the denmother podcast

Ryann Watkin is a speaker, educator, podcaster and mom. She helps educators, parents and aspiring leaders feel happier at work and home through workshops, keynote talks and podcast interviews focusing on joy, resilience, and purpose. She’s here today to have an honest, soulful conversation with us about the identity shifts we experience throughout motherhood. You can find Ryann on Instagram and Li...

Rebecca Stewart has staffed some of the most elite houses in Hollywood with childcare help. She shares the ins and outs of this glitzy, driven world and what some of the top-tier parents ask their potential childcare that we often don't. This is a fun, eye-opening episode you won't want to miss!  To find out more about V.I.P. Nannies, click here . And you can follow the agency on Instagr...

Power struggles can make you feel powerless, frustrated and hopeless as a parent. But today's guest is here to offer guidance and hope! (And she even challenges me a little bit on my own parenting.) Katherine Sellery is a three-time TEDx speaker, an Amazon Best-Selling author and founder of the Conscious Parenting Revolution. She is a trusted voice for parents seeking to create more connected...

What does true joy look like? Does it look like a life free from suffering or pain? Or does it look like a fight to find and keep joy wherever we can? Today's guest knows first-hand the realities of joy and the fight for it.  Candace Payne is an author, speaker and a podcast host, but you may know her best as “The Chewbacca Mom” after her Facebook Live video trying on a Chewbacca Mask went vi...

The United States has the highest rate of children in single-parent homes in the world, with 80% of those homes led by women.  In many cases, women find themselves in this situation unexpectedly due to death, divorce, military deployment or other factors.  So how do you navigate and prepare for something like this? Today's guest has the answers.  Julie Barth is a mother to six children. She i...

How do we know if our baby's and toddler's language is developing normally? And what, if anything, can we do to help develop their language and speech? Page Maughan is a mom to two adorable girls. She is also a certified Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) who specializes in neuro rehabilitation. She works with children in schools and in the hospital setting and she’s here today to answer...

No matter what stage of parenting you're in, parenting is challenging.  Today on the denmother podcast, Dr. Lindsay Emmerson joins us to share tips and insight into every childhood stage of difficulty from toddler tantrums to teenage drama.  Dr. Lindsay Emmerson is a clinical psychologist who built Parenting With Psychology from a traditional therapy practice into a thriving online business s...

Carrying someone else's child comes with a whole host of emotions, and sometimes complications, but can provide expected parents with a life-changing gift: the gift of a family.  Today's guest knows first hand what surrogates go through. That's why she created her surrogacy agency, Joy of Life.  After years of working in the fertility field, Joy Millan felt called to create her own...

We, as women, have been shaped by advertising, diet culture, the beauty industry and so much more. And often, the messages we received early on start to affect our eating in negative ways. So, how do we navigate our own relationship with food while also working to help our kids have a healthy relationship with food? That's where Jessica Setnick comes in. Jessica Setnick is known by eating dis...

How does childhood trauma affect how we experience motherhood and parent our own children? Today's guest, Adriene Caldwell, would tell you that after experiencing and/or witnessing several traumatic events in childhood from emotional and physical abuse to suicide, death, pedophilia, sexual assault, severe mental illness and more, she was terrified to become a mother. Still, she says having he...

As moms, we are always advocating for our kids. Whether it's asking for more tests at the doctor's office, standing up for your parenting choices with friends and family, or holding fast to your faith during turbulent storms - moms are the backbone of many families. Today's guest knows, maybe more than most, how to stand up for and fight for her kids. Joslynn Jarrett-Skelton's...

Imagine finding your your husband's body at 31 and realizing you're now a widow and a single parent. Then, imagine finding out DAYS later that you're also pregnant with his second baby.  Dr. Liz Fiedler Mergen has spent the last five years navigating grief, loss, explaining death to one child who knew her daddy and one who never met him, then working toward her own healing and ultim...

