The podcast explores the hidden cultural dominance of lemon over lime in everyday products and media, culminating in 7UP’s new lime-lemon soda as a symbolic shift. Through personal storytelling, it delves into the deep-rooted guilt many mothers experience, often stemming from societal expectations rather than actual parenting failures. Examples include false beliefs about breast milk, screen time, or baby milestones, which are amplified by anxiety and a fear of inadequacy. The narrative reveals how these feelings can spiral into irrational thoughts, highlighting the need for self-compassion and external support. A heartfelt segment on grandmotherly resilience underscores the value of aging with joy and purpose. Additionally, the episode reflects on family connections, missed moments, and the emotional toll of balancing multiple roles. Ultimately, it promotes mindfulness—encouraging parents to recognize guilt as a signal for reflection, not failure—and to embrace the complexity of parenting with humility, joy, and connection. The tone blends humor, vulnerability, and hope, reinforcing that growth, self-awareness, and shared experience are vital in modern motherhood.
- For decades, a shadowy organization
called The Lemonati has kept lemon on top
and lime in the shadows.
Look around, lemon-forward sodas, even lemon-forward songs.
We ran the tracks, slowed them down, reversed them,
and squeezed out the truth.
♪ All hail the lemon ♪
- That's lemon propaganda right there.
But now, 7UP is fighting back
with their new lime-lemon soda.
Join the 7 uprising.
Flip the sip.
- Ugh, I hate Mondays.
- King's Hawaiian Cinnamon Swirl Bite?
- Taylor Hansen?
Sure, I'll try one.
Mmm.
♪ Bites, ba-choo-ba-da-ba ♪
- Hey, let's get back to work, please.
- But Taylor Hansen's making my day way better
with these new soft and swirly
King's Hawaiian Cinnamon Bites.
- Taylor Hansen?
Nice.
- Try one.
- Mmm.
♪ Bites, ba-choo-ba-da-ba-doo ♪
- King's Hawaiian Cinnamon Bites.
♪ Don't you love 'em ♪
- There's nothing like it.
♪ Sweet swelling ♪
♪ He's so good ♪
- There was so much guilt with having my second kid.
I just rushed this so much to the point where, like,
Griffin got, like, no time along with me.
People really think breast milk could cure cancer.
- I know.
- World peace.
- I tried putting it on some of my skin rashes,
and I still had a rash.
- No, it's because it was in water.
I think that was, like, our parents' generation.
They're like, "You sit 'em down one time."
- Yep.
- "You get it done."
- "You never bring it up again."
- Rip the band-aid.
- And then the kids are like, "One time, my mom said penis."
And it was really scary.
- It was really scary.
- Welcome back to
- Always Here.
- I'm your host, Abbey Howard.
- And I'm also Abbey Howard.
- And you're listening to our podcast.
- We are here every Friday,
or whenever you choose to listen to it,
fit us in your schedule,
to share the hope in the heart with heart and humor.
- That's right.
- I feel like we haven't said that
for the past couple weeks.
- I know, I don't even think we've done
hope in the hearts in a while.
- I know.
- Like we kind of have.
- Really?
- Yeah, but.
- I got 'em this week.
- I did too.
- Okay, you go first.
- Okay, well, Easter was so fun.
- Yes.
- And super hopeful.
I do think there was a little bit of a heart
in just missing my family.
'Cause all my family's in Missouri and we live in Arizona.
So I feel like every holiday that comes around,
I just feel a little FOMO.
And it's always like a little sad.
But it's always so fun here, with our family here.
- Yeah, wait, aren't your parents back in town?
- They're, my mom's back in town.
But like my sisters, my grandma, all my,
I was thinking about this.
I haven't seen my extended family in a really long time.
Because we didn't go back for Christmas this year.
Like we went early with Vivian, since she was so fresh.
We just kind of skipped all the big parties.
So yeah, I just haven't like seen any of my cousins
or my aunts and uncles in a really long time.
- That's sad.
- I know, yeah, when you think about it,
you're like, dang, your time is just limited.
- I guess, like I would say my family's smaller,
like pretty small in the grand scheme of things.
They're able to come out here and like,
it's, but you know, there's pros and cons to that.
It's kind of fun probably to have like a huge family
gathering and stuff like that.
- Yeah, it is.
- Yeah, Easter was fun.
We had a good time.
My grandma came to visit.
That was actually my hope.
It was really fun having my grandma.
She stayed with us, but she hasn't stayed with us
the past couple times that she came.
Or actually just the last time she came,
she stayed with my parents.
And it was fun having her stay here.
And my grandma is 82.
She was, she's like widowed.
Does that sound like a bad way of saying it?
- No. - My grandpa passed away.
- No, she's a widow.
- She's been a widow for two years now.
And like, she was married for over 50 years.
And you know, I always think, I'm like,
what would be the worst possible thing
that could happen in my life?
And I'm like, Matt dying would be like,
sorry to make it heavy.
I'm like, that would be the worst possible thing.
But then honestly, like looking at my grandma now,
which my grandma and my grandpa for their entire lives
were like attached at the hip,
like did everything together.
But like watching my grandma now
has honestly been so inspiring to me.
'Cause I'm like, okay,
probably the worst thing ever has happened to her.
And like, I'm looking at her,
like have, saying I have a new lease on life
kind of sounds like she would never have chosen that.
She would still choose to have my papa here for sure.
But like seeing the way that she has like moved
through that grief and like carried it with her
and like honestly, like put herself in this position
that she is now. - Yeah.
- Where she's like traveling for the first time ever at 82.
She, my grandpa had like a severe fear of flying.
They didn't have the finances to travel
when they were younger.
Wasn't even really a thought.
And then later on in life when they had the money
and the finance or, and the like ability to,
they still like, he had a severe fear of flying.
And so now my grandma this year is like going to Greece.
She's going to Alaska.
She's like got, she's coming here.
And it's like cool and inspiring.
Like she has all of her girlfriends and I don't know.
I just see her, she's a very resilient woman.
I really respect that about her.
And also like our whole family,
she lives in the Midwest too.
Our whole family like left our hometown except for her.
And so she has every reason to like kind of sulk
and like, I don't know.
- Make me feel alone or.
- Not try new things and just like,
like just feel down on herself.
But she kept talking to me about,
she's like growing old is not,
she's like there's a lot of good things about growing old.
I thought she was being sarcastic.
She was not.
She's like, there's a lot of good things about growing old.
She's like, oh, I'm so happy to hear you say that grandma.
Like, I feel like I don't want to hear bad things
about getting old, you know?
Throwback to our Botox episode.
- She's such a spitfire.
- And she is a spitfire.
- I love it.
- That comes with its pros and cons.
But she, then I'm like, well, okay.
Like, what are you talking about?
She's like, well, I just, she goes,
I have a much lower appetite now.
She's like, that's the first thing that she thought about.
She's like, I don't need to eat as much food.
- Oh my gosh.
- To feel full.
And I was like, well, that's, can't wait for that day.
Gosh, seriously.
I'm not there, but I'm excited for that day.
And then she's like, also, she goes, great grandchildren.
And she's like, so, which I'm like,
I'm always excited to be a grandma, which is, I'm 27.
But you know, I'm excited for it.
- It is so inspiring.
- But then I'm like, great grandchildren, another bonus.
- Totally.
- So it is, she like kept saying like these casual,
like really fun things about growing old.
She's so active.
She goes to her little workout class.
She goes to my hometown,
send me pictures on Instagram of my grandma planking.
82.
- I was gonna say it's so inspiring seeing,
like she's 82 with great grandchildren
and she's on the floor playing with them,
up and at 'em, going all day.
Like, yeah, she picks them up.
- I know, I'm like, stop doing that.
- They're literally almost as tall as her.
- Literally.
- She's so small.
- She's like 4'10".
- Yeah, she's so small.
- She's gonna get mad if she watches this
'cause she is 4'11", she claims.
- Oh, sorry.
But I mean, it's so impressive and it's just a goal.
You're like, that is the goal.
- I know, I'm so, I'm so grateful.
I'm grateful that I have, like, an example,
like her to look up to.
- Yes, totally.
- And both my grandmas, but specifically,
just since I spent the whole weekend with my grandma,
I don't normally see.
- Right.
- I was just like, it was, it was really good.
Matt always tells me I'm just like her.
- Yeah, in a lot of ways you are.
- Yeah.
- I'm like, thanks.
- Yes.
- And I like, so anyways, fun.
And we also, it was my grandpa's birthday,
the same day as Easter.
So together we made a carrot cake,
which was his favorite type of cake.
And we like just talked about him as we made it
and it was really sweet.
And special, 'cause we were like thinking about something
we wanna do that would like honor him and memorialize him.
But we're like, we don't want it to be sad.
- Right.
- Like Matt was like, we could play Go Cubs Go.
Like, which was--
- Was that his favorite game?
- He was, it's a song.
- I'm sorry.
I thought it was a game.
- I feel like that's fair.
- Go Cubs Go.
- That's what they play at the end of the Cubs games
if they win.
- See, listen, I'm a Cardinals fan.
So just don't know that one.
- Cubs are gonna, I could cry right now.
You want me to cry right now?
- No, no, stop.
- This is me.
- I know I'm gonna cry right now.
- Oh, okay, let it feel it, feel it.
- My great-grandpa.
- Your great-grandpa?
- I'm going back another generation.
- I didn't know you knew your great-grandparents.
- I come from a generation of Cub,
generations of Cub fans, okay?
And it's like not, it's not even like lighthearted.
Like it's like really, really serious.
- I know.
- And I feel bad.
I feel like I'm not a member of the family
because I don't care that much.
- Addy's nodding.
She's like, yeah.
- I have secondary, I have secondary care a lot.
You know what I mean?
But I have this just image of my grandpa's,
my grandma's dad.
My dad in the nursing home.
I'm so sad thinking about this.
Like he, he was like hunched over
and he would watch reruns of the Cubs.
This man lived to like upper nineties.
Like he lived a long life.
Never saw them win a world series.
- Yeah, that's a tough one.
- And they would just play that song.
I just really wanted him to see them win a world series.
We can have a hope that he knows.
- He's watching from above.
- I don't know.
I was asking my grandma all these questions about heaven.
She's like very, like, she's like, nope, that's not there.
She's like, I said, do you think papa can see us right now?
She's like, no.
- And he don't care.
- And I was like, okay, well.
- I love that.
- I was like, that's an interesting take.
It was so quick.
- Thank you grandma.
- I was trying to be sentimental there.
- Anyway, I was like, okay.
- I love that.
- Anyway, Go Cubs go.
And then my grandma, me and my grandma were like,
no, that's gonna make us cry.
- Aww.
- And so we made a carrot cake instead
and we all enjoyed it.
- It was good.
It was delicious.
- Wow, that was a long one.
I cried during my hope, but it was really a happy hope.
- Happy hope.
- I love my grandma.
- It's sweet.
- It was fun having her visit.
And yeah, it's so special having like that generation.
That's the perk of like, my parents had kids pretty young.
So then, you still have a grandma too.
- I know, my grandma, she'll be 93 this year.
- Wow.
- I know, I FaceTimed her for a while yesterday.
It's sad, like, I feel like this is the first year
where I've really seen her start to like, you know,
she's getting excited.
She's slow.
Like, the first year I've noticed her age.
- Yeah.
- Like, I think she's been like your grandma.
