Failing Motherhood

How can the tools of Positive Discipline make it easier to be patient? Why am I so irritable + impatient with *normal* behaviors? Why is my child struggling? Taking pieces of what I shared during the Calm Mom // Calm Home Masterclass, I break down... The 6 main pillars of the Positive Discipline philosophy What you DON'T have control over + what you DO How your child's perception of real...

KC Davis is a mom of 2, author, licensed professional counselor, and creator of the Struggle Care platform, dedicated to sharing compassion and guidance to those who struggle to perform everyday care tasks. Have you ever felt like your "cup was full" but still had no capacity to play? Do you ever wish a fairy godmother would poof onto your shoulder to be like "the answer is..."...

Right now, we have 3 goals:  Process + manage our own BIG Emotions.  Help our kids feel in control of changes + transitions. Help our kids find belonging in a new environment. MAKE IT MAKE SENSE, MOM! In this episode, I cover practical things you can do RIGHT NOW to manage stress + anxiety on all fronts and make things go as smoothly as they can (in a pandemic still). Mentioned in the episode - Bo...

Parenting comes down to 2 things: your mental health and your parent-child relationship.  Mental health in motherhood takes a beating.  Isolation and shame is a breeding ground for mental health disorders.  Dr. Phillippa (Pip) Houghton is a family doctor on Vancouver Island, BC with a special interest in perinatal mental health. She is a mama to two boys and passionate about normalizing the mother...

It's time for a heart-to-heart.  A little storytime. I'm going off the script and into some real vulnerability in hopes you can relate even a little. Bottomline- This is not how it's supposed to be. This is not what we signed up for. It's not getting easier. What do we do about it? If you're feeling ALL THE HARD lately and need to come up for air... ...hang on through all...

I am joined once again by Laura Pryor , LIMHP, LPC, PLADC  /  EMDR Level I & II Trained Clinician  /  Brainspotting Therapist  /  Lovely human  /  Conscious parent. She graciously breaks down the intricacies of the brain science involved with emotional responses, how to best help our kids with emotions, and her thoughts on using time out. We also talk for a bit about taking shame out of parent...

My bestie, my better half, my husband Bryce, lets me pick his brain on all things parenting! He reflects on his upbringing, shares his struggles + confusion of parenting a strong-willed child through the toddler phase, and shares his own insecurities. Most importantly, he shares the lessons and perspective he learned from his time in inpatient treatment for alcoholism, and how it translated to his...

When summer hits, parents can feel equally excited AND anxious.  Change is destabilizing and all the added time together and at home can feel a bit intimidating. Today I'm sharing 5 essential steps to ensuring your sanity this summer: #1- Expect adversity. #2- Game face on. #3- Put them in control. #4- Ambiguity is the enemy. #5- Encourage independent play. NOW is the time to course-correct t...

What even IS "self-care"? Justine Sones is a mom, writer, + stress-management coach helping burnt-out humans set boundaries. Together we lament over all things unexpected in the motherhood & parenting realm, as well as diving into Justine's reckoning with "self-care". She shares her "loving mental breakdown of 2018", painting the picture of how a retreat can...

STRONG-WILLED KIDS: Everything is the worst thing to ever have happened to them. They're tender-hearted + cold-hearted in the same 30 seconds. Raising them is HARD AF. If you have one... you know. Today I'm breaking down the perspective shifts & approaches you need to take them from your greatest adversary to your biggest fan. Was this episode helpful? then... *FREE* CALM BIG EMOTION...

After her divorce , Sara Olsher found herself asking... "Is two too young to see a therapist?" Her daughter had developed quite severe anxiety and they were both in survival mode for years. Then...when her daughter was 6, Sara was diagnosed with breast cancer.   And all she could think about was her daughter's tearful face at her funeral. HOW could she get through such chaotic, exha...

"I was very much afraid the maternal instinct had skipped over me." Have you ever feel this way?  Under the impression all this wisdom just *kicks* in and waiting for it like.... when, exactly? Especially if you struggle with perfectionism and wanting control, motherhood is a wake-up call and call for surrender. Brittany Bergman collected all her thoughts as she became a first-time mom t...

