without having kids.
Check out Dr Craig's website:
www.chiropraticauniverale.com For more information on Network Spinal Chiropractic, go to https://epienergetics.com/
Brendan Waddington continues the conversation of fatherhood into the second episode of the series speaking to men.
There are so many people on this planet, and it's always such a joy and so much fun to speak to someone who you know is making a difference in the world. I just met Brendan and to me, he is an all around great guy. Intelligent, interesting, fun, totally got his shit together, and he has even written a book about no-bullshit health.
His new book is called “The Wellness Bible, A No bullshit Guide to Wellness”. His website is http://nobullshitwellness.com/
Brendan is a naturopath, soft-tissue therapist, personal trainer, and he also helps miners by coaching them on their health. When I asked him to be on my podcast, he didn't think I'd be interested because he's not a father. Naturally, it's what people would think, but I was very keen on having men who are not fathers to talk about their views on the subject. Brendan mentions that he definitely wants kids eventually, and it was interesting to hear how he thinks and feels about fatherhood.
This is the first episode in my 3rd series on my podcast, You're Doing Great Mom. I decided to include my husband and to have his episode kick off the series talking about fatherhood. This series is centered around the topic of fatherhood, where men from all walks of life share their views on the subject. My husband and I sat down together on a Saturday with our kids running around. It took us all day to get some good solid recordings down without too much interruption.
Topics included:
Fatherhood
Dating
Sperm Virility
Alcohol
Foie Gras
Blue Planet
Hitchcock story-telling styles
Having a will
Submarines
Breastfeeding
Baby fat-folds
Baby bathtime
Being a fat bastard
Diapers
Astronauts
Fonseca Port
More alcohol
How to taste wine when you’re 12.
Test-taking skills
How to be an astronaut or an Olympic swimmer
Final words of advice about fatherhood
How not to get murdered by your wife
You can find out more information about my husband Julian on his website, http://www.jdawiseman.com/author.html
Lillian Lartey is my guest in this last episode of 2017. She’s a personal trainer, massage therapist, and I consider her a life coach for women because she is so grounded in her values and commitment to having an extraordinary life. She came over to record this episode, and it was wonderful to spend those 90-minutes together. So much of what she said was illuminating for me about womenhood, and motherhood. Lillian isn’t a mother, and yet, she has so much wisdom about it!
“If we look from the central part of the world going eastwards, a lot of the time when it comes to parenthood, it’s not just the mom taking total responsibility of that child or those children; you’ve got a total village, you’ve got a total town taking care of that child. So that mother doesn’t necessarily have those pressures that they do in the Western world. We also don’t have those pressures of wanting to get a really good job, wanting to have A, B, and C; Take the children to the best school, have the best clothes, have all this money, etc, go on the best holidays - all this pressure adds in. Why? Where as, when we appreciate our lives why we’re here, and that mum gives birth in a village to a child, everybody celebrates that. That’s everybody’s child. It’s not just that mum who’s given birth to that child. It’s everybody’s responsibility.”
Lillian is a personal trainer, massage therapist, and I consider her a life coach for women because she is so grounded in her values and commitment to having an extraordinary life.
“For mums, I believe, and having worked with mums in the type of work that I do, a majority of the time, if they’re under that pressure to have to hand over their baby, at say, at 6 months, even a year, their bodies physically are not ready to let go. Because it’s such an emotional trauma - one, in terms of when you’re pregnant and you’re carrying a child. There’s so many hormonal activities going on. Two, when you give birth. And in three, through nursing that child. And that body, I believe, has to go through a process of recovery, and that includes when you’re doing the releasing of that child to go into someone else’s hands, in terms of going to school or going to nursery, taking care of the house, etc.”
As a life coach, she has helped women, many of them mothers, to focus on themselves and to achieve happiness, building back their health, self-esteem, and love for life.
“I’ve had women who wanna be super women, you know business women in particular are like, ‘Oh yeah, I gave birth yesterday, and I’m here today and I’m treatin’ my clients, I’m speaking to my clients, and I’ve got my baby on my boob…’ And I just think, ‘Why’? In the Western world there’s this race to get back and to prove yourself that, ‘I’m a strong woman and I’m going to be a responsible mother, and I can do it all.’ And then they crash and burn.”
Check out Lillian's website for her business, I Want My Body Back.
“I like to think I lead a very intentional life. And that isn’t that it’s not open to surprises or spontaneity. But I very deliberately chosen … and I’ve been very lucky, I realize that when I say that. Not everyone gets to choose as much ‘cause there’s inherent struggle with being able to just to afford doing things like that. I get that. I love living by myself. I love setting my own hours. I love being able to keep everything clean and neat and how I want it. There’s intention to those things. I really enjoy that."
Drea Clark lives in LA and works in film. She's my sister's best friend from highschool and we've known each other for a really long time. She's basically considered to be part of our family. I asked her to be on my podcast for this current series of conversations with women who are not mothers, and she was totally enthusiastic to participate.
I knew it would be a fantastic conversation, a fun one too, because Drea is just so articulate in just about anything.
Yeah.
You ask her about anything, and she'll have something to say about it.
And it usually makes you want to go, "Hmmmmm."
I love Drea.
She's fabulous.
In this episode, Drea opens up and tells it like it is, raw, and direct, sharing her views on why she’s not a mother and that she’s very happy in her life without children.
“You should live your life in a way that you feel bad for other people for living it differently.”
“Oh my God. I had it so good. My parents are legit good parents, and they are a very loving couple. So it’s ironic to me that I’m like, ‘Oh you guys knocked it out of the park on both fronts. Do not take it personally that I am not replicating that,’ because I remember telling them years ago when I sort of knew that I wasn’t gonna have kids - I wanted them to know.”
