The Mom Hour

What’s great about our eight? Getting each of them ALONE once in a while. With big, busy families, we recognizing that connecting with each kid individually is important, but we also firmly believe it doesn’t have to be a fancy structured thing. In this installment in our (very loose) “What’s Great About Our Eight” series, Meagan and Sarah go kid-by-kid and talk about what solo time looks like in...

Ashley Schafluetzel is a kindergarten teacher and mom of two who lives outside St. Louis, Missouri. Her daughter, Ella, loves big hair bows and Frozen 2, is a great big sister, and is thriving in first grade. However, Ella’s start in life was anything but typical, and through a high-risk pregnancy, premature birth, and extended NICU stay with multiple complications, Ashley and her husband faced ch...

Flu season 2020 ripped through both our houses recently, and we hear from many of you that this year really is as bad as they say. In this week’s episode Meagan and Sarah talk about the implications of being sick when you’re a mom, the challenges of sick days with little kids vs. older kids, and how we personally handle things like high fevers, consulting professionals, administering home remedies...

Sarah just hit the big 4-0 and we’re here to talk about it. Join us for a fun More Than Mom episode where we dive into how we feel about big birthdays in general, which milestone years from our past have made for big transitions or lasting memories, and what being in our forties means for fun stuff like comfy pants and skincare as well as more grown-uppy stuff like health screenings and eating wel...

The siblings in Sarah’s house are leaning in hard on the bickering right now, so for the latest in our “10 Things We Love About…” series we’re celebrating all the GOOD parts about raising siblings. We know it’s not all sunshine and roses, but when we choose to focus on the positives, even a really challenging season of parenting can be put back into perspective. Join us for 10 Things We Love About...

When your kids are tiny, it might feel like you have lots of time before their access to the internet requires you to have “the tech talk” – a conversation about online safety, citizenship, and digital well being. And if having that talk feels overwhelming to you, you’re not alone! Only 4 in 10 parents feel confident enough to talk to their family about online safety. But as moms of many kids in d...

When something makes a huge splash and everyone is talking about it, we sometimes find reason to opt out, stay neutral, or even counter with the unpopular opinion. But not always! Sometimes we’re just excited about the latest hit thing as the rest of y’all. Promise. In today’s full-of-laughs More Than Mom episode, Meagan and Sarah share our nominees for pop culture sensations we can get behind, th...

Making room in your life for romance can be really tricky for moms. We’re often busy and focused on other things, and if we’re single, maybe we’re burned out on the dating game. In today’s Voices episode, Meagan talks from her personal experienced as a divorced mom with love coach Casandra Henriquez about how to create a love vision, put yourself in the driver’s seat when it comes to choosing a pa...

Life just feels easier when we have the right gizmos, doo-dads, odds, and ends to take care of ourselves and our homes. Could we survive using the same broom for another 10 years. Definitely. But would we benefit from reading a few Amazon reviews and choosing a really great new broom? Also definitely. Join Meagan and Sarah for a fun rundown of products that we’re loving lately the the arenas of ho...

From August through January, life is action-packed: we’re on the go from back-to-school through the holidays, and we enter the new year with high aspirations. And then, in the face of that long stretch between mid-January and spring break, things get back to normal –  really  normal. It can be a relief to return to familiar rhythms, but how can we do that without slipping into autopilot...

The preschool and elementary school years provide lots of opportunities to be involved at your kids’ schools…but for many moms the process of finding their place in the school community takes some time. Sarah is deep into the school years now, and Meagan is in her seventeenth consecutive year as an elementary school mom (!!), so we’ve learned from experience how to show up for kids and teachers in...

Weather chat has a reputation for being what you talk about when you have nothing else to say…but we have LOTS to say, and we still love to talk about the weather. Climate and temperature has a big impact on our lives as moms—from the clothes we wear and how we dress our kids, to the activities we can enjoy as a family and even our seasonal moods. This More Than Mom episode isn’t small talk at all...

We take the long view when it comes to feeding a family: What kind of food experiences and memories do we want our kids to have? What’s the culture around the dishes we serve and the tone around the table? And what are the core values around food and eating that we strive for in our families? In Episode 244 Meagan and Sarah share some of the “food truths” we aim for in our homes, as well as some s...