She just had so much energy and just so peppy
spunky um and this year I'm like okay yeah girl you're 93 and she always makes jokes about it
yeah you know so it's like lighthearted and funny but yeah she can't come out here to visit
yeah which is a bummer but um we're I'm actually one of my hopes was that I booked a bunch of
plane tickets uh one is me and Caleb's trip like our special fun trip which I'm sure I'll share
like later in the year and then I'm booking a trip to go home in the summer which I didn't get
to do that last year I know I'm so excited to go home especially like St. Louis summer is so
nostalgic yeah and take CJ there and I don't know it'll just be great because you always go
in the winter and it's just not as much to do in the winter yeah no so it's gonna be really fun
I'm excited yeah what was your hard my hard I think it was just missing my family yeah and
we've had just like a handful of health issues going on behind the scenes I probably won't talk
about now but um yeah I just feel like when you're ever you're dealing with those things
everything's fine but you're just like oh the waiting the anticipation of it
is always
trying to stay content and those moments can be difficult sometimes but there's not answers
totally but yeah we feel good about it um my hard is like a little bit lighter but it's like
gosh I just feel like I'm not fully present anywhere I go in my life right now I feel like
I'm just constantly thinking about okay what are the things I gotta do and what should I think
about next or like what and then everywhere I'm at I'm like yeah I'm doing a lot of things but am I
actually fully available when I'm where my two feet are
anytime and so yeah I don't really know how to combat that very well actually last night
Kayla put on Casey Neistat made a YouTube video talking about this really I didn't watch the
whole thing so I can't tell you the conclusion of it but he made a whole thing about how he feels
like in his day he has four quadrants of like what he wants to do that's productive what he
doesn't want to do but it's productive what he does not want to do and it's not productive
but he does it anyway and then so why does that quadrant exist well it's like scrolling or going
on social media or something like that so I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't
you know like time wasters he was mostly talking about like procrastination but yeah he kind of I
feel like that's he talked a lot about that feeling of like you're doing a lot and you're
spinning your wheels but nothing's getting done oh no I feel like I'm getting a lot done oh you
do think I just feel like I'm not like being a good friend I'm not like being good wife not being
like I like I just feel like mom guilt like I'm not fully like actually where I am where my fear
like I'm like okay I'm like having a conversation with you but I'm like really in the back of my
head I'm thinking about okay do we have x y and z set aside like ready for a dinner night or
what's what are we going to do with about this amount of time or what's how is the car like
just all these other random things which I feel like that is always a thing but it just feels
like it's a really like present issue at the time like I am like there's always as moms were always
multitasking always having things going on but right now I'm like I feel like I can't
compartmentalize like I need to and like be where I'm at and like so well you guys have had so much
going on with you guys and you guys have had so much going on with you guys and you guys have had
so much going on I feel like anytime you go out of town or you have upcoming trips or things planned
you're always thrown out of your routine a little bit and when you're out of your routines you just
start to feel a little like just not as confident in what you're you just need to clear the deck
clear the deck start fresh too without like you're not working out like you're doing your walks but
it's not the same as like going and having your phone put away like you actually don't have access
to your phone so you and when you're working out at burn you have to be present like you really
can't be thinking about other stuff so it's like an actual set aside time rather
than your walks you have your phone you could reply to a text you could listen to this audiobook
you're doing the multitasking even when you're working out now that's a good point I think that's
what it is you're missing a little bit of your typical routine there we'll see tomorrow yeah
oh the update on the pelvic rest we pray it comes to an end yes I need to work out I need to get
some rage out that rage out that's another thing that's really exciting is our event is this weekend
which when this is posted it's already happened but we have not lived this event yet and I'm so
excited yes
we're so excited my cousin Diana is coming in for her baby moon and she's coming to the event so
shout out Diana she says she listens every week which is so sweet yeah so I'm excited it'll just
be such a fun girly morning I'm excited it'll be fun it will be fun uh we had our meeting with the
trainers and we're like let's not make it like killer hard but I did think the workout looked
pretty hard we'll we'll be next week on if it was actually yeah I'm excited it'll be a fun one it
looks like all of our favorite exercises agreed agreed well that's awesome we do have a wow that's
this week oh wait we never talked about you being late to eastern dinner oh well you know i didn't
really think that i was late that was my heart i'm just kidding i just rolled her eyes i knew
that i was late i sent a text i said the brussels sprouts are still cooking which now you saw my
instagram post you know why i dropped all of them they fell out of the oven oh also by the way you
thought my reel that addy was my mom yeah that was you yeah like nighttime no it's like 3 p.m
yeah when brielle woke up from her nap it was just a flash and going past in the balcony one
of the boys has a pink sleep sack oh my gosh that's hilarious well so why would you are we
upstairs she's taking a nap she's taking a nap oh okay i thought it was your mom carrying towels
i'm sorry i take it back she said come on abigail i said come on abigail what the heck
there were followers who knew it was me oh my gosh i'm so out of the loop you're so out of the loop
i tried to comment a joke i was late to easter um it wasn't a big deal it was just funny because
wait why was it what were we talking about it was funny because what time did you show up 5 45
well here's the funny thing is i blake and i i had like check the time arrival time so everyone
knows 5 p.m is when dinner was okay never got that text i just assumed what that's actually fair i
never got the text i just said i think it's five because that's when sunday dinner normally is yes
which sometimes you preface with five is when five is in it we're gonna eat at 5 30 so i knew
there was some wiggle room there's always wiggle room i'm never gonna get mad about people being
late i was really hoping there's wiggle room there's always wiggle room this is the funny
thing i texted my mom when we left because i knew we'd be leaving slightly late i said leaving now
at 5 11 so we left our apartment at 5 11 arrival time is 5 p.m we get there probably then at like
5 20 and my mom pulls up and she's like i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't
know i thought it started at five i'm like it does sorry but i was also your grandma was walking
in with us i was like this is normal yeah here's the thing as someone that's chronically late i'm
never gonna be upset about someone being late like i i'm it literally doesn't bother me and
because i'm like yeah i mean it's it's so every time is an ish you know what i mean
but it was just funny because that was the one day i was actually on time
so i had everything prepped really because i was like i'm gonna work in advance and
then i'll just chill sure it took until five o'clock so that's how bad my time management
is that was great time management actually and well i thought i was gonna have like an hour
i thought i was good because i got there i put my food down the table and then your food came
out but it was just warming huh well then you went to the front porch and started taking pictures
i thought i was like oh they're still cooking the food wasn't out
oh i'm sorry everybody it's okay it gave a time for the kids to open their easter basket
it's fine honestly
i had no idea that we were being an inconvenience well that's for the people who think we're like
so serious that shows you that we weren't that upset yeah i mean i literally didn't care at all
i wasn't even actually hungry so i was just like thank god it's like an hour your grandma warned
you when you guys when you broke in that brunch she said it's gonna be a lot of food and you're
like i'm pregnant i'm gonna eat it all and then you get the dinner like i can't tell me eight
you said you felt better though better once i ate i feel like in cantera poison me
from the brunch
because me and Griffin
both had tummy ache.
Aww.
That was that
chocolate fountain, man.
A chocolate fountain
will do that.
It's cycling through something.
Yeah, there's a lot
of germs in there.
I know.
I really enjoyed it.
You enjoyed the germs.
Well, the food
at Easter was amazing.
Food was amazing, everybody.
And that's all that matters.
It was great work.
It was amazing.
Okay, that leads us
into our wildest crazy.
Sorry, I got into
the bus, Abigail.
That's okay.
You can call me out.
I'm not upset.
I'll be better next time.
I was early.
You have a baby.
I was on time
to two things this week.
That's incredible.
Yeah, so I think
I'm making a turn.
You're on a roll.
That's what I'm saying.
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- Wow, that's crazy.
- Wow, that's crazy.
- That's crazy.
- Talking about
time management yes talking about time management um jake shane he's a creator a comedian he came
up on my for you page on tiktok and this video stopped me in my tracks he i guess in the past
he kind of has some beef with european wax center and he had previously gone on a rant the whole
franchise the whole franchise he had gone on a rant i guess about they have a nine minute grace
period for their 15 minutes 15 minute appointments and i guess he thought that the nine minute grace
period was really weird like why not 10 you know oh like nine minutes is a weird number
and i remember it though that is memorable that's probably why they do it yes and they can't give
you like normally if you go to the doctor it's a 15 minute grace period which i know that well
were you late today no i'm just always it's always i'm always like i have 15 minutes okay
that's great i i always follow their protocol that says please arrive 15 minutes early never
once have i gotten there 15 minutes early paperwork today i got i had an appointment
today
i got there on time i was just two minutes early and i was like crushing it crushing what am i gonna
do with all this free time yeah well i did have to do paperwork so anyway jake shane had this
podcast rant about the nine minute grace period and then him and european wax center had like
some funny beef back and forth so european wax center sent him a snark basically like a snark
coupon pr box that says jake shane vvip member exclusive 11 minute grace period because smooth
doesn't rush and then it has an
and it says uh valid for select guests who don't know how to manage their time grace period does
not extend appointment time physical card must be present at checkout they literally sent him a
snark he has to bring this massive coupon and he did it did he yeah i think he did he posted on his
instagram he wasn't offended but the internet was offended yeah i was shocked at the comments a lot
of people were mad at european wax center they said that was like mean petty this is two internet
gold minutes two extra minutes yeah it's gracious that's gracious for a 15 minute appointment you
have four minutes to get in and out first of all i do think nine minutes is fair if it's a 15 minute
appointment agreed yeah but um as like for me i'm like okay yeah i run late i still have to suffer
the consequences of course of my own lateness normally yeah i always do so if i'm too late then
here we go i can't get in that's fine i can't get in that's that's on me we talk about it everyone
has consequences right with the kids i'm like adults have consequences uh but i think the part
about it that i can kind of see where they're like oh gosh it was like for people who can't
manage their time that one cuts deep that one i'm like that's me i feel that one that is rough
so he wasn't offended the other people it didn't seem like he was offended i mean he read it in a
tone where he was joking obviously you know he's like they called me out sinister they cut to his
people like that love that type of humor though oh my gosh i mean we're talking about it you know
you know poking me in the face i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my god i'm like oh
my god i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my god
poking fun humor this may be an inappropriate follow-up question but what is jake shane getting
what do men get waxed i have no i i mean i can imagine i can imagine but i don't want to imagine
eyebrows chest that's what i'm saying if it's only a 15 minute appointment it can't be for
something that i think it's probably manscaping but you know i've just never really thought much
about that you've gotten wax i've gotten one wax before our wedding really was it so painful no it
wasn't that it was so painful i was just like i'll just never do it again you know what i mean
you have to let your hair grow out i hate which that to me feels like automatically i'm out on
yeah like in the summer you're like oh i have an appointment in two weeks so i gotta let it grow
what are you gonna do not go to the pool you know what i mean some people would just say let it fly
that is each their own no that's why i'm such a fan of laser i've never gotten waxed i got lasered
and that was
such a great experience for me yeah i remember with the waxing it wasn't the initial like they'd
rip it off obviously and you're like oh it stings but then they take the hot piece of paper and they
go over the same spot again multiple times and that was when i was like all right that's enough
like a little punch you know good on there yeah i don't know i don't like i don't want to grow it
out that with lasering you shave before you go so oh why because you they it'll burn you otherwise
they're just getting the follicle oh wow so it goes through your skin interesting and it doesn't
hurt that well they when i got my hair done i got my hair done i got my hair done i got my hair done
when i got it done because i got it done so long ago where i was they didn't have like the pain-free
lasers oh so i actually did kind of hurt but um like not terrible but now they have like painless
experience and you can get it done you probably have to get a lot of appointments yeah more
sessions which more money in their pockets so we'll say but is it worth it for again no pain
sure well it's worth it just to not have any maintenance like anything to do i know my armpit
hair grows so fast oh yeah i got my armpits lasered once and i got yeah that would be worth it
same same and then there's no darkness either or razor burn yeah anyway that's so funny i loved the
snarky pr that was the first time i've ever seen a snark i mean if he's gonna be publicly saying
stuff that they are allowed to publicly defend themselves in a playful way yeah and here's the
thing he didn't have to post that he thought it was funny so he posted it totally agreed so you
know what i love it yeah i loved it i loved all the waxers in the comments that were like it really
is inconvenient if you're nine minutes late for an appointment and i was like i could see that you
know sets their whole day off it does yeah i'm like if we're booked and busy baby you better be
on time and it's also just like a time that they could have filled that slot you know exactly so
i get it i get it yeah i thought it was i thought it was genius marketing okay um do you ever feel
guilty about being late i sure do moving on to mom guilt good thank you um no actually i feel like
guilt is like my common state that's something i feel like i'm always just like oh i just feel so
guilty about that um but you know i feel like i'm always like oh i just feel so guilty about that
it's okay we're everyone's got their things i used to be such a guilty kid to the point where
i would guilt myself into throwing up like i would feel so sick to my stomach about with guilt that i
would throw up i've been multiple times my god yeah i grew out of that but i just then i was i
think that like kept me from doing bad things i definitely had anxiety i definitely had anxiety
and my anxiety always would come through as vomiting well i thought you also pulled out
your hair i did yes as a child yeah you know there are a few things that like
a few warning signs a few warning signs i don't struggle with anxiety now but i definitely did
through like high school dang it uh-huh yeah that's funny we're passing looking back on it
um yeah i feel like mom and guilt kind of unfortunately they go hand in hand go hand
in hand yeah and um we actually pulled some of you guys on our always here podcast instagram so
thank you to those of you that follow us there if you don't already follow us there give us a
follow and you can be a part of these episodes it's really fun to like follow you guys and i
like interact in that way um a whopping 93 of you guys that are moms reported having experienced
mom guilt 93 yeah yeah i want to talk to the seven that did and honestly i'm like what does your
lifestyle look like well i'll show this a little bit later but i didn't really feel mom guilt with
when i just had cj okay actually yeah yeah with my first i didn't really feel it as much agreed
it's now subsequent children where i feel more but i'll talk about that later so maybe i mean
maybe they just don't feel good maybe i feel very confident but i don't know i don't know i don't
feel confident in their decisions which is like always the goal that was actually something i was
going to say too is that i do feel like you can be confident and feel guilty yeah unless i'm
delusional because i feel like i do have a lot of confidence as a mom but then i maybe i'm just like
also i do also feel guilty yeah maybe they can both exist i just i'm the same
yeah yeah um and let me tell you mom guilt can bring you to some wild places
and some mental spirals and i have surely found myself there many times which we will get to my
personal experience in a little bit but um we asked you guys what is the wildest thing mom guilt
has led you to believe and we got a lot of funny responses and i'm saying funny it's obviously like
it probably wasn't funny for you at the time because i know how real it feels in that moment
yes but in hindsight reflecting on you're like oh that was that was just anxiety that was not
that was just guilt and you know what sometimes you need other moms to be like hey by the way
that's not on you right that was gonna happen regardless or like this is
something that's outside of your control your kids like things happen and it's not actually
always your fault shocker totally shocker shocker who would have thought you want to read some of
natalie said that my breast milk is ruining my baby's organs turns out she just has a dairy
allergy that's a real one like when you're breastfeeding and nursing and you don't know
why your kid is upset or uncomfortable or in pain it does feel like it's your fault yeah when you're
they're only eating what you're giving them i mean i get i get when you give it to them right
right like how you're giving it to them exactly there's a lot of a lot of stress around that
this one just says bell's grace says that i was demon possessed that's what her mom guilt made
her believe i need more to that story rebuke that we rebuke that sydney said my little boy
has a speech delay because i let him have light up toys as a baby why do i feel that i'm like
oh if i give my kid toys that are overstimulating they're gonna have adhd you know i feel like
there's so many moments where i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my god
milestone mom guilt thing like my so many so much mom guilt associated with baby milestones yes
you're like oh they're not doing this because it i didn't do something and it's like probably
honestly let's play marketing on some of that i was gonna say it's marketing marketing because
they're like oh this toy helps with this or these contrast cards this it's like sure i'm sure it
helps these things but like babies are gonna develop and the way that they're gonna develop
right and like not because you use this toy versus this toy or you
didn't use toys or you like right so many of those actually you this past weekend
what was it oh yeah with vivian's like sitting up you're like she's not sitting up because i didn't
i'm not giving her enough attention yeah and i was like but you didn't say it as a joke like
she said it for real i was like i wonder if i'm just not giving her enough attention
aside to me i'm like you think i'm giving brielle more attention than you're giving to vivian
there's no way i'm like you are such a good mom there's no don't compare it to the time span
because i'm sure it's more that's sweet that's sweet it is it just it's crazy how our minds go
there you know yeah especially when you have kids close together close in age yeah it's like really
easy and it's crazy how much a month is different because for context addy's daughter brielle is a
month older to the dot than vivian and so it's so fun seeing brielle's milestones because i'm like
oh that's what i left like forward to it next month that's what's coming like it's been so fun
to watch and then sometimes then i'm like oh my gosh maybe she's like she's not sitting up because
i'm not practicing her sitting up as much
you know or and i just had immediately before brielle one time and i was like
and so babies are gonna do their own thing and i have to remind myself that so thank you ladies
for reminding me that cecilia says that letting my nine month old play independently is ignoring
him and bad for him all the time i i remember feeling that with cj because he loves independent
play and so i was like i think i'm just a bad mom ignoring him like he just was so content he's just
having fun okay leave him alone anna said if i left a drop of water in a bottle from washing it
could kill me
my baby that's real a lot of what do you remember one time we were sitting in this room
before it was this room and blake was warming up brielle's bottle and he accidentally like dropped
like he had the lid off measuring the temperature of it and he dropped it in and he came in he's
like it might have gotten a little water i'm like look it up you looked it up you're like it's okay
yeah i think he's fine it got water it is they're like don't give water to your babies yeah so they
get a drop you're like that one think about how much water is in your breast milk yeah it's like
80 i know but no one talks about that no one talks about that they just say don't give them water
okay wow drown them no i don't know how it works um this person says i thought i was gonna get cps
called on me because i couldn't breastfeed my firstborn not cps that is you're going far down
the spiral ma'am because you couldn't breastfeed my firstborn oh that mom guilt will get you the
breastfeeding will bring you to it'll bring it to your knees
because i work from home and can't spend every minute with my toddler she isn't as smart or loved
so much guilt associated with working as a mom it is it that's probably most of it for me i feel like
same um lindsey said if i don't enjoy every moment i'm ungrateful oh my gosh i do that i tell matt i'm
like what would you do for one hour of one year old griffin time back or like three-year-old
gonna cry right now because i'm like oh don't turn on the show
we're not playing with them we're not making fun or yeah that'll get you this one says i thought
that if i didn't breastfeed my baby straight from my breast he wouldn't know what love was
some people do be kind of saying that though they do dude i have so much i like i'm all i
agree with breastfeeding i love it but the propaganda against moms i'm like
here's let me i have to tell you something i have to ask my mom how i was fed because guess
what i loved my mom yeah i was really i was formula fed i had no clue because you know what
no there comes a point where it doesn't really i know i'm like i get it like the the benefits
are clear you know between formula and breast yeah do it if you can't but if you can't it's
like why are we making people feel so horrible about gotta stop that we've gotta stop uh it's
just propaganda people really think breast milk can cure cancer i know world peace i know like i
went on some of my skin rashes and i still had a rash no it's because mostly water
we're gonna get comfortable i'm not doing it we are gonna get comfortable no it's great i do it
we do it we do it i literally actually kill myself to do yeah we actually are dying inside
i cry like literally die to do it if i yeah i get it i get it i get it i will continue
but also we need to stop at any cost matt's like begging you he's like please he's
like please you're going insane you're not okay you're like get back this in your mouth
okay lindsey says if they watch tv i'm failing slash ruining them i probably believe that a
little bit i know it's not true alicia that letting my baby cried out will cause autism
oh wow i've never even heard that one i mean your guilt will lead you to believe anything
it's true um i thought one extra minute of
sleep would ruin my baby's entire sleep schedule
i mean i sometimes feel that way i'm like gotta get her up right
two hours no minutes more schedule 60 seconds man i know battle good shot
ali says i lost my patience one time today and now i've caused lifelong emotional damage
that one's so real because i'm like i feel like the things that could potentially cause lifelong
emotional damage are just things that you're not even thinking about yeah like i'm like i feel like
i think i heard this in a sermon and this pastor was like we're all gonna eventually have a
conversation with our kids where they're gonna sit us down and be like these are the things that
you did wrong and i know i was like oh it's so dark and obviously that's not like our goal like
we're actively trying to not cause those things but then it's like in those moments we have to
we have to learn how to like be humble and like learn how to take it anyway it was just it was
really good i was like man that's just so true i've never done that to my parents i feel like
me and my sisters have processed a lot with our childhood but we've had such blessed childhoods
yeah i can't really think of i mean it's not like anything comes to
top of my mind um this one's because my daughter is adopted i'll never fully fill the void like
her biological mom could oh okay now that one's really you should actually probably see someone
that seems really deep and probably i'm sure there's a lot of other moms that you could find
community with that maybe relate or feel the same way or can actually kind of speak into that because
that's that's a tough one to carry yes and it's not true and it's just not heavy yeah you gotta
work through that one honestly mom guilt makes me believe that i am the only one that can do anything
for him that can happen i feel like i've experienced a lot in the newborn stage when a lot of it does
fall on me and then i'm like i have to actively fight against it i'm like kilb is an amazing dad
he just does things differently than me they're not wrong they're just different and i had to
learn to like just shut up and like let it be because i'm like he's doing it right matt would
like always ask me and i like kind of we kind of got in that like pattern because he's like i want
to do it the way you want me to do it and then i was like yeah my way is the only way and then
no you're fully capable you can make these you're the parent same like and so you can kind of fall
into that pattern where it's like or if you're like hey that's not right the right way it's like
it can be a back and forth that totally like spirals agreed that's a burden for anyone besides
myself to watch my my child oh yeah i've i think i've experienced some of that too
um that i failed because my baby chose a bottle over me when i went back to work oh you didn't
fail that is not true that i wasn't a good mom and i should give my daughter up for adoption
had your postpartum depression i was fine that was something that um right before i had cj a woman
looked at me and she was like hey i just want you to know that you could potentially have
really crazy thoughts postpartum i just want you to know that they're not true and you're not crazy
if that happens and you just need to tell someone about it she's and she started telling me some of
the thoughts that she had that were like that plagued her when she was postpartum and they
were just like really wild things but her being so vulnerable and honest with me really prepared
me well and thankfully i didn't experience anything like that but if you don't have someone
that tells you that that could happen postpartum with your hormones and everything a hundred percent
those thoughts could like drive you to feeling guilty a hundred percent i mean even postpartum
psychosis can like there's some like it's not the norm but it's like good to know those things so
you can be like okay because also it's an isolating time right you don't have a lot of
people in your life at that time they're like hey by the way that's not right or you're not
just like having girl chat a lot so it's hard to it's good to know it in advance because you're like
it could easily spiral out of control on your own definitely
um that my little infant no longer loved me because i started working so many words
my literal infant it's like they have no idea time like frame of reference for time they're asleep
they're like little dogs at that point they have no idea uh freshly postpartum i cried if i didn't
take a pic of my baby every day why i don't even know actually that unlocked something for me i
so typey okay i guess apparently i never was the mom that was able to get like even during my
pregnancies like weekly bump shots and then it carried in massively into monthly photos
of my kids i know you got them of real i and i tried both times i was like this time i'm gonna
do it and i have the pillow and everything the blanket never happened and i was so mad i do
still carry guilt about that really yeah well i'll tell you something i took monthly bump shop
with vivian and guess what i have nothing to do with them i don't know where to put them
i don't think the bump shots matter as much i want the pictures of my kids but i'm like
i've been doing the pictures of briel i stopped at like two months doing it with like
anything specific like i had like a little plaque that had the month i stopped doing that because
then that was too much pressure i was like oh if it's not on the right day i was like just around
yeah look at me you guys i'm so flexible baby no it's that's a good thing to have it's so funny i
remember um some of the months i would forget to take the bump picture so then the next one
