What Fresh Hell: Laughing In The Face Of Motherhood

A recent report found that the division of home responsibilities is still grossly unequal. Mothers—whether they are married or single—do significantly more than fathers. In fact, the “The Free-Time Gender Gap” report found that “simply being a woman is linked to spending more time on unpaid childcare and household work, and having less free time, even when controlling for age, income, race/ ethnicity, parental status, and marital status." What does it mean for women to have less free time, and how can we keep working to close the gender gap? Amy and Margaret discuss: The differences in socialization between men and women when it comes to our living spaces How time inequality serves to further reinforce and perpetuate gender inequality How "secondary childcare" factors into the free-time gender gap Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode: Natalia Vega Varela, and Leyly Moridi “The Free-Time Gender Gap: How Unpaid Care and Household Labor Reinforces Women’s Inequality,” Gender Equ

We’re excited to share an episode of the podcast “What It’s Like to Be…” from New York Times bestselling business book author Dan Heath. In every episode, Dan interviews someone from a different profession: a cattle rancher, a FBI special agent, a professional Santa Claus. He asks what it’s like to do what they do. It’s the perfect show to listen to with your kids – it’s family safe but also gives them a preview of different careers, and the kinds of personalities that fit with the work. Is a Secret Service Agent supposed to pretend like they’re not there when they’re around the president? What does a hair stylist do when a client asks for a celebrity hairstyle that will never work for them? In the preview you’re about to hear, you’ll meet a marine biologist who studies manta rays. You’ll hear how drones have changed her work, what it’s like to get to know individual rays, and why people have such a romantic image of being a “Marine Biologist.” You can find more episodes of “What It’s Like to Be…” wherever yo

This month's Deep Dive series is all about family dynamics. Listen to the whole playlist on Spotify. What makes us introverts or extroverts– and why do so many of us choose our total opposites for our parenting partners? In this episode we talk about the myths of introverts and extroverts, why opposites attract, and how to parent kids who are also your total opposites. In this episode, Amy and Margaret discuss: The ways that introverts and extroverts solve problems How they navigate being the opposite of their partners How to advocate for your kids depending on their social orientation Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode: Natalie Arroyo Camacho for Well & Good: "3 Obstacles To Expect From an Introvert-Extrovert Relationship—Plus Whether It Can Work at All" Rodney B. Lawn et al: "Quiet Flourishing: The Authenticity and Well-Being of Trait Introverts Living in the West Depends on Extraversion-Deficit Beliefs" Healthline: "Are You an Extrovert? Here’s How to Tell" R. L. LaF

What is the "whole-brain perspective" when it comes to parenting, and what does it mean to parent with the brain in mind? Dr. Dan Siegel, founding co-director of the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center and Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute, and author of the psychology classic THE WHOLE-BRAIN CHILD, explains how we can help our kids learn from difficult experiences rather than avoid them.  Dan, Amy, and Margaret discuss: What whole-brain integration means How neurodivergent brains function How parents can help their children lead balanced, meaningful, and connected lives Here's where you can find Dr. Siegel: www.drdansiegel.com @drdansiegel on social media Buy THE WHOLE-BRAIN CHILD: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9780553386691 We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/ mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts,

What do you do that, goshdarnit, actually works exactly as advertised to make your life better? In this episode, we discuss all the early bedtimes and PT exercises that we find annoyingly effective, plus... time management tactics that are frustrating useful meal planning methods that work every time (if you do them) how to make your phone more boring—and immediately less interesting Read all of the things that unfortunately work well on the original thread in our Facebook group We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/ mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, in

This month's Deep Dive series is all about helping our kids through hardships like making mistakes, getting rejected, and facing competition. Listen to the whole playlist on Spotify. Do you worry about finding the balance between forcing your kid to keep doing activities that are good for them (that you already paid for) and not letting them be miserable all the time? How do you keep them on track academically without having to run flashcards with them about the Peloponnesian War for the billionth time? Here's what the research says about when to push our kids - and when to let sleeping (Peloponnesian) dogs lie. A listener in our Facebook group asks: "How do you decide when to push your kids? Like when to go from YMCA basketball to the travel team. Or when to go from regular school to the accelerated program, or the private school that's more rigorous. When to apply for the stretch school or the internship? We don't want to ruin hobbies or turn the stress up to 11, obviously. So how do you know which knob to

How can we help our kids prepare to move from a structured high school/ home environment to the less structured and more independent college environment? It starts earlier than you think! Emily Rubin Persons, founder of SKIP Coaching, explains how to help kids build the skills they need from a young age. Emily is a certified ADHD Coach who works with students and adults to build their executive skills and learn to do things in a way that works for their brain. Here's where you can find Emily: www.skipcoaching.com @SKIPcoaching on IG @EmilyRubinPersons on LinkedIn We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/ mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, fam

