Millennial Mom Thoughts

After a very busy pumpkin-filled week, aka the Morton Pumpkin Festival, aka P-fest, we have our most meticulously planned episode ever...jk. We planned nothing! For our non-Morton listeners, P-fest is a multi-day autumnal extravaganza, and we share our experiences from this year and years past. We talk about our childhood memories of listening to the radio and our experiences with winning (and not...

In episode 8 we are talking about all things AI...well, at least some things AI. We start with a fun podcast update: we have new theme music written by none other than Brian Spicklemire! Jordan talks about her latest interview about the Wait Until 8th movement on the Morton school district podcast, CareU, and Helen shares her exciting adventure in an amateur pumpkin baking competition. And then we...

In episode 7 we’re responding to not one but two listener emails! For the first email, we address the reasoning behind the desire to review educational apps due to potential safety and privacy concerns. Our second listener email came from a local business owner who shared their thoughts and concerns based on our episode 5 discussion on attention & focus; this listener shared how when hiring em...

We open with an exciting announcement: we have an email address! Contact us with all of your questions, comments, thoughts, ideas, and more at MillennialMomThoughts. Podcast@gmail.com . Helen shares an update on her syllabus for her course at Illinois State University. Jordan gives a life update about how it feels to have a first day of school as a parent of a kindergartener. And then we take our...

We open the episode with a funny listener story (which also proves we have a listener!) and then Jordan shares the exciting news that she will soon be interviewed for the Morton 709 school district podcast, CareU, to share more about the Wait Until 8th initiative. Helen talks about when she is her most focused self as well as how her focus and attention have changed since becoming a mom. We define...

It is back-to-school time, and our fourth episode is all about the Wait Until 8th pledge. We open by discussing Jordan’s recent experience being interviewed by Ben VandenBerg for his Morton MUSE & News podcast, which shares stories of Morton community members. We discuss what the Wait Until 8th pledge is (and what it is not) and share the reasons why this movement matters, then consider ways t...

In our third episode, we are talking all things screens! We start by discussing a recent New York Times article, “Real Risk to Youth Mental Health Is ‘Addictive Use,’ Not Screen Time Alone, Study Finds .” We reminisce about memories of screen use at home and in school. We discuss our mixed feelings about school districts being 1:1 with devices for all students, recognizing the complexities of the...

In our second episode, we are talking about some of the main points from the book that kicked off this whole podcasting journey, The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, and how childhood has shifted from play-based to phone-based. We share our first experiences with cell phones and childhood memories of play, which includes Jordan’s underground rap career and Helen’s first major playground injur...

In our first episode, we share why we decided to start a podcast together and what we each hope to accomplish. We start the episode with a dramatic text message exchange reenactment about how this podcast came to be, then we share the story of how we met. We talk about who we are as parents and our professional backgrounds as educators. Jordan discusses the impact of reading The Anxious Generation...