Toddlers get a bad rap – out in the world and even here on the podcast, where we’ve occasionally uttered the phrase: “One-year-olds are the worst.” But there’s so much to love about the toddler stage, too—from verbal explosion to hilarious antics. In Episode 243 Meagan and Sarah share stories from our own toddler-parenting years and offer, with the benefit of hindsight, ten things we love about to...

Overhauls and reinventions sound attractive, but they can be overwhelming and even cause us to crash and burn before we ever see results. We’re both interested in the role small habits and little improvements play in our daily rhythms, productivity, and overall happiness—we’re even reading books on the topic! Join Meagan and Sarah for a totally achievable approach to resetting our good habits and...

A full-time physician with three young kids and a couple of side hustles, Sarah Hart-Unger relies on some time-tested systems to make sure she doesn’t miss a meeting, carves out space for her own creativity, and prioritizes date nights with her partner. She’s here to share tips and ideas with Sarah Powers as they chat all things planners, planning, goal-setting, and to-do list management in this m...

Thoughts on how we handle sick days, encouragement for a mom of two-under-two struggling with accepting help when it’s offered, troubleshooting a six-year-old with a nightwaking habit, and commiserating with parents whose toddler only wants dad–Meagan and Sarah are here with advice, empathy, and our experience as we take on another round of your listener questions. Enjoy! LINKS MENTIONED: Sarah ta...

We’re not quite ready to get all crazy-intentional about 2020, but we’re also over the holidays and feeling a little reflective. Episode 241 is a casual year-end fireside (we wish!) chat with Meagan and Sarah as we close out another year as moms, family managers, business owners, and humans. Join us! LINKS MENTIONED: The  Spotify video  that sums up our growth and stats for 2019 Listen t...

A mom in the trenches wonders exactly when things will start to feel easier, playdates with school-aged boys whose house rules differ on video games, dealing with disappointment as a mom (especially around built-up big days like holidays), and a request for Sarah to share where she gets her news media and how to consume it without getting anxious. Such great questions sent in by our listeners this...

When your baby comes home one with one of those hospital-issued fine-toothed combs, the nurses don’t warn you about awkward baby mullets, the heartache of cutting off toddler curls, or the volume of screeching elicited by soap in the eyes and combing out tangles. They also don’t mention lice, greasy tween hair, bad haircuts, getting slime stuck in long locks. In Episode 239 Meagan and Sarah discus...

Little kids have big needs when it comes to staying warm, comfortable, and happy in the winter, and even as the season returns again and again, growing kids seem to KEEP NEEDING WINTER STUFF. With Meagan’s decades of experience parenting five kids through Michigan winters plus the latest and greatest tips from our listener Facebook community, we’re rounding up all the footwear, apparel, car and st...

Would it change your life to write thank you letters to the people who’ve helped you get to where you are? That’s what writer Nancy Davis Kho set out to do when she approached a milestone birthday while navigating a challenging series of family transitions and personal loss. In this month’s Voices interview Meagan chats with Nancy about the science behind gratitude and the connection to happiness,...

Meagan’s last three Christmases have played out like a sad country song (divorce! family emergency! breakup!), and this year she’s going ALL IN on festiveness in an effort to reset the tone for the season and find new ways to enjoy and embrace the holidays as a mom of older kids. There will be Nutcrackers, Messiahs, baking, multiple advent calendars, and even (teen-willing) some ambitious exterior...

We may  seem  set in our ways, but sometimes a change in persuasion comes later in motherhood–and life. This More Than Mom episode is all about the things we’ve changed our minds about, from the inconsequential (pickles?) to the highly controversial (decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving!). Join us as we confessing our changes of heart today!  LINKS MENTIONED: Armchair Expert...

Once the gifts have been purchased, what do we actually DO with them? Hide and hope? Box up and ship? Wrap and display? Stack in cardboard boxes until the eleventh hour? Turns out, it’s a little of all of the above in our houses. In the final installment in our Holiday Shopping series, Meagan and Sarah discuss the tricky time between when gifts are procured and when they are opened. Join us! This...