What do we do as parents when our kids aren't great at making friends, or their friends are outgrowing them, or we feel that their friends are a bad influence? Sometimes, we're not supposed to do anything at all. Sometimes our kids really need our support. How can we tell the difference? In this episode, Amy and Margaret discuss: what might contribute to trouble making friends the skills kids can develop to become better friends what to do when you don't like your kid's friends Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode: Michelle Icard for CNN: Parents ‘should be seen and not heard’ when it comes to kids and their friendships Parenting.org: My Child Has No Friends Julia Morrill for Health Matters: How Parents Can Help Their Kids Make Friends Lexi Walters Wright for Understood.org: 4 skills for making friends  Claire McCarthy for Harvard Health Publishing: Helping children make friends: What parents can do Kelsey Borresen for HuffPost: What To Do If You Don’t Like Your Kid

This month's Deep Dive series is all about helping our kids through hardships like making mistakes, getting rejected, and facing competition. Listen to the whole playlist on Spotify. Does competition have benefits? What level of competition is healthy for our kids? Many of us agree that the stereotypical dad yelling through the fence at T-Ball is taking things a little too seriously. But others say that participation trophies teach our kids to be lazy and therefore represent the ultimate downfall of our civilization. How do we balance the eye of the tiger with just letting our kids play? In this episode we get to the bottom of why some people are more competitive than others, what the right age is for kids to start learning the lessons of losing, and how competition (when it's done right) can actually teach cooperation and self-regulation. Here are links to some writing on the topic that we discuss in this episode: 'Shirtless Tongan' Pita Taufatofua makes Olympic history Evolution of competitiveness: Scient

As moms, we're often given tons of societal pressure on how we have to give our kids all the right things—then told to "chill out" when it comes to the worrying part. Gabrielle Blair, author of the new book THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, is here to tell us that adulthood doesn't look like it used to, and that there are many paths to the success and happiness that all our kids deserve. Gabrielle Blair is the the founder of DesignMom.com and the author of the New York Times blockbuster bestseller Ejaculate Responsibly. Gabrielle, Amy, and Margaret discuss: How the idea of the "reliable path to success" is actually harmful for a lot of parents and kids Simple (and free/cheap) ways to use your home to create the family life you want Why Gabrielle disagrees with the "you only get 18 summers" rhetoric that permeates parenting circles Here's where you can find Gabrielle: designmom.com @designmom on IG #thekidsareallright #thekidsareallrightbook Buy THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/978152352650

In a recent study, women who saw their homes as "cluttered" had higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol than those who reported more well-organized, restful spaces. But for some of us, the stress of trying to be neat feels harder than any occasional shame or confusion that messiness might cause. Does messy matter? Does it matter the same for everyone? How can you know when it's just your baseline versus when it's creating a real problem? Amy and Margaret discuss: How to know when clutter is causing a problem for you and your family Things that can get in the way of our ability to declutter How to focus on function, not aesthetics, when it comes to decluttering Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode: Chris Fleming: "We Can't Let People Know We Sit!!!!" Barbara Brody for WebMD: "How Clutter Can Affect Your Health" Sarah Bourassa for The Huffington Post: "6 Reasons You Might Be Messy That Have Nothing To Do With Laziness" Shannon Doyne for The New York Times: "Is Clutte

This month's Deep Dive series is all about helping our kids through hardships like making mistakes, getting rejected, and facing competition. Listen to the whole playlist on Spotify. Every kid will experience some kind of rejection, and some will have an easier time of it than others. How do we validate our kids' feelings while giving them the tools to move through the pain of rejection? As it turns out, sometimes the best ways to help our kids deal with rejection involve getting out of the way of the growth that can result. Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode: Kid Friend Breakups Fresh Take with Taylor Harris Fresh Take with Lisa Heffernan What Should I Do When My Child Doesn't Make the Team? Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be by Frank Bruni We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/ mom friends, funny moms, parenting

How can we get our kids cooking with us (or even FOR us) in the kitchen? Mark Bittman, longtime chef, food writer, and author of the new book HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING: KIDS, has some incredibly simple tips for bringing kids into the cooking process. Mark Bittman is the author of more than thirty books, including the How to Cook Everything series. Over his long career at The New York Times, Bittman wrote for both the food and opinion pages. Mark, Amy, and Margaret discuss: Why this cookbook is for novice adult cooks, too The really simple ways to get picky eaters to start to branch out Why cooking with your kids is about so much more than getting dinner on the table Here's where you can find Mark:  bittmanproject.com @markbittman on social media Buy HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING - KIDS: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9780544790322 mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for m