If you want to get in touch with Drea or find our more about her, go to her website: dreaclark.com or find her on Twitter @thedreaclark
You can check out my website, You're Doing Great Mom and be sure to subscribe and write a review. I would be so happy if you all do that. Thanks, and see you next week!
Angie is a successful therapist, working with individuals as well as companies, big and small. This episode was awesome, with so many interesting and thought-provoking nuggets of wisdom, ideas, and stories about motherhood and how we can shift our perspectives about it in the context of applying it to roles of leadership and life in general.
“That’s part of my mission, really, in working with everybody I do, is trying to get the word out that the more you can be with ‘stuck’ the more you’re life is going to transform, because every time you go to learn something new, whether it’s changing your golf swing… changing a part of their skill, they’re gonna go through a chaos phase as they relearn things. So if every time you see ‘stuck’ as it means you did something wrong, you’re gonna back off and you’re not gonna get the learning. It’s important that we spread that - that stuckness means you are one step away from change.”
I don't think I've laughed so hard recording an episode. Michelle Dry is my guest today, continuing the series about women who are not mothers. Michelle is hilarious, multi-talented, creative, and full of life as she travels the world in her job as a communications director on a cruise-line. She is also a prolific writer/author of many books, already published by herself and available on Amazon. Her most successful book is The Hairy Legged Mystery, a children's book about a mysterious creature with hairy legs.
Check out Michelle's website
https://michelledry.com/
My guest this week is Rachael Talbot-Frank. Rachael doesn’t have children of her own and is not a mother.
These last few weeks and in the next few episodes, the topic has been about women who do not have children. I’ll be speaking to women who share their story of not becoming a mother. It’s something I think people should hear about. There’s always that uncomfortable, politically correct awkwardness that looms over us when we address it. There’s always the elephant in the room and the curious, what’s her story? And I think many women who aren’t mothers don’t get a chance to tell theirs.
Rachael’s experience is possibly unique because for her, everything changed when she was twenty-one. Something happened to her body which she had to heal tremendously from on an emotional and mental level, not to mention learn how to cope on a physical level. This shift is what catapulted her relationship to herself as a woman without children. It also formed her view on the possibility of not having children and why she didn’t want to risk passing down her chronic illness. This made her believe that there’s a natural reason for her NOT to have children.
Inside her journey to heal from her illness, to experience shame that her body ‘failed’ her and then having to go through the process of whether or not she wanted to become a mother, Rachel has discovered her own power within herself as a woman who is nurturing, caring, beautiful, and owning her amazing body.
Listen to Rachel share her experience in the context of not being a mother and her unique story talking about health challenges and how she’s living a life she loves and continues to love.
Noreen Sumpter is a personal life coach who lives in Brooklyn. She and I have been close friends for nearly 20 years. She talks about how, since the age of 13, she knew she did not want to have children. I wanted to open up this conversation because it's just not something people often talk about. Maybe because it's not a very comfortable subject. Maybe because people just don't know what to say. It's not like you can just ask a woman (who isn't a mother), "So why don't you have any children?"
The Economist recently had an article on this very subject. Childless women are more common, significantly more than from the 1940s. The reasons range from choosing not to have children (desire not to), to medical reasons, and every possible scenario in between.
My guest today, Noreen Sumpter, shares her story and gives us her perspective of what motherhood is to her.
Enjoy!
“I think subconsciously I was looking for an outlet. I think I wanted a way out, and I wanted something more in my life, a creative outlet because I knew I wasn’t getting that from my career. So I was happy to take that time away, and then I had Noah and then it was just me at home with Noah and Yasmin. And I look back at that time and oh my gosh, it was so special.”
Samina Courtin is the creator and owner of Mon Dessert, a London-based patisserie company. She specializes in beautiful and delicious macarons, and she has also designed cooking kits which she sells in Fortnum and Mason, Harrods, and other high-end specialty shops.
Samina is a mother of two adorable happy children, a girl and a boy, in primary school in Southwest London. Her husband is French and they met through mutual friends.
Her career started in a very male-centered in an e-commerce digital marketing company, using her interests in math and science. But she felt that something was missing. Working in the marketing industry wasn’t allowing her to explore her creative side.
“It was strange. I was the first person to become pregnant in my company. It was a very young industry. You know, you’re thinking, it was 2009 and that’s when I first went on maternity leave. The internet world and how to monetize that and how to create e-commerce platform, it was just exploding. It was still a very young industry and I was one of the oldest there and I wasn’t even 30. And when I came back (from maternity leave), I think it was the financial crisis, literally I walked into the office and I didn’t recognize anyone. I felt like I was being given shoddy work, the stuff that nobody didn’t want to do. When I became pregnant with Noah, and I took my second maternity leave, obviously one after the other during a financial crisis, and they were like, ‘uh, we really would like you NOT (to do that) …”
Motherhood is what opened her natural artistic and creative side. Being at home with her two small children inspired her to start exploring her home skills, especially baking and cooking. She shares about how she started her company Mon Dessert and how she is living her multi-passionate and amazing life with her husband and two children.
Check out my episode with Samina listen to her fabulous and interesting story. It’s so amazing and colorful and ‘tasty’. Oui Oui!
Visit Samina’s website http://www.mondessert.co.uk/. Connect with her on Instagram @mondessert and Twitter @mondessert
[This episode is about miscarriage. Please understand that it may trigger sensitive emotions while listening, although the purpose of this episode is to spread the information about this topic so more women can learn about how common miscarriage is.]
Lara Martins is a principle in the London production of “The Phantom of the Opera”. Lara is from Portugal, and studied theatre in the UK, and has been living in the UK for the last 20 years.