you're like let me just suck the bump in a little bit month six
and then back to back they take one that's crazy i did weekly bump polaroids but i don't think i
have weeks like 32 through 36 oh my gosh you did weekly that was a problem i shouldn't it was fun
but i was like i shouldn't have done it because then i was just what i did is i had all the extra
things so i had like a sign and then that that just gets overwhelming and i wore the same outfit
rather than just being like take the picture right the picture right the picture it's hard
hard to produce hard to produce this i feel that one of like not sending enough pictures to my
family that's why i would take daily pictures is so that i could send them to my family and i
stopped doing that and then felt guilty for not doing that oh that's a real one addy that's real
um being on my phone will give my baby brain cancer because emfs
what was your emfs i don't know oh electromagnetic field yeah like wait radio waves isn't there so
much in our house already we are so much
where i have my phone next to my lap and i'm like
yeah i'm like not here my eggs yeah literally i put it here i put it in my bra sometimes i'm like
nope gotta move it out of there baby can't put it can't get me over here give me emfs
yeah no that's hard that's a hard one oh this one says i was making my child sad for going on
walks because he couldn't see me oh oh oh i think that's i didn't understand it now i understand
new guilt unlocked yeah
my kids will think i regret them because my husband and i went on a date night oh yeah my
kids will think i regret them oh oh that's people will tell you those type of things they do they
will actually tell you those things the internet's crazy they're like you should never leave your
baby in the first year and you're like that's 365 days sweetheart it's okay if i go on a date
they're fine i need to make all food from scratch yeah i believed that for five seconds that's all
i felt guilty but then cj just continuously gagged on what i made him and i was like you know i don't
feel guilty he wants the process he doesn't want this screen time equals therapy bill later not
therapy oh i had so much screen time growing up i was i am in therapy i asked my yeah wait a minute
baby got bit by a mosquito panicked searched reddit for three hours convinced i let my baby
get zika virus husband found me sobbing in the closet don't go okay if you're worried about it
reddit should be the last don't even don't go reddit don't reddit it dang it oh i'm glad your
husband was able to intervene there me too thank you shopify for sponsoring this portion of today's
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sign up for your one dollar per month trial today at shopify.com slash abby that's shopify.com slash
abby that's shopify.com slash abby i can confirm that sound is beautiful and that is crazy guilt is
really crazy it is crazy and it's we all have these stories of seriously taking us to
dark thoughts deep thoughts and i feel like do you feel like guilt and anxiety kind of go hand in hand
are they the same thing
no because a lot of some of these
what it's about like anxiety is like diagnosable you know i'm like i don't know if you could
diagnose me with guilt like anxious thoughts from or does anxiety cause guilt maybe more so
i don't know i so like john deloney has described guilt as like basically your body's i'm not going
to do this justice and this is just how i'm regurgitating it but like your body's like
warning signal that you've like violated your own moral like your own morals yeah and so it's like
that instance it's not always bad right like so sometimes let me be so i can tell you some of my
mom guilt so i'm like okay that is actually kind of a good little flag for me yeah like if i'm on
my phone a lot in front of my kids it'll be like guilty guilty guilty they're seeing me like looking
down at a screen i'm like hey that's actually a good flag for me like i don't want to be on my
phone a lot around the kids totally so like thank you guilt that one i can i i'm gonna it's a good
one it's a good one like i like there's a time and a place for me to use my phone i'm not saying i
never use my phone around my kids but right especially if i'm just like doing something
that's not necessary or texting someone i'm like okay put it put it down right or like things like
that but then there's other times where it's like okay this is going off we can look at it and be
like is this something that i need to modify my life around and like believe this or is it like
hey i need someone to speak into this and be like it's not that's not on you this isn't this isn't
this isn't real this is lying to you it's kind of like feelings in a way right sure i think okay so
for my personal experience you kind of touched on it a little bit but i think it's a good thing
the guilt came in so hot and heavy by the time i had my second kid yeah so this is where i'm
actually now worried down the line does it get worse with each child each child well you can
let us know the birth of this baby by it or maybe it's just like okay we've already cracked the
multiples thing and it's like now it's about the same sure but um yeah the multiples is where the
mom guilt really came in i mean for so many reasons the first time i remember feeling it like
honestly like in a way that like took my breath like i was like crying was when like griffin was
about i'm gonna cry again i'm not even that sad about it anymore i worked through it griffin's
about to turn one i'm putting him down to bed do you guys were at our house actually you probably
remember this and i was about i was one month away from having augie yeah and i was like i have just
given up all my moments of just me and you like there was so much guilt associated with having
my second kid even
though like man i always say like lightheartedly together like the best thing we've ever done for
them is like give them each other because they just play so well they have so much fun together
yeah but like in that moment i literally was like i just rushed this so much to the point where like
griffin got like no time alone with me then i had augie and i'm like augie never got us alone with
him and that just made it like i remember just be like what do i i never i don't even know you as
and that created more guilt and then i was like i'm never playing with you guys separately yeah like
i would try to but then someone else would need something you're getting pulled in so many different
ways as soon as you have more than one kid right so that's where guilt started to really spiral for
me personally how do you feel it's been i mean the minute vivian was born and we went home cj got
a hand foot mouth and that week was so sad to me like i remember i would cry a lot talking about
for a good period of time after it happened because i just i remember cj's face so vividly
when he was trying to come near me to like be close to mom and see his sister and i was like
you can't touch me buddy like you can't touch the baby because i was so scared of getting sick and
her getting sick and just the look of deep hurt on his face i had never seen that before and i
just felt so guilty so so so guilty i was like this is horrible like he's so excited it just
wants to be sweet and tender and here i am like shoving him away so he's losing his
mom at this like big transition so that was the first time i remember i just sat on the couch and
just sobbed and caleb just rubbed my back and he was like i'm sorry this is so hard and then i think
for those first two months i had so much guilt i think this is when i talk about my feeling humbled
in the those first seasons of going from one to two was that i just truly felt like i could not
take care of both of them and i felt so guilty like i was like how can i not take care of my
own kids by myself
i just carried so much guilt like i should be able to do this i should be you know i mean and that
those feelings were really like oof that was the first time i felt like gripped by guilt and i felt
that too seriously i was like i'm so inadequate like i'm supposed to meet their every single need
yeah independently right and that's that's just not true no but it's just even saying that feels
scary to even say because there's just like so much
around like moms being like the ultimate like superheroes and i truly believe that moms make
it happen totally but i think there's like there's you know there's there's a good side to that where
it's like okay this is confidence building that you are made for this role you can do this like
you will make it happen you will show up for your kids and you'll meet their needs but then this
darker side of it where it's like okay well you're actually not perfect and so and so like there's
times where it's like and also there's there's no need to do it like right all by myself and i'm like
okay well you're actually not perfect and so and so like there's no need to do it like right all by yourself
i think about that a lot i'm like oh how beautiful it is that my kids get to be loved by other people
and not just from me like they get to feel the love and attention and
being taken care of by their grandmas by their grandpas by his aunts and you know and it's just
in his uncles it's like it's such a sweet beautiful thing to have other people come
alongside you and like love on your children and help take care of them too and so yeah that would
almost be selfish to expect myself and like only want me to be the one that's fully caregiving to
them they get so excited to see their grandparents their cousins their aunts and uncles like and so
yeah that's a good point to make too because it's like there's there's a part of it where you're
like okay well actually they want to they want these other people they want other people just
like you want community and you want other friends and you want to get out and do things
totally and so like there's a level to that as well um i don't know if you read the other type
of major mom guilt i feel and still struggle with but i feel like i've made a lot of progress in
is uh being a mom and also having work like having that
work
responsibility totally um so there are so many sides to that guilt it gets so layered i'm actually
this is something that i talk about like in therapy sometimes because i'm just like
it's been hard to navigate because i'm like how do i just i feel like anytime that i'm away from
my kids like i want it to be like super justified like i feel like i have to go through all these
hoops and jumps and like yeah even then i have to just continue to remind myself like it's okay
it's okay it's okay it's okay and it would get super bad with work specifically because
i think that i was lacking confidence in my work that was resulting in like a confusion for me so
let me explain this so i heard this from sadie robertson who heard it from dr amen and it sticks
with me because and i've actually revisited this because i'm like i this is a good reminder to
continuously have so like from working moms he said and i'm once again refer to them because
they're going to say it so much more profoundly but it was like i'm like i'm not going to do this
something along the lines of guilty moms create confused children yeah what does that mean so like
if i when i'm like around the kid like i'm like oh i'm like making all these i'm just gonna sneak
away like do this like kind of multitasking not being clear or confident about what i'm doing or
like what i feel called to do in my life then they're just kind of like my mom's leaving me
why and also weird about it she feels weird about it so i feel weird about it
like it kind of creates and they're gonna they could explain this a lot better but i feel like
that for some reason that like triggered something in me to learn to talk about my work differently
which then made me feel differently about my work and then made my kids feel differently about my
work so yeah i think there's an an age for this where like that or it's more appropriate but like
i used to like literally be afraid to tell kids they're like well why are we like why is they call
my mom honey they're like why is honey coming over i'm like well because mommy has like i would be
she's gonna play with you and like they're gonna you're gonna do really fun things and
you're gonna nap most of the time but then you're gonna wake up and you're gonna play with her and
she's gonna be sad and i was like like okay like and so then i'm like well now i'm like
mommy has to work i said do you know why we worked you know why like why adults work and
grown-ups work and so we have a conversation of like why we work why it's important to work hard
right and then like i feel like i could expand upon this as i get older it's like why i feel
called to my specific work and like kind of like build that out it's also good for me
to hear saying to my kids yeah and so now like i have seen a change like in myself but also in
like with my kids so now they know that like mom works and for some reason that them knowing that
it felt like a secret before and i think that's the thing too about working from home that has
that extra layer like you kind of feel like you can like yeah you can do both right you can sneak
it and so now they know that mom works and that i feel like also they see me in a way it's like oh mom
contributes to the household in this way not that you can't contribute to the household in other ways
too but like knowing that mom and dad are team in the household and like in bringing in the money
like that like funds our lifestyle and we like talk about why we work and why it's good to have
a good work ethic and like having these conversations has really helped in turn so
many other benefits but in turn it helped with my own guilt sure and um that was just like a
really wordy way of saying that i'm like hope that made sense yeah it made a lot of sense
but now they tell me and so we had a conversation this is like my infamous story i've told about
my son a lot because i thought it was really funny because once i started making these changes
i think he started to think about like work what people do for work a lot we talk about it sometimes
like careers and the other day he wouldn't he wanted something this was a couple months back
and i was like hey you know we gotta have a conversation about like things cost money and
like we have to you know there's it's not like there's an endless supply of everything because i
tell them like if they broke a toy i was like no big deal we'll get another one and i was like well
wait a minute like there's not that's not life there's not an endless supply of everything for
anyone at any time so of course like mistakes happen we're not going to make you feel bad
about them but like i don't know that i needed to teach him that there's like a infinite supply
everything you need to take care of our things yeah we still there's a layer to that and so
then he told me one day on the car like a little while later this was related to going to disney
world and he was like mom i need a camera and a pewter and i was like oh my god i need a camera
i was like why buddy like first of all i couldn't figure out what he was saying because when he says
camera it sounds like grandma of course i was like grandma and a pewter pewter and i was like
what do you need and then in his head that was work he wanted to do like like a camera and i
have a computer so he could work and get something that he wanted and it was a really addy was like
trying to book him for photos yeah i was like you have a little camera right oh if you take
pictures of me i'll get i'll give you five dollars he goes three oh he gave you the family discount
friends and family and i didn't bring it up because he forgot to bring his camera so i was
