September 22, 2025 • 44 mins
Felicity House is a residential home in Los Angeles that provides a safe and nurturing environment for women recovering from addiction & alcohol abuse. Join the Moms as they talk to Kathy Reis, a Board Member, and hear her own personal journey in attaining sobriety through the Felicity House program. It is a powerful reminder that with the right support, every mom struggling with alcohol abuse can find her path to healing and a brighter future. We Celebrate all Moms!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome moms. Welcome to Inside the Mom's Club. I'm your host,
Monica Samuels, and I am very thrilled today to have
with us my co host's daughter, Georgia Orchid. Thank you
so much Georgia for joining us. So as we not,
it's like a lot of times the guests that we
(00:22):
have on the show, we'll talking about a lot of
different things. We don't often talk about parenting exactly. This
is more like a show to support moms on a
lot of things. So, but today we were touching on
some parenting stuff and we thought it would be great
to have a perspective of a child. You're not a child.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I'm a recent child.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
You're your mom's child, a relatively recent child, a recent
grad young adult you are, and so I'm so thrilled
that you're here today.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Have give us a great perspective. So let's start. You
are just graduating from college and you're living You're in
La yes, ma'am, and you're starring on a major in
a major motion pictures. Is it my correct?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Absolutely things. Just you know, it was just so easy
to start my career here.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
It's so fast, I know, no I'll always say that
you come out to La next thing, you know your stars.
Yeah that's what they say, that said that something totally Yeah, No,
what are you doing?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
No, I'm definitely definitely not working at retail job vision right,
applying to thirty plus jobs online.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Definitely not my reality.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, well you're actually get there. That's how it starts.
So see Georgia someday.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
We definitely wasn't working last night inventory till ten thirty.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, definitely not happening.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Well, but you're but you can see while you're while
you're out there helping those customers or whatever with the register,
whatever you got to practice or imagine your your Oscar
acceptance speech or you know, then the line they're at
the red carpet or walk through your store like you're
walking the red carpet every day. I mean, just get ready.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Okay, I'll start doing that, Monica, and I'll let you
know what my manager thinks.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Well, okay, you're you work a number of stores here
in LA. Don't We're not going to say the brand because.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, we'll keep it confidential.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Leck go, but like you get to work at all
different stores all over town, right, yes, so who are
who are their favorite customer types, like like what stores like?
I can't wait to get to the Glendale store because
they're just the most awesome people there.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Something I will say about the Glendale store is our
I can't know if it's a Century City or Glendale,
but the sales section incredible. Oh yeah, which I really
love a good sale, so me too. But I think
my favorite customers are one or the other tourists who
have no idea where they are or what they want,
or people who know exactly what they want and they
(02:44):
come all the time and they're just like, I'm here
for another pair of blank mm hmm, can you help me?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
So, yeah, you got a lot of tourists here.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
A lot of tourists, especially at the location that I
work at is a very tourist mall area.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
I'm gonna guess that's Century City.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
It's no, it's it's it's actually the Grove. I just
narrowed down the retail scope for you guys.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah it's the Grove. Oh okay, well I work at
the Grove. Yeah you do that, Yeah, you work at
the Grove.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
I've also worked in Beverly Hills and Melrose Avenue.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Was that like she knows all the spots. That's where
you meet your contacts.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Well, it's really great that you can swift your swift,
swap your shift with any A lot of words, you
can swap your shift with anyone in the greater LA area.
So it is a really great way to meet new
people in different parts of the city because La feels
like a bunch of different cities.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I have one last question and then we're going to
get to our guests. We have a very important show here.
You work for a store chain that's all over the world,
So why didn't you think a tourist would stop at
a store that they could go to?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
They do?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
They think they're going to find something special in the
Beverly or they can say I bought this at Beverly Hills.
Is that the idea?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
What monarchy been shopping on vacation, haven't you?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, but I always try to go to the local,
you know, kind of what's local to the area.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
And like.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
I mean, if they don't go to if they don't
go to our store, they're going to go to like
across the street, to Sephora or Stroms.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, so they're just so when they landed in your mall,
that's where those are your choices, I guess. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I mean people like people love the shop.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
I'm just trying to like the psychology, the psychology of
a tourist, because like I'm one here right now, and
after this, I'm heading over to Rodeo Drive because I
want to get a souvenir over there.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yes, you've shut it.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Yeah, I'm going to look for a key chain. So
it was probably going to cost like five hundred dollars least. Yeah,
well I think that's what I can't afford over there
right now. So but I can at least they say
I got one while I was here. What nothing. Look,
our other co hosts is just not talking behind my back,
so just so you know, okay, okay, let's keep it.
(04:58):
Let's keep it professional.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
All right, Yes, ma'am miss Monica.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yeah, I'll be your mother for today too. Well. We
are excited today to have with us as our guest.
An La native UCLA grad, a business owner, a wife
of twenty five years, and the proud mom of two
amazing college age kids. She has over fifteen years of
sobriety and is an active member of Alcoholics Anonymous and
(05:22):
serves on the board A Felicity House Sober Living, which
is the place that supported her in her in her
early recovery. Please welcome Kathy Reese. Welcome to the Mom's Club.
Hello Kathy, thank you so much for joining us. Well,
(05:43):
you are part of a you have an interesting and
an important story, and you're a part of a very
important organization. So tell us a little bit about your
journey and how you you're now a board member of
Felicity House. Tell us a little bit about yourself background,
how it came together.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Well, you said the promo, which is actually a good
solid description of the beginning of my journey. And as
I mentioned, when I originally got sober, my daughter was
three and my son was eighteen months younger, so like
to one and night two, almost a little around there.
(06:24):
And my husband gave me a very he's a Canadian Portuguese,
so he's very nice, and he said, you need to
take a look at your drinking and smoking, or we
need to take a break. And so that got my attention.
That got me because I didn't want to lose my kids,
because I'm a mom and I love my kids, and
I didn't want to lose my husband because I have
(06:46):
That's what my codependency issues helped.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
So this is important to all the moms that are
out there, because there are some moms I think the
thing that motherhood obviously is a stressful time in your
life that can be so much stress and no matter
what stage your kids were very small that I remember
that time in my life and that's a lot. And
then it gets then, I hate to say, it gets
(07:10):
to middle school and it can get tougher, and then
they're off to the high school. You don't even know
what's happening. So a lot of moms really struggle with that.
And I've noticed from experience of knowing some you know,
other moms as I've gone through in my life, they
you might start drinking socially and you don't even stop
(07:30):
and think, like what it constitutes a time in your
life when I'm basically I need help. I probably know
your husband made you accountable and said, hey, you need
to do something about this. But I know I've talked
to friends that'll say, well, let's see, I drink every
day this week. I'm going to take off Friday because
I think that's important to take one day off, and
(07:51):
then I'm going to, like, at what point if you're
not being if someone's not making you accountable, how do
you think you can recognize in yourself, you know what,
I might need to go to AA, I might need
some support. This might not be a good thing that
I'm doing for myself or my kids. What's the tripping
point there? Do you think for most women or should
(08:13):
be that they recognized.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Well, that's a good question. So the reason that I
drank when they were little would be the same reasons
that people women would drink regardless of the age. Because
I almost relapsed a few years ago with my with
my teenage daughter, who was nothing but a normal, healthy
(08:35):
teenage daughter. And so the the reason, you know, because
her shutting me out, her not wanting to talk to me,
her you know, me saying I got sober for you,
you know, and lashing out at my daughter was I
was not doing Alanon at the time, and it was
recommended to me to go to Alamon to work around
(08:57):
those issues. But as a mom who is just socially
drinking and trying to figure out if she needs help,
it would be if feelings are coming up for you
with your with your teenage young adults, because they are
not kids, and we are not allowed to call them that.
(09:17):
But if if I'm starting to deal with my feelings
and frustrations and wanting relief from a situation with you know,
hit a pot or alcohol, that's when it becomes an issue.
Like there are some people that can go remember the
old Sex and the City time when you know the show,
(09:37):
would you know they went out? I remember, like watching
this episode, they just smoked pot on the fly. Somebody
happened to have it, and then they never smoked it again.
Like I wish I could do that. Like for me,
pot is like cookies and sweets and sugar, Like if
it's in the freakin' house, I'm gonna eat it. So
and that's the same thing with certain drinks, right, maybe
not this type of alcohol, but other types of alcohol,
(09:59):
like that's my drink, that's my you know, red Bull
and vodka. Like if it's in the house, I'm going
to drink it. So I would say for moms and
women that are it's it's hard. Life is hard right now,
you know with an adults. But I'm saying that that
if if I'm trying to fix my problems with something
(10:19):
on the outside, then it's never been That's when I
need to start taking a look because AA and alan
On you know, all of the twelve step programs, there's
the twelve steps that are tools for living one day
at a time, dealing with situations one day at a time,
but learning how to use tools to address what's inside
(10:41):
of me versus looking for, you know, something that's going
on on the outside. You know, the feelings of being
a mom go up and down. You know, like sometime
I'm comparing my inside with somebody's outsides, and I you know,
I could look at it at a young adult or
a mom and they're like, oh, my kid goes to
you know, Stanford, you know, or whatever, and they're saying
(11:03):
all this stuff, but I don't know the whole story. Like,
for all I know, they could have had the challenge
to get to that college. Like, look, my daughter is
at a top university, but you know what, she suffers
from migraines. She and wait a minute, they just started
in her senior year. And wait a minute. I didn't
know what a migraine was. So the fact that I.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
Didn't the fact that I didn't know how to interact
with my daughter and to honor her pain. And I
was like, well, what do you, you know, just go
to school and she was under the chair in her senior.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Year, lad a top student. She just like left and
so learning how to deal with that, you know, with
the twelve steps was really helpful. And that's when I
almost went out and I leaned into AA. I called
other moms, and I found out that it was really
common and that she was just trying to set boundaries
and thank god that she met a teacher account.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
That helped her deal with that boundaries with me. Yeah,
you know, so, I guess the thing is what a
lot of people deal with stressors different ways. And if
your stress relief is I'm feeling stressed, I'm going to
have a drink or smoke pot or whatever, then maybe
that's identifies to you that. But you know, it's also
(12:26):
when you're at that place, it's not easy to get
past that. I think one of the big biggest tests.
