This season began with Trust vs. Mistrust — the first question every child asks of the world, answered in a mother's consistency, warmth, and capacity to return after rupture. In this closing episode, Laura brings it home: the steadfast mother isn't the one who never gets it wrong, but the one who keeps coming back. Drawing on Mary's fiat — not just at the Annunciation, but at Cana, at the Cross, and in the waiting that followed — Laura reframes motherhood as a surrender given again and again, not once and for all. If this season stirred something you're not done with, she's inviting you to keep going. Stay steadfast. And if you're ready to go deeper with your own story, you can learn more about mentorship with Laura here: https://catholicpsych.com/laura-liming

What happens when the giving no longer comes from fullness, but from fear? Laura explores Conrad Baars' concept of emotional immaturity — how a childhood where love felt conditional can leave a mother giving compulsively rather than freely, and why depletion isn't a badge of virtue but a signal something's off. Drawing on John Paul II's insight that self-possession must precede self-gift, she names three often-neglected foundations for replenishment — prayer, true friendship, and accompaniment — and leaves listeners with one question to sit with this week: who receives you?

👉 https://catholicpsych.com/laura-liming 👈

Some mothers show up steady, capable, and unshakeable — and that steadiness can quietly become a wall. In this episode, Laura explores the "always fine" defense style: a self-sufficiency built from early experiences where needing felt unsafe, and how it can leave children without a model for being emotionally received rather than just managed. Drawing on CatholicPsych's Model of Applied Personalism and the image of Mary at the foot of the cross, she makes the case that true strength isn't the absence of need — it's the willingness to be present, seen, and open even in hardship. A gentle invitation to notice where "fine" might be standing in for connection.

If avoidance is something you are dealing with, visit https://catholicpsych.com/laura-liming to schedule a free consultation call, and I'd be happy to talk with you and see if mentorship may be right for you.

We all get it wrong with our kids sometimes. This week, Laura explores what happens in the moments right after — the pull toward harsh self-accounting or quick avoidance, and a third way that leads somewhere better. Drawing on the wisdom of the book , The Context of Holiness by Fr. Marc Foley, OCD (see link below) which examines the life of St. Thérèse, and drawing on rupture/repair research, she shares a personal story about a sharp moment with her son. Why the mercy we extend to ourselves in that in-between space is what makes real repair with our children possible. Because before we can return to them, we first have to return to ourselves.

My Contact AND a Free Download of Erik Eriksons’s Eight Stages Through a Mother’s Eyes https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BpqaDZS9spXkwPHQ78Xv1aBpjnEjEH4_/view?usp=sharing

The Context of Holiness Book

https://tinyurl.com/4z5rmpmv

Sometimes the person in front of you isn't who you think she is. This week on The Steadfast Mother, we step away from the developmental stages to look at parataxic distortion — the way old relational wounds get triggered by our children and hijack the present moment. We talk about how to recognize when a reaction is "too big" for what's happening, four steps for finding your way back to the room, and how the Catholic practice of the examen helps us see our children as they actually are — not as echoes of someone else's story.

My Contact AND a Free Download of Erik Eriksons’s Eight Stages Through a Mother’s Eyes

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BpqaDZS9spXkwPHQ78Xv1aBpjnEjEH4_/view?usp=sharing

She goes to her room. Closes the door. Says she's fine. And you're left standing in the hallway, wondering if you should knock again — or let her be.

This week on The Steadfast Mother, we move into adolescence (ages 12–18) and Erikson's stage of identity vs. role confusion — the season your daughter starts asking who am I? We talk about the two ways this stage can go wrong, why her questioning her faith might be the beginning of real belief rather than the loss of it, and why her pulling away often stirs up a question you might not have fully answered for yourself: who am I, if not her mother?

My Contact AND a Free Download of Erik Eriksons’s Eight Stages Through a Mother’s Eyes

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BpqaDZS9spXkwPHQ78Xv1aBpjnEjEH4_/view?usp=sharing

She's stuck on a math problem and has refused your help three times. What you do next matters more than you think. In this episode, Laura explores middle childhood — ages six through twelve — and the question at its heart: Am I capable? Why praise can't build competence, what it means to stay near without taking over, and how a child becomes virtuous the way anyone does: through small, repeated choices that slowly form character. Plus the question every mother must face — what is your child learning about failure from watching you?

My Contact and FREE Download of Erik Erikson's Eight Stages of Life through a Mother's Eyes:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BpqaDZS9spXkwPHQ78Xv1aBpjnEjEH4_/view?usp=sharing

In this episode, Laura enters the world of the three-to-five-year-old and Erikson's stage of Initiative versus Guilt. The preschooler isn't just asserting herself anymore — she's proposing herself, reaching outward with wild plans and an imagination that hasn't learned to doubt itself yet. The question underneath all of it: Is my wonder welcome here?

Laura explores why a steady stream of "not now" can quietly teach a child to stop reaching, what Conrad Baars called the gaze of wonder, and why your preschooler is, quite literally, a natural mystic.

You don't have to say yes to the tent. You just have to say yes to the wonder.

My Contact and FREE Download of Erik Erikson's Eight Stages of Life through a Mother's Eyes:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BpqaDZS9spXkwPHQ78Xv1aBpjnEjEH4_/view?usp=sharing

Before you say "you're okay" — pause. In this episode, Laura explores attunement: the art of making your child feel felt, not just seen. Drawing on neuroscience, developmental stages, and the Incarnation itself, she unpacks why presence matters more than fixing — and why a missed moment, followed by repair, may be the most powerful thing you can offer.

My Contact and FREE Download of Erik Erikson's Eight Stages of Life through a Mother's Eyes:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BpqaDZS9spXkwPHQ78Xv1aBpjnEjEH4_/view?usp=sharing

Your toddler is face-down on the kitchen floor over a banana you opened. Before you problem-solve, it helps to understand what's actually happening. In this episode, Laura explores the developmental significance of the toddler's "no" — why it isn't defiance, what Erik Erikson's Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt stage reveals about this moment, and how the difference between holding a limit and shaming a will can shape a child for life. Plus: what your own two-year-old self has to do with how you handle it.

My Contact and FREE Download of Erik Erikson's Eight Stages of Life through a Mother's Eyes:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BpqaDZS9spXkwPHQ78Xv1aBpjnEjEH4_/view?usp=sharing