Become A Calm Mama

Why are modern moms so burned out? What is the problem with modern motherhood that has us feeling overwhelmed, inadequate and guilty? In this episode, I’m talking about the big picture and the expectations around motherhood to help you understand why you feel so overwhelmed.  Because it's not just that your kid is spitting out their food or not cleaning up their room or didn't put their shoes...

As we move through the journey of motherhood, the way we experience Mother’s Day, and what we need from it, changes. Today, I’m reflecting on my own experience of how Mother’s Day changes over time and connecting to different stages of motherhood.  Different stages of parenting are challenging in different ways. When they’re younger, what we want most might just be a break from our kids, but...

Today I'm tackling the topic of screens, screen time limits, devices, all of it. And I am going to help you feel better about your kids’ device use. This is a master class on managing screens in your family. So grab a pen and paper and get ready. Let’s be honest - we all love screens.  I love lots of things, like nature, my friends, my kids, my dogs. And I really like being on my phone and wa...

Are you struggling with picky eaters at your dinner table? Do you find yourself making separate meals for yourself and your kids? As a parent, mealtime can be stressful, especially if your kids refuse to eat the food you serve them. Mealtime can be more enjoyable for everyone - including you.  On this episode of Become A Calm Mama, we’ll explore why some kids are picky eaters, while others ar...

Getting your child to bed (and asleep for the night) is often easier said than done. And while it can be super frustrating for us as parents, it’s pretty hard for our kids, too. One of the best ways to overcome common sleep struggles is by helping our kids master self-soothing skills.  Today, you’ll learn why getting to sleep and staying asleep is so challenging for kids at different ages and...

I recently got back from traveling across the country to visit New York City with my two teenage sons. There was one moment in particular on this most recent trip that sums up the experience of discontentment and motherhood and how I’ve been able to start moving toward more contentment.  I hope that this story and the tools I share today will help you move toward more satisfaction with your o...

In today’s episode, I’m walking you through all of the developmental stages of your child’s life, all the way from birth through adolescence to 18 or 19 years old. This is going to help you really understand what's normal at different stages or ages, what kids are struggling with and how you can support your child's development. Developmental Stages The information I’m sharing today is based on th...

Today’s episode is part three of a three-part series all about parenting stress cycles. If you haven’t listened to parts one and two, be sure to go back and check them out. In this episode, I’m teaching you how to reframe the way you view your child’s behavior so that you don’t get as stressed in the first place. What are you making it mean? It’s very common in our society to judge kids and their...

Today’s episode is part two in a three-part series. Last week, I talked about what a stress cycle is and how it shows up in your parenting. If you missed it, you can listen here .  Today, we’re taking it to the next step: When you’re in a parenting stress cycle, how do you get out of it? The first step is to deal with the stressor, and this is the one that most of us are already pretty good a...

I want to let you in on a little secret. You don’t yell because there’s something wrong with you (or your kids). You yell as a response to stress and what your brain perceives as a threatening situation.  In this episode, I’m talking about the stress cycle - what it looks like, why it happens and how it shows up in your parenting.  Before we get into the details, I want you to first imag...

Did you know that gentle parenting is one of the most popular hashtags on TikTok? It’s a philosophy that many parents are attracted to, and I’m excited to talk more about it today - what it is, my experience with it and the common challenges to gentle parenting that you might have experienced. What is gentle parenting? Gentle parenting is an approach to parenting where you validate your child's em...

What are the differences between traditional parenting and connected parenting, and how can you become more compassionate with your kid?  I’ve been thinking about the goals and outcomes of different parenting styles lately, and here’s how I think of it. Traditional parenting is focused more on the external - the way somebody looks, presents themselves to the world and the way the world views...

Delaying your response, the conversation, the consequences when it comes to misbehavior is a valuable tool. In this episode, you’ll learn why delaying helps you stay calm and how to use this tool in your parenting. Misbehavior is rarely an emergency. This is a concept I come back to with my clients again and again.  When you think that misbehavior is an emergency, your stress response is acti...

