What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood | Parenting Tips From Funny Moms

Fresh Take: Erin Cox on Navigating Family Drama, Guilt, and Stress at the Holidays

Dec 5, 2025

Join Erin Cox, a licensed mental health practitioner and family counselor with decades of experience, as she dives into the tricky waters of holiday family dynamics. Discover why maintaining boundaries becomes more challenging during the festive season and how to navigate the guilt of splitting time between families. Hear tips on managing difficult relatives, the importance of self-care, and how to gracefully pass holiday hosting duties to the next generation. Erin emphasizes that setting boundaries is crucial for protecting your peace while spreading holiday cheer.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Manage Holiday Expectations

Holiday stress spikes because people expect only magic and ignore normal mixed experiences.
Erin Cox says managing expectations reduces self-inflicted suffering during family gatherings.

ADVICE

Hold Boundaries For Yourself

Set boundaries for yourself, not to control others' reactions or approval.
Erin Cox: keep boundaries even if family complains, it likely means they benefited before.

ADVICE

Choose One Of Three Responses

Change the situation, change your thoughts, or keep status quo when facing holiday travel conflicts.
Choose deliberately and be proud of how you handled yourself, not others' responses.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

The holidays are the time of year we're most likely to spend time with our extended families— visits which can also bring guilt, frustration, and overwhelming expectations.

In this episode, Amy and family counselor Erin Cox dive into the challenges of holiday family dynamics: setting boundaries, splitting time between multiple households, managing difficult relatives, and trying to create a joyful season for our own kids without losing ourselves in the process.

We explore why returning home makes boundaries harder to keep, why the pressure ramps up this time of year, and how to stay grounded when everyone wants something from you. From travel burnout to critical parents, hosting fatigue, mismatched traditions, and even holiday pet drama, we’re talking through the real stories listeners shared — and how to protect your peace while still showing up with love.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode

Why boundaries feel harder to hold around the holidays
The stress of splitting time between multiple sets of grandparents
Handling critical or overbearing parents with grace (and limits)
What to do when the most difficult family member controls the vibe
How to pass holiday hosting to the next generation without hurting anyone's feelings

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website:

⁠https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/⁠

Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at ⁠www.monarchmoney.com/FRESH

Ready to raise money-smart kids? Start now with your first month FREE at acornsearly.com/FRESH!

Head to GigSalad.com and book some awesome talent for your next party, and let them know that What Fresh Hell sent you.

holiday family dynamics, holiday boundaries, setting boundaries with family, navigating family during holidays, splitting time between families, managing difficult relatives, overbearing parents holidays, holiday guilt and expectations, balancing multiple households holidays, protecting your peace holidays, holiday burnout tips, holiday travel stress, passing holiday hosting duties, parenting during the holidays, holiday stress management, adult children family expectations, family counselor holiday advice, creating your own holiday traditions, peaceful holiday season tips, coping with holiday overwhelm, managing family drama holidays

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices