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Show Notes: What we Talked About + Coaching Link
There are some parts of motherhood that aren’t necessarily hard because they’re huge.
They’re hard because they happen every single day.
Dinner. Bedtime. School pickup. Getting out the door. Managing expectations for a “fun” weekend. Thinking about the thing you have to do later… five hours before you actually have to do it.
And the very real thing that happened to Holly 2 minutes into our recording…getting the dreaded call from school that your kid has a fever and needs to come home. Cue rescheduling the afternoon meetings, cancelling your productive afternoon, and embracing the call of motherhood.
In this week’s episode, we ended up talking about all of it: meal planning, bedtime checklists, school pickup resets, Disney World expectations, and the mental pressure moms carry before anything has even happened yet.
And honestly? That’s kind of the point.
Because so often, the issue isn’t that we’re doing motherhood “wrong.”
It’s that there’s too much friction built into the way we’re trying to do it.
Sometimes the most helpful question isn’t:
“How do I become better at this?”
Sometimes it’s:
“Why does this feel so hard in the first place?”
This episode is full of the kinds of practical, real-life shifts that come from asking that question.
A few of the things we talked through:
taking the pressure off the belief that you have to do something because “that mom” does it
creating a “bank” of meals instead of having to make the decision from scratch each week
noticing where the friction is in your routine and adjusting from there
stopping work 10–15 minutes before pickup to reset your brain before mom mode
preparing kids for what’s coming instead of assuming they’ll just roll with it
holding expectations loosely so one hard moment doesn’t define the whole experience
One of our favorite takeaways from this conversation was this:
“The goal isn’t perfection. It’s reducing friction.”
That tiny mindset shift feels small, but it changes a lot.
Because once you stop forcing yourself into a system that doesn’t work for your brain, you can actually build one that does.
Maybe that looks like taking the pressure off of perfect routine.
Maybe it looks like doing more with other moms to make the “daily grind” more fun.
Maybe it looks like buying pre-chopped onions and calling it a win.
Maybe it looks like realizing your kids don’t need the most elaborate plan to have fun, they just need a mom who isn’t completely maxed out.
That’s really what this episode is about: getting curious about the pressure points instead of just powering through them.
And maybe, just maybe, giving yourself permission to make things easier.
Because you’re allowed to do that.
You’re allowed to choose the version of motherhood that works for your actual capacity.
You’re allowed to prepare more (or less).
You’re allowed to expect less perfection.
You’re allowed to care about your experience too.
And if you’ve been feeling like every routine in your life has just a little too much drag in it right now, this episode will probably feel very familiar.
And if this conversation hits a little too close to home, coaching might be the next right step. We offer coaching calls for moms who want practical support, fresh perspective, and help untangling the mental load. You can book a call here.
