Real talk for moms balancing family, career, and big dreams...without losing themselves in the chaos.
Episode 97: Why Do Moms Feel Like Bad Parents When We Let Go? Mom Guilt, Letting Go & Having Fun Too
Have you ever let your kids go off on their own for the first time and immediately felt like you were doing something wrong?
They are up the street with their friends. You are finally talking to another grown-up. You are laughing. You are actually finishing your sentences.
And then a little voice says...
"What kind of mom lets her kids go while she stands here having fun?"
But are you really a bad mom?
Or are you just a mom in a ne...
Have you ever tucked your child into bed and walked out of the room wondering if you have gotten this whole parenting thing wrong?
Your child is lonely. Your child cries the second someone corrects them. Your kids say they do not have friends. They ask to be homeschooled.
And suddenly one question will not leave you alone:
Did I raise them wrong?
This week I had two moments with my kids that stopped me in my tracks: my son, who fee...
Have you ever picked up your phone late at night and, two minutes later, decided you are behind in your entire life?
One mom ran a half marathon. Another made homemade costumes for every kid. Somebody launched a business. Somebody's kitchen is spotless.
And suddenly you feel not rich enough, not stylish enough, not pretty enough, not skinny enough...
Just not enough.
But says who?
But are they actually ahead of you?
Or are they jus...
Have you ever stood in a room full of people and felt completely alone?
Everyone is laughing. Everyone seems to know each other. And you are standing by the snack table, pretending to be very interested in the pretzels.
Now imagine your child feeling that way.
This weekend my daughter went to a birthday party and told me afterward that she felt so lonely. She did not share the same interests as the other girls, and at times she wen...
Have you ever had something go wrong first thing in the morning and decided five minutes later that the entire day was ruined?
The kids cannot find their shoes. Someone spills breakfast. Nobody is listening. You are running late. You lose your patience.
And suddenly...
“Today is going to be a disaster.”
But are you actually having a bad day?
Or did you just have a bad ten minutes?
After listening to Tony Robbins' Life F...
How much of your life is spent worrying about what other people think?
How you look. What you wear. How your kids behave. Whether your house is clean enough. Whether you are a good enough mom. Whether you are successful enough. Whether people like you.
But what if they judge you anyway?
This week, after hearing Ben Kjar share his powerful story at Funnel Hacking Live, I came home thinking ...
Have you ever noticed how quickly your brain can take one uncomfortable moment and turn it into the worst possible scenario?
A child does not answer their phone. Your boss says, “Can we talk?” You hear a noise in the middle of the night. You walk into an unfamiliar situation and suddenly your mind is ten steps ahead, imagining everything that could go wrong.
This week, I caught myself doing exactly that.
An unexpected m...
We want to raise resilient kids. But can we push that lesson too far?
At a soccer game this weekend, Nikki watched an 8 or 9-year-old boy who had already played three games in extreme heat tell an adult he wasn't okay. He raised his hand, came out of the game, and later said he felt sick to his stomach.
What happened afterward left Nikki thinking about one question:
When are we teaching ou...
Why do I have no patience anymore?
One more question. One more interruption. One more kid asking for the exact same thing you already said no to five minutes ago, and suddenly you feel like you're about to lose it.
Then comes the mom guilt.
Why did I react like that? Was I always this irritable? Is it the mental load? The constant interruptions? My age? Perimenopause? Is it me... or is it ...
Why is it so hard for moms to let our kids figure things out on their own even when we know they're completely capable?
In this episode of Struggle & Strength: Moms Balancing It All with Nikki, Nikki shares a hilarious and surprisingly emotional moment from her kids' very first cross-country race.
Before the race even started, Nikki overheard a couple of dads joking about whether they ...
We're raising families in a completely different world, so why are so many moms still trying to live up to an outdated definition of what a “good mom” should be?
In this episode of Struggle & Strength: Moms Balancing It All with Nikki, Nikki sits down with her friend Laura for a conversation that was supposed to be about friendship...and quickly became something much deeper.
Identity.
Who are you when you take away ...
When did they get so big?
Back to school is supposed to be exciting. New teachers. New friends. New experiences. A fresh start.
So why can it also make a mom want to cry?
This week, after Meet the Teacher nights, back to school bashes and preparing three kids to enter fourth, fifth and sixth grades, Nikki found herself confronting on...
Have you ever watched your child compete and somehow felt like YOU were the one competing?
After watching my daughter struggle during her 3 meter competition at USA Diving Nationals, I found myself genuinely upset.
And then I had to ask myself a hard question:
Why am I taking this so personally when it wasn't my competition?
If you're a sports mom, you may already know the answer.
We don't...
What if the greatest gift you could give your family isn't doing more... but taking better care of yourself?
This week, a conversation at a community event stopped Nikki in her tracks.
A mom walked up after seeing the health products on her table and said something that so many women quietly believe:
"Now that my kids are grown, it's finally time for me to start taking care of myself."
Tho...
Do you ever feel like you're carrying your entire family on your shoulders?
If you're a high-achieving mom, you've probably said these words before:
"It's just easier if I do it myself."
"By the time I explain it, I could have already finished it."
"If I don't remind everyone, it won't get done."
But what if your greatest strength is also the thing that's keeping you overwhelmed?
In this e...
Have you ever felt overlooked... even after giving everything to your family?
As moms, we spend countless hours planning, packing, organizing, encouraging, and making sure everyone else has what they need. Most of that work happens behind the scenes and often goes unnoticed.
After her daughter's national diving championship, Nikki experienced a moment that unexpectedly hurt. It wasn't abou...
Have you ever been asked a simple question about yourself... and realized you didn't know how to answer?
In this episode of Struggle & Strength: Moms Balancing It All with Nikki, Nikki shares a powerful coaching conversation that uncovered something she wasn't expecting.
After years of balancing motherhood, work, marriage, kids' activities, and the endless mental load, she realized she...
Why does making friends as an adult and especially as a mom feel so much harder than it used to?
In this episode of Struggle & Strength: Moms Balancing It All with Nikki, Nikki shares an unexpected Fourth of July story that reminded her how deeply many moms long for genuine connection.
Somewhere between raising kids, building careers, juggling activities, and carrying the mental load o...
I thought leaving for four days would teach me how to become a better entrepreneur.
Instead, it taught me how to become a better mom.
Like so many mothers, I believed balancing it all meant making sure every detail was handled by me. Before I boarded my flight, I had packed bags, coordinated schedules, planned transportation, organized activities, and create...
Why is it that moms can physically leave the house, but mentally we never really leave at all?
This week, I'm heading to Arizona for a mastermind event while my husband and daughter travel to Orlando for a diving competition. My parents are flying in from New York to stay with my boys. Add in Father's Day weekend, my husband's birthday, work deadlines, sports schedules, airport pickups, and all the moving pieces of family life, and...
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DISGRACELAND is an award-winning music and true crime podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. Jerry Lee Lewis's 5th wife? Dead. Sid and Nancy? Both dead. Why? Because musicians are insane, and insane things happen to them. Why did we lose Amy Winehouse at 27? Was Debbie Harry really abducted by Ted Bundy as she claims? Is Patti Smith not just the "Godmother of Punk", but also the "Original True Crime Girl"? What really happened the night of the Jay Z nightclub stabbing? What do the Diddy indictments truly reveal? All these stories and more, on artists from every genre and their true crimes, in our massive 260-plus story archive. The Dead, the Stones, Johnny, Willie, Frank, Kurt, Courtney, Gaga, Lana, Taylor, and too many to name. DISGRACELAND is music history come to life through audio storytelling as you've never heard it before, with revealing facts: yes, assassins are the real reason the Beatles quit touring—reclaimed myths: no, Mama Cass didn't die from choking on a ham sandwich––and constant reckoning between art and artist––all told through the lens of true crime. This is the podcast for the self-proclaimed "Disgos", the musically obsessed and the true crime heads; the outsiders, the independent thinkers who know that the best history is the history that gets buried. DISGRACELAND is where host Jake Brennan tells the stories they didn't want told. The kind you'll end up telling someone else. Get ready to uncover hidden truths and buckle up for truly edge-of-your-seat storytelling. New, fully scripted, sound-designed episodes are released every Tuesday. Bonus chat-style episodes where Jake responds to voicemails, texts, and emails from Disgos hit on Thursdays, and "Rewind" episodes from our archive drop on Sundays. DISGRACELAND is not a journalistic podcast. It's an entertainment podcast inspired by true events. Certain dialogue and scenes are dramatized, as is common in scripted entertainment based on real stories. Sources and credits for each episode are available at www.disgracelandpod.com. To unlock ad-free listening, exclusive content, and connect with your fellow Disgos, go to www.disgracelandpod.com to become an All Access member. Rocka Rolla.