And I told, you know, my kids when they were
in high school about drinking and everything, and I tried
to the reason I personally tried to warn them about
alcoholism was because my grandfather was an alcoholic and I
(12:49):
heard stories from my grandmother or my mother who watched
my grandfather physically beat up my grandmother when he was drunk,
and the next day he would say, did I do
that to you? Because he'd see her all black and
blue and didn't even remember it. So we knew growing
up that and there's some there's some genetic component to
that too.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
So I always told my kids, if you start drinking
with your friends or whatever, and if you feel like
you can't stop, or you feel stressed or whatever, and
you feel like I need a drink because I've this
is overwhelming me, then maybe you need you need you
have do you need the help? And I praise you
that you.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Do stop at one. I mean that if somebody can
be like, I'm stressed and I'm just gonna have a
glass of wine, well that's an alcoholism, right. Yeah, it's
when it's when I'm going after Oh that makes me
feel good, but yeah, another one, Oh that makes me
feel good. Let me and by the time I'm done,
(13:48):
I'm having six seven drinks. But yeah, it is adit
it is hereditary. I'm one of five children and I'm
the only one sober, and every single one of us
has it. Yeah, And so when my kids were young,
I used to call them mommy meetings. I would say, okay, mom,
I'm going to a meeting and they would say, well,
where what do you and I'm going to mommy meetings?
And what do you do at mommy meetings? These are
(14:09):
these AA meetings And I'd say, well, we learned how
to be a good mom and we don't hit our kids.
We don't because I was abused as a kid, right,
I had something similar, and so we learned how to
take care of our bodies and we don't put things
that aren't good for us. And I remember being so terrified, like,
oh my god, my kids are going to know that
I'm an alcoholic. How am I going to address it?
And I would have I would lean into the program
(14:30):
with other moms and they would like, don't worry about it.
Did they ask you why are you stressed about it? Answer?
And then I would answer appropriately of where they were
at the time, So if they said, I would say
mommy meetings. And then as they got older, it was
like then I could talk about AA and what it
is and how addiction runs in the family, and unfortunately
I would say, well, you see Uncle Kavin, how he's
(14:51):
passed out on a Sunday and there's twenty beer cans
around it. Well that's alcoholism.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Well I commend you.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
For and then it like kind of just as they
got older.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah, I commend you for your husband too. You know,
it's not easy to address that with someone else to say,
and that's probably one of the hardest things to because
there's more of there's more of this in the society
than we want to ever admit people. Most people won't
even admit they have that problem. And they do, and
then it's up to their friends. Their friends notice it
(15:23):
in mind. But he's brave enough to say, I'm your friend,
and you know what you're drinking every day and doesn't
seem like it's helping you. You know, how do you?
I mean, what are your thoughts about? Because you're you're
a young person who you probably see a lot of
kids that you went to college with. You may a recognize.
I mean, I know my son has talked about some
of his friends like he's an alcoholic. Mom. He recognizes,
(15:46):
now this kid in college is an alcoholic. But how
do you tell him? How do you we?
Speaker 3 (15:51):
I also, I wanted to say thank you to all
of you guys who are working at the Felicity House
and doing these things to support sober mothers and with
sobriety for women, And because even though Laurie and I
were just talking about how there were a lot of
drugs available in like the eighties, but in a way
it's just as bad as it was then now because
(16:13):
of the media and because of how stressful in polarizing
this time can feel, and because of social media, vape
ads are being targeted towards young adults where it's not
even legal for them to buy it. There's social media
and advertisements for alcohol are everywhere, and you see advertisements
(16:35):
on your phone when you scroll. It's just really hard
to avoid those substances. And it's still a part of
college culture as well. There's like an expectation to try things.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Yeah, it's a tough.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
And it is a hard line because you want to
be there for your friends, but you also don't want
to lose their friendship by bringing up something they're not
ready to.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Be brave enough. So when your husband addressed this with you,
did you resent that at first or disagree with him?
Or were you appreciative that you know what I think
you've you told me. You just said what I know
you were thinking and I needed to do.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Yeah, I mean I kind of driving. And that was
a big deal too, because he was like, look, he
sees me drinking in the house and then going out,
and then he's like, if you get a DUI, I'm
responsible for that too. You're the mother of my child.
He said, I didn't marry this. This is not what
I signed up for, is what he told me. He
did say he had to go to therapy to get
advice on how to interact with me because he loved
(17:38):
me and he didn't want to lose me. But he
was ready to walk away. And unfortunately, I've heard many
stories in the rooms of AA where people took that
ultimatum and just said, well, you know, and they ended
up getting divorced. So I feel very fortunate. I mean,
I'm married twenty five years because I'm sober, like, I'm married,
you know, my kids are thriving because I'm sober.
Speaker 6 (18:01):
Like.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
That is such a gift to be able to you know. Like, however, however,
my higher power needed to like deliver that message. It
did because if somebody would have been you know, he's
such a nice guy that he did it with such
love and calmness. The way he told me that, I listened.
You know, I was just I was just a party
girl on a rampage and didn't want to grow up.
(18:22):
You know, I was just being immature. And then once
I became a mom, it was like, you know, these
these Kauds are my focus. So when my daughter acted
out as a young adult and I was like, what
so and so sobriety and motherhood is like leveled up
at a whole different level because now I have to
you know, I talked to other moms that are sober,
(18:43):
like how do you deal with your teenage daughter? And
they're like, don't call her? Like I'm like what wait
for her to call you? You know, stuff like that,
and I'm like, what do you talk? So that was
the best advice I forgot, you know. And I have
a son and a daughter and they're completely different, like
the way I interact with you know. So it's that
motherhood that's navigating is.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Really being a mom? Yeah? Absolutely, well tell us. So
the other gift is Felicity House. So can you describe this?
What what is Felicity House? How does how does it operate?
And it's obviously an important tools.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
City house is a non Felicity House is a nonprofit
beautiful craftsman house on the West Side. It's a transitional living.