I’m so happy to have Lara here with me for this episode. In searching for more topics revolving motherhood and pregnancy, I believe that it’s important to talk about all possible events relating to our experiences as women becoming mothers. One of them is miscarriage, which, for many people who do not know, it is quite common. Many women have experienced a miscarriage, and because of the sensitive emotional pain involved, most women do not know how to share their experiences.
When Lara accepted my invitation to be on my podcast, she was very open and generous in sharing her story about her miscarriage.
“When you have a miscarriage you don’t really think that because obviously miscarriage is quite a sensitive subject, and not many women talk about it. So you have no idea that having a miscarriage is quite common. It happens a lot. When you are confronted with a miscarriage it is very traumatic. It’s definitely one of the hardest things I had to deal with in my life. You know, the first thought you have is ‘what have I done wrong; did I provoke this’ and even though everybody tells you it’s nothing you have done, it’s nothing to do with you, it’s just your body maybe rejecting something that was not viable’. BUt you just try to find the reason. You just want to know why; what have I done; What could I have done differently to have a different outcome’.”
“It gave me great comfort when I was trying to recover from my miscarriage to know that actually this is so common, and talking to other women who had the same experience. Because then I didn’t feel like some kind of freak, or that I had some kind of problem.”
“I think when you have a very easy pregnancy, and obviously, and all the women that have never had problems in their pregnancy and never suffered miscarriages, pregnancy can be a very naive thing in the sense that when you look at that pregnancy test and it’s positive you think, ‘Oh great, I’m going to have a baby,’ because you just had a pregnancy that was completely normal, nothing happened, everything was great, so you think, oh, this is going to be the same thing again. It’s not until something goes wrong that you understand that actually quite a lot of things that can go wrong, and then becoming pregnant again it’s actually very very stressful.”
To reach out to Lara Martins, check out her website and send her a message: https://www.laramartins.com/
To hear another woman’s experience with miscarriage, have a listen to episode 10 with Maryellen Stephens. http://traffic.libsyn.com/youredoinggreatmom/010-23-05-20172C14.53.mp3
Be sure to check out You're Doing Great Mom online. http://youredoinggreatmom.com/blog/
If you have wondered what chiropractic care is, and how it can benefit you and your family, this is a great episode to listen to.
Dr Sarah: “Self-responsibility [in regards to their health]: the allopathic health approach, as it’s starting to implode on itself, more people are looking for that level of self-care which coincides with self-responsibility like, I’m going to take my health back into my own hands, then we’re the perfect health profession [chiropractic] to be there to meet them at that door. Because there are thousands health professions, and when we look at the allopathic health approach and you’re remaining passive within that, then there’s no sense of self-responsibility. I’m gonna go to you, you’re gonna tell me what I’ve got wrong, you’re gonna give me something, I’m gonna take that and it’s gonna disappear. That’s called a ‘treatment’ where ‘treat’ means in its shortest form, it’s creating an illusion that something doesn’t exist anymore. And then, when we go to the alter-NATE health approach, where chiropractic fits comfortably in this health approach, there is a level of self-responsibility. So if you can tap in to that sense of self-responsibility that everybody is searching for, then that position’s chiropractic in a way healthier arena to be able to meet those people where they’re at as they are exiting this allopathic approach.”
“When we have a parent is wanting to have their child checked, then the conversation is not necessarily, my child doesn’t have back pain. We have parents saying that I want my child to be the best they can be.”
Dr Kelly: “Usually [in our office] what we hear is ‘I wish I’d heard about it sooner, I wish I’d known that there was a different way to do things.’ Often, it’s quite cool, we’ve had a couple of clients who have been in the office with their children getting checked. There’s a little boy who’s 5-and-a-half and he’s been checked every week since he was three weeks old. His mum is such a vigilante for chiropractic. She’s such an advocate.”
Dr Sarah Farrant lives in New Zealand and has been a chiropractor for the last 16 years. She has been helping families by educating them how to understand the chiropractic lifestyle and how it can help benefit their health. Her company provides vital tools for generational change in health. She educates parents, children, and grandparents in living a healthier life through a different perspective with chiropractic being the baseline. You can reach her at http://vitalmoms.com/ Check out her Facebook page: Vital Moms https://www.facebook.com/Vital-Moms-250515624977388/ Or email her at drsarahfarrant@gmail.com
Dr Kelly McGaughlin lives in the UK and has been in practice for 15 years, and the last six she and her husband have built their practice together. She also focuses on empowering people to approach health with a different perspective through family wellness care with chiropractic. You can reach her at kjtchiro@hotmail.com.
Be sure to check out my website http://youredoinggreatmom.com/. And if you want to learn more about chiropractic, take a look at my chiropractic practice website: http://www.shiozawawellness.com/
This is Part 1 of 2 with Dr Kelly McLaughlin and Dr Sarah Farrant, who are both chiropractors and mothers.
Dr Kelly McLaughlin is from Reading UK, she has 3 boys, all home births, and she home-schools them as well. You can reach her at kjtchiro@hotmail.com.
Dr Sarah Farrant is also a chiropractor, and lives in Wiaheke New Zealand (which is an island just east of Auckland). She has 2 boys and a girl, all homebirths, and all home-schooled as well. You can reach her at http://vitalmoms.com/ Check out her Facebook page: Vital Moms https://www.facebook.com/Vital-Moms-250515624977388/ Or email her at drsarahfarrant@gmail.com
Dr Sarah’s books: The Health Illusion: Is It Killing You?
and
The Vital Truth: Accessing the Possibilities of Unlimited Health
Book mention: John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
I love recording an episode in person. It's always fun. Plus, guests can bring their adorable puppies.
Harriet Waley-Cohen came in with her little adorable puppy, who ended up sitting right in between us gnawing on her bone (which is what the sporadic faint clicking noises are in the background). We had a wonderful time talking about motherhood, adversity, learning to love life, being at the forefront of being unstoppable, and the concept of having it all.
