The Mom Feed

Mom guilt.

Mom rage.

Mom brain.

So many terms in motherhood, most of which we didn't really understand until we were in it.

As mothers in this age, it can be really difficult to love your kids without losing yourself (and your mind!)  in the process.

My guest on the show today has made it her life's work to help mothers banish guilt and beat burnout in motherhood. She just released her first book, Love Your Kids Without Losing Yourself: 5 Steps to Banish Guilt and Beat Burnout When you Already Have Too Much to do. 

This is a book that every mother needs, in my humble opinion.

Dr. Morgan Cutlip, PhD in Psychology and highly sought after relationship expert, knows what it feels like to lose yourself in motherhood, and she’s determined to help mothers navigate it better.Throughout her career, she has helped hundreds of thousands of people worldwide learn how to form and maintain healthy relationships.Dr. Morgan has been a featured relationship expert with Teen Vogue, The New York Times, Women’s Health Magazine, MOPS International, Loveology, and Flo, the #1 app in health and fitness.

Today on the show, we talk about very practical things you can do to find your way back to yourself in motherhood. Spoiler alert: it's not a quick fix (and anything that promises to be is probably too good to be true).

It's a process. But a noble one at that.

Enjoy, mama!

Warmly,

Lauren
xoxo

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Follow Dr. Morgan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drmorgancutlip/

Dr. Morgan's website: https://drmorgancutlip.com/

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xoxo

Have you ever picked up a book that you just couldn't put down?

You are exhausted and you want to go to bed, but you simply cannot stop turning the pages. And when you turn that final page, you're so sad, because it's over. But you're changed for having read it.

That is The In Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments.

It's a book written by hospice nurse, Hadley Vlahos, RN.

Over her years helping patients transition from this life to whatever comes next, Hadley compiled their stories and realized that since they had left her forever changed, they would probably do the same for others.

Her social media account grew quickly as people became more and more interested about her work as a hospice nurse, and the stories of the people she has had the honor of serving in their final days, weeks and months of life.

I had the honor of interviewing Hadley about her wonderful book.

Today on the show, we discuss:

1.  Themes and advice that dying people wish they could have given to themselves earlier.

2. faith and its role in death. 

3. How to talk to our kids about death.

And much more.

Settle in for an episode that just might change the way you live with lesson from those who have already passed on.

Much love,

Lauren
xxx

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xoxo

Are you concerned with fine lines and wrinkles?

Are you into clean beauty, aging gracefully, and finding a natural way to minimize those years of expression lines on your face?

If you're into quick fixes, there is surgery and Botox.

But if you're into something different - a beauty secret that's been around since 1889 but that was made famous by Renee Rousso when she touted this product to be her secret to aging gracefully in Good Housekeeping magazine - then you're going to want to know about Frownies.

As you'll hear on the show today, Helen Morrison's great grandmother invented Frownies in 1889 when she noticed that her furrowed brow was created what's become known as "11" lines in between her eyes. 

Since then, Frownies have floated around as a natural beauty secret among celebrities, but they became an internet sensation just a few years ago.

Learn about how they work, how they compare to Botox and surgery, and  get some of Helen's other secrets and suggestions on how to aging gracefully beyond skincare products like Frownies.

Enjoy!

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xoxo

At what point in your relationship is it time to see a therapist?

Is love enough to keep a relationship going?

Will having kids negatively impact my relationship?

Stacey Sherrell and Rachel Facio are two licensed marriage and family therapists who have made waves with their down-to-earth, practical relationship advice on their popular platform, Decoding Couples, and they've joined us on The Mom Feed Podcast today to share some advice!

This episode is one of those ones you'll want to listen to more than once, and preferably with a pen and paper. Listen to it alone, listen to it with your partner, and then do it all over again. And share it with your fellow friends in relationships. Because we could all use some help, especially if we've got kids in the mix.

You will learn not just a lot about your relationship in this episode, but also about yourself.

Be prepared to go deep and to get answers about your relationship so you and your partner can thrive together.

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xoxo

When was the last time you thought about your goals? 

When was the last time you wrote them down?

When I began working for lululemon in 2006, I was introduced to the world of goal setting, and as an overachiever, I was hooked on the process.

A few months into my time there, I met a woman named Susanne Conrad, a woman who would change my life. Susanne was the Director of Possibility at lululemon, and she co-developed lululemon's renowned leadership program there. 

