freemom, conversations for modern mothers

Have you ever heard the phrase “mom guilt”? If you’re responsible for any human beings and you also happen to work in some way, shape, or form, have a relationship that you’d like to keep, and live in a home that needs some form of maintenance, you will be all too familiar with it. 

The very definition of guilt is “the fact of having committed a breach of conduct especially violating law and involving a penalty.” Yikes. Let’s look an alternative. “feelings of deserving blame especially for imagined offenses or from a sense of inadequacy.” Oh yes, yes, there it is. Welcome to motherhood.

If you ask me, mom guilt is quite frankly the feeling of getting swallowed whole by a life that’s pulling you in more directions than your body and mind are able to bear. From kids and spouses to work and career - all the needs of life chomp us to bits and we end up feeling like no matter how hard we try, it’s not good enough. Failure becomes our constant companion. 

So how do change this internal narrative? What can moms do to let go, keep the faith, and give ourselves a bit more grace? Let’s find out.

With me today is Raena Boston, Co-Founder of Chamber of Mothers, an advocacy group that works to get mothers’ and caregivers' rights front and center.  She also heads up “The Working Momtras”, an online community that builds connections between working moms and helps women dissolve the definition of “having it all” to create their own.

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

I was thinking back to why I started this podcast, which for those of you who are new was because I wanted to create a community to discuss topics that modern moms should be paying attention to. I wasn’t interested in parenting per se, but I was curious about politics, health, careers, and so many of the bigger picture issues that both offer opportunity and completely cripple parents, and specifically mothers, here in the United States. 

It wasn’t until I had children of my own that I realized how underappreciated and underrepresented women and mothers are when it comes to government and policy. We live in a country that has never had a female president and where women only hold a bit more than a quarter of congressional seats. We are begging for paid parental leave, federally subsidized childcare, and equal wages to representatives who can’t truly connect with those issues. It makes it easy to turn a blind eye, which is why support for so many of these fundamental resources has failed to make it up the hill. 

All of this begs the question: if females are so underrepresented in government, how are we ever going to get what we need as parents, and as a society, to thrive? That’s the topic of conversation for today. 

Please help me give a warm welcome to Dr. Katie Garner, a Chicago-based teacher, scholar, and the Executive Director of the International Association of Maternal Action and Scholarship, a non-profit organization that was created to promote empowered mothering with research and advocacy. Katie’s work pushes the boundaries and gives a kick in the pants to the politicians, corporates, and societal influencers who aren’t doing enough to recognize the impossible role of motherhood. She’s currently speaking with moms across the country as part of a book on inequalities of work, childcare, and family. In addition to her amazing book, here is a list of her favorites to check out.

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

Welcome back freemoms! We are absolutely thrilled to have you with us for Season 2. This batch of episodes promises to get you motivated about motherhood with experts and everyday moms who are making major moves in their communities. From business bosses to political powerhouses, we promise to get you thinking about how you can create your own change and dig deep to build a better future for yourselves and those little people too. 

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

When you host a podcast like this, one of the benefits is having really interesting conversations with people you barely know, and ones that have been in your life for ages. The latter happened recently when I got a call from an old college friend who is a listener and told me I had to absolutely have today’s guest on the show. 

My friend, Nicolette, has two elementary-aged boys who are fun-loving football fanatics, but what I love most is their insatiable curiosity, stoked by two really great parents who instilled values in them that will last a lifetime. Nicolette’s call was to tell me about another mom at school whose daughter has a disability and who decided to make sure that not just her family and close friends knew how to talk about it, but how her entire school system learned about, talked about, and thought about people with different abilities. 

Now as a parent of young children, I often wonder how I will address my children when they harmlessly blurt out a question about someone they see who maybe looks different than them. What impressed me so much about the education my friend’s children received is that now, when her boys see someone with different abilities, is simply no big deal because EVERYONE is different. 

So without further ado, joining me on the show today is Ashley Matts, Director of Building Bridges, a classroom-based educational program that teaches kids about people with disabilities through immersive, hands-on experiences. Kids in grades K-5 get to understand, interact, and hear firsthand about what it’s like to have a physical, mental, or learning disability in a way that’s thought-provoking, honest, and educational. Wouldn’t it be great to live in a world where people with disabilities are just people with different abilities? Ashley’s program might just make that happen.

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

So I had a thought. We get pregnant and we feel kind of crazy. Blame it on the hormones. Then we have our babies and we still feel pretty crazy. Blame it on the hormones. But then we hit that magical six-week mark when all is supposed to be back to normal but of course, it’s not, so we blame it on the hormones. But then we really progress through motherhood. Six months, one year, toddlerhood. Sleep regressions, teething, worrying, and wondering if our little people are ok. We aren’t sleeping, our hair is falling out, we have no energy, we’re gaining weight, and we are freaking out! But we don’t have babies anymore. So what should we be blaming for our womanly deterioration? Hormones?

On top of this, I also started thinking about one of my favorite terms - “advanced maternal age” - a kick in the gut for a pregnant woman over the age of 35. Our generation is undoubtedly the first that can experience a one-two punch where giving birth and seeing the first wave of perimenopausal symptoms can almost co-exist, or at least feel like the too early delivery of dessert after a massive meal. Check, please! So what gives?

We are joined today by Dr. Carolina Gonzalez, a Naturopath Physician with Collaborative Natural Health Partners. Dr. Gonzalez earned her Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine degree from The University of Bridgeport in Connecticut where she completed her thesis on mind-body connection and the impact of psychological stress on the body. Her patients see her for natural care with regard to hormones, gastrointestinal issues, and all the stuff that can make us feel like crap if not managed properly. Enjoy the show!