"... because mothering isn't about mothering your own children. It's about mothering the planet. It's about mothering the human race. And when I think about all those teenage girls that I grew up with when we were teenagers, what would it have been like to have had awake, aware, honest, vulnerable women like you and I come and say, 'this is what I went through, this is what it was like, this is what it's really like out there as a grown up; let me take you by the hand and help you and give you all these tips' and to get to be that person for the current generation is awesome."
She talks about changing careers from banking to becoming a speaker and a coach. She shares her difficult birth and how her son didn't sleep for the first four months of his life, and how motherhood contributes to how she speaks in front of hundreds of people. She also shares how about overcoming addiction, and through this adversity led to her incredible strength and courage, and ultimately having a life she loves.
To check out more info on Harriet Waley-Cohen, go to her website: http://harrietwaleycohen.com/ or look her up on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/harrietwaleycohen/
Instagram and Twitter: @harriet_wc
http://youredoinggreatmom.com/
For the first time ever, and after a long period of discussing this, my husband (Julian) sits down with me and we record ourselves having one of our many conversations.
My husband is an intelligent dude. He went to Cambridge. He's a self-professed geek. He's good at math. And he also knows about a lot of things. People who know about a lot of things almost always think they are right. Trouble is, they aren't always right and it's nearly impossible to debate with these people.
I'm smart, but I'm not like my husband who knows a lot about a lot of things. He was the kind of kid that read 10 books a week starting from the moment he could read a full sentence. So over the years, he's consumed a lot of information.
I wasn't like that. I was a late bloomer. I didn't like reading until I was in college. And I think because of that, I was never good at debating or having conversations with really intelligent people. I'm not book-smart. I'm people-smart.
So, I thought it'd be fun to sit down and record a typical conversation between my husband and me. They tend to get heated, I often get loud and flustered, and he tends to be mostly factual (or he thinks he's being factual), but most of the time they are fun and silly, and entertaining.
Here we're talking about my last episode with Mandy Adams. I asked my husband to listen to it, hoping he'd get some insight from it, and instead, he came out analyzing the shit out of it.
That part of the conversation gets dull and boring, so we get a little bit sillier talking about what to say to a spouse when they've gained weight.
I hope you like it.
Here's my husband Julian's website to read more about him and if you're interested in contacting him.
Remember to subscribe, and post a review, especially if you liked my husband! Join me on my website and sign up to get more emails every day on top of all the other subscriptions you have. Why not? The more the merrier!
“It’s coming from an approach of really trusting what’s really right for us, and hence the work that I’m standing in is allowing women to find their own unique voice, and the more that we stand in that as individuals then we become this collective awakened force of the feminine.”
Mandy Adams is a menstruality educator.
What the hell is that, you ask.
Well, I seriously believe that if every woman and man understood this information that Mandy teaches and shares, the world would be in a much better state.
There is so much that our cultures do not understand about health, specifically the cycle of the woman’s menstruality. And if information was taught and known almost automatically, such as taught in school, we would understand so much more about ourselves, our children, our lovers, our partners, our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, as well as our dynamic with boys and men in our lives.
I’m telling you. Listen to this.
And pay attention. Don’t do anything else but dedicate 100% of your attention on this episode.
Here are the books and authors recommended by Mandy Adams:
Vagina, by Naomi Wolf
Jane Hardwick Collins
Uma Dinsmore-Tuli
Alexandra Pope
To contact Mandy, go to her Mandy Adams https://mandyadams.co.uk/
Please subscribe and post a review! Check out my website and sign up in the chat forum and to join our amazing email tribe http://youredoinggreatmom.com/
I've loved Wonder Woman all my life. And for most of that time, especially since Lynda Carter stopped being Diana Prince and Wonder Woman, I never stopped wondering and waiting for the next time we'd see another production of Wonder Woman. Well, finally, the movie is here. And I saw it last weekend. This is my review of it.
“Growing up I had a lot of problems with period pain and things like that every month. I ended up going and seeing a specialist and was diagnosed with quite severe endometriosis. So from that I had operations such as laparoscopies, and things like that, and was told at 15 point blank by an OBY-GYN that I would not be able to have kids. And at 15, that’s not something you take on very well. I was mortified.”
Endometriosis affects 1 in 10 women from as early as menarche, the first period in a girl’s life, and continues throughout life. That’s a lot. Yet, many women who have it say they don’t talk about it. It’s just not something that is talked about in the public, so awareness is very low. So unless you have it, or know someone close to you that has it, you don’t know much about it.
Endometriosis is when the uterine lining of the uterus grows outside of the uterus, around the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and sometimes in other areas in the pelvis such as the colon and bladder. It causes moderate to severe pain during periods and sometimes in between periods, as well as heavy bleeding during and in between periods. It’s one of the most common conditions related to infertility, and medical industry doesn’t know what causes it. Women are also told that there is no cure.
Callie totally persevered through her experience with her endometriosis.
“Education and girls getting the right information, and giving them the power back to own their body and what they want to do with it is huge. It’s quite debilitating, different conditions that relate to our hormone levels and to our periods and cycles and general fertility. They impact us well before we’re ready to have kids. And the information is knowing what to look for, and there’s so much stuff out there.”
To connect with Callie, visit her website https://eliteexecutivesupport.com/. If you’d like to contact her, send an email at callie.burke@eliteexecutivesupport.com. You can also connect with her on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/callie.hoolihan.
Remember to subscribe to this on iTunes and post a review. You can also listen to this on Soundcloud.
When I was a kid growing up, my mother used to always say to me one of Nietzsche’s phrase, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
For the most part, I think that’s definitely true.
When I have these conversations with these women for my podcast, resilience and determination are what I think about. And something about Maryellen felt so close to me, even though I never experienced much of what she did.
You could call it chemistry, and I had that connection with her almost instantly when I met her a few months ago at a chiropractic seminar. Without getting all sentimental here, it was probably because she told me she wasn’t British, she’s from Toronto, being from North America, and that gave me the common connection from the start.
She came across as super confident, fun, expressive, and intelligent, and I’ve always been drawn to women like that because not only do I like being around people like that, I tend to feel a ‘healthy’ competitive energy that I enjoy when I meet someone like this.
So when Maryellen and I got a chance to record this podcast episode, I was moved by what she shared, and how open she allowed herself to be. To me, vulnerability is a strength and a virtue, which I think everyone should practice regularly, especially moms. (And men).
(Ok, everyone.)
Maryellen shares, “… even from week 8 when I had that big dizzy spell, and I was talking to the baby all the time, you know I would say ‘please stay, I love you’, and all that kind of stuff, kind of knowing that something just wasn’t right. And when it kicked in and I just had a really powerful feeling that week, and I rang Alex up and I said, ‘Alex, I need to get adjusted, something isn’t just right.’”
And he said, “Well, I can’t stop the baby from going if the baby’s going.”
I said, “I know that, I just need you to adjust me.”
“He adjusted me, and by the time I got home, I was losing the baby. But because of the adjustment, emotionally, I was able to cope with it.”
I love Maryellen’s authenticity in telling her story, as well as her courage. It’s how we all connect with other human beings. When we hear love, vulnerability, and authenticity expressed, it’s what stirs our emotions and what let’s us glimpse into who we all are as human beings.
This is what I love about people, connecting with them, sharing and opening our hearts, laughing about life’s little things, and celebrating the things that matter.
Tune in to listen to Maryellen’s episode. I’m sure you’ll smile, cry, and enjoy what you hear.
If you’d like to reach out to Maryellen Stephens, you can email her at maryellendc@family-chiro.co.uk. Also, check out her website and blog www.family-chiro.co.uk
She is also currently writing her first book, and here’s a small excerpt from the introduction:
“I am certainly not the person I was before becoming a mother. If pregnancy was a wild ride, then birth, well, that showed me I had a strength in me I never knew existed. And the emotions! When they say you walk about with your heart on your sleeve, words were never more true. But it changes you somewhere deep inside as a human being. From the exhaustion, to coming face to face with who you really are, and having it mirrored back at you through your children. Well, now, that's been a treat! Ha! I've become softer in so many ways, it's hard to describe. I look back and feel really good about who I have grown into, and largely, that is from a combination of being faced with children head on (the majority of which has been as a single parent) and all the crazy; years of exhaustion from lack of sleep; and willingness to heal the old bits of my own childhood, as I encountered incredible moments of compassion and forgiveness for both my parents and myself, through so many of these experiences. Embrace it, there's nothing to fear. I promise.”
For information about The Red Tent for young girls learning about their bodies and menstrual cycles, visit https://mandyadams.co.uk/red-tent/
Sarah Keen had no idea her first pregnancy would end up being one of the most challenging experiences in her life.
Her son was born premature at 33 weeks.
“Having had a cesarean and, you know, an emergency cesarean, without any labor because a lot of people said, ‘oh, did your waters break? and did this happen, and how often were your contractions,’ and I didn’t have any labor at all. I was literally pregnant, rushed into theatre, and then the next minute in the recovery room, and without my baby. Because that’s the other thing, because of the way they take them away to special care, or intensive care. They take the baby straight away, but nobody told me. Everyone knew it would happen, but nobody told me, and I presume it’s because they always assumed somebody else had.”
Today’s episode is Sarah sharing her very scary and personal story of her first born son, who was born premature at 33 weeks because her placenta had stopped growing. Her condition was a placental insufficiency, more specifically an absent end diastolic flow. The doctors discovered that her baby was SGA (small for gestational age), and she had to be monitored daily. This lead to a cascade of chaos, from rushing into an emergency cesarean, and into motherhood, breastfeeding, and bonding with her new baby.
“I had this thing in my head the whole time. He’s gonna die. He’s gonna die. He’s not gonna make it. I’m not gonna get to see him. The only reason why they are keeping me away is because he’s gonna die. What the hell is wrong with me? I’m not feeling it. What the fuck is going on? And for me, as soon as I saw him I got it. And I was like, it’s OK; I do love my child.”
It’s an emotional story, and also filled with courage, inspiration, love, discovery, and joy.
Her second pregnancy was unexpected, and she speaks about how she had to face her unhealed wounds from her first pregnancy, which triggered her PTSD. She envisioned growing her baby as far as her body could take her, planned a home VBAC birth, and wanted to bask in the enormity of her beautiful pregnant belly.
Tune in to listen to what happened, what she learned, and her amazing inspiring story of strength and a mother’s love.
Powerful beautiful stuff!
To connect with Sarah, visit her website http://pregnancypodcast.co.uk/. Also tune in to her podcast called Pure Natural Pregnancy on iTunes.
In adversity, determination, resilience, purpose and conviction will get you out of it with flying colors.
No one said life is easy, and one of my most important mantras is, "Stop making excuses." As human beings, we are often 'stuck' in our stories, keeping ourselves from creating a life that is meaningful, purposeful, and gratifying.
Rebecca lives by this full-on. She's a perfect example of someone being accountable for her choices and actions.
"Funnily enough, I planned to have a baby that young. I was actually pregnant at 15. So I had my daughter when I was 16. And I thought I had, um I was in love, and I'd been with this person forever and I thought I knew everything and I wanted to be a mum."
Rebecca is the first woman I've met who's chosen to be a mum at 15 years old. To me, that sounds unique. She explains why she thought this was what she wanted at the time, and how she coped with her life as a new mother at 16-years-old.
