The Journey with Dr. Amber Thornton

On today's episode of Dr. Amber's Know and Grow Podcast, Dr. Amber shares how she prepared for the coming of 2024 as a mom who is also navigating one of the busiest times of her life. This may feel familiar to you too. Listen to find out! If you loved today's episode, leave a 5-star rating and review, sharing exactly what you loved about the episode! Want to connect? Email Dr. Amber at podcast@dra...

On today's episode of Dr. Amber's Know and Grow Podcast, Dr. Amber shares insights on what pushed her to embrace some importance changes that needed in her life, and how resisting the changes negatively impacted everything. She also shares what exactly happened with The Balanced Working Mama Podcast + Community... If you loved today's episode, leave a 5-star rating and review, sharing...

“This is not the 40s.” I mean, need Tamika say more? 🙌🏾 Moms become the default parents because they have been conditioned to believe that the bare minimum is the best they can expect from their partners. This same narrative has been ingrained in women and mothers for generations, making it difficult to shift the conversation surrounding default parenting. Tamika Coleman shares with us her exper...

“More of us are like me.” This line from Tamika Coleman absolutely hit home. Growing up, most of us probably looked up to marriages that lasted years without fully understanding what was happening behind closed doors. And even if some of us didn’t have marriages to model theirs after, women in our homes were often taught to just tough it out and wait for things to get better. But truth is, some th...

It’s not enough that you simply let others know how you feel. You have to do way more than that. Over the years, I have come to realize that many moms are not having their needs met because they do not assert their needs effectively. I get it—women, in the first place, weren’t exactly thought to be assertive, and the long line of women in our families certainly endured a lot of the hard parts. But...

What’s the hardest part of breaking the cycle for you? I learned that for most moms, it’s the lack of support from their partner—the very person who is supposed to take care of them. In one of our previous episodes, Tamika Coleman’s story of breaking out of the “married single mom” narrative was a huge eye-opener for a lot of moms who have been living up to unrealistic and biased expectations from...

For most of us, if not all, motherhood has re-shifted the entire course of our lives. One way these changes have manifested is in how many moms have lost their unique identities outside of motherhood. I want you to know right here, right now, that what you are experiencing is valid, but this is not the end of the road for you.  You are a whole person, and your sense of purpose isn't limited t...

This conversation is a wake-up call. Society has made so many women believe that maternal instincts are simply supposed to kick in magically and that we don't need any more help because we are supposed to know everything about motherhood since day 1.  For Tamika Coleman, these unfair expectations were what forced her to take on the default parent role. In this episode, Tamika speaks about her...

Tell me honestly, when was the last time you took a nice, long bath--without rushing to see what your kids are up to?  But then, why do I ask that? Isn't that what moms just do? This and many more myths are what we are going to be debunking in this mini episode, along with their alternatives so we can gradually ease into undoing society's expectations and learning to put our wellness first. I...

You're exhausted. You're right - in a nutshell, that sums up every negative consequence of Default Parenting. But in this episode, I want to dig deep into each one of these consequences so we can be more intentional about the work that needs to be done to undo this cycle. And since we are talking about Default Parenting as a SYNDROME, we will also be talking about the things at the other end of th...

The thing about boundaries is that they are often overlooked in motherhood. This is exactly how the “super mom” narrative was normalized. Because of this, many moms, to this day, continue to struggle to separate their identities from this narrative that they SHOULD do it all. As a consequence, this disconnect from their needs and desires has taken away many opportunities for them to ESTABLISH thei...

So…there’s a name for the parent who does every single thing in the house? The go-to person? The one who’s responsible for most of their kid’s needs? Yes—and even without having to put a name to it, you just know you’re IT.  Let’s talk about the Default Parent Syndrome.  Want to send Dr. Amber a question or comment to feature on the podcast? Send her an audio message here . Want to UNDO...

Balance is controversial. Off the top of your head, you might ask, “How is it possible to meet every single demand in motherhood and still take care of myself?” The common denominator among the moms I’ve worked with is that they used to believe that balance is simply NOT possible because you barely have time for anything or anyone else but your kids. But the truth about balance is that it’s not a...

