Mormon Mom Becomes the Provider for Her Family - Cate Smith | Ep. 2101
Mormon Stories Podcast
Grieving the Loss of Stay-at-Home Dream
Cate shares the intense grief and identity crisis of losing her envisioned stay-at-home mother role despite choosing the path.
What happens when a Mormon woman becomes the primary provider for her family âinside a religion that teaches her highest purpose is in the home?
In this deeply personal and honest conversation, Cate Smith shares her journey growing up Mormon, internalizing the Family Proclamation, and believing her eternal destiny was marriage, motherhood, and supporting her husband. From being voted âmost likely to be momâ as a teenager to entering the temple and covenanting to hearken to her husband, Cate explains how clearly her path seemed laid out for her.
But life didn't unfold the way Mormonism promised.
After earning a degree in accounting âas a backup,â Cate unexpectedly became the breadwinner, while her husband stepped into a more nurturing, stay-at-home role. What followed was grief, identity loss, social pressure, depression, and eventually therapy âalong with the realization that the only thing wrong with being a working mom was being Mormon.
As Cate began questioning gender roles, authority, and worth, those questions expanded into a full faith crisis âsparked by therapy, church culture, the Family Proclamation, Ensign Peak and SEC fraud revelations, racism in church history, and the fear-based framework of Mormon belief. She shares how integrity ultimately mattered more than certainty, and why she chose to resign from the Church before she even fully believed it wasnât true.
Cateâs story is raw, thoughtful, and deeply relatable âespecially for women navigating faith, motherhood, careers, and self-trust after leaving a high-demand religion.
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