PART OF IT

You're single and you're in your thirties. All your friends are married and having kids and you can't find a good match on Hinge. Is something wrong with you?...Or is something wrong with men? Or is something wrong with dating? I ask my best friend, the godmother of my children, who asked me to do an episode on dating, the apps, the lack of available good men out there and what resulted was an honest, raw, candid conversation on men, women, tall girls, dating, marriage and what it all means. Topics include: Dating apps, single and thirty, egg freezing, single women, single women, single over thirty. 

It's the hardest job in the world...and the most judged. Is there a stigma to the stay-at-home-mom? Do they feel it? What do they say when people ask what they do? I will admit, I used to judge them. Then... I admired them. Now, I just want to understand them. What's it really like for stay-at-home moms? I talk to three of them in the middle of their days. Not just about what they're doing...how they're feeling. Are they happy? Are they fulfilled? The answers are not as cut and dry as anyone thinks. In fact, the answer leads to the question all women face. What is fulfillment? In this episode, I explore the daily routines, the emotional landscape and the inevitable sacrifices every mother makes. Including discussions around postpartum, anxiety and emotionally unavailable parenting. 

I could never be a stay-at-home mom. But I also can't go back to the corporate life I had. I want to be home for the kids, but I don't want to actually be home with them all day. Once again, a woman must make a life-changing decision. Stay at home or work full-time. There is a middle ground. But how middle is it really? That's where I am. This middle place. Working/writing "Part Time" and feeling the unfair burden of the children and the resentment that comes with it. Which led me to this episode. If this is hard for me...how do real FULL-TIME stay-at-home moms do it? I don't judge stay-at-home moms, but since having children, I've quickly learned I just can't do it. I'm not mentally, physically, emotionally equipped. Or maybe I am not seeing things clearly...I just don't know how you do it. I'm not judging you, I actually want to know....how do you do it? I'm not asking what you do all day, I KNOW what you do all day and I'm saying I don't think I could do it. I think you're special, I think you're built differently, I think you think about your kids and life and the world differently. Then again, I didn't know anything until I tried talking to them. 

“Nobody warned me that motherhood is a long farewell to yourself.”— Clarice Lispector After having my first baby, I was pissed. I mean, I was exhausted, overjoyed, overwhelmed but mostly, pissed. I felt like I'd been conned into motherhood.  Like no one actually told me what it was really like. Whether they forgot the pain or didn't want to scare me out of it, I felt like no warned me about what it's actually like...what really happens when you make that irreversible choice to have children. What does it actually mean to become a mother? What happens to women when they make that choice? Why is no one talking about the reality, the hard truths, that come with motherhood? Lauren (founder of Words of Women) talks with six women and a therapist to discuss the hardships, pains and reality of motherhood with women in different stages of their motherhood journey: new moms, moms of grown children, and women who have chosen not to have kids.An honest, open conversation with six women about what it’s really like to become a mother...or conversely, not to become one. For anyone who is on the fence, for anyone who is wondering, or for anyone with kids who just needs a little  compassion, basically, for any woman out there wondering: Am I a bad mom for not loving this or is this just part of it? 

Jenna Watson, a licensed mental health counselor specializing in collaborative divorce, shares her insights on the complex journey of marriage and separation. She emphasizes how having children can transform a marriage, sometimes leading to difficult questions about its viability. The discussion includes personal stories from women navigating their own divorces, highlighting signs that indicate a need for change. Jenna advocates for recognizing red flags and the importance of communication, aiming to empower individuals through the divorce process.