Pausing is a Mother! All too often, we get in the habit of pushing onward without pausing to reflect on how far we’ve come, acknowledging the bumps we’ve navigated to achieve our goals, and celebrating all the wonderful things that happened along the way. On episode 24 of ___ Is a Mother, we take our own advice to pause and reflect on our wins and lessons from 2024 so we can look ahead to what’s on the horizon for us, personally, professionally, and for the podcast in 2025. In the fin...

Overcoming limiting beliefs is a Mother! Society puts forward unsustainable and often unattainable ideas of who we should be and what we should accomplish, setting us up for failure and on a path to burnout. These unrealistic expectations can lead to a host of limiting beliefs, keeping us from reaching our full potential and living our best and healthiest lives. In episode 23 of ___ Is a Mother, we are joined by Audrey Rose, a self-worth empowerment mentor, to discuss what limiting beli...

Breast Cancer is a Mother! In honor of breast cancer awareness month, I (Jamie) had the pleasure of sitting down with my mother, a 3x breast cancer survivor herself, as we get vulnerable on how breast cancer has impacted our lives. In episode 22 of ___ Is a Mother, we discuss how our breast cancer journey affected us as we were going through it, as well as having to watch the other one fight through it. Some of the talking points we go over in this episode include: Our individual breast...

Modern parenting is a mother! As parents, there is so much we have to navigate and many difficult conversations that we need to have, and let’s be real– it’s not easy! We often talk on the podcast about the importance of leaning on your community during this challenging parenting era, so when we connected with the ladies from Calm Mama Retreats for a collaboration, we knew it was meant to be. Imagine- a sanctuary for moms who need a break to focus on themselves for once and rediscover who the...

Back to school is a Mother! The start of a new school year can be a whirlwind of emotions for both parents and kids, especially when starting at a new school. We can spend all the time in the world planning and preparing, but the reality is that sometimes things don’t pan out the way we expected. On episode 20 of ___ Is a Mother, we’re sharing how our boys are adjusting to their new schools, the tears and triumphs we’ve gone through thus far, and how we, as parents, are balancing our ...

Self-love is a Mother! As mothers, we often lose sight of ourselves, especially once the school year starts and our world revolves around our children’s schedules. But as the saying goes, it’s important to remember to put on your own oxygen mask before helping others. That is exactly what we are doing by collaborating with Calm Mama Wellness Retreats for an upcoming retreat! Come get your Self Love on with us, mamas! On episode 19 of ___ Is a Mother, we discuss how our summers have been so ...

Kindergarten readiness is a Mother! As parents, we want to do everything in our control to get our kids ready to enter Kindergarten, but what does it mean to be “Kindergarten ready”? Our guest Leigh Fitzgerald is a veteran Kindergarten teacher from San Diego, CA, and she joins us on the podcast to explain that Kindergarten readiness is less about knowing ABCs and 123s, and more about helping your kids be excited to be there and empowering agency. In episode 18 of ___ Is a Mother, we ...

AI is a mother! Although it feels like AI is this new thing that popped up on the scene in recent years, it has been integrated into our daily lives through the products and services we have used for many years. Much of the information and resources for chatbot-based AI platforms focus on how business owners and creators can leverage this technology to streamline their tasks and uplevel their strategies. However, there hasn’t been anything specifically for moms desperately needing a r...

Toxic positivity is a Mother! It’s a topic that most of us can probably relate to as Western society has ingrained in us that we should be “likable” and aim to be positive all the time. An important disclaimer: we are by no means anti-positivity. We recognize the importance of creating space for all emotions. Sometimes life is hard, and to overcome challenges we need to acknowledge them, and take appropriate action to work through them, authentically. In episode 16 of ___ Is a Mother, w...

Estate planning is a mother! It can feel morbid to think about but when our time comes, the best thing we can leave behind for our loved ones is a roadmap for who will take care of our kids, how we want our assets dispersed, and who we have designated to make decisions on our behalf. On episode 15 of ___ Is a Mother, we are joined by Jillian Cardona, the founding attorney of Peace of Mind Planning, to discuss what estate planning is, the right time to start estate planning, when to review a...

