Mom Treading Water (The Imperfect Mom)

Send us Fan Mail We all strive to be the best moms we can be, and it's natural for us to seek inspiration and guidance from other mothers. Whether we turn to friends, family members, or social media influencers, we often look for tips and insights that can help us navigate the challenges of parenting. Today's episode of "Mom Treading Water" is dedicated to sharing wisdom from s...

Send us Fan Mail Mom Treading Water podcast is back, and if I look at myself with open eyes, I'm not entirely sure what happened. Maybe I experienced a creative block combined with anxiety and depression, and as we all know, motherhood.  With the distractions of mom life, I lost sight of what was important to me. Even though my husband and children encouraged and supported me, I felt it was t...

Send us Fan Mail Adopting a child is a life-changing experience that brings joy and fulfillment to many families. However, it is also a complex process that can be filled with stress and uncertainty. As someone who has gone through the journey of adoption twice, I understand the challenges and emotions that come with it. That's why I believe it is essential to share some insider tips to help...

Send us Fan Mail **TRIGGER WARNING** Depression, Anxiety, Child Sexual Abuse For moms struggling with mental health, please know you are not alone. Like many, I have battled my mental health even before motherhood My whole life, I have always felt inadequate, unworthy, and full of self-loathing. Like many, my existence focused on being a people pleaser without regard for my mental health. The wors...

Send us Fan Mail Before motherhood, my life always included anxiety. It was all I knew because it was how I lived.   "What if..." was one of the most common phrases in my vocabulary.   Risks and dreams were squashed by the "what if...".  Parental anxiety is a well-known worry that moms often feel. Even before becoming a mother, anxiety was constantly present in my life. It was...

Send us Fan Mail Momma, have you ever felt inadequate, unworthy,  and paralyzed by self-hatred?   My life has been centered around pleasing others without regard for my needs.    Constantly, I felt like I was taking space that I did not have a right or deserve to do.   To say I felt like a possession or a hindrance is an understatement.   Only with a few months of therapy my self-hatred is slowly...

Send us Fan Mail Boundaries - Momma, Do You Struggle In Setting Healthy Boundaries With Your Child?  You are not alone. Going to therapy has been full of discoveries.  I have realized that I struggle to set healthy boundaries with my children.   As a trained people pleaser,  the guilt of setting boundaries has been engrained.   The other realization is that my husband and I need to allow our child...

Send us Fan Mail As a mom living with anxiety, depression, and ADHD, my feelings could become overpowering.   Yet, during the past few years, I have found ways to cope and calm my body and mind.   The other day was one of those days; fortunately, my supportive husband was home.   I told him I needed to meditate to calm my body and mind.  Although this might not seem like a huge milestone, for me,...

Send us Fan Mail Mom, Are You Feeling Overwhelmed? I Know How You Feel! This mom has been extremely overwhelmed! I felt pulled in multiple directions and didn’t know where to start. No matter what I did, it was never enough, or I struggled with following through.  Full disclosure, I am still feeling overwhelmed but processing more constructively.   Information overload, self-induced pressures, and...

Send us Fan Mail SAHM and Working Moms: Treading Water Requires Strength, and Women Are Strong Undoubtedly, women are strong, making moms strong as a mother.  Treading Water demands strength and stamina.  As a SAHM, I know being a mom is not for the weak.   We are imperfect and always will be, but we are strong as SAHMs and Working Moms! Check out our Strong as a Mother merch and much more at http...

Send us Fan Mail As a continuation from last week’s episode, here are ways we live on an average income allowing me to be a SAHM.  The following tips are not just for SAHMs but all moms and anyone looking to make some easy financial adjustments.   Please note that I am not a financial advisor, and this is not financial advice.  I am sharing our experiences in hopes of helping others. Rakuten : Rak...

Send us Fan Mail Both moms and dads ask us how we can financially survive on 1 income, allowing me to be a  SAHM.   Learn our tips and tricks for fast and easy savings on managing our food and grocery bills.    Please note that I am not a financial advisor.  This is not financial advice.  I am sharing our experiences in hopes of helping other moms and dads keep more of their hard-earned money in t...

