Parenting, apparently

What does ambition cost a working mom, and what does it give back? This best-of brings back two conversations between Melissa and Esther about being mothers who also run a company. They look at the motherhood penalty from both sides of the hiring table, from raising money while pregnant to weighing a candidate who's about to go on parental leave, and at the guilt that comes with splitting your...

What happens when you stop just playing with your kids and start letting them lead? This best-of brings back two Season 2 conversations. Game designer Elan Lee, co-creator of Exploding Kittens, tells Melissa and Esther how a stack of boring preschool board games ended with his four-year-old daughter saying "let's fix them," and how the games they built together at his crafting table,...

What if motherhood doesn’t diminish creativity, but gives it new urgency, meaning and material? Brooklyn painter Madeline Donahue joins Melissa and Esther to explore how becoming a mother helped her find her artistic voice in her mid-30s, and why the everyday realities of caregiving deserve to be treated as seriously as any other subject in art. Through Madeline’s vivid, playful paintings, they ex...

What happens when adults stop playing, and what does that mean for parents? In this episode of Parenting, Apparently , Melissa chats with Katina Bajaj, a creative health scientist and co-founder of Daydreamers, a company helping adults bring creativity, play, and wonder back into their lives. They explore why so many grown-ups—especially parents—feel creatively unfulfilled, and how the pressure to...

Before you have kids, you picture the parent you’ll be and the kid you’ll have. But what happens when kids grow into humans that don’t match the ones we daydreamed about while pregnant? In this episode of Parenting, apparently , Melissa and Esther talk about parenting expectations vs. reality—from food rules and bedtime routines to chores and surprising behaviour. They compare how their parenting...

This week it's just Melissa and Esther — no guest, just the two of them, picking up a thread left over from last week's conversation about ambition: what were they actually chasing when they started Pok Pok, and is it still what they want? Is founder guilt just parent guilt with a business attached to it? Can you really measure balance by the week instead of the day? And where's the li...

In this episode of "Parenting, apparently," Esther and Melissa sit down with Amil Niazi — whose viral essays and national bestselling memoir have made her one of today's most talked-about parenting thinkers. The conversation grows out of the premise behind Amil's book, Life After Ambition , and her column, The Hard Part , for The Cut: what role does parenting play in our relationship with ambition...

Melissa and Esther welcome back pediatric occupational therapist Laura Petix (the pod’s first return guest!) who arrives with a new book: The Sensory Code , out October 6. They start where her book does, with the nervous system budget. Everyone wakes up with a certain amount in the tank, and every ordinary thing costs something. Socks might cost Laura a dollar and cost her sensory-sensitive daught...

In this episode of “Parenting, apparently,” Esther and Melissa rethink what school really offers kids. From exploring the differences between the Belgian and Canadian education systems to imagining what they would change as school principals, they dig into homework, academic pressure, and what kids actually need from school to thrive. Is it better to hold kids back as often as Belgian schools, or...

It’s back-to-school season, and Melissa’s son is starting kindergarten for the first time, while Esther is six years in with her two boys. Together, they chat about the practical and emotional realities of getting the family ready for a new school year. Melissa shares how she’s preparing for the transition (including her very real dilemma of whether she needs multiple lunchboxes), while Esther exp...

In this episode of “Parenting, apparently”, Melissa and Esther unpack the “motherhood penalty”: the bias mothers can face in hiring, pay, promotions, and how their boundaries are perceived at work. The conversation was inspired by a recent interview Melissa had with a candidate for a role at Pok Pok. It was a mother who arrived on the call with her two-month-old on her lap, nursing on and off thro...

Melissa and Esther were 90s kids with very different upbringings. Growing up in Canada and Belgium, they compare notes on their millennial childhoods—from peanut butter lunch rules and being latch-key kids to weekend chores, screen time, and the freedom they each had growing up. Now that they’re parents, they ask: what parts of our 90s childhoods could never work today, and what might actually be...

This week on “Parenting, apparently”, Esther is joined by her sister Edith for a conversation about childhood, motherhood, feminism, and the lessons we carry from the way we were raised. Edith works in TV and film in Belgium and is mom to four-year-old Louis. Together, Esther and Edith reflect on growing up in a matriarchal household and the challenge of raising sons with feminist values while hel...