Since then, Susanne has coached thousands of leaders at hundreds of companies, including TOMS, Kit + Ace, Earls Kitchen + Bar and imagine1day.

If you've been feeling stuck in your life - particularly in motherhood - you're going to get a lot out of today's episode!

On the show today, we talk about being the author of your own story, especially the one you're currently starring in as "mother."

Susanne gives some valuable insight and exercises for you to begin stepping into the vision of what you want your life to look like, including how to deepen your presence and joy within your motherhood experience.

It's time :)

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xoxo

If you're a parent to a child or children between the ages of 2 and 12 years old, you're going to get a lot out of today, especially if you have children that are particularly spicy, shall we say?

You know the ones. They seem to defy what the parenting books say. They push your buttons. They push boundaries at earlier ages then seems appropriate. They hold a mirror to your wounds and traumas - most of them unhealed - and ask you dig deeper and deeper for the healing and the lesson.

They are the kids that will indeed move the world forward, but goodness gracious, they can be challenging to parenting and to hold space for.

Thank goodness for my guest on the show today, Mary Van Geffen, a parenting coach to spicy ones. She helps parents through setting and holding healthy boundaries (or not, depending on the situation), so that parent and child together can thrive in a loving, respectful and I dare say even joyful relationship.

Mary Van Geffen is an international parenting coach and parent educator for overwhelmed moms of strong-willed & Spicy Children™. 

She teaches monthly workshops to help moms gain confidence to choose gentle, respectful parenting especially if they weren’t raised that way. 

Mary has a ministry on Instagram where she posts an inspiring parenting tip every single day.  Just reading her social media will help you delight in your child and remember that you are enough. Mary believes that when a mom realizes how hard she is on herself and cracks the door open for some self-compassion, her entire family is bathed in light! 

Mary is a certified Simplicity Parenting Counselor® and Professional Co-Active Coach®.  Her greatest achievement, however, is cultivating a calm, kind, and firm relationship with her spirited go-getter daughter (17),  polar-opposite introverted son (15) and un-Enneagramable hubby.

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xoxo

If you’ve ever wondered what is at the intersectin of astrology, human design, and your life, wonder no more.

Today on the show, intuitive astrologer, mama and entrepreneur, Jessie Eccles, gives us a rundown on how you can use human design and astrology to better understand yourself and those around you.

She empowers you to understand just how your birth chart reveals who you are, and how you can use your strengths and challenges to uplevel your life.

Let’s face it – we’ll all have challenging moments in our lives. But how we face those challenges counts for everything. And if you’re equipped with the knowledge of where you shine and how you can best support yourself in times of trouble, then it’s safe to say that those challenging times won’t feel so challenging. We get into that today.

We also discuss the incredibly astrological event taking place today, Thursday March 23rd, 2023:

The shift of Pluto into Aquarius.

As you’ll learn, Pluto is about death and rebirth, and it has been in Capricorn (ruler of systems and structure) since 2008. This has looked like the crumbling of systems (think banks, government structure, educational systems – you know, that kind of thing. No big deal 🤪). With Pluto moving into Aquarius for a few months (it shifts back into Capricorn again on June 11th but then goes right back into Aquarius at the beginning of 2024), that means it’s time for innovation (Aquarius is the innovator).

We discuss that and more on today’s episode.

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xoxo

Are you a parent or thinking about becoming one?

My guest on the show today, Lauren Makler, is the CEO and co-founder of Cofertility, a mother owned and led company that is reshaping egg donation and egg freezing.

Today's episode is for you if:

1. You are in your 20s or early 30s and thinking about having a family someday
2. You are experiencing fertility challenges
3. You are experiencing secondary infertility after having had at least one child already
4. You are interested in egg freezing
5. You are interested in egg donation
6. You are interested in any aspect of fertility and infertility
7. You are a mom looking for advice on starting a business even while having young children at home

To learn more about Cofertility, visit https://www.cofertility.com/ 

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xoxo

I don’t know about you, but motherhood goes in phases of panic and preparation. One phase informs the specifics around the panic and the preparation.

For example, you get pregnant. Then, the research begins. What prenatal vitamins should I take? What kind of birth do I want? What kind of care provider do I want? What should I put on my baby registry? All the questions, all the preparation around the nursery and the buying of the parenting books and all the things.