So, you're minding your own business, parenting like you do, and you come across some positive parenting philosophies and think, YEAH- that sounds like what I want to do! So, you learn more about it and start to realize... this makes sense!  This must be why I felt like something was missing for me growing up! And then you learn enough to realize you're doing *everything* wrong and feel...

If you've ever wondered what it'd be like to be raising a toddler as a single mom, as an active duty Army Lieutenant Colonel, stationed abroad in Germany during COVID lockdown.... you're about to find out. Claudia has served for over 17 years, including 4 combat deployments and 10 years on jump status as a paratrooper. Now she makes war plans by day and talks shapes and colors by ni...

SOLO episode alert!  I wanted to revisit & break down my most popular Instagram post from 2020 - "When I'm spinning out because I can't control another person, it means I have work to do.  It's a ME problem." It might be hard to hear but if you're looking for ways to extend your patience, you won't want to miss this episode! WHY do we get so flustered and los...

Dr. Nicole Byers is a neuropsychologist helping women overcome the mental barriers that leave them stuck in self-doubt so they can stop worrying what everyone else is thinking, build the confidence to speak up, and have the courage to go after their goals. Along with sharing her personal struggles of working mom guilt (feeling like a dad), Dr. Nicole shares valuable insights into the mind-body con...

Janice Scholl perfectly depicts the rollercoaster of coming into motherhood well-prepared, feeling like you're failing at the most important thing you've ever done while questioning yourself and your sanity.  Oh, and apparently the formula her daughter needed cost more than their mortgage. This episode covers the work-life balance (tug-of-war), trusting your mom "gut" even as a...

Amelia Mora Mars is a mom to six daughters and four sons, a psychotherapist, and founder of MomConnections where she coaches women raised by emotionally unavailable mothers. She empowers women to break the cycle, heal their hearts, and reclaim their lives. As a mom, she too had to learn to overcome these wounds caused by her own mother. Through her personal journey, she was able to forgive her mom...

TW: heart-wrenching examples of hardship, abuse & injustice Jamie Grogan 's story needs to be heard.  Talk about vulnerability... Jamie willingly recounts her fight for her own life and for custody of her girls.   She openly & honestly speaks to the despair & desperation she lived through & what got her through. Her daughters are now 24 & 26, she's gone through incred...

International adoption.  Big T versus little t trauma.  Self-Compassion.  Healthy Boundaries. Melissa Corkum has the parenting certifications and life experiences to back up the wisdom she shares in this episode.  Not only does she give us a vulnerable peek into her most chaotic & tumultuous years of adoptions in her family, but she shares the biggest lessons she needed to learn as she came al...

Buckle up.  You're in for a treat. In this episode, Leanna Lee graciously & vulnerably shares her experience of becoming a birth mother, placing her beautiful so-loved daughter in an open adoption. She speaks to her struggle with mental health throughout her life and the steps she's taken to managing it these past few years. Since starting her own business as a freelance content mark...

AM I DOING THIS RIGHT?  I have SO much to learn. Sarah Saldi is knee deep in doing all.the.things. to figure out how to parent her littles differently than she was raised & be on the same page with her husband. "I really want to work to make sure they feel supported and that it's okay to mess up and not get things right and that we're really genuine in our home. And that's...

#reasonswhywe'refailing - Thursday episodes dive deep into one reason why we feel like we're failing & what we can do about it! In this short, to-the-point episode, I share with you . . . 5 reasons why parenting (or motherhood for that matter) does NOT come naturally. We should NOT expect to know how to do it. I also share 3 things you can do about it TODAY. LET'S DO THIS. *FREE...

"You want your parents to be involved in your child's life, but at what cost?" Both of Jamie's parents are alcoholics and are still in a gut-wrenching divorce that's been going on for years.  She has been working daily to break the chain of trauma, and what once crippled her has made her so much stronger. "It was a scary thing to realize that this is no longer somethi...

DON'T MISS THIS EPISODE. I, Danielle, take over the mic to share my story, my heart, and my vision for the future. If you've ever wondered more about who I am, why I'm doing what I'm doing, what it is I'm even doing, and how I hope to change the world... it's all here, my friend. Every parent is making daily choices that cast a vote for the world our kids will live in...