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

I don’t know about you, but back when I was in school, lunch was a bit of a free-for-all. I was lucky enough to have parents who educated us pretty diligently on making good food choices, but sometimes those crunchy, salty french fries with thick chocolate milk were just too good to pass up. There wasn’t much thought put into nutrition in schools back then. I realize now that unless kids had parents who had instilled food wisdom into their brains early, they probably didn’t think twice about eating junk for meals. In fact, the freedom was kind of fun.  

Fast forward to 12 years ago when Michelle Obama spearheaded the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 which allowed the USDA to radically change the way school lunch (and breakfast) was considered for the first time in 30 years. By changing nutrition standards and making healthy food options more widely available, food in schools finally got some of the attention that it deserved. So what’s happened since then and what’s going on now? What can we as moms and teachers do to support these initiatives and bring them home? Let’s find out.

With me on today's episode is Karen Spangler, Policy Director, at National Farm to School Network, a Washington D.C.-based non-profit organization that works to increase access to local food and nutrition education across all 50 states. Their goal is to improve children’s health, strengthen family farms, and cultivate vibrant communities through a unifying focus on food. 

We also wanted to include a few direct resources for you freemoms, so here you go:

• Benefits of Farm to School programs fact sheet
• More information on a racially just food system
• Benefits of Values-Aligned Universal School Meals

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

There is no denying the mental health crisis that is enveloping our kids today. Even before the pandemic, 13 percent of adolescents reported having a major depressive episode, which is 60 percent higher than it was in 2007. That’s eight million children aged 3-17 suffering from anxiety, behavioral disorders, or depression. 

Remember back when we were young? Twenty or 30 years ago, our parents worried about us going out and drinking, smoking, dabbling in what we could get our hands on, and sex of course. But today, those common concerns have been replaced by issues that are a lot more difficult to understand and be in control of. 

Mental health disorders amongst young people have become so concerning that the Surgeon General issued a rare advisory to address the need for resources in schools and at home. Even before the pandemic, kids were spiraling. Post-pandemic, there is a lot of trauma to unpack and very little understanding of how to deal with it in a way to help our kids before it’s too late. So where are we now and what can we do? Let’s find out. 

On the show today is Jeff Vanderploeg, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Child Health and Development Institute, a non-profit that works to identify, support, and promote effective health and mental health innovations in partnership with doctors, government, schools, and state agencies. Jeff himself has a central role in developing the systems, practices, and policies for the prevention and treatment of mental health conditions among children and adolescents and their families and we are very grateful to have him on the show today.

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

So here is the deal. Women live about five years longer than men on average, which doesn’t seem like it’s a bad thing, until you look at it from a financial perspective. It has long been documented that women have less saved for retirement than men and the reason for that is two-fold. Firstly we don’t get paid to stay home and raise our children. Secondly, we don’t get paid as much as men to work, period. In fact, the gender wage gap alone costs women $1.6 million in potential retirement savings over the course of their careers. 

Retirement savings is just one of the money gripes I have when it comes to women. Not having enough to live comfortably during those gorgeous golden years isn’t cool, nor is having to depend on a partner’s nest egg to live the life you want. That’s of course assuming you’re married. What about women who divorce or never get married in the first place? And how about the kids? Braces, cars, college - how do we save for the future if we don’t know what’s in store for us?

One thing I do know is that a lot of women are freaked out by money and I understand why. It’s scary, right? So how do we take care of ourselves, secure a smart financial future, and put some extra cash away for our little people? Let’s find out. 

Brittan Leiser is a Financial Advisor and the founder of SavviHer based in Cleveland, Ohio. Brittan created SavviHer after recognizing that women often felt ignored or overwhelmed when it came to having a conversation about their own personal finances. When beginning her career, Brittan was on her own in an industry dominated by men with resources and prevailing attitudes that largely overlooked women, often leaving them out of the conversation. So she started asking questions, creating resources, and empowering women to take the first step.

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

Having children means that you can always expect the unexpected. One of my first big surprises becoming a mother was just how confusing it was to have kids in the first place. There were decisions to make that I didn’t quite understand, options that I didn’t know I had, and ways of doing things that I look back and wish I knew. 

Here in the U.S., the vast majority of babies are delivered by an obstetrician, one of the hardest working doctors in the field. But it wasn’t always that way. Babies used to be birthed without the need for medical intervention, in the company of other women. As healthcare became more sophisticated, midwives dominated the delivery scene. But now, obstetricians, who are trained surgeons, have become primarily responsible for bringing babies into the world - or into the United States at least. 

So why is that? What has changed that has led birth to become so medically focused and less about the force of nature that is giving birth? Let’s find out. 

On the show today is Dr. Cara Delaney, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a Practicing Physician with UCONN Health. Cara received her medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine and trained in Chicago and Boston.  She works as an academic OBGYN alongside residents, medical students, and patients, specializing in complex family planning, early pregnancy loss, and miscarriage management. She’s passionate about reproductive justice and patient-centered care and we are thrilled to have her here on the freemom podcast this week.

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!

From mental health and managing relationships to raising changemakers and advocating for support, freemom is a podcast dedicated to ensuring that every mom feels heard. You can find us on the gram at @freemomcast or on the web at www.freemomcast.com. You can also support the show and help fund production with a sweet little five-dollar donation right here. Thanks for listening!