It's the most inexpensive. I think it's like only twelve
hundred dollars a bed, which is crazy because most sober
livings are like a couple of thousand, like a lot
(19:38):
and a lot of times people can get scholarship, you know,
we have lots of you know, tools and programs that
help pay for it. But they've been around since nineteen
seventy four. They've been around a long time, and so
they it's it's a transition house for any woman that
wants to stay sober and you you live there. The
(19:58):
maximum time you can live is about a year and
a half. You have chores, you have everything from yoga,
it's a sound bowl things. On certain nights, you have
to have a job or at least looking for a job.
You have to have a sponsor. Pretty much. It's like
bringing you know, there's a Monday night, there's a Wednesday meeting.
(20:19):
It's open to the public. It's a beautiful candle light
women's meeting that that's open to all and all women
or people identify finding as women. It's anyway we can
be supportive. We have lots of events there. We have
a comedy show coming up on the eighteenth of this
month in Hollywood at the Cuck Lounge. We do a
(20:42):
gala every year and that one's coming up in September.
But it's just all to support women one day at
a time, showing them how to live and that you know,
they make friends. They some people say like I didn't
know how to like make my bed. I didn't know
how to do a checkbook. I didn't know how to
you know, cook, I didn't My daughter when she was
(21:04):
a Girl Scout, she ended up doing her Girl Scout
Gold Award, and she ended up doing teaching life skills
through baking to women in sobriety because some people don't
know anything about baking or measuring or following directions, you know.
And so to be able to integrate that and that
was a great opportunity for my daughter to see like, wow,
(21:24):
remember so and so, Oh she's in jail. Well, you know,
the people relapse, it's part of the story. Some unfortunately
the statistics. So to be able to share that and
just stay dialed dialed in, I mean, one of the
women that you know Denise who's on the on the
zoom she went through the house and she's like the
director of the house. Now another woman who's a sober mom,
(21:44):
she's on the board with me and she went through
the house and she's has like two years like just
to see this path of like the ones that make
it like it's like the starfish thing, like you can't
save every starfish. But we're he but but Felicity House
has been in a beacon of hope and an icon
like that's always been there and we're there when they
(22:05):
want to come back, we're there. If they want to stay,
we're there no matter what. Right it's like parenthood, like
I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Uh yuh no. That's great and it's so valuable. I
absolutely love that.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
I think the community aspect of it is Yeah, by
by far the most amazing part.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Well, and I love that you do a comedy that
you have a comedy show too, because we have our
motto is if you don't laugh, sometimes you're going to cry.
So we believe in introducing laughter into everything. Well, we
have some moms who want to meet you and ask
you some questions and they are our zoomer Moms. Welcome,
Zoomer Moms, Welcome to the Moms Pop. Hello, ladies, We're
(22:47):
so thrilled to have you, and for all you moms
out there, you want to be a zoomer mom, you
need to get in touch with us. Look at our
website inside mom the Inside the Mom's Club dot com
and you just apply to be a Zoomer Mom, because
we know there's a lot of you great moms out
there who want to join us as well. Well, let
me introduce first, Michelle, tell us a little bit about yourself.
(23:09):
Where are you from which and if your full name
so everybody get to know you, and do you have
a question.
Speaker 7 (23:16):
My name is Michelle Elizabeth Williams. I am a native
of New York, but I've been living here home now
in Atlanta for about thirteen years. I am an author
of my book entitled Nobody Ever Told Me, And just
from the title alone, you can almost imagine what Nobody
Ever Told Me. I've been traveling the world telling my
(23:40):
story about sexual, physical, and mental abuse, and what just
touched me about your story was that you overcame alcoholism
and how you're fighting through it every day to be
the best mom, the best friend, the best person that
you can be. My question to you would be, have
(24:01):
you ever taken out time to thank God that he
chose you to be that alcoholic? And the reason why
I asked that question is because you were chosen and
you had to fight through every feeling that an alcoholic
person would have to go through. You had to go
(24:22):
through loss, you had to go through the teenage barriers
of the children. But all of this happened because I
just believe you were chosen by God to have to
go through this, because if you had not went through this,
you would have never opened up that house and you
wouldn't be able to stand there and say to these women,
(24:43):
I know what you're feeling, I know what you're going through.
I know exactly what you're talking about. Have you ever
taken out time to just thank God that he chose
you to be the vessel for your life?
Speaker 4 (25:00):
Michelle, thank you for the question. I definitely definitely do regularly.
I define God as my higher power. And yeah, because
I have been sexually abused and all that, I had
all all the reasons in the world to be an addict.
And then you know, when I started, you know, going
(25:22):
to Felicity House and listening to other stories and hearing
people go to the same thing, and then listening to
their solutions on how they got through stuff. It was
all about higher power and God. You know, some people
are not don't like to see the word God. And
then you just get to choose, you know, whatever it
looks like for you. But for me, I'll okay with that,
(25:45):
and and I do I do in my my daily checkki.
I have a gratitude list that I have on a
group chain with my sponsor and other Silber sisters. Every
time I'm in a meeting, I know that it's a
gift that I that I'm in that room for myself,
and you know, like I'm a human. So every once
(26:08):
in a while goes back and forth like oh, I
wish I didn't have to go through all this stuff.
