Have you ever found yourself saying to your child, "You're OK, don't cry," whilst knowing you mean well, but feeling like something deeper is happening?

This week’s Moment explores a powerful idea: we can only hold our children's emotions to the extent that we can hold our own. So many of us grew up believing resilience meant pushing through, staying strong and keeping it together. But what if real resilience is actually the opposite?

In this conversation, Zoe and Dr Alex George explore the emotional patterns we inherit, why so many of us struggle to sit with difficult feelings, and how learning to hold our own emotions changes the way we parent. There’s a moment where Zoe shares a huge realisation: the reason she struggled with her children’s big feelings wasn’t because of them - it was because no one had ever taught her how to handle her own.

If you've ever felt uncomfortable with your child's tears, frustration or meltdowns, this episode might help explain why.

💡 In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why resilience isn't about "pushing through"

• The parenting patterns we pass on without realising

• Why many millennial parents were never taught emotional processing

• How our early years shape the way we respond to stress

• A simple reframe that can help you hold difficult feelings - yours and your child's

Listen now and see whether this changes the way you think about emotions, resilience and parenting.

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Follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode of Motherkind. It helps more mothers find the show and keeps our community growing.

If you enjoyed this episode, you can listen to the full episode - Why Raising Resilient Kids Starts With Us with Dr Alex George

Feeling different since becoming a mother? Get clarity on who you’re becoming now and download your FREE Matrescence Cheat Sheet

Connect with Zoe:

• Follow Zoe on Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok

• Get Zoe’s Sunday Times bestselling book, 'Motherkind: A New Way to Thrive in a World of Endless Expectations’

This Motherkind episode is sponsored by:

Headline sponsor Wild Nutrition, the brand raising the bar for women’s supplements. Want to feel the Food-Grown difference yourself? Get 50% off for three months at wildnutrition.com/motherkind. Ts and Cs apply

You’re not failing. Your nervous system is overwhelmed, and there’s a reason why.

If you’ve been snapping, overthinking, lying awake at night, or feeling strangely disconnected from your own life, this episode will help you understand why.

Because it’s not a mindset problem.
It’s your nervous system.

In this solo, Zoe goes deeper than typical “nervous system” advice to explore what’s really driving overwhelm in motherhood and why so many of us feel stuck in survival mode, even when nothing is “wrong”.

This is about understanding the root, not just managing the symptoms.

💡 In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why your nervous system feels stuck in survival mode (and why that makes sense)

• How your past experiences shape your reactions in motherhood today

• The hidden beliefs driving overwhelm, guilt, and reactivity

• Simple, practical ways to calm your body and come back to baseline

This episode will help you stop blaming yourself and start understanding what’s really going on underneath.

Watch every full episode on YouTube and subscribe. 

Loved this episode?

Follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode of Motherkind. It helps more mothers find the show and keeps our community growing.

If you enjoyed this episode, you might also enjoy Zoe’s conversation with Nicole Jane Hobbs and her episode, Why Relaxation Feels Impossible for Mothers – and How to Finally Feel at Ease

Feeling different since becoming a mother? Get clarity on who you’re becoming now and download your FREE Matrescence Cheat Sheet

Connect with Zoe:

• Follow Zoe on Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok

• Get Zoe’s Sunday Times bestselling book, 'Motherkind: A New Way to Thrive in a World of Endless Expectations’

This Motherkind episode is sponsored by:

Headline sponsor Wild Nutrition, the brand raising the bar for women’s supplements. Want to feel the Food-Grown difference yourself? Get 50% off for three months at wildnutrition.com/motherkind. Ts and Cs apply

Returning to work after having a baby isn't just a practical transition - for many mothers, it can feel like returning as a completely different person.You expected to feel rusty. You didn't expect to question your confidence, your identity, or whether you're still capable of doing the job you once knew so well.In this Moment, Zoe sits down with Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, to unpack one of the most overlooked parts of motherhood: the return-to-work transition.Joeli shares why this period can feel so overwhelming, how matrescence and brain changes can affect our confidence and sense of self, and why so many mothers believe they're failing when, in reality, the systems around them are failing them.This episode is a powerful reminder that if returning to work felt harder than you expected, there was never anything wrong with you.

💡 In this Moment, you'll learn:

• Why returning to work after maternity leave can feel so emotionally challenging

• The surprising brain changes of matrescence and how they affect confidence

• Why do so many mothers struggle socially and professionally after having a baby

• The hidden leadership skills motherhood develops

• What better support for mothers could actually look like

Watch every full episode on YouTube and subscribe.

Loved this episode?

Follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode of Motherkind. It helps more mothers find the show and keeps our community growing.

If you enjoyed this episode, you can listen to the full episode - The Exhausted Mother’s Guide to A Successful Return to Work with Joeli Brearley

Feeling different since becoming a mother? Get clarity on who you’re becoming now and download your FREE Matrescence Cheat Sheet

Connect with Zoe:

• Follow Zoe on Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok

• Get Zoe’s Sunday Times bestselling book, 'Motherkind: A New Way to Thrive in a World of Endless Expectations’

This Motherkind episode is sponsored by:

• Headline sponsor Wild Nutrition, the brand raising the bar for women’s supplements. Want to feel the Food-Grown difference yourself? Get 50% off for three months at wildnutrition.com/motherkind. Ts and Cs apply.

