What started as a conversation about anxiety turned into something else entirely.

This week, we explore anxiety not as a diagnosis or a problem to solve, but as a very human attempt to gain control over things that feel uncertain: our children, our relationships, our identities, and how we’re perceived by others.

Through stories about birthday parties, baby showers, Lego frustrations, forgotten raincoats, and parenting in public, we unpack the ways anxiety can quietly shape our decisions. And we explore what happens when we stop trying to manage it alone.

The surprising discovery?

By the end of the conversation, we both felt less anxious.

Anxiety, like shame, thrives in isolation. It loosens its grip when it’s spoken out loud. Maybe the opposite of anxiety isn’t certainty at all, but connection instead.

Join us for another honest conversation about worry, self-trust, motherhood, and why saying the thing out loud with trusted people might always be the first step toward feeling better.

Connect with us at: mommingoutloudpodcast@gmail.com or on

Instagram at mommingoutloudpod

We would love to hear your stories and suggestions for future episodes! Also, let us know if you are interested in being a guest on the show!

*Hosts: Ali OConnell and Mollie Birney

This week we’re joined by a very special guest: Mollie’s husband, Clint.

A therapist, dad, husband, and self-described “new dad getting his butt kicked and trying to reclaim his identity,” Clint joins us for an honest conversation about what happens when parenthood doesn’t look the way you expected it would.

We talk about the identity shifts that come with becoming a parent, the surprising rates of anxiety and depression in new dads, and the isolation that so many parents—especially fathers—experience but rarely talk about. Clint shares what it was like to step into a primary caregiving role, lose parts of himself he thought would always be there, and slowly find his way back through therapy, community, and a lot of hard conversations.

Along the way, we explore resentment, division of labor, sports-induced family meltdowns, avocado toast thrown against a wall, generational patterns, and the healing power of repair—both in marriage and in parenting.

This episode is for anyone who has ever wondered:

• Why does parenthood feel so much harder than I expected?
• Where did my old self go?
• How do couples stay connected when everyone is overwhelmed?
• What happens when the roles we imagined for ourselves don’t fit reality?

Most of all, it’s a conversation about normalizing the chaos. Because sometimes the most helpful thing we can hear is that you’re not the only one struggling to find your footing.

There may not be a neat bow at the end of parenting. But there can be honesty, connection, and people willing to walk through it with you.

We hope this conversation helps you feel a little less alone.

What happens when two generations of mothers sit down and tell our truth out loud?

In this deeply personal episode, we’re joined by former actress, but more importantly, Mollie's mom - Meredith Baxter, for an honest conversation about inherited patterns, motherhood across generations, and the stories we carry about what it means to be “enough.”

Together, we explore the invisible things passed down between mothers and daughters: perfectionism, people-pleasing, shame, humor, resilience, devotion, and the longing to do things differently than the generations before us. Meredith reflects on raising children while navigating fame, sobriety, marriage, and her own unresolved childhood wounds, while Mollie and Ali unpack the pressure modern moms feel to get parenting “right.”

We talk about:

• The difference between surviving motherhood and feeling naturally maternal
• Why moms today seem trapped in the “am I enough?” conversation
• Generational trauma, inherited coping mechanisms, and breaking cycles
• Parenting while still healing yourself
• Shame, femininity, body image, and the messages women inherit about their worth
• The long game of parenting: choosing relationship over control
  

There’s laughter, grief, tenderness, hard truths, and the kind of conversation that only happens when people are willing to stay at the table together.

If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re doing enough as a parent — or wrestled with the ways your own childhood still shows up in your motherhood — this episode is for you.

*****Content note******: This episode contains honest conversations about recovery, parenting, family trauma, body image, and mental health.

Connect with us at: mommingoutloudpodcast@gmail.com or on

Instagram at mommingoutloudpod

We would love to hear your stories and suggestions for future episodes! Also, let us know if you are interested in being a guest on the show!

*Hosts: Ali OConnell and Mollie Birney

What if (re)parenting starts with four simple words:

"I’m here, I’ve got you"?