But then I get what you said, Michelle, that like
if it wasn't for you know, being sexually abused by
my dad as a child, I wouldn't be able to
help other people that went through it. And so like
my kids don't know that. Then in AA it's always like, well,
what's the purpose in your communication? Like they don't need
(26:29):
to know that he passed away. I forget him all
that stuff, and it's and I can let it go
like that, that that abuse cycle is gone. My kids
are thriving, I'm married. You know, there's definitely other stuff
that comes up in life. But I know that when
when somebody shares about being sexually abused, I can share
that person feel they can exhale, like it's not only me, right,
(26:56):
because as we know, right when we're going through it,
we think we're the only ones. When I was, yeah,
we're that young. We think we're the only ones, and
we're not. That's the sad part. The second ies aren't
sharing about it. Literally, in a group of ten people,
five or six of them were like, oh me too,
I'm like, oh my God, Like, it's just so right.
(27:17):
So I do yeah, So I do know that that
God is always watching over me. Right, There's always there's
a lot. I have some other stuff going on now,
and it's like, okay, there's plan A, Plan B and
Plan G. That's God's plan and I'm just showing up,
showing up and doing the work, and you knowing, God's
(27:37):
plan sometimes not at my pace, you know, and I
want it to be fast, but unfortunately or fortunately right,
God wants me to like smell the flowers, slow down,
learn what I need to learn in this, you know,
in this experience called life, and then you know, like
take it with a grain of salt. See what's there
(27:59):
for me to learn. And along the way, like if
someone comes in my life and I didn't expect it,
instead of saying I don't have time for that, like okay, God,
what was the plan? Right? There's the the all the
prayers that you know that we do an AA that
really help, like you know, God's will that I will
be done, not mine that. Yes, I definitely have AI
(28:20):
based AA program that takes anything other than me. So
like if you're not religious and this doesn't hit you
the right way, that's okay as long as it's not you.
Because whenever I try to figure out stuff all myself,
then it's never going to work. And in the city house,
when I'm there with other women, it's moms. It's all
different levels of sobriety. It doesn't matter that I have
fifteen years because I could have went out a few
(28:42):
years ago with my daughter acting out and you know,
and then there's other times when we lean on each other. Right,
sometimes I'm having a better day and someone else is having,
you know, a bad day. And you know, in January,
I was having a horrible month because my business partner
died and bazzled all this money and I'm having to
deal with all this stuff and that is not fun.
(29:04):
But you know what, it's grown up shit and handle it,
you know well.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
I love I love your question, Michelle, and I love
your answer because yeah, being being also being your own
God is not.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Now.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
That never works very well. There's a lot of people
who try that, but that doesn't work. So I think
that's really great. That's the worst. Yes, that's a bad Gretchen,
welcome to the Mom's Club. Tell us your name, a
little bit about yourself, and do you have a question.
Speaker 8 (29:33):
I guess Miam is Gretchen BONADICI and I live in Bisbee, Arizona,
which is south of Tucson, and I did have a question.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
I wasn't quite clear.
Speaker 8 (29:42):
So did you have to check into the Felicity House
and live there while your children were young? And if so,
how did that work for you?
Speaker 4 (29:53):
Okay, so I did not go through the house. So
that's so. There are women on the board, and some
went through the house and some didn't and but to
answer your question, there are women. One of the women
that's on the board now, she was in the Sober
Living for a little over a year and her and
she's a mom, and her daughter was not in the house.
(30:16):
There are sober livings that accept moms and daughters, but
Felicity House is only for women. And so I would
I live close to Felicity House. So for me, that's
how I discovered Felicity House is it's close to my
house and and because it's a home in a neighborhood,
and I would always motherhood was such a big deal
for me, and again that's why I got sober, so
(30:38):
when I always wanted to get to a meeting and
then get home in time to read my kids a
book to put them to bed right. And so that's
why that's what brought me, and that's what introduced me.
But the sober living itself, definitely you can be a mom,
you don't have the moms that were there definitely eat
(31:01):
them through that process too, And so you know, they
lean they lean on me, and I give them resources.
Sometimes I'm sponsoring them through the process because as a mom,
losing your kids, I can't even imagine but that's what
that's where this disease takes us if we don't so yeah,
and answer to your question, Gretchen, definitely, that's what people
would do. They would either the courts have them or
(31:22):
the husband where they're trying to work out stuff.
Speaker 8 (31:25):
And yeah, yeah, well that must be such a motivation,
you know, to get help, because the thought of losing
your children has got to be so horrifying.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
I can't even fathom that.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
Yeah, it's more common than you think. Sadly enough, it's
very common. Yea. Yeah, well that that also is what
gives me passionate about sponsoring, you know, moms, is to
help them get their kids back because I know how
much I love my kids and I can't imagine. But
that's where this disease takes us. And it's not just
drugs and pot anymore. It's that mall and people are
(32:01):
dying anyway.
Speaker 8 (32:02):
Yeah, yeah, well, thank you for that. That's that's wonderful
to know that you can be a mother and if
you need to go, you can go, and that there
are places that'll take a mother and a daughter.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
I didn't know that that. Yeah, that's that's good to know. Yeah, yeah,
let me know if you need resources, I'm sourceful.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
That that is really portant. Gretchen. We're so thrilled to
have Gretchen on the show too. Richard's actually been a
guest of our show, and she had she ran for
mayor of Bisbee by the way, she mentioned Bisbee.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
Wow, so yes, I.
Speaker 8 (32:35):
Did or you didn't win though, but I did, right,
But you know, actually, yeah, you know what it is
an education trying to maneuver politics, you know, because fifty
percent of people are going to hate your guts and
you know, it's really hard to navigate that. But I'm
(32:55):
glad I did it, you know, and my reasoning we're
doing it was so pure and good.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
But you know, I learned a lot.