like i'm not gonna his camera has broken so it has since broken and i'm actually sad about it
because all of his little pictures on it are so cute they're probably gone oh that thing is broken
that's hard anyway all that to say it opened up a lot of like i have always told myself i want to
be honest when i talk to my kids about things like when we talk about food i'm like oh you
can't have that food because it's a choking hazard right and then he literally took it the
bag of suckers to the employee at the dollar tree he's like is this a choking hazard and i was like
so like i always and i'm like you can't have this because it has alcohol you can't this because
i've always like want to be honest i was like why was i tiptoeing around this subject so much and it
was because of my own guilt around doing something that i should not feel guilt for sure but there is
just like this whole thing totally you i'll let you i feel like it makes a lot of sense hearing
you say that because i think outside of moms or mothering or anything anytime that there's not
clarity it is confusing yeah you think about dating like you want to have clear expectations
and boundaries and in marriage you know so that makes a lot of sense hearing you talk about the
confused children part i think that was the part of the quote that i always was like i guess i just
didn't understand so that makes a lot of sense and it resonates a lot i feel like for me this area is
something that i'm before with cj i could always fit my work in his he took a really long he would
take a four-hour nap crazy it's so great it's a nice rest he did that for like 18 months so i would
just work in his nap and he would take a four-hour nap and he would take a four-hour nap and he would
take a four-hour nap you know it's really really easy well now obviously he's getting older and
now we have vivian and to the bat the juggling i couldn't just fit it in these nice little neat
hours where he was away and i was alone and could focus and do these things and he wouldn't see it
well now it's like okay we've talked a lot about this having to put in systems into place and it's
been way better now that i'm like hey it's monday so it's a work day for mom like grandma's gonna
come over and play and wednesdays are my work days and if i don't say it confused i under he is also
not confused and he doesn't ask like he'll be like mom are you working right now and he's also
like he's respectful of that time like he's not it's not like he's at my leg begging me to play
when i'm like come on buddy just let me do this on my phone one second like i'm so sorry i'm coming
it's like he has these clear boundaries too and knows what to expect and i feel like that has been
a real game changer in our house is just having the expectations so you've you've helped a lot
and like helping me navigate and figuring those things out because i think at first it is really
hard to figure out what is going to work for you and what's not and i had a lot of guilt around that
i'm failing and i don't know how to set these i don't know what's going to work and what's not
going to work and i don't know it's all confusing and it's hard and i feel like a lot of it is trial
and error specifically in this area of work and schedules but yeah definitely guilt there for what
it's worth at the beginning guilt was making me like not ask for help because i was like i'm just
going to multitask this whole thing and i'm going to be 100 mom and 100 work and that's gonna that's
of course and then no of course it didn't work like that made me guilty in a different way because
then i was like on my phone or doing things when i was like okay they're looking at me like why is
she always on this device they don't they have no idea what i'm doing totally i'm certainly not
telling them that i'm working because that felt shameful like and so having those like clear
boundaries of like okay one to five monday through friday is mommy's work hours you're still gonna be
with like someone you're still in the same house as me for heaven's sake
like you're literally still you're like 10 feet from me you get you come in a lot like right right
and so like they know that i'm here but then yeah having those like boundaries and like those parts
of my mind also just made in turn made my work so much better because then i was like okay now
this is go time you're this gets 100 of me right now and then as soon as it hits five this you guys
will get 100 of me right and so it just created so much more confidence in both areas and
um counteracted guilt in both areas so much and now and that was a process because I
would tell you it probably took like 18 months of having two kids so yeah and i had already had a
kid before that so i was like i was just feeling confused all the time so yeah so much with work
i mean we all go through it and ultimately it makes us stronger better more equipped and
um more resilient women you know it's like we have to figure things out and we want to do what's
best for our family and so like having to navigate how do we do this in a way that's going to set our
kids up for success first and foremost like you know it's like we're going to do what we can and
in the end on the other side of it once we figure it out like you're saying we do all come out
confident more clear and like it's you feel more loved like if i even felt this with caleb if he's
working in the kitchen and i'm in there cooking i'm like hey don't work here because i want to
talk to you and hang out with you yes but you're focused on work and like i want you to just go in
the bedroom and close the door and be out of here yeah yeah so that i'm not like oh he's not
listening to me or whatever and it's the same way with her you know her family that's a really good
parallel because i feel that way too or i'm like okay we'll just just get out of here just get out
and do it and then come back and then right give us your full attention yeah it's like really just
what our family wants is our full attention i just implemented a new thing actually starting
this week because obviously the work and the mom guilt side of it and having an almost eight month
old so she's demanding more of my attention and she's a mom's girl like she just she loves her
time and so i with and on the side of it of budget friendly situations too when you're working full
time and from home and not wanting to spend a bunch of money on sitters and nannying and daycare
and all the things we are having a sitter come on tuesdays and thursdays during her wake window in
the middle of the day so from 12 to 3 when she's awake and that's like the middle of my work day i
was having to like do both and just the thought
we actually have just had a different schedule this week but just the thought of knowing i'm
gonna have someone to watch for all those days my sunday nights are so much nicer i'm not so
anxious about coming to work on monday because of these things or it's scheduling time even just
for the different things we do it's like okay they know i'm available these times to come do
things in person like it just you working from one to five makes a clear expectation that if i text
you before then i'm never expecting a response it's just clear expectations with your team which
is like cool
cool too if you're able to do that so especially with having a sitter during their nap time it just
stinks you're like i don't need someone here and so having someone during the wake window has been
really helpful yeah that's a good tip and hearing you say that it's like i think um we've talked
about this but everyone thrives in routine and kids thrive in routine and obviously there's like
flexibility within their routines right but also within traditions and so it's like okay we know
i think that's like the positive side of it and i think that's the positive side of it and i think
like the routine but okay we know tuesdays and thursdays mom can just jam pack what she needs to
get done on those days and it could be really effective really efficient but then on the same
time it's like your kids kind of have the same expectation and then you can have i think we're
trying to implement more tradition and it's like that's going to counteract some of the harder
things that maybe they don't want to do it's like what they're really going to remember is pizza
night and like the fun things and family dinners and you know every morning we'll go these days we
go to the park whatever you know it's like those are the things they're going to remember not
really more so that like mom had a babysitter for three hours during the day on tuesdays yeah no
yeah seriously and some of this stuff can really last a long time this guilt so we actually had
in preparation for this episode i had planned to like ask our own moms about mom guilt and their
experience with it i accidentally made my mom cry really immediately and i knew it was gonna i knew
what her guilt was she feels so much guilt about putting me she worked full-time with me like i
think she had six months of sleep and i was like i'm gonna cry i'm gonna cry i'm gonna cry i'm gonna
cry i'm gonna cry i'm gonna cry i'm gonna cry i'm gonna cry i'm gonna cry i'm gonna cry i'm gonna cry
leave after having me and then same with my brother she had blake over uh summer break so
she had like a little more time but then i mean it was back to like regular with us as like infants
and so she has so much guilt about that still to this day and it's like i hate that she carries
that and i just they call it like what is it the great american mom work dilemma crisis guilt
crisis guilt train or whatever but basically like i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't
you work you feel guilty you don't work you feel guilty like there's just there's no way around it
and like unfortunately like i'm like mom i didn't realize you still felt this way she was like yeah
i still do it and i said what made it feel better she's like no i still feel so guilty and then i
was she was saying but once i was in school then she like knew that i was like where other kids
were i guess like even moms that stayed home like bring their kids to school right and so um it was
on the same line of work and i was like i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't
you're on now on the same playing field with all the other kids right and then she chose to be a
teacher because she'd have the same schedule as us when we were in school yeah so she was ultimately
still making like a sacrificial decision like she made her career option based on one that would
still revolve around like her children's lifestyle essentially because like she was actually even my
third grade teacher in school i'm surprised they allowed that third grade man so sweet yeah no it
was really sweet and i loved it and i feel like every kid would be different and probably would
be older than third grade but like we loved it blake was in my mom's class i don't think it worked
out as great for probably not surely not he's more disruptive he took like a little bit more
liberty yeah that one he's like telling your mom no yeah he probably wasn't disruptive but he was
probably like he was definitely probably calling her mom oh my god oh i called her mom everyone
called her mom how'd that work with homework with your mom to help you i mean it's so great uh-huh
i don't even remember i actually probably didn't really get homework i guess maybe fourth
they gave you homework but i don't think it's very it's terrible
serious i don't know she grades papers you do i love school i was like please let me just do it
can i do extra credit yeah seriously i was like that kid that was that kid i actually was too
an element i loved i loved it too it's so fun it was my culture so like she's still and i was like
mom and then the other kind of guilt that my mom carried a lot which i did not realize was financial
guilt like she was like i feel bad that we weren't able to like afford certain things for you and i
i literally wanted for nothing and guilt is one of those things where it's like i feel like i'm like
as much as i tell her that i didn't like i didn't even realize what we were lacking or like that we
were i didn't think about i didn't compare my situation or what we had to other people at all
i feel like i could say that as much as i as often as i can and she still wouldn't it wouldn't that's
the thing about guilt yeah you know it's like it's an internal thing that you can't that you
so that's that's that's deep that's deep right there that's some deep stuff my mom's was actually
i she gave some good examples that were outside of i feel like work is such a common one that most
i think most people probably feel my mom said that she felt she feels guilty that she put so
much pressure on us to like look perfect for holidays and get the you know she made such a
big deal about like creating the perfect image around these like specifically she said holidays
but some of these big life moment things which i think a lot of us can
i think a lot of us experience that like when to get the perfect pictures that we have the
perfect memory of the perfect day and that's like a pressure that we put on ourselves and then it's
easy to feel guilty if that doesn't happen and she feels bad that she act like that that she
had those expectations she's like i wish i would just like chilled and just enjoyed those moments
more um that's a good call out yeah that was like pay special attention to that yes and then the
second one which this i thought was interesting she said seeing what you cook for your kids and
what you guys all make sometimes i feel guilty that i would just make you boiled noodles with
parmesan cheese and canned green beans and i was like mom that's really sweet but now she's like
in retrospect having guilt oh you know like what i like it's comparison but i'm like mom i literally
made frozen chicken nuggets for cj for like six months so it's not like we're doing any different
you know yeah so and i'm like we still love parmesan cheese and noodles so i actually am
grateful um but yeah it's just
like it never stops kind of is how we're talking yeah so i was really grateful that she shared i
feel like we had it was kind of a rushed conversation i'm sure we'll talk more about
after this um but yeah we just all experience it just in different ways yeah that's interesting
the thought of it happening in retrospect yeah oh it'll never end it'll never end that is so
interesting because our in-laws i i give them so much credit they're very like uh what's the word
for it like reflective
on their roles as a parent when their kids were young like always asking like what are things that
we could have done better and that's a very they have so much humility asking questions like that
some of the most humble people i've ever met like i'm like that is something that i'm like i don't
know if i will ever feel brave enough to like ask that question or like receive that feedback from
my own children it's like i would that would make me quick to be like defensive i'd be like well wait
a minute we did a lot for you mister like right you know and so i just like respect them asking
that so much and they're
like and trust me caleb and matt will both be honest they will i'm so curious about that too
because usually when you ask that type of a question it's because it's something that you're
probably going to do again that you would like feedback on but it's like why do they need that
feedback i don't know i don't know they just love feedback just love you yeah me yeah and they always
receive it well they always receive it well i know i've learned a lot from from watching that within
their family um i guess i don't want to leave this conversation on kind of like a negative note
- Seriously.
