After the Drop Off

This week on After the Drop Off, we’re breaking down the Enneagram personality types in a way that actually makes sense, especially if you’re a mum running on coffee, overstimulation and questionable patience by 5pm.

We unpack all 9 Enneagram types, what they really look like in real life, and how they show up in motherhood, relationships, emotional triggers and burnout.

Are you a perfectionist (Type 1) losing it when things feel out of control?

A helper (Type 2) who gives everything then quietly resents everyone?

Or avoiding conflict like a pro (Type 9) until you suddenly snap?

We get honest about:

* Why you react the way you do under pressure

* The mental load, mum rage and emotional patterns no one talks about

* How your Enneagram type impacts your parenting and relationships

* Whether personality frameworks actually help or just give us new labels to hide behind

If you’ve ever googled “why do I overreact as a mum?” or “how to stop yelling at my kids,” this one’s for you.

Because self-awareness is great, but what you do with it is what actually matters.

This week on After the Drop Off, we’re diving into The Names by Florence Knapp, a powerful, conversation-starting novel that explores motherhood, marriage breakdown, and domestic violence in a way that is simultaneously intimate and deeply real.

If you’re looking for a deep-dive book review of The Names, or a thoughtful book club discussion guide, Beth and Jess unpack the novel’s unique three-timeline structure and talk about what it tells us about identity, choice, and the invisible load carried by mothers.

The chicken book, the PE diagram… and everything no one actually explained

Puberty isn’t here yet for our kids… but we can see it coming.

And if our own experiences are anything to go by, we’ve got some unpacking to do first.

Because for a lot of us, “the talk” looked more like:

• a profoundly confusing book about chickens

• a very clinical (and weirdly arousing) diagram in a PDHPE class

• and a whole lot of unanswered questions we were left to figure out ourselves

In this episode of After the Drop Off, we’re reflecting on what puberty education actually looked like growing up: the awkward, the unclear, and the moments that weirdly stuck with us (sometimes as a full-blown sexual awakening… whether we were ready or not).

We chat about:

• What we were told vs what we needed to know

• The gaps in how our generation learnt about bodies, sex, and puberty

• How those early experiences shaped our comfort levels as adults

• Why it still feels awkward talking about it — even now

• And what we want to do differently with our own kids

This isn’t a how-to guide, it’s a conversation about awareness.

About breaking patterns, keeping what worked, and doing things more openly, honestly, and without the mystery.

Because before we prepare our kids for puberty…

we’re preparing ourselves.

🎧 Perfect for parents of young kids who know puberty is coming..just not quite yet.

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Keywords:

puberty education 90s kids, how we learnt about sex at school, parenting before puberty, preparing kids for puberty conversations, awkward puberty stories, parenting influenced by childhood experiences, talking to kids about sex and bodies, millennial parents puberty reflection