Her relationship with her daughter's father turned into a domestic abuse situation, which she was able to get out of, and then remarried at the age of 21. Most women at that age are partying at university, with motherhood and marriage even remotely on the radar.
Rebecca chose a different path.
Then, after nearly nine years of marriage, and having two more daughters, she divorced at age 29, and has lived with her girls as a single mom since then.
As she was telling me her story, I couldn't help but think about how downhill her life could have turned. She didn't allow herself to be positioned in a situation of being another statistic of poverty, domestic abuse, and dysfunction. We hear so much about these tragic stories, and Rebecca never saw herself in becoming that.
She admits how challenging it was and how she had to sacrifice valuable time with her daughters for a budding career to support her family. She had the opportunity to step into a career where she excelled and learned a great amount of skill in sales, and chose to earn a comfortable and successful lifestyle.
"It was extremely long hours, on average 16 to 18 hours days. It was hard. I really want to give the girls a good education and the opportunity to do sports and things like that that I might not have been able to do when I was younger. I often thought 'do I keep doing this or what' because you are sacrificing time with them. Sometimes they'd have their, 'oh you know we're at our friend's house and such-n-such's parents baked afternoon cookies and they did this and that' and of course they did have that with me because, you know, I wasn't there."
Then, five years ago, she was diagnosed with a very rare autoimmune disease. She was told that she was only 1 in 19 other people in the world with this disease. Her kidneys were affected, and one day she woke up with nine kilos of fluid accumulated in her body from the waist down. This forced her to take off from work for three months.
She realized that she needed to start paying attention to herself, taking care of her mind and body, and focus on healing.
She shares about how she needed to listen to her body and how she chose to look after her health, which put her on a path to her own self-development and self-discovery.
Tune into listen to Rebecca's incredible story of motherhood, adversity, determination, self-development, and success.
To reach out to Rebecca, visit her website http://www.rebeccamccoll.com/.
You can also connect with her on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.mccoll.566
I remember being in my early 20s as a student in chiropractic school when I’d go to as many seminars as possible because the fees were so low for our student rates. I’d sit and listen to many different speakers present, and I was always incredibly inspired by the women chiropractors who spoke about their lives, their practices, and their kids, and how they juggled everything. I sat there thinking, “I wanna be just like them.”
To grab her phrase from her podcast, Melissa is one of those rockstar chiropractor moms who inspires me. It’s a honor being in her circle as one of her peers, and to be able to get to know her.
In this episode, she shares about how she got married and then got pregnant in her last year of chiropractic school.
“I graduated and had my son four days later.”
She talks about her fast birth of her first child, “My son was born very quickly. It was a little bit of a surreal experience. It was literally like three hours from start to finish … and before you knew it, boom, he was there in my arms.”
I was impressed with her level of clarity and groundedness. She said she attributed that to her being married to her chiropractor husband at the time, both sharing the same dream of starting a family letting it happen naturally. The impressive part was about when in the span of only six months, she graduated, had her first son, then moved and opened up a practice together with her husband.
“It is what it is. It’s the way it was supposed to play out for me. And we literally graduated, I had my first son, we moved to Toronto, we bought our first house, we opened our practice. We did all these major life things in a six month period and we didn’t know any other way. You just figure things out as you go along.”
Melissa also goes on to share about how, after her divorce, she handled and figured out life as a single mom, raising two boys.
“You know, what your kids need is love. If kids are misbehaving, it always comes back to ‘where is the hurt here’. Because I don’t believe the majority of kids are trying to be manipulative. They are trying to communicate in whatever way they can that they have a need that’s not being met. It’s not that they are trying to cause problems. They are reacting to something. What’s this behavior coming from? What’s the real underlying situation here? It’s just remembering that kids just really want your love and attention. They just want your time.
She shares how important it is for us mothers to take time for self-care.
“I also think it’s important as moms to not only be taking care of yourselves because it gives you so much back, but to continue to nurture yourself because there’s going come a time when your children are not gonna be your sole existence. It can be really difficult for some women who don’t have any sense of self or any sense of contribution or anything that gives them joy and happiness …”
Melissa is truly inspiring, a leader in our chiropractic profession, a role model, and a mentor. And I’m sure that her two sons would say that above everything, she’s a super rockstar mom.
She’s awesome and I loved getting to know her on this podcast episode.
Enjoy.
To connect with Dr Melissa Longo, check out her website http://drmelissa.ca/
Also, be sure to check out her podcast, Rockstar Doctor Moms https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/rockstar-doctor-moms-chiropractic-life-practice/id1181580224?mt=2
“No one wants to say vagina. I didn’t even know it was called a vagina ’til I was about 14 year old. I thought it was called a tuppence.”
“I was diagnosed with ITP, an autoimmune disease, the weekend before my husband and I got married. Literally, I spent the weekend before our wedding in the hospital.”
Nicole lives in Indiana with her teacher husband and her two-and-a-half-year-old toddler son. I had no idea what her story was, and when she shared her story, I was so impressed with her determination, her positive energy, and drive to create such a fulfilling life for herself and her family.
She talks about her diagnosis and how she also had to have a planned c-section due to a placenta previa.
“… it was a whole difference experience. It was scheduled, we went into it, I climbed onto a table, and they put me out. That was never ever how I picture how I would have my child.”
Now she runs her own social-media and coaching business centered around helping chiropractors market their practices. She’s able to work from home, set her own schedule while taking care of her family, and having a full-on life.
“I knew I didn’t want to go back to that, but I really had no career plan. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, I knew I didn’t want to work nights and weekends anymore, and I knew I wanted more for my son.”