- We don't really have like a solution
or well this is where i was going to kind of bring it back to guilt doesn't always have to
be a bad thing right like sometimes i think guilt should be honored like for a moment of like okay
let's hold this for what it was i'm noticing that i'm starting to feel somebody's feelings arise
around this and like actually sitting and reflecting that on them in the moment and being
like okay maybe even like invite another mom or your spouse or just depending on what what it is
and just like letting someone like actually be like okay like like we said it is an internal
dialogue but also like those thoughts can spiral until you like let someone else in on it and i'm
guessing 90 of the time other mom will be like i've been there too i felt that too and then also
just that aspect of like okay we're all carrying like similar burdens like are we all just terrible
moms or is this just something that we're gonna have to carry with us and we also just need to
just carry it lightly at times or sometimes it's like hey thanks for you know flagging that one
i don't want to continue to do this with my next child or tomorrow even like i don't want to continue
to do this type of thing or like yeah i think there's so many things where it's like okay hey
i didn't react well to that i don't want to do that again and then also just like like using that
as an opportunity to also have a conversation with your kids like hey you know what mommy's
making mistakes too right i'm sorry about that i don't want to do that again right and so it
doesn't always have to be a bad thing but then also just evaluate that and you know like i'm not
going to do that again and so it doesn't always have to be a bad thing but then also just evaluate
that and i feel like my biggest solution like through moving through guilt is talking to people
about it yeah i think that's the biggest thing and voicing it out loud like telling kaleb my exact
thoughts and exactly how i'm thinking i'm not sugarcoating them or dancing around them or
making light of them if if they feel heavy and like talking to you i talk to you guys about them
a lot and and getting feedback and i think being open to the feedback like sometimes it's like hey
actually yeah like you've told me like hey you need to put systems in place with work and that
was so helpful to hear and so just like i don't want to do that again i don't want to do that again
just being receptive of the feedback and knowing that's like always for our you're good and your
benefit and it's like yeah it's a good thing to reflect on it exactly what you're saying
yeah and entrusted community too though because it's like sometimes i like i know who i need to
go to if i just need someone to be like you're amazing yeah you are so special and beautiful
and perfect that you need to make no changes and then also like okay i want to go to this person
because likely they're going to have something i could do differently and they're going to have
they're gonna be good honesty and like they're gonna be good honesty and i need to hear i need
to steal the hard truth you've got your like fun your truth you're your light truth and then your
hard truth people yeah and then and then i'm like matt will always just be like you're awesome
come on thank you i need to i need that sometimes like i feel like i go to matt a lot about body
image things or like guilt i have related to like my looks which i'm like i don't even know
that's necessarily guilt but like intrusive thoughts or like you know feelings things i'm
about myself yeah and then like mom things with other moms or work things with yeah other people
that are in the same field so i'm such a passive person i always have to i always uh front kill
bond i always warn him on the front i go i just want validation and then i just kind of dance
around i'm like i just need you to validate me right now and then tell me i'm pretty and then
i'll kind of dance around what i'm i'm like oh yeah today i just didn't my hair and he's like
you're beautiful you know like i'm always trying to like sneakily say i feel like sometimes i try
to validate him into saying what i want to hear uh you know what i mean but i now i'm just like i
need to be up i am up front i'm just like i just i need you to validate me you need to validate me
right now don't take a compliment he's like just take the compliment i'm like well gosh i don't
believe you so what am i supposed to do about that like i'm just i just simply don't believe
you i know you're lying to me right now which is not he never is he doesn't lie to me i know that
too when i like complain about my body or like different things he's like it's it makes him
true stop like he's like stop saying that literally like but i'm like do you want to
just be a woman for one day look at yourself turns it into a male versus female crisis
i was like you're beautiful try being a woman
you don't you don't know
so yes like i'm just saying i guess if you hear anything from this is that like we're three moms
we've we're with you and we're going to be together for a long time and we're going to be
we're with you we experience it too and um some of these things we can laugh about and someone's
like okay some of it's serious some of it's funny and some of it it's just all relatable it's all
relatable and this was a messy conversation about this was messy for sure but i'm glad we talked
about it yeah i'm glad we talked about it thank you to needed for sponsoring this portion of
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any curious questions any serious questions any hey we'll accept comments feedback as well
so you can call in and we're going to listen to two or three today hi abby abby and addy my name
is brie i love love love the podcast you guys are such an inspiration to me um me and my boyfriend
want to get engaged here in a couple months and so i would love to hear your guys's engagement
stories and all of your emotions leading up to that and if you guys kind of knew that you were
when he was getting proposed love the podcast bye so we never get to talk about this this is fun you
go first you go first well ours was very fairly simple so i guess as a kid i always thought that
like when some guy like when the guy proposed that the girl was just caught off guard i used
to think that too like they hadn't and then as an adult i was like oh no you got the ring together
well i was kind of just like you don't want to be caught off guard by a question like that gosh that's
a that's pretty serious i want to be a part of that yeah and then it's just more of a romantic
gesture that he's the one who does it you know what i mean yeah and so uh we had had so many
conversations like that we had like sought mentors we had like had we got married really
young so we had to have a lot of conversations with family and parents for like a year leading
up to this point and then we even did like pre-engagement counseling which i mean that's
pretty thorough i feel like i read books like we had done all these things and so then matt had
said he's like i don't want to be engaged very long he's like i only want to be engaged for six
months and so i was like well i know we're not getting married at christmas time it was summer
and so i was like not actually expecting it but i knew that we were going to get married i had
known that for a long time at that point already and so then we i was visiting him in florida where
he was there for the summer and we went to disney to celebrate his birthday because i actually love
disney too and it was mostly for me and so then he the morning of we were like we got there right
before the party and we were like oh my god we're going to get married and he was like oh my god
opened and uh matt's like i want to take a picture and i was like we have to go straight to the rides
because you don't know how these wait these wait times are going to get so long you don't know
disney but i know disney we cannot be taking a picture we will do it later there's why do you
want to take a picture like i was so confused and he's like no i really want to take a picture
really want to take a picture and so he literally finally gets a disney photographer that is just
no one knows what's going on hands his phone that's already recording to a random disney park
attendee and i put my arm around him and he is trembling oh he was shaking oh my god so much i'm
like what in the world is wrong with him yeah and because once again he said he wanted he said so
many times he wanted me engaged for six months then he gets down on one knee and i was i have
no idea what he said he said that the night before he asked one of his buddies like what he should
say because he was like trying to write it out and he's like dude i don't know what to do with you
just speak from the heart so then he's like said something and then i was like
and then we he stood up and the video is so funny because i literally just hug him we don't kiss
and then i said thank you
i was so caught off guard yeah yeah i was genuinely like and no one believes me my
mom was like no you knew i was like i didn't even know that he had brought this ring to florida yeah
i didn't even know we had looked at rings right
- Right?
- I didn't even know that we had,
this was the first one I tried on.
I don't know if Matt told us that he was proposing.
I don't know if my family knew.
Like, I think it was an impulse thing.
I mean, they knew that we were going to get engaged.
Yeah, he had talked about it.
I don't think they knew what was happening that day.
Yeah.
So I'm like, when my mom's like, you knew.
I'm like, did you?
Like, and so new.
Then we were engaged for like literally over a year.
Yeah, sorry about that.
And so I was like, what in the world?
But it was so, I like look back at it.
It was like so sweet because the rest of the day we were just giddy.
Like we were just had so much fun at Disney, like going on rides.
And I was just like beside myself, like excited.
And then we actually had no family or friends there.
And it was just really honestly special.
It was simple.
You know, I feel like now I don't know.
Like I'm sure if I got engaged at 27, it would look differently.
But that was perfect for getting engaged at 19.
Honestly, like I was like, this is like the start of our life together.
So of course it's just, it's special that it's just us together.
And we'll have everyone at the wedding day.
And everyone at like, you know, all the receptions to follow.
And it was kind of fun that it was just us, honestly.
I always thought that everyone would be there.
But the way that it just worked out with just us was really special.
Yeah, so intimate.
Long-winded story.
In a memory of just for you guys.
I remember every detail of that because I was literally just like.
It's like so random.
I just remember him shaking.
He's like, I was so nervous.
I was like, we had only talked about getting married for like three years straight.
We'd only talked about it for three years.
You knew that I was going to say yes.
He's like, yeah, I knew you were going to say yes.
I know.
I just was so.
I was like, I'm going to say yes.
I think the moment was so big.
For sure.
Like the thing that he was asking.
It was a surprise.
And the biggest surprise of your life.
Yeah.
So of course he was nervous.
That's sweet.
Caleb was.
He did like a big gesture.
Caleb is kind of a big gesture romantic guy.
And this was really fun.
It had been our six year dating anniversary at this point.
Caleb had previously talked to my dad and asked if he could take my hand in marriage.
The formal way.
And my dad had asked him to wait because my sister was getting married.
And he said, will you please wait to propose until after her wedding?
So that was in the summertime.
And Caleb waited.
So really the week after my sister got married.
I know Caleb had another conversation with my parents about when this was going to happen.
And it was October.
It was our six year dating anniversary.
I thought he was going to pop the question at dinner.
I remember being so sad because he left the next day to go back to school.
And he didn't ask the question.
I remember telling him that night, like, I am so sad that we didn't get engaged.
Right.
This weekend.
Well, the next day, I think he leaves for to go back to school.
He was a senior.
I had already graduated.
And I had a Bible study that night.
And that night we had decided to do a bonfire as a group instead of going to someone's house.
And so I get in the car with some of them.
We're carpooling.
They drive me to this park kind of near our homes.
And we pull up and I see this guy in a suit just sitting on a rock.
And I'm like, that's really weird.
And I'm just looking at him.
And then I realize that it's one of Caleb's best friends that lives there.
And he lives in Kansas City.
And his name is Charlie.
And I roll down the window and I go, Charlie, why are you here?
And then it hit me and I go, Charlie, why are you here?
And I get out of the car.
They pull me up.
He's sitting there on this rock.
Charlie reads me a letter that he wrote to me about just like watching Caleb and I date
and just how excited he is for us to get engaged.
And then I walk.
He gives me a flower.
