The Mom Hour
Co-hosts Meagan Francis and Sarah Powers have eight kids between them, little to grown. Weekly conversations offer practical tips and real-life encouragement for moms who want to enjoy motherhood more, and cut back on comparison, worry, and stress. We’re not experts, we’re moms who’ve been there. We’re not perfect, we’re real. Welcome to The Mom Hour.
Episodes
Taking kids to Disney should be a magical experience, right? From meeting Mickey to flying on Dumbo, memory-making abounds. But LOTS of planning and strategizing goes into all that magic, and LOTS of parenting challenges present themselves inside the park gates. Today Sarah chats with Katie Gouldner from The Mom Hour team about the weeklong Disney trip she’s planning for later this spring. From rope-drop strategies to how ...
Let’s go deep on the fluffiest of topics: personal adornment. In today’s More Than Mom episode, Meagan and Sarah share our approaches to everyday jewelry, special gifts and heirloom pieces, jewelry trends and finding our personal styles. We also talk about where we like to buy jewelry, how motherhood seasons have intersected with accessorizing phases, and what our storage wins and woes are these days. Join us!
About Our Spo...
It’s our Podcastaversary (yep, we just made up a new word)! Today we are celebrating eight years of The Mom Hour by reflecting on some of your most-asked questions over the years. Beyond recurring queries like “should I have that third baby?” or “what’s the ideal spacing between kids?,” we’re digging into some deeper through-lines that point to the fears, insecurities, and hopes of our community. We also provide snapshots ...
Bowling. Bonfires. The mall (no, really.) And board games (maybe?). What’s fun for our families right now looks quite different than it did years ago, so today Meagan and Sarah revisit an oft-discussed hot topic on The Mom Hour: family “fun.” We share several ideas for ACTUALLY FUN family activities that work for our current seasons, as well as some gripes about things that feel like they should be fun but aren’t. Join us!
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It isn’t always easy to appreciate the mundane tasks of our daily lives, or to see the glass half-full when something goes awry. Inspired by yet another social media trend that had us scratching our heads at first (and then reflecting in spite of our forty-something selves), today Meagan and Sarah talk about situations from our own lives where we romanticized the hard stuff to get by. Join us!
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Worrying as a mom is a universal experience (and, spoiler alert: it never REALLY goes away). Today Meagan and Sarah look back over the years on the worries that surface most often in our community. Going by the questions we get from listeners, moms worry a lot about safety (our kids’, our own, the state of the world); and we also worry about WORRY (are we worried about the “right” things? is our worry creating anxiety in o...
Pitching, submitting, and financial uncertainty: the writerly life isn’t easy before kids come into the mix, but as a writer-mom it’s even trickier. In today’s episode, Meagan chats with contributor and full-time professional writer Joanne Ruelos Diaz to talk all things writing. We discuss how we each landed in this career, how we balance motherhood and writing, our hopes for the future and some advice about how to dive in...
Do you ever find yourself dreaming of a creative outlet or pursuit outside of your day-to-day life? Maybe you've thought about becoming an artist, opening a coffee shop, or even starting your own podcast! In this episode, Meagan and Sarah are talking about some of our dream businesses--and we include some from our team of contributors, too! Plus, Meagan gives an update on her actual new business endeavor that sta...
Do you have "mom mission statements"? Pillars or values that guide your parenting and ground your confidence when its shaken? We didn't - but now we do! In Episode 405 Meagan and Sarah offer up our personal motherhood mission statements by finishing the sentence "As I mom I...". Join us!
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Hiya is a daily children’s vitamin that’s stronger, cleaner, and tastier — made from a blend of 12 farm-...
UR Cute. Be Mine. XOXO. Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone (and happy birthday to Sarah)! No better day than today to talk all things kids, crushes, and budding romance. Join us as we discuss parenting kids through crushes, romance, and relationships, how much our kids share with us about their love lives, what we think about adults projecting romance onto toddlers and preschoolers, and what we hope for future relationships w...
Accepting and embracing the body changes that come with motherhood and midlife isn’t easy – and it’s a challenge that listeners write to us about a lot. While the conversation is (and must!) be nuanced, and the prevailing wisdom on this topic constantly changing, today we’re taking it on the only way we know how: from personal experience. Join Meagan and Sarah for an honest exchange about what body confidence means to us (...
A peek into pantry cupboards reveals a lot about how a family lives and the season of life they’re in. Today Meagan and Sarah open our own pantry doors and chat about what we see: from dry goods staples to kid-approved snacks and some things that are “just for mom,” we’ve got small joys and pesky frustrations in the pantry – just like any other area of the house! We also discuss the “ingredient household” TikTok trend that...
Big black trash bag energy is in full effect over here! In this episode Sarah is joined by contributor Joanna Martin for a conversation about how, why and what we are getting rid of this January. We talk strategic home resets, major junk-hauling, and tips for ongoing clutter maintenance. And while on the surface this episode is about physical stuff, we also acknowledge the emotional complexity that surrounds getting rid of...
Does solitude come naturally to your kids, or are moments of solo play far and few between? Meagan and Sarah read some research recently that challenged us to think about the importance of alone time, and whether our kids get enough. In this episode, we dive into our own childhood memories, how our children embrace (or run from) solitude, and how challenging it is to find that just-right balance. Join us!
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With all the day-to-day planning required to run a household, it’s easy to put longterm planning on the back burner. Today Meagan and Sarah share lessons we’ve learned (or are still learning) that help us look ahead at a whole year, quarter, or month at a time. From knowing ourselves and our seasonal rhythms to figuring out where they keep next year’s school calendar, we’ve picked up a few things over the years, and we’re ...
C-e-l-e-b-r-a-t-e good times, come on! Today’s episode is number 400! We can’t think of a better way to celebrate hitting a big podcast milestone than talking about how we honor birthdays and milestone celebrations in our families – especially as kids get older. Join Meagan and Sarah as we offer insight into making birthdays special for big kids, tweens and teens; how kids getting older hits us differently as moms, too; an...
New year, new you…or, maybe just a bit of new energy? Every January we are bombarded with content about goal setting, resolutions, simplifying things and planning out our calendar in detail for the entire year. And while some years January finds us ready to dive in head first, other years we need a bit of inspiration before getting our New Year’s juices flowing. In today’s episode, Meagan and Sarah share how we’re using th...
Laundry is is a constant: it’s truly with us every day, week, and month of the year. In this first episode of 2023, Meagan and Sarah focus in on the laundry systems and strategies that are working (or not) in our homes, plus our favorite products, the grossest things we deal with, what’s great (and weird) about our laundry rooms, and how seasons of life change the challenges of keeping up with the laundry. If you wear clot...
As work-from-home moms, we’re perpetually seeking comfort and warmth during the winter months – stopping JUST SHY of living in pajamas 24/7. If your cozy winter wardrobe needs an update or you’re itching to do some post-Christmas shopping, listen to Episode 397 for Meagan’s and Sarah’s cold-weather fashion faves. Join us!
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Hiya is a daily children’s vitamin that’s stronger, cleaner, and tastier —...
Running a full-time independent podcast company keeps us busy – so busy that we don’t often pause to let listeners in to how it all works! As we approach the end of 2022, Meagan and Sarah share what’s up behind the scenes at The Mom Hour. We start with a lightning round of frequently asked questions (how’d we meet? do we fight? how does the podcast make money?) and move into bigger thoughts about our industry as a whole an...
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