What happens when the dream career opportunity arrives… just as motherhood asks more of you than ever before?

In this deeply honest conversation, Zoe sits down with Amy, CEO of Steven Bartlett Private Office, to talk about the impossible equation so many ambitious mothers are trying to solve. From taking a huge new role whilst pregnant, to the tension between career ambition and wanting to be the primary attachment figure for your children, this episode is an incredibly raw exploration of modern motherhood, identity and work.

Amy shares the internal conflict so many mothers carry but rarely say out loud: that sometimes we don’t just work for our children, we work because part of us still deeply wants ambition, creativity, challenge and growth too.

This is an episode about intuition, guilt, love, matrescence and learning to live inside the contradictions of motherhood.

💡 In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why motherhood completely changes the way you approach ambition, career decisions and success

• The honest reality of trying to balance leadership, ambition and being the primary attachment figure at home

• What happened when Amy told Steven Bartlett she was pregnant during the hiring process for her CEO role

• How becoming a mother reshaped Amy’s leadership, priorities and understanding of happiness

This episode will especially resonate if you’ve ever felt torn between the part of you that wants to achieve… and the part of you that wants to be fully present at home.

You can connect with Amy via LinkedIn

Watch every full episode on YouTube and subscribe.

Loved this episode?

Follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode of Motherkind. It helps more mothers find the show and keeps our community growing.

If you enjoyed this episode, you might also enjoy Zoe’s conversation with Emma Grede on ambition, motherhood and self-expression.

Feeling different since becoming a mother? Get clarity on who you’re becoming now and download your FREE Matrescence Cheat Sheet

Connect with Zoe:

• Follow Zoe on Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok

• Get Zoe’s Sunday Times bestselling book, 'Motherkind: A New Way to Thrive in a World of Endless Expectations’

This Motherkind episode is sponsored by:

• Headline sponsor Wild Nutrition, the brand raising the bar for women’s supplements. Want to feel the Food-Grown difference yourself? Get 50% off for three months at wildnutrition.com/motherkind. Ts and Cs apply.

Watch every full episode on YouTube and subscribe. 

Loved this episode?

Follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode of Motherkind. It helps more mothers find the show and keeps our community growing.

If you enjoyed this episode, you can listen to the full episode - How our childhood shapes every aspect of our lives with Dr Gabor Maté

Feeling different since becoming a mother? Get clarity on who you’re becoming now and download your FREE Matrescence Cheat Sheet

Connect with Zoe:

• Follow Zoe on Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok

• Get Zoe’s Sunday Times bestselling book, 'Motherkind: A New Way to Thrive in a World of Endless Expectations’

This Motherkind episode is sponsored by:

Headline sponsor Wild Nutrition, the brand raising the bar for women’s supplements. Want to feel the Food-Grown difference yourself? Get 50% off for three months at wildnutrition.com/motherkind. Ts and Cs apply.

What if the reason you feel like you’re failing… isn’t you?

In this powerful conversation, Zoe sits down with Vanessa Kingori OBE - former Publishing Director of British Vogue, Chief Business Officer at Condé Nast Britain, and one of the most influential women in global media.

Vanessa made history as the first woman to lead the commercial side of British Vogue in its 100+ year history, after already breaking boundaries as the first female publisher of GQ. 

She’s worked at the very top of global brands, including Condé Nast and Google, and is known for driving significant commercial growth while reshaping workplace culture.

But alongside all of that, she’s also a mother.

Vanessa shares the truth so many women feel but rarely say out loud: that motherhood is harder than we expected, not because we’re doing it wrong, but because the system around us isn’t built to support us.

From taking on one of the biggest jobs in media whilst trying for a baby to challenging outdated workplace norms around motherhood, this is a conversation about rewriting the rules for ourselves and the next generation.

This episode will leave you feeling seen, validated, and more confident in the way you’re navigating both work and motherhood.

💡 In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why feeling like you’re failing at both work and motherhood is so common - and why it’s not the truth

• The hidden strengths motherhood gives you (that workplaces massively undervalue)

• Why we need to stop “hiding” motherhood at work and what happens when we don’t

• How to build your “village” in a modern world where it no longer exists naturally

• Why involving men in the parenting conversation is essential and how we’re getting it wrong

Watch every full episode on YouTube and subscribe. 

Loved this episode?

Follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode of Motherkind. It helps more mothers find the show and keeps our community growing.

If you enjoyed this episode, you might also enjoy Zoe’s conversation with Joeli Brearley OBE - The Exhausted Mother’s Guide to a Successful Return to Work

Feeling different since becoming a mother? Get clarity on who you’re becoming now and download your FREE Matrescence Cheat Sheet

Connect with Zoe:

• Follow Zoe on Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok

• Get Zoe’s Sunday Times bestselling book, 'Motherkind: A New Way to Thrive in a World of Endless Expectations’

This Motherkind episode is sponsored by:

Headline sponsor Wild Nutrition, the brand raising the bar for women’s supplements. Want to feel the Food-Grown difference yourself? Get 50% off for three months at wildnutrition.com/motherkind. Ts and Cs apply.