Today on the podcast we meet Erin Smith and Saphina Waters, co-founders of The Debut Collective, an organization dedicated to supporting working mothers thrive after having children and returning to the workplace. They offer a variety of unique programs and services to help mothers connect with and celebrate their new identity - we highly recommend you check them out!

We discuss that each return to work can be different; different emotions, different return structures, and different experiences depending on the workplace and the people supporting that return. We discuss how each mother wants something different and the importance of the leader in supporting this journey, as best they and the organization can. 

We discuss the process of creating art and how each of us arrives at our art piece in different ways; Erin didn't know where her piece was going, but she trusted the process and understood the story after it was painted. Saphina is still on her painting journey as she scours her house for the unfinished piece (to be fair she moved while in the process of painting). We celebrate that each of us moves through this painting journey in their own unique way, much like motherhood. 

We cover so much ground in this discussion from our unique experiences to motherhood, return to work, painting journey and the general experience of existing in this world as a working parent. 

Thank you, Erin and Saphina, for your support and willingness to share your story through art. 

Check them out --> https://thedebutco.com/

Today on the podcast we hear from the ever-inspiring Amanda Lapadat. Amanda and Morgan, the Working Mother Experience Founder, have known eachother for a long time, close to 23 years. Amanda and Morgan went to the same highschool in Guelph, ON; however, Morgan thinks she remembers Amanda a lot better than Amanda remembers her.

Amanda, now a Canadian expat residing in Sweden with her husband and two children, has taken on the role of International Director for The Working Mother Experience in addition to all the other amazing hats she wears. Recently appointed a lecturer at XX university, Amanda is also the  owner of Splat Fabriken, a splatter studio pop-up in Malmo, Sweden, a international trade professional who is starting up a business with other professionals in her area to bring more international business to Sweden, she is never short of ideas or activities. 

Interestingly, Amanda took a step back from the 9-5 working life just over a year ago and in doing so has allowed her creative spirit to shine. On the podcast she openly shares this journey and how it's benefited her in so many ways as a creative and mother. 

We are so grateful to have Amanda on our team. Her passion, ideas, and energy are infectious and help our team to see things in new ways. We can't wait to see where Amanda takes The Working Mother Experience in Sweden and beyond. 

Meredith Hendriks is a force of resilience and strength. Knowing Meredith for close to a decade, I've had the vantage point of seeing her move through adversity, accidents, setbacks and many personal challenges that would have made most crumble. In this raw interview, Meredith opens up about these moments and how she has persevered despite them. 

A teacher by training, Meredith has taken two years off work due to an injury and ongoing challenges associated with a concussion. As she shares, you can't keep pushing through a concussion, sometimes you must simply rest and heal. 

A single mother of a teenager with significant medical challenges, challenges that have been present since birth, Meredith opens up about the magnitude of this journey and the depths of her pain and guilt. 

Meredith shares there is still a sliver of hope on the other side of this lake of blood and shit. She shares that she has lost site of that a few times over her journey, but today, is firmly footed on this earth and is working to best support her child and herself. 

I can't say thank you enough to Meredith for her raw vulnerability and willingness to share a piece of her soul on this podcast. For listeners, this is not an easy discussion with reference to major medical procedures on an infant, thoughts of suicide and major trauma. Thank you, Meredith, you are truly an inspiration and I'm grateful to know you. 

In this episode, we connect with Amelia Larson, Clinical Social Worker, entrepreneur, working mother, former foster parent and artist.

Using the analogy of the "Window of Tolerance", Amelia helps us to understand how, when, and why our respective and metaphorical windows start to get tighter and tighter, letting little to no breeze through. She helps us to understand that when this happens, we teeter on the edge of burnout and illness for we need fresh air, movement and light to flourish. Further, Amelia shares that she believes mothers to be too zoomed in, often focusing only on getting the task done to move to the next and that will benefit from zooming out, taking a broader, more holistic picture. She gives practical tips on how to explore and address this. 

Amelia's art showcases a technique she often uses with clients, asking them to allow the pen or paintbrush to move across the page as it desires, with no focus or destination in mind. She discusses the benefits of this approach and the curious findings when one starts to explore the meanderings of their brush after they finish. 

We hope you enjoy this podcast as much as we did! A huge shoutout of appreciation to Amelia for just saying 'yes' and signing up for our first exhibit and workshop event on October 19. 

Today on the podcast we meet the incredibly creative, insightful and kind Margaret Dahlberg, known in Calgary as Ms. Tweetie. Margaret is a local celebrity amongst children who enjoy her Music in Nature program or private music lessons AND is an internally recognized composer and musical performer. We are so lucky to be able to showcase one of her original compositions in our virtual gallery. 

Margaret opens up about her original music, Mountaintop, a composition she created to parallel the experience of being a working mother. She likens the experience and feeling of working motherhood to that feeling one gets at the end of a hard hike - elation with a side of calm and fatigue. Yet, as we look out from the summit, we know there are many more summits we will make; that the summiting will cease to end. 