Speaker 8 (33:03):
So if I decided to jump back in a second time,
I've got a lot more skills than I had before
because I just didn't.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
We'll keep us We'll keep us posted because yeah, and
that can be that's stressful. We're talking about stress on
this show. I think throwing yourself into politics is incredibly stressful.
This is a great We get zoomer moms from all
over the place today, zoomer moms, a lot of them
have been guests on the show. And their authors. Michelle
you know is a good friend, Yeah, better many times,
and and and celebrities and mayoral candidates, and you know,
(33:36):
you actually probably could consider running for a higher office
there in Arizona. Why do you skip the mayor stuff?
Because I think they could use, you know, a good guy.
Speaker 8 (33:45):
Feel like I probably would have a better chance in
all of Arizona than in a tiny town.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
It's just weird here.
Speaker 8 (33:52):
Because there's so much misinformation because we have like five
thousand people in our town. I feel like you control
the narrative much better if you are covering the whole state,
so I might do that.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
I think you're actually right. So we'll just look forward
to your next campaign state wide in Arizona and.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Then from there Arizona.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
It seems like we're very these days in terms of that. Well, Denise,
welcome to the Mom's Club. Tell us your name and
where you're from, a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 6 (34:27):
Okay, Hi, I am Denise Day, and I am the
executive director for Felicity House, where Kathy is a board member,
and I am a mom to many moms here, usually
nine at a time, five days a week. We app
sometimes except for this weekend, but Kathy. I'm so proud
(34:51):
of your amazing strength and recovery and service work that
you do here at Felicity House, and I do thank
you so much. I'm so great to Kathy for being
such a great board member and support to me. I
came through Felicity House myself twenty years ago. It saved
my life, and about two years ago I came back.
(35:16):
We had a position open here and I was working
at a law firm. That a job I got through
Felicity House, by the way, and a successful career for
fifteen years, and then I did decided to come back
and give a shot at running the house. Didn't have
plans to stay, just was going to clean it up
(35:39):
as a board member and hand it off to somebody else,
and it became a passion. But my question for you,
Kathy would be, how do you talk to your kids
about alcoholism and do they come to meetings with you?
(35:59):
Do you introduce recovery to recovery to them in any way,
shape or form, since it is a generational hereditary disease.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
That's a great question.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
Yeah. Yeah, I before you were managing the house, so
it might have been a little pocket when you weren't there,
but I Felicity House does a graduation for women when
they have been there for a year, and they read
Doctor Seuss all the places you go, and they give
them a chip and we all do affirmations and things
(36:30):
for them, and it's a beautiful thing. So I did
bring my kids to one of those because they knew
one of the moms personally because the mom had a daughter,
and so they have actually seen they've come and given
me cakes early in my sobriety when they were probably
about like ten eleven, and then as young adults, so
(36:53):
they are familiar with it. And I think as they've
been older, so a couple of people, you know, push
are have been addicted to fentanyl and almost died a
few times their age, So now it's becoming real for them.
And so yeah, yeah, and so now since they've been
(37:14):
you know, sixteen, fifteen years old, we the conversations have
become a little more real. And especially now that my
young adults, I keep trying to say, babies, my babies.
My young adults are now away in college and they're
making decisions without me during their senior year, and before
(37:35):
the conversations would be I would say things like Okay, guys,
you know what addiction is, right, you know what I
used to use sugar. They're you know, like as an
analogy when they were younger. But you guys know, you know,
my uncle died of alcoholism. Might like they know people
also that have died. And so when I sent them
off to college, it was like, Okay, you know, you
(37:56):
either have daddy's jeans or you have mommy's jeans. Like,
you don't know what you're going to get. It's gonna
Russian roulette. So when you're offered drugs and alcohol at school,
like I can't stop you from choosing what you're gonna choose,
but I'm gonna tell you that it's Russian roulette. Like
you either you're in university to study and to learn
and to grow, and these are great opportunities for you
(38:18):
and this is the time of your life. And not
that you're never going to experiment, because I'm sure you are,
but my suggestion is that you wait until your brain
is developed a little bit more so that you don't,
you know, so you don't get sucked into because you
don't know which junior you're gonna have. And I've thank god,
I've been blessed enough where they are aware and they're
(38:39):
so far making good choices. It's not like they don't
go to parties where they weren't really big party kids. Anyway,
they're confidence. It's interesting. But my son, he's he's pretty confident.
He never like when I would say something, I would
something somebody said something about him, some girl that he
broke up, but he's like, I don't care. And then
I talked to there just about him. Like that's confidence
that he doesn't care what people think about him. He's
(39:00):
the kid that has been to a few parties now
and he literally bought a breathalyzer on Amazon just for
the hell of it. And see what you're all cao
like that's the way you know, Oh here's my boo.
When the I used to tell him, you're gonna get
peer pressure, and so the way that you get out
of it is you tell him I'm allergic to alcohol,
(39:21):
but go for it. Just be cool and be like yeah,
do what you want to do, or like maybe i'll
drive you'a'll be the driver, but don't like negated and
don't talk down because I know that pure pressure is
what sucks us all in. I know that's what sucked
me in, like when I was in high school, because
when I was his age, I was doing cocaine and
drinking and ecstasy and oh my god. I can't even like,
as a parent, like, oh my god. Unfortunately, I've heard
(39:44):
stories from women in the room where their kid ordered
some pot on what was the I don't know if
it was TikTok or whatever it was the time, and
it was laced with fentanyl and he died and the
super son was like eight. So just like that's the
kind of thing that now I'm telling my kids, like,
you no what you're going to get. So I've just prayed,
right Michelle, like God that they just make good choices
(40:08):
and and and just kind of been as real as
possible with them to let them know that, like, whatever
choices you're making as an adult, you know, you could
go this way or you could go that, and you
are now young adult, so you get to make the
choices that are going to predict where that next future is.
