

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood | Parenting Tips From Funny Moms
Margaret Ables and Amy Wilson
When you're a parent, every day brings a "fresh hell" to deal with. In other words, there's always something. Think of us as your funny mom friends who are here to remind you: you're not alone, and it won't always be this hard.We're Amy Wilson and Margaret Ables, both busy moms of three kids, but with completely different parenting styles. Margaret is a laid-back to the max; Amy never met a spreadsheet or an organizational system she didn't like.In each episode of "What Fresh Hell" we offer lots of laughs, but also practical advice, parenting strategies, and tips to empower you in your role as a mom. We explore self-help techniques, as well as ways to prioritize your own needs, combat stress, and despite the invisible workload we all deal with, find joy amidst the chaos of motherhood.If you've ever wondered "why is my kid..." then one of us has probably been there, and we're here to tell you what we've learned along the way.We unpack the behaviors and developmental stages of toddlers, tweens, and teenagers, providing insights into their actions and equipping you with effective parenting strategies.We offer our best parenting tips and skills we've learned. We debate the techniques and studies that are everywhere for parents these days, and get to the bottom of what works best to raise happy, healthy, fairly well-behaved kids, while fostering a positive parent-child relationship.If you're the default parent in your household, whether you're a busy mom juggling multiple pickups and dropoffs, or a first-time parent seeking guidance, this podcast is your trusted resource. Join our community of supportive mom friends laughing in the face of motherhood! whatfreshhellpodcast.com
Episodes
Mentioned books

Apr 19, 2024 • 39min
Fresh Take: Amanda Montell and the Age of Magical Overthinking
Cognitive biases are self-deceptive thought patterns we all use to make sense of the world. In a world that makes less and less sense, Amanda Montell argues, humans have become more irrational than ever. In her new book THE AGE OF MAGICAL OVERTHINKING, Montell explains how our brains' coping mechanisms have become overloaded—and how to slow down our panic responses when the world becomes too overwhelming.Amanda, Amy, and Margaret discuss:
How magical overthinking has manifested from the modern age of mass information overload and an epidemic of loneliness
The types of cognitive biases that comprise magical overthinking, such as the sunk cost fallacy, the halo effect, and proportionality bias
Strategies to combat the negative effects of magical overthinking
Here's where you can find Amanda:
https://amandamontell.com/
@amanda_montell on IG
Buy THE AGE OF MAGICAL OVERTHINKING: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9781668007976
Listen to the "Sounds Like a Cult" podcast
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/manifest reality, positive thinking, toxic positivity, magical thinking, mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apr 17, 2024 • 44min
Do We Share Too Much About Our Kids Online?
We all know what extreme "oversharenting" is when we see it. It's the gray areas that get harder. When we post about our kid's adventures in potty training, are we supposed to think twice? What will happen when our kids are old enough to want to curate their own internet presence? How concerned should we be about the privacy we may have given away without thinking? Amy and Margaret discuss:
the digital footprint and the "right to be forgotten"
what to check in your privacy settings
when to start asking kids for permission before you post
the benefits we gain from sharing about our families online
Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode:
Zoya Garg, Elmer Gomez and Luciana Yael Petrzela for the NY Times: "If You Didn't 'Sharent,' Did You Even Parent?"
Sean Coughlan for the BBC: "'Sharenting' puts young at risk of online fraud"
Fortesa Latifi for Cosmopolitan: "What’s the Price of a Childhood Turned Into Content?"
Fortesa Latifi for Cosmopolitan: "'We’re Never Doing This Again': What It Took for These Parenting Influencers to Pull Their Kids Offline"
Paula Cocozza for The Guardian: "‘I was so embarrassed I cried’: do parents share too much online?"