With a background in technology and sales, she asked her aunt, who is a chiropractor, if she could help promote their practice. After searching and brainstorming, she found her calling in marketing and social media for the chiropractic industry. After meeting the CEO of Vitalogics, she hit the ground running and took her business by storm.
Then, last year, after finding herself doing too much and overwhelmed, she was diagnosed with Lupus, another autoimmune disease.
“The hours that he was at daycare, is where I was like, I have to get the most out of this. I need to make sure it’s worth my time. But it turned out to be a negative. I was to the point where I really wasn’t even stopping to make lunch.”
Through this diagnosis, and finding her balance, listening to her body, she is now thriving and her priorities are much clearer for herself, her husband, and her son.
She talks about how she knew she wanted to create something bigger for herself, being empowered, with freedom and control of herself and her life.
“My grandpa was an entrepreneur, my aunt was an entrepreneur, I wanted to be in control. Being a wife and a mom, I knew I needed to be in control. I’m the type of person who goes 200 miles an hour straight forward until I plow into a wall. And then I take a step back and put the pieces back together and I realize the best map and the best route I need to go.”
Tune in to listen to Nicole’s impressive story being challenged by her health, and putting her passion and drive into achieving what she wants.
And she says she’s only at the beginning.
Enjoy!
One of my biggest take-homes from this conversation is this. Melissa explains,
“I think the mistake we make is that it’s not our births. It’s our children’s births. We don’t even know who they are yet. We don’t what their personality is. We don’t know anything about them. And it’s their journey and we’re just the vehicle for that. So being able to connect with them and let them have their journey is kind of really where it’s at. And when we try and make it about us, the birth, about making it look really pretty and trying to control it ... I don’t think we should do that.”
Six natural births. Empowering, positive, and loved being pregnant.
So much experience and so much wisdom.
“This is a bit of a fire-up statement. I can pretty much tell you, when I meet a pregnant woman whether they’re gonna end up having a safe and natural delivery or whether they’re gonna end up having an intervention. I can tell by the language they use because behind the language is their own fear. And when they start using disclaimers about well ‘I have to do what the hospital says, I have to do what the doctor says’. They’re relinquishing ownership of their bodies and control. When you use language like that and your emotions are really fear-based, you just have no hope.”
Melissa is a super mom. She’s amazing. She’s so grounded, full of wisdom, she’s full of life, and is an expert on motherhood, love, and enjoying life. Melissa moved from Melbourne, Australia to Devon, UK and lived there for nearly 20 years. She has six children, her eldest studying chiropractic in Australia. She met her first husband, who is British, in Australia, moved to Devon together and had her first three children who are now 23, 21, and 18.
Then, also while living in the UK, met her second husband, and has three children with him. They are 10, 7, and 5.
Chiropractic has been a huge part of her adult life, started getting adjusted regularly as part of her healthy lifestyle. Her first husband was a chiropractor, with whom she separated, and then remarried again, who is also a chiropractor.
Melissa is a woman who loved being pregnant. She fully embraced being pregnant, being a mother, having the mindset of ease, peace, and enjoying every aspect of it. She talks about each of her births in detail, what she discovered and learned about herself, her babies, and her body with each one.
“With my last three, I actually didn’t see a midwife until a week before I was ready to give birth.”
“I’d done it before, I knew, when you tune into your body you know when you’re well and when you’re not well. I didn’t want to be poked and prodded and weaned on a stick all the time. I have a busy life and fitting that in was stressful and I didn’t want that for myself.”
Fear and stress in labor is what creates a cascade of complications and interventions. Melissa shares how she was able to keep the fear and panic out of the equation to embrace the natural process of birth.
“Once you go into that panic place it’s all over, red-rover. When women are in that place it’s much more difficult to give birth. I think you shut down. Your contractions shut down. And so I was very aware not to put myself in that head space.”
“In our society we don’t place any value on your emotional and mental health. We don’t any value at all on the fact that your emotional state can affect your physical state. That’s just crazy.”
Melissa gives her wonderful story of natural birth, her strength, and she shares many tools for women to hear about having an empowering and beautiful birth.
To reach out to Melissa, email her at melissaasandford@gmail.com
Tune in to hear more!
(This episode is brought to you by The Motherbox. To claim your 5% discount, email them and mention this podcast with code YDGM!)
Rea Frey Holguin
She was my guest on this episode. We had such a great connection, and it was so much fun talking to her.
(Every woman I've spoken to so far has been amazing!)
She's from Nashville Tennessee, is a fitness and nutritionist expert, an author, a wife and a mom. We had a great time chatting about pretty much everything including President Trump. Her husband has an interesting nickname for him (The Human Turkey Vagina).
That's another episode in itself. Maybe we'll pass on politics.
Anyway, I love talking to women where things just get real. Talking about men, sex, motherhood, exhaustion … everything. That’s how this episode exemplified. All the real, down-and-dirty-stuff about life as a mother and wife.
“I did not want to become a mother..I’m pretty selfish with my time. I always knew that I wanted to be a little bit of a gypsy… I love the freedom that comes with being able to get up and go… Just not have that sort of awesome responsibility of another human and all the worry that comes with it…”
She shares how she thought motherhood was never her plan, yet nine months after marrying her husband, she unexpectedly finds out she was pregnant and how she chose to have her baby.
“I sat him down, and I said, very honestly that I did not want children; children were not in my future…”
How funny and unpredictable a mother’s journey can be. Right? Join in for this openly honest, gritty, humble, and authentic conversation I have with Rea Frey Holguin. You can find her at www.reafrey.com for info on her books, blog, and how to reach her.
Tune in to hear our fun and insightful conversation!
Enjoy!
Trauma and abuse often lead to post traumatic stress disorder if the body, mind, brain, and nervous system cannot cope and process and heal from the experience.
