Hard as a Mother

Contrary to what they say, you WILL sleep again after having kids. If you've ever considered sleep training your little one or just need some helpful sleep remedies and tips, this episode is for you! ⁣
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Jane Anderson suffered from insomnia for the majority of her life which inevitably had a negative impact on her physical and emotional health. After having kids, she knew she needed to implement healthy sleep habits so they wouldn't end up down the same road. She decided to earn her certification from the Institute of Pediatric Sleep and Parenting and started her own business called Counting Sheep Sleep Consulting. Now, she is the sleep rockstar who helps other families on their journeys to better sleep habits, and even offered to rock Har to bed when she needs it 🤣
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She's the real sleep MPV and you can catch her on this Monday's episode for the most exciting and insightful "snooze fest" you've ever heard of.⁣
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When the world shut down, new mom Charlotte "Char" Chan decided this was the time to push for her dreams. Girl mom, partner, lash tech and owner of the women's fitness lifestyle clothing line "The G Label", Char is all about empowering and making women beautiful inside and out (just ask Har how @theglabel_ Infinity collection leggings feel on her - she doesn't shut up about them in this episode 🤣).⁣
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We had so much fun kicking it with Char as she shared her motivation and her drive, what it means to raise a daughter in a world where women still fight for equality, and of course, had a ton of laughs along the way.⁣
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(check out @theglabel_ for some dope gear and also some cute stuff for your littles!)⁣

Imagine packing up your life and moving to the other side of the world when a pandemic hits - and then imagine doing it 5 weeks postpartum. 😱😱😱⁣ That's exactly what our guest, Jax Perrin did when she and her partner Jessie decided to move back to Jax's home town in Australia.⁣
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Jax and Jessie were full-time world travellers and when they received the happy surprise of their daughter Aurora, they knew that wasn't going to slow them down. The couple have their own digital agency which allows them to work virtually anywhere they go, so while most moms try to figure out how to live life normally during postpartum, Jax already had her baby in tow as her little travel buddy at just 5 weeks old.⁣
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She talks to us about the dynamic of living on the go with an infant, the unconventional side of motherhood, and she shares tips from her blog on how to make travelling easier with the little ones so that your worldly adventures can continue! (Post-Covid, of course. We are all ITCHING to get back on a plane when we're allowed!) ⁣
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We had so much fun recording this episode with Jax joining us all the way from down under - don't miss it! Monday!!!⁣
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In the meantime, you can check out Jax and her little traveling family on their IG page @howtotravelwk and hit the link in their bio!

Some days we win, and other days, we’re just trying to keep our shit together. Either way – we are dealing with so much during this pandemic (um and life in GENERAL) that often we need reminders on how to cope and focus on what’s important.⁣
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Katrina Shaw (@yycpsychologist) is a registered psychologist who is trained in mediation, family conflict, trauma, suicide and grief. She is also a trained yoga teacher and reiki master. On top of her impressive CV, she is currently involved in the development of a Men’s mental health initiative in Calgary, as well as a local organization for mentorship of emerging adults.⁣
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She joined us in studio to answer our questions and give tips about the every day stressors we face from relationships to emotionally regulating ourselves so our kids can follow suit, dating boundaries and much more.⁣
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As we do every week, we learned so much from our guest and we know you will too.⁣
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When you lose your best friend, love of your life, and mother of your child, grief hits different. Imagine having to cope with fatherhood, bereavement and raising young kids on your own while you try to make sense of such a loss. Sokha “Kha” Son lost his wife Nirorth tragically to a rare form of gastric cancer, and while she stayed brave and fought her hardest to the very end, Kha knew he had to prepare for a life without her.⁣
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We talked to Kha virtually to speak about his preparation, grief, acceptance and the new life for his kids following the death of his wife. As Nirorth was a dear friend of Harlene’s, all the emotions for this episode were laid out on the table. Tune in to hear more of Kha’s story and what advice he has for other dads who are in the same situation.⁣