And I like led through this path along this park.
And it's like, I don't know.
It's all of Caleb's groomsmen lined up.
And so it's like stop by stop.
And they all read me a letter that they wrote me.
And then at the end is Caleb on this stage in the park.
And it had lights and roses everywhere.
And it's dark at this point.
So like the sun had set and everyone's in suits and I'm in my pajamas, not wearing a
bra because I was the only one not informed of this party going down, which is hilarious
because all these pictures, everyone's dressed so nice.
And then I'm literally in sweatpants and a sweatshirt.
And I'm like, I don't know what to do with this.
And Caleb gets down on one knee and he asks and behind the stage is like a brick wall and
it's all of our family and our friends and you guys were there, which I'm so happy you
were there.
Matt wrote a letter to you.
Yeah, it was Matt and Josh like, and then Caleb's grooms are like best man.
So it was everyone, which was so sweet.
I'm sure I still have all those letters written.
I think they just read them to me off their phone, but we have it recorded, which is really
fun.
And then we had a dinner party afterwards with everybody.
It was so special.
It was the most romantic thing ever.
That was fun.
Yeah.
That's sweet.
Addy, you want to share yours?
Oh, sure.
Um, let's see.
Mine's kind of funny.
Mine was on a Sunday.
Let's backtrack a little bit.
Actually, I knew we were going to get engaged.
I knew he had the ring.
This was, he probably got the ring in June.
It was also the first one I tried on.
I'm like, and it was one that I was like about the first one.
Yeah, I knew I had always wanted like this style of ring and I was trying to not go with
one that was like.
Cool at the time.
Like I was like, I'll just go with the one I've always wanted, even though like maybe
a different one was piquing my interest.
So, and I still love it, but he got the ring in like June and then he didn't propose until
the end of September because he wanted our, I wanted our friends to be there.
And I think he knew that too.
And so we waited till everyone came back for school.
And then it was a Sunday.
I was at church.
I was like, when the heck is he going to do it?
Also at this time.
I'm type A person.
We've already booked our wedding venue.
Oh, you booked your venue before you were engaged?
Oh my gosh.
I love that.
I knew where I wanted to get married.
Your venue was amazing.
So we booked it.
Yeah.
And so it was already booked.
So I was like, what the heck?
Like we've got to get things moving so I can plan a wedding.
I was like, I won't do anything else until I'm engaged.
And then Sunday at church, I'm like checking his location.
I'm like, where is he?
Cause he didn't go to the same service as me, which is not normal.
And then the girl was like, I don't know.
The girls next to me afterwards were like, we saw that you just kept checking his location.
Luckily he was just at his house until after church.
After church, my girls, we went and we took photos cause we were taking roommate photos
for the coop where we lived.
And then as we're walking back, I text my friend Abby cause in the morning I texted
her and I had said, I think I'm getting engaged today.
We're walking back to the car.
I said, it's not happening.
Cause I thought it was going to happen when we were taking photos with everyone.
Like everyone would think, no, I get blindfolded.
And then get thrown in the car.
And we, they're like, you were getting initiated to the coop.
So that we do a new initiations.
Which is actually a thing.
Unfortunately.
It is a thing for this, this home.
So I knew that had also needed to come cause I hadn't been initiated into the home yet.
Backstory.
Abby also lived at this home before me.
Okay.
You hazers.
No, I'm just kidding.
It is.
That's what it is.
So we, I don't even know.
We rent, we went into a gas station.
I had to get some things in order and get.
Food from a.
Some restaurant and went up to the, I had a dance somewhere.
And then they were telling me, we're like, we're going home.
And I'm like, we're really still, I'm blindfolded, but I'm like, we are not that far from home.
Surely.
And then we pull up and I'm a mint goes in my mouth.
Cause they were feeding me random food.
I was in my mouth and I was like, oh, okay.
And I'm like squeezing their hands.
And then Blake had set up, uh, at a park in Springfield, a blanket.
It was under the sun.
It was like pergola or, and he said a blanket and like a picnic basket.
And he proposed and said some things.
I don't really remember all the things.
What I do remember is he said, um, Satan's going to hate us like two or three times.
And I was like, that's so sweet.
He was also shaking too.
So then we got engaged, went back to the coop and everyone was there.
All of my friends, the family was there.
Um, my sister had come.
I'm from Dallas and we just had a fun engagement party afterwards.
Sweet.
I didn't actually never heard that story.
Yeah.
Oh, that's so fun.
It's a, it's always a fun one to look back.
Cause it was also when I got initiated.
So that was kind of funny.
Those are attached.
I know.
They're like two birds, one stone.
Yeah, exactly.
She'll never know.
That's so fun.
And it's fun that your friends are like all in on it.
You know, it makes it so fun.
Yes.
Cause I also was begging them.
I'm like, guys, you have to figure out when he's proposing.
Cause get him on it.
Yeah.
I can't wait.
I can't remind him anymore that he needs to do this.
I can't remind him anymore.
Hi friends.
I have been a long listener for five ever, but we are friends.
I mean, y'all are my best friends, but I have four little girls.
One just turned 12 and we're about to start having the sex talk.
Did your mom talk to you about sex?
Did she not?
What would you want to do?
How should I do it?
How in depth should I go?
Thanks for listening.
Love you.
Bye.
Bye.
Love you.
Bye.
I love that.
No, I never had a formal sex talk.
My mom just kind of took things as they came.
I remember asking, I'll never forget sixth grade, learning some things on the track and
going to my mom.
And I remember she's in the bathroom and the toilet and I'm like talking to her through
the door and I'm like, mom, what's asking her what like foreplay basically is and all
these like deep things.
If you ask my mom, she gave us a sex talk.
If you ask us, we never had a sex talk.
So I don't know if I'm one to speak in on this.
I actually brought it up with my parents as an adult.
I was like, you know, you never did that, right?
They're like, yeah.
Oh, okay.
That's hilarious.
Is that not what sex ed is for?
It's cool.
That's where I learned.
Well, here's my memory.
After dance one day, we went to Subway.
Right.
And my mom sat me down and she was like, one day you're going to bleed out of, and I was
like, you're going to bleed.
I was literally like, you're going to bleed.
You're kidding me because I just
told Chloe that that's not true. I told her that that's just pee. And I was really just like,
I can't eat my food. And so something about that conversation made me not want to be a girl
anymore. I was like, I don't want to do it. And then like, so I didn't, that was like the puberty
talk. Cause we were about to do the talk in school. So she was like, I feel like I should
probably prep her. So I wasn't just sitting in my little blue plastic chairs, like just around the
corner. Like, and that still was traumatizing in a different way. The boys come back into class
and they're like, what did they tell you? I remember that. And we had like pads. Yeah. And
I was like, I don't know. My mom did give me a good period talk. Little did they know I was like
five years down the line. Girl, you don't need to worry right now. It's going to be a long time.
You are not going to bloom for a while. Um, no. So she, they did the puberty talk. Yeah. I had
that. And then, um, nothing beyond,
that. Um, and, but public school did some things for me. I heard a lot of things that I was very
confused about. Public school will teach you everything. They're like, if you lay naked
with a boy, right. And if you know, if you fall asleep naked with a boy, yeah, you will get
pregnant. Right. I was like, Oh my gosh, that's what I believe. My brother, a couple of times,
I really hope our clothes stayed on. I was just like, there's so much confusion. Like, and so,
um, you know, I've thought about this a lot. I think our parents probably know that, you know,
they probably could have, you know, talked about it a little bit more. No big deal. It's fine. We
figure things out. But with my own kids, I don't think I want to, I've heard the advice before of
like, as they, as they ask, then they're ready. It's like, I actually kind of want to be the
first to speak on some of these big topics. So I want to be a little proactive about these things.
And, um, I think it's equally important for raising girls and raising boys.
To be proactive in having those conversations. Yeah. So I'll probably do things a little bit
differently, but that's okay. You know, I, I figured it out. Right. Really? Everything's fine.
But, um, I read deeply. I have a vivid memory of my friend in seventh grade. She got like a,
like a thorough in-depth sex talk, like talking about how it all works. Okay. Like in depth.
She came back and explained it to all of us at a sleepover. And I was like, what goes in where?
Oh my gosh. Like being so freaked out.
I literally just thought at that point, yeah, if you rolled around naked in bed,
that's how babies were made. That's how I got to where I was because my friend's mom,
I love how all the friends like get together. They're like, so what did your mom, what do you
know? Literally. What do you know? That's crazy. Your brother, like, it's like, that's dangerous.
But like my friends, like her mom got the like American girl doll book and they went away. They
went to St. Louis for the weekend and had like a girl weekend. And I was like, that's a good idea.
But I do honestly think it shouldn't be like a, the talk thing. Like the more I think about it,
I'm like, it should probably be like a ongoing thing where,
we can continue to ask. I think that was like our parents' generation. They're like,
you sit them down one time. Yeah. You get it done. You never bring it up again.
Rip the bandaid. Rip the bandaid and never bring it up again.
Right. And then the kids are like traumatized.
Totally. They're like one time. We're never talking about this again.
My mom's like, he didn't say that. It was really scary.
Totally. So maybe we'll just do an ongoing thing. Maybe don't make it one time,
but I honestly, you're more experienced than me. You have four kids. She's 12.
Yeah. You know what to do. You know what to do. You know what she's interested in.
You know what? You asked about our personal experience.
It was just very confusing for me. It was confusing. I don't think you can
mess it up. I mean, I'm sure there are ways you probably could.
You could probably mess it up. Sexuality is so vulnerable. It is.
In like 10, you know. Yeah. I feel like you asking, there's already,
like you want to do it the right way. So I'm sure you've already done so much research on it
and like some ideas of how you can approach it. I feel like the biggest thing is just being
available for questions. My mom was really good. She was available for questions.
True. And yeah.
Did you get the sex talk, Addie?
I don't think I did. I don't really,
I feel like I already learned most of it.
And then you get the adverse effects of church too. Of the like, don't do that.
Definitely don't do that.
It's kind of like church and like the toxic purity culture time.
Yeah.
Yeah. I feel like it's better now.
You know, literally a girl, no, I remember this from church one time. It was like,
here's Tupperware and here's fine China.
That's just horrible.
Which one do you want to eat up?
Where's. I'm traumatized. I didn't even experience that.
Tupperware, you know, you wash it, you use it again. And I went,
it's like, you set it aside. You don't use it all year.
Wow.
And is this a man? I'm not that type of person, but who's the one showing the Tupperware in China?
No, it was a woman.
Oh gosh.
I'm glad we've moved past that. I'm glad we've learned that that's not the right way to talk
about this.
I will say I am one of three girls. So I have two older sisters. So it's also a little different,
but not relating to the sex, but relating to like the puberty and those changes. My parents had
the keeping care of you.
That was such a good book.
I think it passed down from each of us girls. It showed me how to put a tamp on it. It shows
you how to take care of your breasts and when things change. And there's, it talks a little
bit about like body safety and things like that. So I think that's where it kind of maybe
goes in a little bit there, but it just talks about healthy and hygiene and those types
of things. So that was a good book. I do remember.
Same.
I just got a really funny memory of the first time my mom took me to get a bra and we were
into Shopko.
Which Matt brought to my attention that he doesn't know what Shopko is.
I don't know what Shopko is either.
I can't explain it to you guys. It's a budget store that we went to.
Great.
It was in my town. We didn't have a lot of shopping options, especially for a bra that
was going to be about this big. So I put it on. I like had my Aeropostale like long fitted
graphic tee and my dad felt my back and he's like, I hurt. And then I was like.