One of the reasons that being a mom is so hard is because of the pressure we put on ourselves to do everything right. We believe that if we can just be a “good” mom, we’ll prevent pain for our kids and ourselves.  There's a belief that if we do everything right and we plan it all out, we can prevent our kids from having hard things happen to them. This is everywhere in our society. We’ve all...

In motherhood, it’s normal to sometimes look at our kids’ behavior and imagine the worst case scenario.  We’re afraid that if we don’t stop a certain behavior, our kids will struggle with it forever. For example, when my son was hitting a lot at age 4 or 5, I thought if I didn’t change that behavior he would grow up to be violent.  In this episode I’ll walk you through how to play out th...

Robyn Reynolds is a certified professional organizer.  If organization skills are a genetic trait, it is a dominant gene for Robyn who was found organizing stuffed animals by size, shape and color before she could walk . Robyn has been quoted in the Huffington Post, Real Simple magazine, Yahoo.com, Woman’s Day magazine and numerous other publications. She has also worked on the television sho...

Struggling with budgeting, saving or paying off debt? Ready to reach your money goals? This episode is for you! I’m talking with financial coach Erin Harmon all about your money and how you can use it effectively to create the life you want.  Erin is the founder of Tranquil Finance. She helps individuals and couples get ahold of their finances and manage their brain so they can create the lif...

Today on the podcast, I’m continuing the series of conversations with experts in all areas of life. This week, Dr. Chavonne Perotte is here and we’re talking all about your marriage. Dr. Chavonne is a life and marriage coach who helps couples develop the mindset and skills they need to create happy marriages and partnerships. She also has a doctorate from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public H...

This week on the podcast, I’m talking with certified intuitive eating and body image coach, Victoria Yates. We’re diving into diet, body, what we eat, how we take care of our bodies and how we think about our bodies. As a coach for moms, my focus is on helping you become calm and care for your children the way that you want to. But I also see a lot of the other issues that affect women’s daily liv...

One of my life missions is to heal the next generation in advance. So today, I’m sharing the 5 things every kid needs for emotional health. I want to give a whole generation of moms the tools that they need in order to raise emotionally healthy kids.  I imagine a generation of kids who grow up and already know what to do with their feelings. A generation of young adults who feel like their pa...

It’s the last episode of 2022! And the New Year is a time when many of us think about goals for the coming year. But have you ever set parenting goals? Learn what parenting goals are and how to use them to pivot behavior and teach your kids new skills and values. What are parenting goals? A parenting goal is a goal that you set for your kids based on something that you see as a gap that they need...

MAMA DAY HOLIDAY is December 26! About a decade ago, I declared the day after Christmas to be Mama Day Holiday. It was my official day off. On Mama Day Holiday, I do NOTHING. I don't cook, clean, play with kids, or do anything I don't want to do. It's mama's day off. Kids eat cereal for several meals, watch a lot of TV, and  hopefully, happily play with all of their new toys. I made this...

In this episode, I’m talking about two of your favorite topics - meltdowns (or what I call Big Feeling Cycles) and siblings.  In more than 10 years as a parenting coach, these come up again and again as things that are the hardest for moms.  They are the core issues that lead moms to yell, then feel guilty and wind up stuck in a cycle of guilt, resentment, overwhelm and confusion. We wan...

Around the holidays, everything sort of gets unstructured and chaotic. We get really busy. We get overwhelmed. Our kids lose the sense of routine that we've been establishing. And it stresses us out! As parents, it's good for us to stop and think about how we want our winter break to go and how we want this holiday season to feel.  And a big part of creating the break you want is getting clea...

This week on the podcast, I’m diving into boundaries - How to say no, how to set boundaries with kindness, and how to communicate your boundaries in a way that works. I’m giving you my detailed, step by step process that you can use with the teens and adults in your life. Why do we need boundaries? Ultimately, we set boundaries because we want to feel better. We want our life to work better for us...