Tracking milestones can be a Mother. And as time starts to feel like it’s going by quicker and quicker, we can forget many of the things we have gone through to get to where we are. Reflecting on our milestones, as women and as parents, is a way to reminisce on the good and celebrate how we overcame challenges, big, small, and everything in between. In episode 14 of ___ Is a Mother, we discuss parent and child milestones, reflecting on how far we and our little ones have come. And don...

Self-care is a mother! Consumerism has hijacked the concept of self-care and turned it into a multi-billion(!) dollar industry, marketing ‘quick fixes’ that are in actuality fleeting external care. External self-care can feel good in the moment but needs to be paired with the hard work of internal self-care (e.g., therapy) to truly elevate your well-being. In episode 13 of___ Is a Mother, we discuss the difference between fake (external) self-care and real (internal) self-care. We take some...

Family culture is a mother! And when we say culture we are not talking about race, gender, or ethnicity but rather an agreed-upon set of expectations of the social communities we exist in with our family units at the foundation. As we grow families of our own, it becomes a balancing act of integrating each parent’s respective cultural norms to create your core family’s unique culture. In episode 12 of ___ Is a Mother, Jamie uses the foundations of the Intercultural Conflict Style (ICS...

Managing adult friendships is a Mother! The older we get, our packed schedules, geographical moves, and changing priorities can make it challenging to make and maintain friendships. In our current phase of life, we are mindful that some friendships come and go, while others continue to thrive year after year. And still, there can be room to develop new friendships, but it ain’t easy to do. . . This episode is sponsored by Northwestern Mutual. They believe in doing the right thing, and to the...

Financial Planning is a Mother. If you’re like us, you were taught only the basics of financial management. But there are so many tools and resources available to us that can truly set us up to achieve financial health and protect our future. In episode 10 of ___ Is a Mother, we are joined by Karen Holloway to discuss the financial elements every family should have in place and lay out the options that are available to you so you can start making strategic financial decisions that align...

Labeling kids is a mother! For both children and adults, there can be a stigma around behavioral disorders, mental health issues, learning disabilities, etc., and individuals go undiagnosed and untreated for too long. On the flip side, sometimes children are incorrectly categorized or labeled in an innocent attempt to help, which leads to other concerns. In episode 09 of ___ Is a Mother, we are joined by psychologist Dr. Nekeshia Hammond to discuss the importance of intervening early ...

Since the pandemic, we, like many people, have found ourselves saying that each year is the worst to date. And DANG! We can confidently say that 2023 was the mother of all mothers. This past year has by far been the most challenging year for both of our families in many ways. In episode 08 of ___ Is a Mother, we take time to reflect on the past year: the good, the bad, and the ugly, while finding the silver linings during even the toughest periods. Here are some teasers: The most ridicu...

Traveling with a toddler is a mother, especially when you’re traveling to stay in someone else's home who may have different cultural norms and parenting styles as you and you’re struggling to find the balance. In episode 7 of ___ Is a Mother, we recap the trip that led to tension in our friendship based on our parenting and cultural differences and how the conversations we had to address that tension ultimately led to the creation of this podcast. Some of the talking points we go over ...

Body image is a mother! No matter what your shape or size or features, society presents unrealistic and unattainable goals for how we “should” look. These unhealthy images are compounded by external opinions, comments, and comparisons in life, at work, and on social media. In reality, feeling our best, healthiest selves has less to do with how our bodies look and more with the people we surround ourselves with and the life experiences we have. In episode 06 of ___ Is a Mother, we discus...

Growing up, we have ideas of what we want our future family structure to look like, and more often than not, these ideas change because of factors that are out of our control. We have certainly both found this to be true when considering expanding our family unit and all of the little decisions that come into play. This week, episode 5 of ___ Is a Mother Podcast is why baby #2 is a mother! In this episode of ___ Is a Mother Podcast, we’re sharing how we imagined our family structure to look...