The Single Mom Podcast - Single Parent Advice, Support & a Little Bit of Humor

This episode covers bullying and how it can not only hurt other kids, but how parents can now be held responsible for their child's bullying.

Recently a town in Wisconsin passed an ordinance that has started to cause a little bit of controversy. Focusing on the bullying that has been on the rise in the past few years this new bill will now fine the parents of the offender. That’s right, the bully’s parents will have to pay if their child’s bad behavior.

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As single mothers we often will take on the weight of the world. We take care of everything, do everything and worry about everything. It is so easy for us to become so busy caring for the kids and everything else that we forget to take care of ourselves. We don’t do the things that we need to do for ourselves.

Sometimes it’s because we feel like we can’t or shouldn’t. That it would be selfish of us to take time that could be spent doing other things. I know that too often I feel guilty if I do something for myself or take time for myself. If ever I get a day to just sit and do nothing I feel bad because I SHOULD be doing something.

But taking time for yourself and caring for yourself is so important!

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This episode is all about STEPPING OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE

One of the people that I really pay attention to and follow pretty religiously is Gary Vaynerchuck or Gary Vee. He is this amazing entrepreneur who has really perfected his hustle. This man is a machine when it comes to his business and his life. He built an extremely successful business (actually multiple businesses) by learning as much as he could and simply out working his competitors. If you ask him he will tell you that he “day trades in attention and builds businesses”.

Recently Gary posted something on his Instagram account – ‘One life. One time. Way too many people aren’t acting this way.’

And I have to say this simple little meme really spoke to me. After going to Infusioncon this year and listening to the speakers talk (and Gary Vee was one of those speakers) I came home and started thinking about all of the things that I simply put off in my life. I started asking myself –

‘WHAT DO I WANT OUT OF MY LIFE?’

‘WHAT AM I DOING TO MOVE MY DREAMS AND GOALS FORWARD?’

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This episode is all about accountability. Seems a simple word really; but in practice it can be difficult at times and sometimes even harder to teach. In my life and in my family it is something that is so very important though. Being accountable for the things we do, the things we say, and how we feel are things that I try to teach my children because they are so very important.

In today’s society I feel that many people have stopped teaching this concept to their children. That they need to be accountable for themselves, in their actions, in their words and all throughout their lives. The world will definitely hold them accountable so why wouldn’t we teach them to hold themselves accountable?

It’s not always easy and quite honestly sometimes it just plain sucks but being accountable for yourself is so key to your success. Going through life with the ability to say “I did that” or “Yes I messed up” or “I will complete this by a certain day or time” and then DOING IT – all very important. Too often it is easier to just let things slide, to just shrug off your accountability and that is where we end up getting into trouble. That is when we start allowing ourselves to shirk our responsibilities.

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So I recently decided that I wanted to do a Q&A segment where I would answer some of the questions that my readers and podcast listeners have asked. To get started though I asked my 8 year old daughter if SHE would like to be the first guest.

I decided today would be a great day to do it since we were stuck at home due to a local blizzard here in Colorado. (Yep that’s how we roll here in Colorado in the spring.)

She was very excited to do this and I gotta say I was too. I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of it before! It was so much fun. She asked me some great questions and some that I didn’t expect.

My daughter’s questions were:

When you were my age did you want to be a single mom?What was your reaction when you found out you were having twins?What was your reaction when you found out you were having another kid?What did you guys do for fun before I was born?When you were a kid, did you want three kids?What did you do for fun when you were a kid?How old were you when you got your first phone?  

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This podcast covers the trap of government assistance programs and how it holds people hostage. Anyone who has ever been on government assistance programs (or welfare) can attest that is isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. For most people it is never intended to be a permanent solution but only a short term boost until they can get back on their feet again. 

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Are you living your life deliberately on purpose? Or are you simply reacting to what life throws at you? I recently had to ask myself this same question…

Every year I attend a conference in Phoenix hosted by Infusionsoft. If you haven’t heard of Infusionsoft don’t worry, you’re probably not a marketer or small business owner, BUT I guarantee you that if you have ever filled out a form on someone’s website and then started getting emails from them – you’ve at least experienced a small part of Infusionsoft.

Every year the good folks at Infusionsoft throw a big conference for us geeks and marketing people to go to; and every year I go I learn a whole truckload of new things. This year though was a little different. I still learned all the great marketing tips and tricks that I use in my business and I still met a TON of really amazing people. But this year they had a new MC for the event – Scott Harris.

I came home from that conference with a renewed sense of purpose AND the drive and desire to break free from the things I have allowed to hold me back. I have created my goals and am now working on building out my process for accomplishing those goals.

The reason that I decided to post and podcast about this is that I know that there are many of you out there who also have goals and dreams and visions that your are not accomplishing. Are you allowing something to keep you from those goals? What excuses are you making for not starting today? How much MORE time to you think you will get?

Because like Scott said at my conference – you aren’t getting more time in your life, you are losing time every second of ever day. One day you will look up and another year has gone by and you are no closer to your goals than you were before. What is keeping you from doing those things that you want to do? And don’t say your children or your ex or your job… because those are not it.

Your major block is YOU and your mindset and your ability to take action. So how will you live your life? Just sitting there waiting for it to happen to you? Or will you go out and live with purpose?

Will you live your life deliberately on purpose?

I know I am going to!

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Yep, this podcast is all about how I am a terrible, horrible, awful mom. At least I would likely be labeled as one by the paparazzi and social media if I were a famous person. If I was a mother who’s parenting style was constantly under scrutiny like many of the celebrity parents out there I would definitely be tagged with that headline.

Recently one of my favorite blogs – Scary Mommy – addressed an “article” from another site calling actress Charlize Theron a ‘monster mom’ because she was “dragging” her son into her car.

I love the Scary Mom blog because they have a sarcastic and smart ass type of style that mirrors my own. Their article reflected exactly what I was thinking when I saw that nonsense – that isn’t dragging that is “getting an immobile child into the car”.

Teaching my children this does not make me an awful mom. Just like Charlize Theron trying to get her child into the car when he is doing the whole ‘limp noodle’ thing does not make her a ‘mad mother‘. It makes her a parent, just like you or I doing the best that she can.

But like I said before, if teaching your child that they can not get away with behaving poorly without consequence makes me an awful mom, then I guess I’m an awful mom. And I will wear that badge proudly if it means my children will grow up as decent kids with the knowledge that they can’t just be jerks.

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Growing up and letting go… sounds a bit like an after school special title doesn’t it?

Regardless of what it sounds like it is in fact what I am currently struggling with. It seems like it wasn’t that long ago when my boys were just little kids and now I am coming face to face with the reality that my little boys aren’t little anymore. They will be 16 this year, and to be quite honest I’m scared shitless about it.

I have openly admitted in the past that I am very protective of my children, probably more so than most mothers because of what happened to my son Gage. Having a child almost die is one of the worst experiences I have ever gone through. After that I have just dreaded even the possibility of something else happening to any of my children.

This episode covers my struggles with letting go as my kids get older.

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If you have been following my podcast for a while you know that I am the proud mama of two amazing special needs boys: Gage and Connor. Both areShaken Baby Syndrome survivors and are two of the most important people in my life.

As you may have heard in previous podcasts I mention briefly about my son being hospitalized when he was only 5 months old and that he spent over a month at Children’s Hospital here in Colorado. But I never dove too deeply into what happened to him or how it impacted us as a family.

In this episode I talk about Gage's injury, how it happened and the journey we have been on.

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