Motherhood is beautiful. It's also exhausting, overwhelming, and sometimes nothing like we imagined it would be.

In this episode, I'm joined by Emily Tonelli for a conversation about the parts of motherhood we don't always feel comfortable admitting out loud.

We talk about postpartum depression and anxiety, mom guilt, losing pieces of yourself along the way, and the pressure to be a good mom while wondering if you're getting any of it right.

We also get into the difference between the motherhood we see on social media and what life actually looks like behind the pictures.

You can love your kids more than anything and still struggle with being a mom. Sometimes just hearing another mom say, "Me too," makes all the difference. ❤️

When did admitting something is hard become the same thing as being ungrateful?

I love my kids. I love my husband. I love my business and the life I've built. But, sometimes it's A LOT. Every time I think I've figured out how to juggle everything, life throws another ball at me. 😂

In this episode, I'm talking about motherhood, the never-ending mental load, family expectations, guilt, boundaries, and the pressure to be everything to everyone.

We get into why being the "strong one" can be exhausting, why everyone seems to expect the same access to us no matter how much our lives change, and why we feel the need to justify being overwhelmed.

You can love your life and still struggle with it. You can be grateful and exhausted. You can be capable and still need help. You shouldn't have to reach your breaking point before you're allowed to admit something is hard.

Maybe we could all use a little less guilt, a little more understanding, and permission to be human.

When Vicky’s son Adam was born in an emergency situation, the life she thought she was stepping into changed completely.

In this episode, we talk about the grief that can exist alongside an incredible amount of love, raising a medically fragile child, changing life expectancies, milestones that don’t look like everyone else’s, and fighting for your child to be included without expecting them to fit someone else’s version of “normal.”

We also talk about advocacy, something Vicky has been doing long before becoming Adam’s mom, and what it means to keep showing up, fighting, adapting and figuring everything out out as the years go on.

Because sometimes it’s okay to not be okay.

And eventually, you might even get to better than okay. ❤️

Who Decided What “Normal” Looks Like?

We measure everything. Our kids’ milestones. Grades. Bodies. Careers. Relationships. Success. Healing. Where we thought we’d be by now.

Somewhere along the way, useful reference points became a scoreboard for whether we’re doing life “right.”

In this episode, I talk about comparison, different starting lines, ADHD, parenting, fitness, inclusion, and why common doesn’t automatically mean correct.

Progress doesn’t need to look the same for everyone. Fair doesn’t always mean identical. Maybe you’re not actually behind, you’re just measuring your life against a timeline that was never yours in the first place.

So… who decided what normal is supposed to look like anyway?

**Content note: This episode includes discussion of pregnancy loss, severe bleeding, medical trauma, a near-death medical emergency, and a child’s medical emergency.**In this episode, Erin shares an unbelievable medical journey that began with motherhood and eventually included secondary infertility, pregnancy loss, a rare cesarean scar pregnancy, severe hemorrhaging, blood transfusions, endometriosis, being told she was likely done having children… and then somehow, another pregnancy.

We talk about medical trauma, procedures that left her feeling unheard and unprepared, learning to advocate for herself, the difference one compassionate doctor can make, and what happens when being a “good patient” stops feeling safe.

We also talk about the parts underneath all of it. Motherhood, guilt, perfectionism, therapy, trusting your own body, and the complicated reality of being grateful for medical care while still being angry about the ways the system failed you.

Erin’s story is a reminder that you can respect medical expertise and know when something in your own body isn’t right.

Sometimes two things can be true.

I think humans are really uncomfortable with two things being true at the same time. We want everything to have a side. Right or wrong. Good or bad. Science or spirituality. Strong or struggling. Grateful or unhappy. But life doesn’t actually work like that.

You can love someone and know they shouldn’t be in your life.
You can understand why someone did something and still think what they did was wrong.
You can trust modern medicine and still believe there are things we can learn from other approaches.
You can be confident and insecure.
You can be grateful for your life and still want something different.
You can forgive someone without giving them access to you again. You can change your mind without pretending the person you used to be was wrong for believing what they believed.

In this episode, I’m talking about the boxes we put ourselves, and everyone else into. Why changing our minds can feel so threatening, and what happens when we stop forcing ourselves to pick one version of the truth.

People are complicated. Life is complicated.

And sometimes two things can be true.

What happens when you’ve lived enough life to realize that being strong doesn’t mean you’ve always gotten it right? Laurie Plyley is 63, outspoken, opinionated, successful, and, in her own words, still figuring shit out.

In this episode, we talk about starting a career at 18 in a very different world for women. She became incredibly successful while also picking up behaviors she later had to unlearn. The moment someone finally called her out, she changed the way she treated people.

We talk about how a strong, independent woman can still slowly lose herself in an abusive relationship, and why asking someone “Why didn’t you just leave?” completely misses what abuse can actually look like.

We get into never getting married or having children. Decades of body insecurity, learning to actually accept a compliment. Getting older, being single at 63, yet still wanting love, sex and passion, and realizing that loving your life doesn’t mean you have to stop wanting more from it.

Maybe becoming who you are isn’t something you eventually finish? Maybe we’re all still figuring shit out?

Have you ever found out that something you’ve done your entire life… isn’t actually something everyone does?

After accidentally taking the summer off, I’m back, and apparently spending that break digging through old podcast episodes and turning them into TikToks taught me something.

For most of my life, I assumed everyone’s brain worked like mine.

The overthinking. The weird little rules. The constant preparing. The ability to completely spiral over something hypothetical while somehow becoming suspiciously calm during an actual crisis.

I didn’t know what was anxiety, OCD, ADHD, coping mechanisms, personality… or just me.

In this episode, I’m talking about what happens when you finally start understanding the brain you’ve been living inside your entire life, and how easy it is to turn things you struggle with into things you believe are wrong with you.

Nobody gives you a comparison brain to borrow for a day.

Sometimes understanding yourself isn’t about becoming someone different. It’s finally being able to look at the person you’ve always been and think:

Oh. Now I understand you.