Then the baby comes, and you move into a new phase: why is the baby spitting up? How do I get my baby to sleep? What kind of nap schedule does my baby need to be on? When do I start solids? What do I start with? How much should they be eating? When should they be crawling? When should they start walking? 

Then you move into toddlerhood and find yourself furiously consulting with parenting books and blogs and podcasts about toddler behavior and how to manage it, and developmental stages, and how to navigate them.

Well, first comes marriage (or the relationship or the donor), then comes the baby, then comes: how the heck do I talk to my child about puberty. Ok, maybe not in that order, but the point is: we move from being positively consumed by all the things in pregnancy and infancy and toddlerhood and then BAM! Your child is asking you about boobs and why you’re bleeding from your butt (because they’re in the bathroom with you 24/7, even when you have your period, and they have questions). They may even begin touching themselves and you find yourself flustered trying to find the words to explain to them that we do not touch ourselves in public. And then - oh GOD - how do we talk to our kids about pleasure? And when do we do that? And oh my goodness - when do their boobs come in? And when does their period start? And how on earth do I talk to them about this?

If you feel flustered around talking to your children about puberty, today’s episode is going to be one that you must save and come back to over and over and over again. Talking to our kids about puberty isn’t easy, but it’s necessary. And since we want to empower our children around their bodies - not just because of all the body image stuff they are going to be exposed to, but also for very practical reasons like bodily autonomy and sexual abuse prevention - we need to get comfortable talking about puberty with them. Ok, maybe it won’t be comfortable, but we need to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable as we learn to talk to our kids about their bodies.

Today, I’m joined by board certified pediatrician and chief medical officer and co-founder of Girology, Dr. Trish Hutchison. Girlology is a digital health platform with our 500 educational videos for parents and their daughters about every topic under the sun when it comes to puberty. Dr. Trish co-founded Girology with her colleague, Dr. Melissa Holmes. Dr. Holmes is a board certified gynecologist with a specialty in pediatric and adolescent gynecology. In short, you couldn’t have two more qualified people running a digital health platform about puberty.

If you have sons, there is Guyology. So fear not - today you will unlock everything you need to know about talking to your kids abou

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xoxo

How has motherhood felt to you? Has it felt easy? Hard? A mixed bag?

I’ve been pretty open and honest about how much motherhood has thrown me for a loop. It came with some pretty dark moments, and though those dark moments are fewer and farther between, they are still there sometimes.

Someone once asked me, “Why did you decide to have kids?”

The question jarred me. Because the honest answer was: I didn’t know the answer. I was embarrassed and quite shocked that I didn’t know that answer.

And when I really thought about it, the truth is that I decided to have kids because that’s what was modeled for me. That’s the story that was told to me: you do well in school, you get into a good college, you get a good job, you find a solid partner, you get married and you have kids and you live happily ever after.

I never questioned it. I just assumed it was supposed to be my story.

I think that’s part of the reason motherhood was so jarring to me. I was expecting to feel filled with joy. I was expecting my child to do the things the textbook told me she’d do. I was expecting to walk out of the hospital in my skinny jeans because my body was supposed to just bounce right back to the way it was before it grew a human (ha). I was expecting my relationship to stay solid. 

None of that was my reality.

I wasn’t prepared for the feelings of resentment, a sense of longing for my old life, a sense of grief for my old self, a sense of shame and guilt for having those feelings of resentment and longing. I wasn’t prepared for the loneliness, for the helpless feeling of a total lack of control as I tried to be an expert at this role as a mother on the very first day on the job and failed. And continued to fail as my daughter went through every stage of her first year of life. 

Motherhood threw me for a loop literally at every turn, and I wasn’t prepared for it. 

Today on the show, life coach Dr. Gertrude Lyons and I discuss this story of motherhood, this mother code that was passed down to us both from our own mothers or primary caregivers, as well as from our environment and societal and cultural messaging. She has dedicated her life to helping mothers redefine and rewrite their own mother code such that it fits their beliefs, not the ones that they borrowed from anyone else.

We talk about:

✅ Mom Guilt

✅ Mom Shame

✅ Losing your sense of identity in motherhood (and how to get it back)

✅ Reparenting yourself

✅ How motherhood triggers traumas and wounds that need to be healed

And much more. Tune in and be prepared to write the story of motherhood the way you want it to be. 

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xoxo