I can't wait.
Never wore it again.
I think I wore tank tops from Justice as bras for a long time.
Someone should have told us that that wasn't enough.
Under a t-shirt I would wear that. As a bra.
I was like, this is my bra. It's built in. What a perk.
My first bra, I said, mom, I think I'm ready for a training bra because I just want to
be trained. And so she took me to Old Navy and I got like a cloth. It was just a cloth
sports bra.
Yeah. Those are like underwear.
I went to school the next day and we wore uniforms. Our uniform shirts were white and
I had a white bra underneath and a girl felt my shoulder goes, oh, I know what you're wearing.
And I go, shh, don't tell anyone. They could all see it through my polo.
I didn't know you wore uniforms.
And yeah, when I went to Catholic school through fifth grade.
That's funny.
That was like the first time I wore mascara to school. And this girl said to me, she's
like, you're wearing makeup. And I was like, no, I'm not. And then I like never wore it
again.
It's the first time I ever shaved my leg. I shaved back here because I was like, I don't
know. I got to try it out. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to shave my leg. So I shaved
like the back of my thigh.
Wow.
My friend's mom told her that she wasn't supposed to shave from here up.
Yeah. My mom told me that. I said, sorry, mom, I'm going to.
Why is that?
I don't know.
Oh, because they didn't want you to shave down there?
No, I think they just, my mom said the hair was different. It was wrong. She was misinformed.
Misinformed.
Just want her on the hairy thighs?
Yeah. She's like, it's thinner hair. You can't see it, which is, it is thinner.
Just a clear line.
It's still skinny.
Like hair is dark.
I don't know. I love these girlhood things. I'm like, I can't wait to hear like Vivian
and Brielle's thing.
Like what are the embarrassing things that we're going to do?
They're going to have a chat like this one day.
Yeah. They're like, my mom is so embarrassing.
What is it with boys?
They're going to come to you, Abby. You're going to be their aunt, Abby. They're going
to come complain about us. What are you going to say to them?
Gosh, I'll be like, of course to them, I'll be like, I got your back, girl. And then I'll
be like, okay.
Yeah. So anyways.
What's going on?
You need to entertain.
I agree.
He's so cute.
Hey, girlies. This is Kaya. I was just wondering if you guys were on Dancing with the Stars,
who would your dream partner be? And what would your first song pick be? Love the podcast.
Thanks.
That's a fun question.
What was the question actually?
Who's your dream partner on Dancing with the Stars? I'm looking at my song.
What was the second half? What would your song be?
Yeah.
What would be your first song choice?
Do the contestants get to choose?
I think there's a night that they can choose a song. But usually there's like a memory attached,
but I'm just going with the six.
I feel like you have something on deck right now.
Val.
For sure.
Why Val?
I was going to say him too, but then I was like, Mark kind of is really fun.
He's an attractive guy. I think he's good at dancing.
Well, see, that's why I chose Mark because I was like, I feel like I don't want that
kind of. I do.
No offense to Mark.
But I don't know any of the partners. Who are all the male. I've actually never watched
the show.
We watched it together.
You've never watched Dancing with the Stars?
I watched one episode with you guys. I watched all the clips online.
Okay.
I can name you all of them, but I will just flick up a list.
But I only watched Alex Earle and Whitney.
You know, this show has been going on for literally years.
I know. I know. I only watched this year with like Alex Earle, She Crushed, and some of
the other girls.
So we have Val, Mark, Brandon. Do you know who these people are when I'm saying their
first names?
I would know the names. Yeah.
Brandon Armstrong.
Brandon Armstrong. Ezra. Sosa. Pasha. Allen. Gleb. Sasha.
Who has the most trophies?
Derek Hough.
Okay. Give me Derek.
That's a good choice.
Give me Derek or give me Jeff. I want to be the winner.
He has really good choreography.
Is he still on the show?
I thought he was a judge.
He's a judge now.
Okay. Who is still on the show that has a lot of trophies?
Probably Val.
Mark Ballas is next.
- Next to Derek, so it's Derek Hough.
- I already got Mark, so.
then mark so i know only one person could claim it at one time yeah we're on the same same season
so we have derrick at six mark at three okay val at three he's mine you can't that's cheryl
she that's a woman so you guys have mark and val the two best yeah well shoot i was a little slow
okay i'll take who would i i would suggest for you i feel like ezra you would enjoy ezra give
me ezra you would you would maybe derrick will come back uh brandon is so funny though special
request what song would you guys choose okay oh what song you can't tell me that man wouldn't
take the opportunity to jump back on he's a great choreographer i would want a fun party one that
like oh you know what i would do i like to move it moving griffin and augie would just be beside
themselves amazing i would do celine dion my heart will go on oh that was a vibe i wasn't
i know it's just no i'm sorry not my heart will go on um
um
you were history with the slamming of the door was that one called i can't remember
what's that song called and i banished i'm not gonna keep singing it you and i had ever made
oh it's a really fun one would be we had my husband did it have to be fun no i want it to
be fun because i'm like i don't want to do like a romantic oh yeah who sings that song celine dion
my song is it's all coming back to me now that's the one yeah i would do that one i would do
by j sean and lil wayne baby are you down down down specifically the rap section we can pick
rap songs you can do whatever you want okay then migos all of them that song gets me hype uh migos
stir fry specifically stir fry that's crazy the big onion booty make the world crash that's not
in your mirror ball hey remember the one time we went dancing yeah it's great we went to the club
no one else had no drinks no i love this overnight at the club yeah that's all i know
it's the better way believe me okay i haven't always always hungry recipe but it's not it's
my own recipe and it's for overnight oats oh it's delicious i'm do you here's my thing about
overnight oats do you eat them cold i do yeah i like them like that you don't like that i had
that same question listen you have to put a lot of sugar in it like not sugar but like sweet things
see i like warm i love warm oatmeal too but i also love a good cold oatmeal and it's just
nice making it the night before let's hear it okay you do a half cup oats listen i don't have
a link that goes in the description so just write it down pause it pull out a pen and write this
down okay get your post-it notes get your post-it notes we can a half cup rolled oats okay three
fourths cup almond milk or milk of choice one tablespoon chia seeds
eyeball the amount of honey maybe a teaspoon to two teaspoons um some frozen blueberries
stir it up oh a dash of cinnamon just a dash not too much not too little stir it up put the lid on
it put in your fridge overnight or for two hours okay when you get it out you're gonna slice
strawberries and then this is the most important part only this granola is acceptable it is the
bare naked granola in the cashew or cashew and cacao
um
flavor it's the best it's got the chocolate cashews the crunch you got the blueberries
and the strawberries and the the chia seeds and then give yourself like an hour after that so you
have enough time to go to the bathroom because you will go to the bathroom after you eat this
it's the chia seeds it's the chia seeds that's delicious wow that was so detailed
wow
i just realized i've never actually linked my sourdough pretzel bites and i made those for
easter and i'm like the last episode we talked about it i talked about them but it wasn't my
recipe and i made them and now i'm like i need to share the rest do you have any more
no they also don't save my grandma was also against it she was like you should not be making
these because it's going to spoil everyone's dinner and i was like i ate them and dinner i
ate tons of them that's up to them that's up to them and then she started eating them and she was
like whoa they're so good they're so good and you know what sourdough so gut healthy okay right um
so that's it for always hungry what are we doing okay uh thank you so much those of you that have
written reviews seriously it means so much if you could take just a minute to just whatever
platform you're listening to this on just tell them you like it basically heard it rate it five
stars like it it's we me abby and addy really appreciate it we also have more people behind
the scenes than you probably realize and we're going to do a little bit of a little bit of a
i also appreciate this feedback too and are looking at those as like markers of this podcast
so thank you so much if you listen to it enjoy it just let us know yeah um one pressy says my
favorite girls five stars i love you guys so much i love having a good group of girls to listen to
one cleaning or just chilling i hope you guys do longer episodes i feel like there have never been
long enough i hope you liked last week's episode oh that's gonna end up as but we were going crazy
we were going crazy so thank you
gosh don't tell us because it's just okay we'll keep grabbing you want to blab we'll blab we will
blab thank you guys so much if you want to leave a voicemail and potentially get on the pod um you
guys can call the phone number 602-456-9690 that is such a fun fun fun aspect of our show we love
it so much we're so grateful to you guys for calling in um do we have a book club announcement
or anything is that next week we're reading a good time to say that yeah keep reading um
just friends just friends i'm almost done with it yeah it's cute uh by hayley fam that is our
april book and then we'll do like a little book club meeting on the podcast the last episode of
april well that's all we got you guys thank you so much for listening and remember we're always here
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Podcast Summary
Key Points:
A hidden cultural bias favors lemon over lime in drinks and media, with 7UP launching a new lime-lemon soda to challenge this imbalance.
The podcast highlights how personal stories of motherhood reveal deep-seated guilt, often misattributed to parenting failures.
Moms frequently believe harmful myths—like breast milk curing cancer or screen time causing autism—due to anxiety and guilt.
The show emphasizes that guilt and anxiety are distinct but often intertwined, with both leading to irrational beliefs and emotional spirals.
Real-life experiences, such as missing family or dealing with illness, reveal the emotional weight of parenting and the importance of self-compassion.
A guest shares how her grandmother’s resilience and joy in aging inspire hope, showing that strength comes from facing hardship rather than avoiding it.
The episode balances humor and heart, showcasing family dynamics, shared traditions, and the value of connection despite life’s challenges.
It promotes mindfulness and self-awareness, urging parents to recognize when guilt is a signal for change, not a measure of competence.
Summary:
The podcast explores the hidden cultural dominance of lemon over lime in everyday products and media, culminating in 7UP’s new lime-lemon soda as a symbolic shift. Through personal storytelling, it delves into the deep-rooted guilt many mothers experience, often stemming from societal expectations rather than actual parenting failures. Examples include false beliefs about breast milk, screen time, or baby milestones, which are amplified by anxiety and a fear of inadequacy.
The narrative reveals how these feelings can spiral into irrational thoughts, highlighting the need for self-compassion and external support. A heartfelt segment on grandmotherly resilience underscores the value of aging with joy and purpose. Additionally, the episode reflects on family connections, missed moments, and the emotional toll of balancing multiple roles.
Ultimately, it promotes mindfulness—encouraging parents to recognize guilt as a signal for reflection, not failure—and to embrace the complexity of parenting with humility, joy, and connection. The tone blends humor, vulnerability, and hope, reinforcing that growth, self-awareness, and shared experience are vital in modern motherhood.
FAQs
The Lemonati is a shadowy organization said to have historically promoted lemon over lime in beverages and media, symbolizing a long-standing cultural bias. The transcript references it as part of a satirical narrative about the dominance of lemon in popular culture.
7UP introduces a new lime-lemon soda to flip the traditional lemon-forward trend, directly countering The Lemonati's legacy and promoting a balanced, more inclusive flavor profile.
It symbolizes a shift from traditional, lemon-dominated products to a more balanced, inclusive, and diverse approach in flavor and culture, reflecting a broader movement toward fairness and variety.
The podcast explores how intense and often irrational beliefs about parenting—like guilt over feeding, screen time, or milestones—can stem from anxiety and societal pressure, not reality.
One example is the belief that breast milk can cure cancer or that letting a baby play independently ignores their needs, both of which are debunked as myths and rooted in unfounded guilt.
The grandmother's story highlights resilience, joy in aging, and the importance of family connection, showing that growth and happiness can emerge even after loss and hardship.
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