Send us Fan Mail Confidence Within:  Mothers and Daughters Learning From Each Other  My 5-year-old daughter, Mickey, shares her voice and claims her rightful space. She is her own person, and her confidence within has changed my life.   To try and mold her to be who I think she should be is wrong.  She has a right to be herself.   She is not a reflection of me and to treat her as such is projectin...

Send us Fan Mail Positive Parenting: 5 Things I Would Never Do As a Mom  Positive parenting is not always easy.  We partially learn based on our own parental experiences.   With each generation, positive parenting improves.   Here are 5 things I would never do as a mom:  Hit my children Allow my children to play around or in water without responsible supervision Obsessively talk about my weight an...

Send us Fan Mail Moms, Say Yes to Your Physical, Mental, and Emotional Health  After reflecting on saying no as a way to set boundaries, I realized the importance of saying yes.   As moms, we NEED to say yes to ourselves.  When we say yes to our needs, it is a step in improving our physical, mental, and emotional health.   Say yes to your happiness, so we teach our children that we can say yes to...

Send us Fan Mail Friends, the past year has been beyond anything I expected with Mom Treading Water.   To enjoy the summer with my children and family, I am to publish every other week until early fall.   There have been moments my ADHD brain has wanted to do a million things with Mom Treading Water, but I know I need to take a step back, refocus and hone in on my goals.    Thank you for all your...

Send us Fan Mail All moms know the power of saying no.   Whether you are saying no to your children or your children are saying no to you, the word no creates a multitude of positive and negative emotions.   There is an opportunity to learn from our children by saying no more often.    Saying no is a way to create boundaries and place a priority on ourselves.   Challenge yourself to say no to some...

Send us Fan Mail Traveling with children can be a fantastic opportunity for the whole family!   However, it is understandable how traveling can feel intimidating, especially if your child falls on the autism spectrum or has attention and/or mood disorders.     Award-winning author, Dawn M. Barclay, explains how parents can successfully incorporate travel into their families’ lives.  Her new book,...

Send us Fan Mail ***Please note, that this episode contains explicit language and topics that may not be appropriate for young listeners.*** In part 2 of the interview with Dr.  Fanike Young, she continues to share her own journey of making decisions from a healed place of trauma.    Dr. Fanike Young is a doctor of behavioral health, a clinically trained licensed trauma therapist, and a trauma sur...

Send us Fan Mail ***Please note, that this episode contains explicit language and topics that may not be appropriate for young listeners.*** If you or someone you love thinks they might have experienced trauma, this is an important episode.   Dr. Fanike Young is a doctor of behavioral health, a clinically trained licensed trauma therapist, and a trauma survivor.  Her goal is to help women make lif...

Send us Fan Mail My husband, James, is the best husband, dad, and man.   If you have any doubts about good men, be sure to check out Single Moms, Why Is It Hard to Find a Good Man? As we celebrate one year of Mom Treading Water, he and I discuss what makes a good dad and a good husband.  He is supportive of me as his wife,  mother of his children, and a woman embarking on a new venture.     Openly...

Send us Fan Mail Working moms and. SAHMs both have a challenging but fulfilling jobs of being moms.  However,  there seems to be this discussion on whether working moms or SAHMs have it tougher?    Does it really matter?  As moms, women, and parents, we should be supporting each other.  Sometimes we get into this cycle of trying to see who is more of the martyr or has the most challenging situatio...

Send us Fan Mail My children are school-aged, yet I can still feel like a new mom.    Yes, the days of diapers and middle-of-the-night feedings are done, but as our children grow and learn, we grow and learn with them too.     Watching our children develop and mature is exciting.  However, with all people being different, one way to work with one child but not be the same as working with another....

Send us Fan Mail Are there good men?  Yes! The easy answer is yes. Moms,  there are good men.  How do I know? I am married to a good man and we are fortunate to have many friends who are good men.  These good men share the same characteristics,  including honesty, respect, and prioritizing their families.   No matter how you define a good man, no one should ever be in an abusive situation.  If you...

Send us Fan Mail Passionate about meditation, Heather Nieves shares the benefit of sharing meditation with our children.   We discuss the physical and mental benefits of meditation we have experienced with our children.    As a bonus, she ends the episode with some breathing to ground down.    Heather is a podcast host of Let’s Talk Meditation with Heather Nieves, a Women’s Empowerment Coach &...