How has Halloween become a days-long, massively involved and expensive holiday? What happened to the good old days of stumbling around the neighborhood in a Barbie mask you could barely breathe in with a pillowcase full of candy? Here's how Halloween went from just spooky to spooky consumerist. Amy and Margaret discuss: How Halloween has lost its truly spooky nature over the years The origins of the Switch Witch Their favorite Halloween costumes growing up Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode: Paige Pickett for Kids Out and About: Mom Saves Halloween for her Son with the Switch Witch Primary Kids' Costumes Melissa Willets for Parents Magazine: Is the Switch Witch Brewing Up Some Controversy This Halloween? Maura Judkis for Boston.com: With huge skeletons, the yard-decorating arms race heats up Lori Ferraro for LikeTotally80s.com: The Mask Makes It - Halloween Costumes of the 1980s National Retail Federation: Halloween Spending to Reach Record $12.2 Billion as Partic

This month's Deep Dive series is all about helping our kids through hardships like making mistakes, getting rejected, and facing competition. Listen to the whole playlist on Spotify. There are benefits to our kids' making mistakes, even when it’s hard. Maybe especially when it’s hard. Some kids have tons of flexibility and safety around trying new things, around failing. Others not so much. In this episode we discuss: how the brain lights up when a mistake is made, paying extra attention why being very wrong about a fact once ensures you will always remember it thereafter the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset– and how mistakes encourage the latter Carol Dweck and what she calls the power of "not yet" how we can make our homes "mistake-friendly environments" Here are links to writing on the topic that we discuss in this episode: Claudia Wallis for Mind/Shift: Why Mistakes Matter in Creating A Path For Learning Dr. Janet Metcalfe, Columbia University: “Learning from Errors,” C

Right now our society feels more polarized than ever. We don't agree on much—and sometimes the people we disagree with most are the ones who are closest to us. This week, we talk about how to handle those difficult relationships and conversations with Brit Barron, author of the new book DO YOU STILL TALK TO GRANDMA? Brit Barron is a highly sought after speaker on the topics of sexuality, spirituality, race, storytelling, and personal development. In this interview, Brit, Margaret, and Amy discuss: Why our brains are attracted to binary thinking— and we can become stuck in it How the biological imperative to find "cognitive closure" can shut us off from new ideas Why the knee-jerk reaction to write off those with whom we disagree online gets more complicated when we apply those rules to some of the people we love most How to get more humble about the things we might not know (yet) Here's where you can find Brit: www.britbarron.com @britbarron on IG Buy DO YOU STILL TALK TO GRANDMA: https://bookshop.or

In September 2024 the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, issued an Advisory on the Mental Health and Well-Being of Parents. In it, he declares the mental health and well-being of parents an urgent public health issue. In this episode we discuss the revealing research included in this report, stating that parents consistently report higher levels of stress compared to other adults.  But is parenting really more stressful than ever? This advisory certainly highlights many reasons why it just might be: the increasing costs of childcare and housing, the increasing hours parents spend at work, the increasing anxiety around guns and our kids’ safety at school, and the unrealistic expectations created by what the report calls a “culture of comparison.”  We think making a change requires more than parents looking on the bright side—we need societal changes and better support systems like paid family leave. We can also all do more to foster a culture that values and supports parents, ensuring their well-being and

This Deep Dive series is titled "Things We've Learned After Doing This Motherhood Thing for a While." Listen to the whole playlist on Spotify. Youth is wasted on the young. We wasted our youth taking the wrong classes in college and layering imaginary agendas onto other people's dopey behavior. Sound familiar? We asked our listeners: If you could time travel, what advice would you give your younger self? Here's the best advice we all learned from doing things the wrong way! We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/ mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible wo

What does it really mean to raise resilient kids, and where do we start? Dr. Tovah Klein, Director of the Barnard College Center for Toddler Development and a psychology professor at Barnard College at Columbia University, is also the author of the new book RAISING RESILIENCE. Tovah's book explains why we might have to look inward first when attempting to raise children who can handle life's challenges. In this interview, Tovah, Amy, and Margaret discuss: The psychological underpinnings of the common parental desire to smooth over even minor difficulties in our kids' lives How to act as both anchor and container for our kids The five pillars of kids' resilience, and what we can do to support each Here's where you can find Tovah Klein: www.tovahklein.com @tovahklein on IG and X @howtoddlersthrive on FB www.linkedin.com/in/tovah-klein Buy RAISING RESILIENCE: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9780063286566 We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and c

Amy's book Happy to Help: Adventures of a People Pleaser is coming in January 2025. Pre-order your copy! How important is it to teach our kids the manners that we ourselves learned as children? Which social niceties should we keep up with and which ones should we discard? In this episode, Amy and Margaret discuss: How manners have sometimes been used as gatekeeping tools in the past What to do when you disagree with other grownups about the manners that matter for your kids Why we think the manners that center kindness are the ones that really matter Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode: Tamar Adler for The New York Times: "A Manners Manifesto" Sophie Kiderlin for CNBC's Make It: "Americans are least likely to care about kids having good manners. Here’s what they prioritize instead" Clare Finney for Vogue: "Gen-Z Doesn’t Care About Table Manners. So What?" David Lowry for Parents.com: "22 Simple Manners All Kids Should Know" We love the sponsors that make this show p