Amy Webb for Slate: "We Post Nothing About Our Daughter Online"
Jennifer Valentino-DeVries and Michael H. Keller for the NY Times: "A Marketplace of Girl Influencers Managed by Moms and Stalked by Men"
Megan Francis: When Your “Worst-Mom Moment” Becomes A Viral Meme (And How The “Surfboard Kid” Became A Man)
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/mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apr 15, 2024 • 41min
DEEP DIVE: It's Not "Nagging"
This month, we're doing a deep dive series into the division of household labor—why it's often unbalanced, and what we can do about it. You can find the playlist with all of the episodes in the series here. Want to see a mother get mad? Tell her she's "nagging" you after she's been obligated to repeat an entirely reasonable request several times over. And just why is "nagging" a word that's almost exclusively applied to women?We need the other members of our households to show up and do their share. As the default parents, we own the lists. So do we stop caring whether others like how we ask and remind? Do we enforce a back-to-one where we're not forced to ask repeatedly in the first place?In this episode Amy and Margaret discuss:
The sexism and etymology of the word "nag"
What Amy says are the three types of "nagging," and why we should separate them out
What to say when our repeated asking is framed as annoying to other people (guess to whom it's also annoying, too?)
Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode:
Jessica Zhang on LinkedIn: "What's In a Nag?"
Episode from If Books Could Kill podcast: "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus"
McClelland, T., & Sliwa, P: "Gendered affordance perception and unequal domestic labour."
Our episode with Lynyetta Willis on "Stable Misery"
Our episode with Eve Rodsky on "Changing the Invisible Workload"
Anne Helen Petersen's newsletter Culture Study
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/mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apr 12, 2024 • 35min
Fresh Take: Diane Boden, "Minimalist Moms"
Is it even possible to declutter your home for more than one minute at a time when you've got kids? Diane Boden, host of the Minimalist Moms podcast, offers parenting tips for cutting down on possessions in a manageable way.Diane Boden is the host of the Minimalist Moms Podcast and author of Minimalist Moms: Living and Parenting with Simplicity. She lives in Ohio with her husband and three kids.Diane, Margaret, and Amy discuss:
What minimalism can mean for different people
Simple steps for starting the decluttering process—and some more radical strategies too
How to reconcile different set points for clutter between parenting partners
How to deal with family members who love giving gifts
Here's where you can find Diane:
minimalistmomspodcast.com
@minimalistmomspodcast on all socials
Buy MINIMALIST MOMS: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9781642505092
Listen to the Minimalist Moms podcast
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/mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, minimalism, decluttering Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apr 10, 2024 • 47min
How Involved Should We Be with Our Kids' Schools?
How do we help our kids succeed in school without becoming the dreaded "snowplow" parents? Here are some parenting tips for advocating for your child at school when necessary, while also empowering our kids to navigate their own learning.Amy and Margaret discuss:
How school environments have changed in the last few decades
Best practices for helping kids of different ages manage homework
How to start a productive conversation with your child's educators about concerns you may have
Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode:
Jenny Anderson for TIME Magazine: "Many American Parents Have No Idea How Their Kids Are Doing in School"
Carrie Bauer, et. al, for Slate: Help Me Help My Kid
Libby Stanford for Education Week: "Does Parent Involvement Really Help Students? Here’s What the Research Says"
U.S. Department of Education: "Raise the Bar: Resources for Parents and Families"
Cara Goodwin for KQED's Mind/Shift: "How important is homework, and how much should parents help?"