So, BALANCE in motherhood…might sound ambitious (and crazy), doesn’t it? But let me tell you what - there is literally no way that I’m going to stop talking about making balance happen for millennial moms because balance is truly possible. I know there is a HUGE part of society that’s going to tell us otherwise. That balance, as a mom, is far from reality but that idea is OUTDATED.  And I can...

It’s been quite some time since our last episode, and the past months have been tough as I went through some tremendous shifts with Balanced Working Mama. But here we are! Showing up for every mama who needs this platform & community has always been fueled by the WHY of this movement - to help millennial moms FIND balance and CREATE the life they want for themselves by undoing an unrealistic v...

The doors to our Balanced Working Mama Community are officially OPEN!! Join us TODAY to get the full experience of this challenge with us.  See you inside the community! www.balancedworkingmama.com/community to join!

This felt too good to not share with you, SO this week on the podcast, I am sharing parts of the 5 Day Challenge we are working on in The Balanced Working Mama Community!! The Connecting w/ Your Deepest Desires Challenge is designed to help you bring in MORE of what you deeply desire for your life, outside of motherhood or your responsibility to other people. Our mamas are excited about this chall...

This felt too good to not share with you, SO this week on the podcast, I am sharing parts of the 5 Day Challenge we are working on in The Balanced Working Mama Community!! The Connecting w/ Your Deepest Desires Challenge is designed to help you bring in MORE of what you deeply desire for your life, outside of motherhood or your responsibility to other people. Our mamas are excited about this chall...

This felt too good to not share with you, SO this week on the podcast, I am sharing parts of the 5 Day Challenge we are working on in The Balanced Working Mama Community!!   The Connecting w/ Your Deepest Desires Challenge is designed to help you bring in MORE of what you deeply desire for your life, outside of motherhood or your responsibility to other people.   Our mamas are excited ab...

Sometimes, we need to make hard decisions to get to where we need to be, and today, I’m making one. It’s been 2 wonderful years on this podcast and it’s finally time for me to take a break. It’s a tough decision to make but I know I’ve needed this for a while now. I’m proud of myself for getting this far and I’m truly looking forward to what this pause will bring 🖤 Want to send Dr. Amber a questi...

Moms need sex. But everybody acts like it is not as important as it should be. In this episode with Samia B., owner of Sexual Essentials, we’re breaking the stigma and dispelling some myths about sex & self-pleasure in motherhood. These topics aren’t openly talked about enough but a lot of mamas in the community have shared about their desire for larger conversations about reconnecting with th...

“I lived and breathed everything around my children. ” -Ruby Brown-Herring That line struck the MOST. But guess what? It’s not too late to focus on YOU. This episode with Ruby Brown-Herring is incredibly moving. She talks about finding balance at a later time in motherhood, the criticism and shame around changing our narrative, and finally arriving at a place where she no longer feels guilty about...

What does self-love look like while battling PCOS?  In this episode with our lovely Raye the Doula, we’ll be talking about Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome or PCOS. But we’re not simply here to DEFINE it because Google has it abundantly ready for us—we’re here to UNDERSTAND what it truly means to love ourselves with PCOS, deeply and intentionally.  Having been diagnosed with PCOS when I was a...

If there’s one thing I learned from plants, it’s this: Growth happens when you let things go.  And it’s been quite a struggle for me, as a mom, to let some things go. But every time I did, a space was created for a part of me to grow.  In this episode, we’re talking about Plant Therapy with The Queen Thumb and how it can help our mamas navigate motherhood with a little help from nature....

My body has done amazing things for me. But some days, it is hard to look at it that way.  Our bodies go through drastic changes in motherhood, and it is so easy to overlook how much our bodies have done for us when we do not meet certain goals. In this episode, I’m not going to give tips for weight loss. I’m not even going to tell you that you need to shed those pounds. Because our bodies ar...