Melissa Cash and Esther Huybreghts, hosts of Parenting, Apparently , share the story behind Pok Pok—their award-winning kids’ app built to rethink screen time through creativity, calm, and imaginative play. After struggling with the arrival of her second child, Esther searched for a digital experience for her toddler that didn’t exist yet: something that felt more like a real toy than a typical ap...

Is there such a thing as safe social media for kids? If so, what does it actually take to build it? This week, Melissa and Esther are joined by Leah Ringelstein, co-founder and CEO of Zigazoo, the kid-safe social media app designed to help children create mindfully instead of scroll. Before launching Zigazoo, Leah taught in Phoenix, Tanzania, and the Bronx, experiences that shaped her vision for a...

This week, Esther and Melissa dive into the world of YouTube, AI slop, and the challenge of finding healthier media for kids. After creating their own low-stimulation kids’ channel, Studio Pok Pok, and navigating the YouTube Kids approval process, they question how so much low-quality content still reaches children and who should be responsible for changing that. They share why neither family uses...

Sam Doll is a musician, writer, filmmaker, and creator with over a million followers online. In this episode about finding yourself after kids, Sam joins Melissa and Esther to talk about the identity shift that comes with motherhood, postpartum struggles, and how becoming a mom has changed the way she shows up online. Inspired by sharing their birth stories, they unpack why so much of parenting ca...

Courtney Phillips Spoehr, senior creative executive at Calm, joins Melissa and Esther to talk about summer parenting stress and the pressure of the “18 summers” mindset. This conversation explores what real summer parenting looks like behind the highlight reel—from juggling work meetings, summer camps, and travel logistics to the guilt of not feeling present enough amid the overstimulation of the...

Freya Lyon — known online as The Queer Mama — joins Melissa for a chat about queer parenting, donor conception, and how to answer kids’ questions honestly about identity, death, and their bodies. Freya grew up donor-conceived in a two-mom family and is now raising her own two donor-conceived children with her wife, offering a second-generation perspective on queer family building. In this episode,...

This week on Parenting, apparently , Esther and Melissa sit down with Elan Lee, the award-winning game designer, storyteller, co-creator of Exploding Kittens , and, most importantly, a dad. Elan shares how becoming a parent changed the way he thinks about play, creativity, and game design—including how his 4-year-old daughter helped him create a successful line of preschool games. Together, they e...

In this episode of Parenting, Apparently , Esther and Melissa sit down with developmental psychologist Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek to talk about why play is one of the most powerful ways children learn. From everyday moments like walking to daycare or waiting at a restaurant, to bigger questions about screen time, school readiness, and achievement pressure, they explore how parents can bring more curios...

This week on Parenting, Apparently , Esther and Melissa speak with Ben Drury, co-founder and CEO of Yoto , the screen-free audio platform for kids designed to support independence, imagination, and choice in what children listen to. Together, they explore what it means to design intentional media for kids, how their own parenting experiences shape their views on children’s technology, and reflecti...

This week on Parenting, apparently , Esther and Melissa explore how parenting can make the world feel big again. From dinosaurs, outer space, and gemstones, to basketball, poisonous plants, and library deep dives, they talk about the strange and joyful ways kids’ niche interests reignite curiosity in adults, too. The conversation unpacks learning alongside our children, supporting open-ended play,...

What happens when we reject “bounce-back” culture and bounce forward into who we’re actually becoming? Marlie Cohen, founder of Bounce Forward, has joined Esther and Melissa for a chat that celebrates the postpartum transformation and eases the pressure of getting back to our former selves. Marlie shares how postpartum anxiety, physical injury, COVID, and two young children pushed her to reject th...

Melissa and Esther sit down with Willful co-founder Erin Bury for a conversation that softens the heaviness of parenting responsibilities nobody wants to think about, but eventually has to. What starts with wills, guardianship, and estate planning opens into a bigger discussion about responsibility, money, work, death, privilege, and how becoming a parent changes the way you plan for the future. T...