Our #HAMFAM requested it, and we delivered! This episode is for all our new mom listeners!⁣
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If you're anything like us (and the majority of the planet), then you are probably so over this whole pandemic. For new mom, blogger, nutrition + wellness coach and creator of @modernmunch, Kelsey has only known motherhood in lockdown. We all know that becoming a new mom in itself isn't easy, and Kelsey shared with us her struggles of having to navigate through it all behind closed doors amidst several COVID restrictions as she brought life into this world 2 days before the initial lockdown back in March 2020. ⁣
Kelsey also has an extensive career as the Nutrition & Food Supervisor at the Alberta Children's Hospital, which has further sparked her passion for wellness and content for her blog, Modern Munch. She shared some tips with us about infant/toddler nutrition, baby led weaning and how to get the most out of dinner time without the attempted snack-before-bedtime trick (which I fall victim to every time!! I used to be cool, now I am someone's snack bitch...)⁣

As we say goodbye and good riddance to 2020, we thought we would kick off 2021 with something special for our followers. Episode 0 of our podcast was an intro episode to our little side project which started last May. Fast forward to today - we've acquired a new cohost, a beautiful space to record, a YouTube channel, a team of badass creatives who make us look good, a slurry of amazing podcast guests and a new outlook on the future of Hard as a Mother! ⁣
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Because we get the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with the dopest people every week, we've been forced to embark on our own paths to self discovery and we've decided to let you all in to our lives to learn more about your girls: Har & Gizzy! From the embarrassing stories to our own hardships and struggles, we sat down with each other to uncover the nitty gritty , including several questions we don't want our own moms to know the answers to. (Sorry to our moms! Maybe you shouldn't watch this one...😅) And, as always, we would like to thank you guys for contributing to such an amazing year for HAM and we look forward to the new year ahead! First episode of the year 𝙇𝙀𝙏'𝙎 𝙂𝙀𝙏 𝙄𝙏𝙏𝙏!

We are excited to bring you an episode this week that is truly staggering and eye opening. Though the issues surrounding child sexual exploitation are known and exist everywhere in the world, it simply is not talked about enough.⁣
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We spoke with Angela Nguyen, who is the President of One Body Village Canada, a registered Canadian charity whose mission is to end child sexual exploitation and rebuild the lives of child victims in Southeast Asia. She started as a volunteer when she was only 22 years old and now oversees the global programs and operations in Vietnam, Cambodia and plans to expand to support victims in Malaysia in 2021. Raised by Vietnamese refugee parents, Angela always says she won a life lottery by being born in Canada. She is determined to mobilize her community to give children the freedom that they are owed, as well as the hopes and dreams that they deserve. ⁣

We had the pleasure to chat with Angela as she shared stories of the lives that were changed by her initiatives and what we can do to help raise awareness.⁣
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Episode  Notes:
- Find out more at One Body Village Canada on IG @onebodyvillagecanada  or www.onebodyvillagecanada.org
- Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-833-900-1010. You can reach the confidential Hotline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in more than 200 languages.
- Operation Underground Railroad Human Trafficking Awarness Course: https://ourrescue.org/training
- @katejoseen on instagram for awesome resources and education material 

Pain-free fitness coach, small business owner, mom to 3 (soon to be 4!) kidlets under 5, and all around badass mama...Jade Huete was in our studio to answer the question on everyone's minds: when does she sleep?!⁣
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With everything Jade has under her belt, she still found the time to come and kick it with us to talk about all of her accomplishments including her local business @momtomompostpartum, which sells postpartum recovery kits for moms (like hello, where was this when I gave birth?!), her experience with home water births and her advice for other moms who are considering it, and of course she also kept it real with us and talked about how she copes with being overwhelmed. (𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘦𝘳 @phamwoaw 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘮 𝘬𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳...𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘞𝘛𝘍 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 😂)⁣

We were so excited that Nicolle Hodges could join us virtually from Toronto to talk about all the interesting and ground-breaking things she is up to.⁣
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This boss lady is a sexual freedom philosopher, author of the Dr. Seuss-style book about orgasms "Oh, the Places You'll Go Oh Oh!", and psychedelic journalist.⁣
She's also the founder of @girlswhosayfuck (Har's favourite word!) and @menwhotakebaths - both of which spark conversation about important issues surrounding gender norms.(If you don't follow either accounts, you're missing out!)⁣
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We talked to Nicolle about her own childhood and how it has shaped her to become sexually self-aware, and discussing how we can have these conversations with our kids to raise them to feel comfortable with their own sexuality. We also asked her some of the audience questions you guys submitted, so be sure to tune in to hear the answers!⁣