Every single day parents feel frustration, anger, resentment, and guilt of some sort when dealing with their children.  Parenting, although a beautiful and fulfilling experience, is messy and confusing and ALL OVER THE PLACE.  If you've never experienced any of this while attempting to "get it right", congratulations, you're perfect, and you should move on.   For the other 100% of us, though, parenting is tough and no one does it "right".  In this episode of The Guilty Mom, I provide some insight into your child's developmental stages, talk about the best practices in discipline for every age, and, most importantly, I'll explain how you can peacefully co-exist with your monster teenagers if you have them.  Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Free will...it's a beautiful thing and the one thing that is truly ours.  As humans, we have amazing intellectual, physical, and emotional capabilities that we often take for granted because of the society we live in.  Often times, we expect to be handed things because we believe it's what those in higher power should do--take care of us.  But...what happens when things don't go our way?  What happens when the going gets tough?  At what point do we start taking individual accountability and take charge of our lives?  In this episode I'll tell you why I believe this world doesn't owe any of us anything--and why, if we want something done right, we've got to do it ourselves.

We KNOW maternal guilt exists—we feel it every day, mommas. We often get so caught up in our role as mothers and the high standards of motherhood that we forget to ask how Dad’s doing. Should we? Does the pressure exist for Dad, too? Is dad guilt a thing? In this episode, I welcome a very special guest who gives us his take on the pressures of fatherhood and let’s us in on a little secret...dad guilt is real, y’all.

I've spoken before of how love isn't enough in a marriage, but, then, what is?  Why do so many marriages fail and some seem unbreakable?  Is there some secret that strong marriages hide from the world?  In this episode, I'll tell you why so many people throw in the towel.

Let's just call mom-shaming what it really is:  a self-serving bias.  We all like to think we're great moms better than Susie Homemaker--so then why the fuck do we care so damn much about what Susie is doing? As women, and especially as mothers, we tend to focus on the flaws we see in other women and fail to notice our own.  Why do we do this?  I'll tell you why.

Let's start with the reason I need a drink and end with the decision of having one or not.  Men just don't get pregnancy, girls; you know why?  Because they'll never be pregnant.  Pregnancy, while, yes, the wonderful miracle of life, is hard.  It's so hard that it makes you want to drink.  The question is:  can you?  Should you?  Let's talk about it. Link to book I mention in episode:  Expecting More by Emily Oster

This week's episode shifts the focus of social comparison to our children.  We often think we're doing a good thing by giving our kids "tough love", but, are we really preparing them for life or setting them up for failure?  Listen in to hear how celebrating the failures keeps our kids from giving up.

Did you know that, just like little kids, we adults place value on ourselves based on what we see of value in others? It’s unfair to ourselves to build our self-esteem based on what others have, but, trust me, we all do it. Listen for how this has affected my life and how it may be affecting yours.