And I have, unfortunately too many examples made this choice
and this is where they're at. Or even as a
(40:29):
parent who's married, still I tell them, Look, they have
lots of friends whose parents are divorced. I said, we
could have been divorced too, but mommy made a choice
to get sober and to and that choice literally changed
the trajectory of your life because your dad and I
are still married. Like it could have went one you know.
So I basically just armed them with the tools and
(40:50):
then now I just pray. Now I just pray. But
so far, you know, so far, you know, it's it's
been okay. And but they do know, like I always
told them, like if anybody ever talks about it or
you know, they need you know, there's young people's I
tell them, there's young places for young people. They're not
all old parts like mommy. You know, there's there's parties
(41:11):
that are sober. Yeah, so we do we do a
lot of that. Now I just trust in God and
stay in my lane.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Kudos kudos to you, Katy all the way around. That
mean we're very This has been a great show, very informative.
We thank you so much. Where can people learn more
about Felicity.
Speaker 4 (41:29):
House Felicityhouse dot com. What's our website? Is it Felicity?
Do we add a number on it? Felicityhouse dot com.
Speaker 6 (41:36):
Is Felicityhouse dot com or Felicityhouse dot org.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
Okay, and then we're on Instagram underscore Felicity House, underscore
the ads line, and then we're on Facebook. If if
the young people still use that, when I know the
mom still use it. Facebook is Felicity House nineteen seventy four,
and all the events are all there, but the up
and coming one if you're in the LA area over
(42:02):
at Kabuki Kabok Lounge on the eighteenth is going to
be a fun laughing and mother.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
Yeah, let's have some laughs there and let's check it out.
And as a I'm so proud of myself now I've
learned an a lot about AI. I'm even teaching some people.
So if you have no other way to do it,
get on AI and just say what is Felicity House
and you'll learning about it. So that's another way to
do it. Well, thank you so much Kathy for joining us,
and thank you Zoomer Moms for joining us. We so
(42:28):
appreciate it, and we want to thank our sponsors. We're
talking about you know what what you can do to
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(42:50):
And if you put Mom's Club in the code at checkout,
you will get fifteen percent off every month of your subscription.
And you know what else is exciting here, uh Georgia.
We have some moms who have been writing in and
sharing with us some of the products that they're working
on and that they have. And this lovely doctor Candice
(43:12):
Janya sent us. She is an herbal she's an acupuncturist
and pain relief warrior and she has a product called
the Formula. She has the Formula for pain, which I
will absolutely try because you know, every once in a
while I have pain and skin and a product for
skin and it's all natural ingredients. It's based off of
(43:35):
Chinese herbal medicine. I mean it is. It's incredible. I
can't wait to try it. So thank you doctor JANIEA
for sending it to us. Can't wait to try it
out and check us out. If you're looking for on AI,
you can check us out there or at Inside the
Mom's Club, on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and on our website.
Inside the Mom's Club dot com well as always Georgia.
(43:57):
This has gone by way too fast, but thank you
so much for being part of it, and thank you
moms for joining us. We appreciate your time so much.
We know your me time is precious and valuable. Thank
you so much for spending it with us. Remember our motto,
if you don't laugh, sometimes you're gonna cry. Keep laughing, moms.
We'll see you next time inside the Mom's Club. Bye
(44:19):
zoomer bye everyone. Thank you
Welcome moms. Welcome to Inside the Mom's Club. I'm your host,
Monica Samuels, and I am very thrilled today to have
with us my co host's daughter, Georgia Orchid. Thank you
so much Georgia for joining us. So as we not,
it's like a lot of times the guests that we
(00:22):
have on the show, we'll talking about a lot of
different things. We don't often talk about parenting exactly. This
is more like a show to support moms on a
lot of things. So, but today we were touching on
some parenting stuff and we thought it would be great
to have a perspective of a child. You're not a child.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I'm a recent child.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
You're your mom's child, a relatively recent child, a recent
grad young adult you are, and so I'm so thrilled
that you're here today.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Have give us a great perspective. So let's start. You
are just graduating from college and you're living You're in
La yes, ma'am, and you're starring on a major in
a major motion pictures. Is it my correct?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Absolutely things. Just you know, it was just so easy
to start my career here.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
It's so fast, I know, no I'll always say that
you come out to La next thing, you know your stars.
Yeah that's what they say, that said that something totally Yeah, No,
what are you doing?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
No, I'm definitely definitely not working at retail job vision right,
applying to thirty plus jobs online.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Definitely not my reality.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, well you're actually get there. That's how it starts.
So see Georgia someday.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
We definitely wasn't working last night inventory till ten thirty.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, definitely not happening.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Well, but you're but you can see while you're while
you're out there helping those customers or whatever with the register,
whatever you got to practice or imagine your your Oscar
acceptance speech or you know, then the line they're at
the red carpet or walk through your store like you're
walking the red carpet every day. I mean, just get ready.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Okay, I'll start doing that, Monica, and I'll let you
know what my manager thinks.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Well, okay, you're you work a number of stores here
in LA. Don't We're not going to say the brand because.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, we'll keep it confidential.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Leck go, but like you get to work at all
different stores all over town, right, yes, so who are
who are their favorite customer types, like like what stores like?