We dive into the lessons she has learned as a music teacher and mother; observing parents and children delight in the power of sound, returning to and relaxing in their own bodies. As a mother with children out of the home, Margaret shares what it is like to navigate the highs and lows, the lows being much bigger, yet less frequent with older children and how she always chose to trust her kids, even when she knew they were lying. 

We know you'll love connecting with Margaret as much as we did. She's brilliant, funny, humble and honest. And if you live in Calgary, we highly recommend you connect with her for lessons as an adult or child and to spend time with her doing music in nature. 

Check Margaret out --> https://margaretdahlberg.com/

In this mini debrief, our founder, Morgan, shares some incredibly exciting updates for The Working Mother Experience; that's right, we are going international with our first team member living abroad and hosting our inaugural art exhibit this fall in Calgary, AB. Welcome, Amanda Lapadat to our growing team; we can't wait to see where you take us. 

To help inspire other creative works to showcase at the live exhibit, Morgan provides some prompts to help move through any inner barriers to accessing your inner wisdom and creative spirit. After two years of leading this initiative, Morgan is well acquainted with the artistic journey and the time it takes for artists to move from ideation to creation. 

We will share more on the exhibit soon, but please save the date for October 19 for our live event, exhibition and workshop. 

Today on the podcast we connect with Karen Davis, high-school math teacher, mind-blowing crafter, dog-lover, mother and so much more.

Karen shares her journey creating her art piece, her feelings of uncertainty using a template and her cricut machine, and her feelings about the piece and where she hangs it. We are so grateful to Karen her submission enables The Working Mother Experience to showcase a new art medium to our growing community to inspire a new avenue for expression. 

We delve into parenting as a means of getting to know our child vs. forming them into the child we want them to be, and how you find the right balance of both. We express our gratitude to individuals who help us to see ourselves in new ways and come to a place of deeper acceptance of our new identities as working mothers. And we acknowledge how we are different parents from when we started our parenting journeys, whether we want to admit it or not. 

Karen closes with a profound statement about parenting for the long run and how she is not raising a child, but helping to form an adult in whatever direction she takes that in. 

Thank you, Karen, for your beautiful art, your wisdom and willingness to inspire other working mothers to share a piece of their journey. 

Happy Mother's Day! To all the aspiring taxi drivers, nose-wipers, crayon collectors, dinner makers, dish-washers, medication providers, midnight snugglers, and whole-hearted, courageous, creative and exhausted mothers, you mean more than you'll ever know. 

Today we give you the gift of relaxation. Our very own Creative Director, Amanda Langrbroek, working towards becoming a certified hypnotherapist, gives you (and our team) the gift of deep relaxation. And what mother on this planet doesn't need some rest, calm, peace, and balance? Sneak away with a pillow, blanket, headphones and spend 20 minutes on the horizontal. 

We hope you take the time for you today - whatever that means and looks like for you. And when you do whatever you choose to do, we hope you revel in the majesty of motherhood and that while it's relentless at times, it is also filled with magic and wonder and discovery. 

Today on the podcast we connect with Emma Pimm, artist, working mother and one of the first participants in The Working Mother Experience's newest offerings, the  Unleashing Your Inner Creative workplace art session. 

Emma talks about her unique art piece featuring her as a bobblehead, pulled by her children from the dark into the light. As a bobblehead, she explains, she finds it so easy to 'bobble' one from one direction to the next, to be pulled from her centre so easily, and how it takes so much more time to recalibrate and rebalance. She talks about the chaos of expectations and the motherhood curse (or blessing) of developing a new type of attention deficit disorder. 

We go on to explore the 'how' of finding our centre and for Emma, that often involves intentionally just staring out the window and watching the birds. We end with a call to action to our listeners, asking each of you to spend time finding how you re-centre, and perhaps, even trying a good ol' window stare and checking in with how you feel afterwards. 

Thank you, Emma, for your honesty, courage and creative light. It was such a pleasure connecting with you and learning more about your art. 

If you are interested in submitting a piece of original art to The Working Mother Experience please visit www.workingmotherexperience.ca for details!

Theresa Maxwell, a former lawyer now professional figurative artist, mother of three daughters, and community volunteer shares her story on the podcast, intermingling a variety of lessons learned and nuggets of gold for our listeners. 

As a professional artist, Theresa deeply understands and accepts that the artistic process takes time. She encourages listeners and future artistic contributors to The Working Mother Experience to "give [themselves] permission to take [their] time". She likens the creative and artistic process to parenting, "children can get so frustrated when it isn't perfect...they don't want to do it anymore...[having art be] perfect immediately is so unrealistic". She encourages listeners to coach themselves like they do their children when they don't get something right on the first (or fourth) try. 

Want more of these amazing insights? You'll just have to listen to uncover all the other lessons and hidden gems in this delightful conversation. 

Thank you, Theresa, for giving us the gift of your time and sharing a few tips and tricks to encourage aspiring artists to pick up their crayon, pencil, or brush. And of course, for your beautiful piece of art (circular piece of art depicting a young girl deep in thought on workingmotherexperience.ca)