Susanne Grant shares her story of how she suffered for over 10 years, not sleeping, not able to absorb proper nutrients from the food she ate, and unable to remember anything short-term. She crashed and broke at 17, being 20 kilos lighter than when she when she was 12.
She wanted to go into mathematics and physics, but with her PTSD overwhelming her system, she finally had to face what needed to be healed, which led her to be inspired to pursue a career in helping other women who experience trauma, abuse, and PTSD.
Listen to her inspiring story on Episode 2 on "You're Doing Great Mom"!
Here is it people!
YDGM's first podcast episode!
Jennifer Cassetty was my personal trainer when we lived in NY. I met her when I was pregnant with my second child, and I knew I needed someone to help my motivation to exercise properly.
On this podcast, we speak for the first time, after eight years.
She opens up about her experience and journey into becoming a mother.
She shares:
"I remember growing up, in college, my whole goal, by the time I was 24, and this is a true story, is I wanted to be married, have kids, be a professional, and be settled into my life by the time I was 24. None of that happened."
Then she goes on, "Being a fitness person, being the fittest person in the world, being a trainer, and being pregnant the whole way through, it was probably the hardest thing I've ever done. I gained 48 pounds, everything hurt, I wasn't able to lift ... it's hard ... "
Tune in to hear the whole episode!
I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed creating this together with Jen.
(Book mentioned is Secrets of a Baby Whisperer, by Tracy Hogg and Melinda Blau.)
Today was the first recording of the podcast for "You're Doing Great Mom".
I have to admit. I was really nervous. And she told me she was too!
I guess being nervous is a good thing.
Right?
The nervousness gives me the energy to move forward.
All that adrenalin.
Anyway, my equipment was all set up. Mic, computer, the correct software to record, comfy seating, headphones. I was all geared up.
I've even been reading and researching about how to start up your own podcast, and all the important steps to making a good quality podcast.
(Now that I've revealed myself, I hope I can deliver!)
The first conversation was with an incredible woman, a friend from a long time ago. She was my personal trainer in New York when I was pregnant with my second child.
Jennifer Cassetty is a powerhouse. She used to be a competitive fitness athlete, and she's always been goal driven, so it was really interesting to hear her story in becoming a mom.
I hadn't spoken to her in nearly 8 years, and the only reason why I knew she had become a mom is because of her Facebook posts sharing her pictures.
During our conversation, which was lots of fun, my realisation and reason of why I wanted to start these podcasts in the first place came to me so clearly. I had no idea what Jen was willing to share, and it was simply her story, her words about her experience about her becoming a mother. I learned a lot about her. Lots happens in eight years. And inside the whole conversation, many topics came up that we, as mothers, often hear others talk about because these are real issues, real life challenges, and real every day common situations that I think every woman can somehow relate to.
She explained to me how she was in her late 30s, knowing that she wanted to have a family, and it was a big heavy part of her life that started consuming her as a primary objective. I think many, many women can relate to that, especially in a big major city like New York.
Once she met her husband, and got married, they both were on the same track in wanting to start a family right away. She said that most of the information from doctors explained that it's not likely that they'll conceive easily because of her and her husband's ages. It was a frustrating experience to constantly hear that she was in a high risk category and the odds were against her.
Luckily, she got pregnant right away, had a healthy pregnancy, and they had a healthy little girl.
Even though she had worked with pregnant women, training them every day in the gym, and also has been around her niece and nephew, she soon discovered how unprepared she was as a new mom. One of the things that I tell all first-time pregnant women is that they don't need to worry so much about their pregnancy. It's a time to enjoy and not be too stressed about every little thing.
What they should be preparing for and focusing on is what's about to come - what happens AFTER the baby is born.
Jen was saying how it was a really tough transition, knowing nearly nothing about how to take care of a newborn, how to breastfeed, and if everything she was doing was the right thing.
Don't all mothers experience that?
So why is that information just so scarce when it's the most crucial part of preparation for becoming a mother?
You know, while Jen was telling me her story, I sat back thinking how familiar it was, and yet I also sat back listening without a major concern that she was doing a great job. I could tell she's been coping, AND doing a great job.
Yet, I know she, and probably every new mom with a newborn out there, was thinking, "holy shit, this mom thing is NOT what I expected and this sucks!"
I know I remember feeling that way. Several times.
When you haven't showered all day, you're starving, exhausted, lonely, and frustrated, and your four-week-old baby is wailing and you have no idea why, it's normal to look at that baby and be like, "You know what? I don't like you right now!"
Guess what, that's something I think us moms will say in our heads many times throughout motherhood. In fact, I've got three of my own, and I know that most days, and probably every day, I feel like that with one, or all three of them at the same time.
But we LOVE them. Always. Unconditionally.
And that's what motherhood is all about.
It's not always a joy. Sometimes it sucks, and sometimes I want to switch places with my childless friends of mine for a week. But, we all know we can't live without our babies and we love them so hard that it hurts.
This is what this website is all about. Dealing with the dirty, the ugly, and also the fabulous and amazing lives as moms.
My husband doesn't understand the title of this website/podcast, "You're Doing Great Mom". That's because in his cynical mind, he's saying, "Actually, you don't know if that woman is doing a great job. Maybe she hates it and she's not a really good mom."
He's not wrong.
But, that's not the point.
Women who are mothers, by nature, we want to be a great mom. And just hearing those words can lift us up.
Men might not hear those words in the same way, and they might be useless in helping them feel better or do better. But nearly all women can respond to positive and uplifting words like that, especially if it's what we strive for - to be great.
I hope you get a lot out of this blog and website, and when I publish the first podcast, remember to subscribe because I know it'll be a fabulous collection of awesome stories and conversations with women of all types.
Remember to comment and ask questions too!
See you next time!
— MaryAnne