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

Margaret Ables and Amy Wilson
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Jun 1, 2020 • 6min

Ask Amy - My Toddler is Mean to Her Older Sibling

Each week Amy or Margaret answers one listener's most pressing question.Today Amy answers the question, "What can I do about my toddler who is giving a hard time to my older child?"Submit your question to: questions@whatfreshhellpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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May 27, 2020 • 49min

This One Thing Is Actually Going Well

What’s the one thing that’s actually working right now? Not grading on a curve, not a barely acceptable Band-Aid for these crazy times, but something you have found during these last months that you actually love and will totally keep doing? Our listeners told us all the things, from walking the dog to Grateful Dad cover shows, that they’re doing by themselves, with a socially distanced friend, or with a loved one at home, that are really enjoyable right now. The light-bulb moments for us in this episode were in order to have fun socially-distanced friend time, you need to have a shared secondary activity. Even if it’s a beer pong app.  in order to have renewing personal time, you need to have a fully engrossing, sensory-filling activity. Even if it’s mowing the lawn.  keep it bite-sized. We don’t have to talk to our friends for half an hour, or not at all.  What all these discoveries have in common is that it took what our listener Mollie calls “the leisure to dwell on little things” in order to find them. We love that. For that one thing, we are pretty grateful.Here are links to a few things mentioned in this episode:Nowhere Comedy ClubGrateful Dead “Dead and Company” tribute showsTableTopics "Family Gathering" topic cards Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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May 25, 2020 • 9min

Ask Margaret - The Bedtime Routine is Out of Hand!

Each week Amy or Margaret answers one listener's most pressing question.This week Margaret answers the question, "What Do I Do With a Four Year Old Who is Making Bedtime Last Forever?"Send your questions to questions@whatfreshhellpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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May 20, 2020 • 45min

The Great Regression: Why We're All Acting Like Babies Right Now

Potty training back-sliding? Pacifiers showing up at breakfast? Preschoolers in your bed? Tweens suddenly engaging in baby talk? Welcome to The Great Regression.It's no surprise that regressive behavior shows up in times of stress. Sometimes it's not as easy to spot, but whether it's more clingy behavior or more temper tantrums, regression is our kids' way of communicating that they are feeling insecure. As child development specialist Claire Lerner explains, "When kids feel out of control on the inside, they lose control on the outside."In this episode, we discuss how regressive behavior can manifest, including for grownups when we should let it be what works to address it, and what definitely doesn't Does it matter if your kid is still sucking her thumb in first grade because she was involved in a global pandemic? It does not. But addressing the underlying need for reassurance is the best way forward, for your kid and for you.Here are links to research and other writing on the topic that we discuss in this episode:Caroline Bologna for HuffPost: 10 Mental Health Signs To Watch Out For In Kids In The Age Of COVID-19Claire Lerner for Psychology Today: Regression in the Time of CoronavirusHermioni N. Lokko, MD, MPP and Theodore A. Stern, MD: Regression: Diagnosis, Evaluation, and ManagementHeather Marcoux for Motherly: Why your big kid wants to be a 'baby' right now Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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May 13, 2020 • 56min

Getting Literally Anything Done (with guests Laura Vanderkam and Sarah Hart-Unger)

We're now on YouTube! Subscribe and catch our video shorts here: http://bit.ly/WFHyoutubeAfter eight weeks in this new normal, our to-do lists have started to get a little lengthy. These days, we're all full-time stay-at-home AND work-at-home moms, and while the larger world seemed willing to let things slide for a while, we're feeling a lot more pressure to actually get stuff done. How do we get to what's most important in the extremely limited bursts of kid-free productivity we might have?Our guests are Laura Vanderkam and Sarah Hart-Unger, co-hosts of the Best of Both Worlds podcast, on how to get more out of life at work and at home.We're featured on their podcast this week too- you can find that episode, on how to find humor in parenting right now, here!Here are links to research and ideas discussed in this episode: the concept of extinction burstsStrangers Drowning: Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Urge to Help by Larissa MacFarquharAlice Boyce for Harvard Business Review: How Working Parents Can Let Go of PerfectionismMichaeleen Doucleff for NYT Parenting: Turn Your Demanding Child Into a Productive Co-WorkerJennifer Wallace for Washington Post's On Parenting: Life in lockdown is testing parents’ bandwidth, but there are ways to protect your mental energy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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May 11, 2020 • 6min

Ask Margaret - Should I Sleep-Train During the Pandemic?

Every week Margaret or Amy answers one listener's most pressing question.Today Margaret tackles the question, "Should I sleep-train my baby while we're all stuck at home?"Submit your questions to: questions@whatfreshhellpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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May 6, 2020 • 47min

We'll Call It a Win! Microscopic Mom Victories

We asked all of you to tell us your “mom wins” since quarantine life started- the smaller, the better. We're all taking success wherever we can find it these days.Whether it’s synchronized napping, picky eaters trying meatballs, or a 5-year-old who finally slept past 7 a.m., we salute all these successes, no matter how miniscule.Thanks to all of you for making our own mothering journeys so full of community and laughter.Happy Mother’s Day! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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May 4, 2020 • 6min

Ask Amy - How Can I Help My Child Who is Having Nightmares?

Each week Amy or Margaret answers a listener's most pressing question.This week Amy answers the question, "How can I help my three-and-a-half year old daughter who is having nightmares?"Submit your question to quesitons@whatfreshhellpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Apr 29, 2020 • 49min

Maintaining Momentum (Or Not)

Six weeks in, and most of us are having a lot of trouble with what one of our listeners called this "very strange limbo."That listener asked in our Facebook group what she might do to make herself get off the couch, stop looking at her phone, maintain momentum.Because that is the usual goal: we all know that once we stop running and rest, we won't be able to run as far when we try again. A body at rest tends to stay at rest.But here's the thing: when you run a marathon, and mile 19 gets really hard, you know what mile you're in. You know how much farther you have to go. And the people on the sidelines aren't small children yelling at you.Do the usual ideas we have about productivity and energy and momentum even apply in this moment?And if not, what are the new strategies we can put in place to help us make it to the next lamppost?Here are links to research and other things we discuss in this episode:our own Episode 142: Letting People Into Our MessBrené Brown's podcast Unlocking UsThe Lancet: The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidencePaul Ollinger for Forge: Your Only Goal Is To ArriveJudson Brewer for Harvard Business Review: Anxiety Is Contagious. Here’s How to Contain It. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Apr 27, 2020 • 8min

Ask Margaret - I'm Burnt Out on Trying to Get My Kids to FaceTime with Relatives

Each week Amy or Margaret answers one listener's most pressing question.This week Margaret tackles the question, "What Can I Do About Relatives Who Constantly Want to FaceTime with My Kids?"Send your questions to: questions@whatfreshhellpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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