After twenty years of nonstop climbing in the corporate world, Jon Hord hit a wall: his first panic attack. That moment made him realize he wasn’t showing up as the dad or husband he wanted to be. So he stepped off the predictable path he was on and built The Engaged Father Project to help other driven dads slow down, reset, and start leading at home with real intention. Jon’s eight week course us...

Her whole life, Katie Britton strived to be perfect. The pursuit resulted in her physical beauty, and a thrilling modeling career that opened many doors, but it also led to stress and an eating disorder. Years later, the word perfect would be used again to describe her first marriage: the allure of flying wherever she wanted, driving whatever car she wanted, buying whatever she wanted. But her lif...

I know so many moms who feel unfulfilled creatively, yet for one reason or another they have the very important task of being the default parent at this stage in life. Many want to create, some just want to earn an income from home. Well, the world of Voice Over Acting may be the solution to both.  Today, on a brand new episode of the denmother podcast, Amber Faith joins us to give us the inside s...

If you're like me, you wanted a big family when you were younger but either the realities of giving birth or raising kids or birth trauma or some other factor played a role in your decision to keep things small. Today's all new guest on the denmother podcast, however, did not keep things small. Not only does Jennifer Turnquist-Linn have a big family (she's raising eight kids), but s...

Whether you're on your first kid or your third, you can probably agree that there is so much to prepare for with a new baby that often we don't prepare enough to actually feed said baby! Maybe that is one reason why nearly 50% of moms give up on exclusive breastfeeding by three months.  But have no fear, Holly Hill is here! Holly Hill is a registered nurse of 20 years and a certified IBC...

As moms, we are always pivoting, and some more than most.  Today's guest, Surae Chinn, not only has had to adjust to the unexpected when she got divorced, but then becoming a single mom when her ex left. Then, adjusting to an ADHD diagnosis, and again to the news that her ex was arrested for domestic violence. With one unexpected turn after another, Surae has had to put in the work and be int...

How cool would it have been to see yourself in a book when you were a kid? For Sarah Tubert, not only did she not see anyone like her in print or on screen, but she didn't see anyone like her in real life either.  At the age of three, a surgeon's error left Sarah with facial paralysis and hearing loss, but Sarah's indomitable spirit led her to overcome these obstacles. Today, not on...

Doesn't it feel like we're always waiting for something? For a new job, for a friend to call, for inspiration, for purpose... But what if we didn't have to wait? And what if we could model for our kids what it means to create real momentum and really go for it in life and in work? Today's guest, Screenwriter and Author Meredith Lavender, knows first-hand what it means to create...

How can we teach our kids to be true to themselves when we are all constantly putting our best selves forward on social media and in the real world?  Actress Charlotte Hemmings joins us on the denmother podcast today to talk about what it means to not only be authentic in our own lives, but also how to model authenticity for our kids.  *Note: we had some audio issues on this record, but the episod...

Have you ever considered entering a beauty pageant? Or, like me, is pageant life simply the furthest thing from your current experience? Today's guest, Chelsi Rasmussen, knows exactly what it's like to feel like an outsider in the pageant space... until she won her first ever pageant and was crowned Mrs. Utah America 2024! Not only that, but Chelsi shares other surprising outcomes from h...

The topics of consent and body safety can feel daunting... but not the way Rosalia Rivera teaches it! Rosalia teaches parents how to talk to their kids about body safety in a way that feels easy, conversational and accessible. She also shares tips on how to talk to other adults and caregivers about body safety in non-scary, non-confrontational ways. Best of all? Rosalia says up to 90% of child sex...

What does it take to run from the man you love in order to keep your kids safe from life in a cult? Or to show up as an NFL wife when you feel that you don't look the part or fit in? The answer is hope.  Today's guest, Eileen Noyes, knows exactly the type of hope it takes to putt yourself out of a difficult situation. Eileen is an Ex-NFL wife who escaped with her children from life in a...

Thanks to the internet and smart devices, our kids have access to information like never before. At the same time, media has become more and more bias and divisive than ever before.  On today's brand new episode of the denmother podcast, we are talking to an authority on media to learn more about how and why media is changing and how to talk to our kids about what they're seeing.  Soleda...