The Family Lab: Experiments in Parenting and Home Management

Bryce Reddy is a family therapist specializing in maternal mental health, and one of the most quotable people I've ever interviewed. In this eisode, she shares her insights about mom guilt, judgement, and how we can support each other.

Devan James and Alexis Mayberry have known each other since middle school. They've supported each other through relationships, babies, and more babies. Last year, they decided to spread the love and support to other moms by recording season one of their podcast, Word2yamuva. We had a great conversation, from mommy wars to mom guilt to discipline to career choices.

A conversation with Renee Reina, host of The Mom Room Podcast, about mom guilt, comparisons, toxic mom culture, and the division of labor at home.   

A quarterly update on the experiments host Whitney Archibald is trying at home. This one includes setting boundaries (or not) about how many activities to pack into one season, travel, bedtime and morning routines, and of course, screentime.

Ten tips from sixteen different moms (and one dad) about how to support each other, make healthy comparisons, and just be good neighbors. Cue Mr. Rogers.

Are Mommy Wars real? And if so, how do we end them? Today, we discuss the history of the Mommy Wars, what they're all about, and how we can end them, already. 

Today we get to take a deep dive into organizing our homes with Jen Martin, founder of the fabulous company Reset Your Nest. We'll talk about Jen's overall approach to organizing, from the perspective of both organizing for clients and in her own home. Then we'll go deeper into three specific areas: the kitchens, the toy room, and the garage.

Dana K. White is a decluttering expert for the rest of us. The ones who struggle. We discuss her decluttering process, her Cinderella story from slob to home management guru, clutter thresholds, and teaching our kids to declutter (or at least attempting to).

The first of three episodes focusing first on the strategic level of managing stuff, then decluttering, then organizing. In this episode, we delve into our objectives for decluttering and organizing our homes, our relationships with our stuff, how our personalities affect the way we manage our stuff, and how we decide what to keep and what to chuck.

Monica Packer, host of the About Progress podcast, philosophizes about the origins and impact of mom guilt in her own life and in general.

Ten tips to help you deal with mom guilt and shame--from ten different moms.

What is mom guilt and why do we feel it?

This episode gives you permission to celebrate birthdays in whatever way fits your personality and family. But--it also includes a piñata full of great ideas about how different moms do birthday parties, gifts, food, and relationship-building traditions. 

Dr. Anna Lisa Jones talks about recovering from pregnancy both physically and mentally, which are really all wrapped up together. She tells her story about how she learned to prioritize her own health after having four children, and also about how she helps her patients recover—including me!

My home is my laboratory. I talk about our current experiments including our current bedtime and morning routines; physical fitness; teen driving; chores; and my recent, life-changing surgery. I also do a little Christmas post-mortem to talk about what worked and what didn't this holiday season. After I tackle tech, I'll also share some experiments for How She Moms itself.

My dear friend Kelley Durrant tells about the unexpected paths she has traveled as a mother. Paths that have included a lot of challenges: infertility, the loss of a daughter; a son with special needs; but also lots of learning, giving, and adventure, including a surprise, record-breaking physical talent; a year living abroad; and a cow named Tina.

In this second half of the workshop about sharing family work, we're going to dive into the work that goes into running a family. We've already talked about what goes into caring for ourselves and individual people within the family, which constitutes a large part of family work. But there's also those communal responsibilities of feeding a family, taking care of the home itself, and all the thing...

A strategic level workshop about how to: Make invisible work visible Show kids what they need to learn how to do to take care of themselves when they're an adult Empower kids to take on more responsibility Figure out a deliberate plan for sharing family work Identify the individual strengths and talents of family members Evaluate your priorities  Set family and individual goals

Ten ways to help your kids connect with their ancestors.

Fifteen different ways to write about your family, from short and simple to prolific.  LInks to journals, books, and courses mentioned: Back and Forth Journal Flecks of Gold Journal Thriving in Motherhood Journal Family Yearbook Course by Miss Freddy (code: howshemoms) The Thank You Project

In last week's episode: How She Manages Family Photos, we talked about why it's important to take family pictures and videos, and how to organize them and back them up. This week, we're going to talk about what comes next—how we get use those photos and videos to tell our families' stories. Links: Video clips missfreddy.com (code: howshemoms for 20% off) Jen Stein and The Family Photographer Podca...

The purpose of this episode is not to make you feel guilty or overwhelmed about  all the things you should be doing with your family photos. The goal today is to help you create a system for managing your photos that works for you, in your current stage of life. We'll give you some tools and show you how five different moms manage their photos, but also give you permission to do the bare minimum n...

Janet Thompson, a mother of six and one of my motherhood mentors shares eight tips to create an inviting family culture.

Stay-at-home mom? Homemaker? Simply "mom"? In this episode we try to answer the elusive question: What is the best job title for a woman who makes a career out of taking care of children and managing a home. 

Maria Eckersley is the queen of what she calls easy, lazy fun, from a quirky family book club to flying pancakes. In this episode, we talk about some of her fun ideas and about how to create a positive family culture, how to pursue your own passions while cultivating your kids' passions, and how to overcome trials.