See our interview with Jennifer Breheny Wallace - author of Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic — and What We Can Do About It
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/mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, academic achievement, school achievement, homework Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apr 8, 2024 • 41min
DEEP DIVE: Matthew Fray on Strengthening Our Relationships
This month, we're doing a deep dive series into the division of household labor—why it's often unbalanced, and what we can do about it. You can find the playlist with all of the episodes in the series here. Matthew Fray is a relationship coach who leans on the lessons of his failed marriage to help others avoid making the same mistakes that he did. He's a 43-year-old single father who is best known for his viral blog post "She Divorced Me Because I Left Dishes by the Sink." Fray is the author of the new book "This is How Your Marriage Ends: A Hopeful Approach to Saving Relationships." Matthew gives us wonderful, poignant insights into how to validate our partners, find out their true needs, and re-establish trust when we've lost it.In this episode, Matthew, Margaret, and Amy discuss:
Why we may not realize we're betraying our partner's trust
Matthew's hierarchy of needs in relationships
Why couples always have the same fight
Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode:
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Matthew's recent article in The Atlantic
Our episode with Eve Rodsky on changing the invisible workload
Here's where you can find Matthew:
matthewfray.com
Buy Matthew's book: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9780063072251
FB: @matthewfrayMBTTTR
IG: @frayrelationships
Twitter: @MBTTTR
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/mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, emotional labor, marriage, partnerships, divorce Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apr 5, 2024 • 36min
Fresh Take: Amy Shoenthal on "The Setback Cycle"
If setbacks are so common, especially in the trenches of motherhood, how can we learn useful lessons from them? Amy Shoenthal, author of the new book THE SETBACK CYCLE, offers a framework for navigating setbacks and becoming stronger because of them.Amy Shoenthal is a journalist, marketing consultant and a contributor to Forbes Women and Harvard Business Review.Shoenthal and Margaret discuss:
Why our brains learn more from setbacks than successes and why people who have setbacks are better at problem solving
Shoenthal's four-phase framework for navigating setbacks
The "motherhood penalty" that women in the workforce experience
Here's where you can find Amy Shoenthal:
www.thesetbackcycle.com
@amysho on Instagram and Twitter
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyshoenthal/
Buy THE SETBACK CYCLE: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9798888451687
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/mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, setback, resilience Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apr 3, 2024 • 41min
Our Lowest-Stake Conspiracy Theories
We asked our listeners to tell us their lowest-stakes conspiracy theories, and as usual, you all really came through! Whether it's gum with flavor that goes extinct in thirty seconds or less, or printers that indicate the need for new ink well ahead of schedule, here are all the extremely minor daily occurrences that just may have sinister planning behind them. We're just asking questions here.Amy mentions this I THINK YOU SHOULD LEAVE sketch in this episode: "That's a Chunky" sketchSign up for What Fresh Hell Plus on Supporting Cast to get all episodes ad-free, plus monthly bonus episodes. Supporting Cast works right where you already listen! Go to whatfreshhell.supportingcast.fm to subscribe in two taps for just $4.99 a month, or $39.99 a year.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/mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apr 1, 2024 • 43min
DEEP DIVE: When Our Partners Just Don't Get It
This month, we're doing a deep dive series into the division of household labor—why it's often unbalanced, and what we can do about it. You can find the playlist with all of the episodes in the series here. Why does it feel like I do all the work around here? Why can't my partner take on a little more? Why does a dad get to go on Good Morning America for DOING HIS DAUGHTER'S HAIR TWICE A WEEK??There is evidence that having kids reduces marital harmony. And for a woman, the birth of a child often means taking on a second shift while her partner's routine may barely be interrupted. So how can we find labor divisions that work for everyone?In this episode, Margaret and Amy discuss:
What the science says about relationships post-children
Signs that a partnership is operating unsustainably
Tips for how to start the conversation about dividing up parenting responsibilities
Here are links to some of the resources we mention:
The Infamous "Husband Crimes" episode
What Happens to a Marriage After Having Children?
Fighting Constantly After Baby? Read This.
9 Signs That a Relationship Just Can't Be Saved
And a bonus from the Husband Crimes archives: Kurt Vonnegut's attempt at gender equity
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/mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, household equity, household equality, gender household equality, gender household equity Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

7 snips
Mar 29, 2024 • 31min
Fresh Take: Dr. Gabor Maté and Dr. Gordon Neufeld on Maintaining Healthy Connection with Our Kids
Dr. Gabor Maté and Dr. Gordon Neufeld discuss the importance of maintaining strong attachments with our children, challenges of peer orientation, and how parents can reattach and remain vital role models. They emphasize the lifelong impact of parent-child relationships, the role of parents in shaping children's lives, and provide resources for further insight.