Emese Parker (pictured), an author and certified nurse practitioner specializing in women's health, began offering Davis Women's Circles this summer. Each has a theme -- one session focused on the perfect mom myth vs. the good-enough mother, and others include the mental load of mothering, rage and guilt, plus "some fun topics coming up this fall." The circles are for mothers, or soon-to-be mothers, of all ages and stages of life. Today on Davisville she explains how they work and why she's offering them in Davis.

The U.S. Surgeon General recently warned that parenting today is too hard and stressful because parents face expectations that they should spend ever more time and money educating and enriching their children, driven partly by fears that if they don’t, their kids could fail to achieve a secure, middle-class life.

Today we also talk about matrescence, a play on the term adolescence, or the “massive identity shift and transformation that affects all that she is.” “If we understand that it is a becoming process," Parker says, "then we can have real conversations about what parenting and motherhood is like. We don’t have to just smile and say 'oh yeah, everything is just fine.' We can actually have real conversations with each other and talk about what we’re enjoying, and what parts are harder than expected."