In this episode, we talk about the messy, beautiful work of (re)parenting yourself while parenting your children. From playground triggers and inherited family patterns to perfectionism, productivity shame, and nervous system overwhelm, we explore how old wounds surface through parenting—and what it looks like to respond differently.

We unpack the courage it takes to become a safer place for ourselves and, in turn, for our kids.

If parenting has ever made you wonder, why is this bringing up so much in me? this conversation is for you.

Connect with us at: mommingoutloudpodcast@gmail.com or on

Instagram at mommingoutloudpod

We would love to hear your stories and suggestions for future episodes! Also, let us know if you are interested in being a guest on the show!

*Hosts: Ali OConnell and Mollie Birney

We’re back from a little hiatus and getting current—no plan, just what’s been real lately.

In this episode, we dive into some very real “shame bomb” moments (including a full Lego-induced spiral), and the parenting expectations that quietly shape how we show up—and how we fall apart. From “dude, bro” moments to missing the mark entirely, we talk about the pressure to get it right and how quickly we can slip into self-criticism.

We explore the stories we tell ourselves when we feel like we’re not enough, the gap between what we know and what we can actually access in the moment, and the difference between pain and suffering.

This is a conversation about being human in motherhood—messy, honest, and learning in real time as we find our way back to ourselves (again and again).

Connect with us at: mommingoutloudpodcast@gmail.com or on

Instagram at mommingoutloudpod

We would love to hear your stories and suggestions for future episodes! Also, let us know if you are interested in being a guest on the show!

*Hosts: Ali OConnell and Mollie Birney

What happens when being told you’re a good mom feels more like pressure than reassurance?

In this episode of Momming Out Loud, we talk about the complicated role feedback plays in motherhood—how praise can quietly turn into fear, performance, and shame. We explore what it looks like to get curious instead of self-critical, to ask more questions, and to stop letting shame tell the story about who we are as moms.

This conversation is for any parent who’s ever wondered what it means when they’re not doing it “right”—and wants a little more honesty and breathing room in the process.

Connect with us at: mommingoutloudpodcast@gmail.com or on

Instagram at mommingoutloudpod

We would love to hear your stories and suggestions for future episodes!

*Hosts: Ali OConnell and Mollie Birney

What if the hardest part of limited time isn’t how little of it we have—but how afraid we are to choose wrong with the time we get?

In this episode, we talk about time scarcity and the noise that comes up when we try to use small pockets of time “well.” The second-guessing. The pressure. The fear that choosing ourselves might cost someone else.

We explore:

• Building tolerance for choosing the wrong thing—and staying with ourselves anyway
• How internal noise and self-abandonment block our sense of potential
• Why this is different from the idea of “taking care of me so I can take care of you”
• Rooting into relationship with ourselves as the way we contribute to others
• How our children learn self-trust by watching what we tolerate in ourselves

This is a conversation about becoming—not through optimization or sacrifice—but through presence, choice, and repair.

Connect with us at: mommingoutloudpodcast@gmail.com or on

Instagram at mommingoutloudpod

We would love to hear your stories and suggestions for future episodes!

AND, if you are interested in signing up for our Momming Out Loud Circle please email us for more information!

*Hosts: Ali OConnell and Mollie Birney

What is it like to love someone so deeply that their pain lives in your body too?

In this episode of Momming Out Loud, we talk about the moment many mothers quietly think, what have I done?—when our children experience pain and every instinct in us wants to fix it, prevent it, or take it away. We explore the tension between protecting our children and knowing that shielding them from all pain would also rob them of the chance to feel capable, resilient, and whole.

We also talk about what happens when our children witness our pain—how we try to care for them while we’re still finding our own footing, and how motherhood often invites an unexpected reparenting of ourselves. This conversation is about holding both: our resilience and our children’s, our tenderness and our strength, as we navigate the complicated, beautiful work of raising humans while still growing ourselves.

Connect with us at: mommingoutloudpodcast@gmail.com or on

Instagram at mommingoutloudpod

We would love to hear your stories and suggestions for future episodes!

AND, if you are interested in signing up for our Momming Out Loud Circle please email us for more information!

*Hosts: Ali OConnell and Mollie Birney