The Steadfast Mother with Laura Liming

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,...

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 name...

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 Personalis...

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...

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,...

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...

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 ch...

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"...

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.

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 shami...

It's 3 a.m. The baby is fed, changed, and walked through every room in the house — and still not settling. In the fog of that moment, a question creeps in: Does any of this actually matter? The answer is yes. And understanding why will change the way you see everything that happens in your child's first year. In this episode, Laura explores the developmental foundation of infancy through the lens...

What does it actually mean to be steadfast? In this debut episode, Laura introduces The Steadfast Mother — a podcast for Catholic moms living at the intersection of developmental psychology and Catholic anthropology. Before diving into stages and strategies, Laura unpacks the word at the heart of the show: steadfast doesn't mean unshakeable, and it doesn't mean swept away. It means being the tree...