I can't wait to get to the Glendale store because
they're just the most awesome people there.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Something I will say about the Glendale store is our
I can't know if it's a Century City or Glendale,
but the sales section incredible. Oh yeah, which I really
love a good sale, so me too. But I think
my favorite customers are one or the other tourists who
have no idea where they are or what they want,
or people who know exactly what they want and they
(02:44):
come all the time and they're just like, I'm here
for another pair of blank mm hmm, can you help me?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
So, yeah, you got a lot of tourists here.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
A lot of tourists, especially at the location that I
work at is a very tourist mall area.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
I'm gonna guess that's Century City.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
It's no, it's it's it's actually the Grove. I just
narrowed down the retail scope for you guys.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah it's the Grove. Oh okay, well I work at
the Grove. Yeah you do that, Yeah, you work at
the Grove.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
I've also worked in Beverly Hills and Melrose Avenue.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Was that like she knows all the spots. That's where
you meet your contacts.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Well, it's really great that you can swift your swift,
swap your shift with any A lot of words, you
can swap your shift with anyone in the greater LA area.
So it is a really great way to meet new
people in different parts of the city because La feels
like a bunch of different cities.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I have one last question and then we're going to
get to our guests. We have a very important show here.
You work for a store chain that's all over the world,
So why didn't you think a tourist would stop at
a store that they could go to?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
They do?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
They think they're going to find something special in the
Beverly or they can say I bought this at Beverly Hills.
Is that the idea?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
What monarchy been shopping on vacation, haven't you?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, but I always try to go to the local,
you know, kind of what's local to the area.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
And like.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
I mean, if they don't go to if they don't
go to our store, they're going to go to like
across the street, to Sephora or Stroms.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, so they're just so when they landed in your mall,
that's where those are your choices, I guess. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I mean people like people love the shop.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
I'm just trying to like the psychology, the psychology of
a tourist, because like I'm one here right now, and
after this, I'm heading over to Rodeo Drive because I
want to get a souvenir over there.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yes, you've shut it.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Yeah, I'm going to look for a key chain. So
it was probably going to cost like five hundred dollars least. Yeah,
well I think that's what I can't afford over there
right now. So but I can at least they say
I got one while I was here. What nothing. Look,
our other co hosts is just not talking behind my back,
so just so you know, okay, okay, let's keep it.
(04:58):
Let's keep it professional.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
All right, Yes, ma'am miss Monica.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yeah, I'll be your mother for today too. Well. We
are excited today to have with us as our guest.
An La native UCLA grad, a business owner, a wife
of twenty five years, and the proud mom of two
amazing college age kids. She has over fifteen years of
sobriety and is an active member of Alcoholics Anonymous and
(05:22):
serves on the board A Felicity House Sober Living, which
is the place that supported her in her in her
early recovery. Please welcome Kathy Reese. Welcome to the Mom's Club.
Hello Kathy, thank you so much for joining us. Well,
(05:43):
you are part of a you have an interesting and
an important story, and you're a part of a very
important organization. So tell us a little bit about your
journey and how you you're now a board member of
Felicity House. Tell us a little bit about yourself background,
how it came together.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Well, you said the promo, which is actually a good
solid description of the beginning of my journey. And as
I mentioned, when I originally got sober, my daughter was
three and my son was eighteen months younger, so like
to one and night two, almost a little around there.
(06:24):
And my husband gave me a very he's a Canadian Portuguese,
so he's very nice, and he said, you need to
take a look at your drinking and smoking, or we
need to take a break. And so that got my attention.
That got me because I didn't want to lose my kids,
because I'm a mom and I love my kids, and
I didn't want to lose my husband because I have
(06:46):
That's what my codependency issues helped.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
So this is important to all the moms that are
out there, because there are some moms I think the
thing that motherhood obviously is a stressful time in your
life that can be so much stress and no matter
what stage your kids were very small that I remember
that time in my life and that's a lot. And
then it gets then, I hate to say, it gets
(07:10):
to middle school and it can get tougher, and then
they're off to the high school. You don't even know
what's happening. So a lot of moms really struggle with that.
And I've noticed from experience of knowing some you know,
other moms as I've gone through in my life, they
you might start drinking socially and you don't even stop
(07:30):
and think, like what it constitutes a time in your
life when I'm basically I need help. I probably know
your husband made you accountable and said, hey, you need
to do something about this. But I know I've talked
to friends that'll say, well, let's see, I drink every
day this week. I'm going to take off Friday because
I think that's important to take one day off, and
(07:51):
then I'm going to, like, at what point if you're
not being if someone's not making you accountable, how do
you think you can recognize in yourself, you know what,
I might need to go to AA, I might need
some support. This might not be a good thing that
I'm doing for myself or my kids. What's the tripping
point there? Do you think for most women or should
(08:13):
be that they recognized.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Well, that's a good question. So the reason that I
drank when they were little would be the same reasons
that people women would drink regardless of the age. Because
I almost relapsed a few years ago with my with
my teenage daughter, who was nothing but a normal, healthy
(08:35):
teenage daughter. And so the the reason, you know, because
her shutting me out, her not wanting to talk to me,
her you know, me saying I got sober for you,
you know, and lashing out at my daughter was I
was not doing Alanon at the time, and it was
recommended to me to go to Alamon to work around
(08:57):
those issues. But as a mom who is just socially
drinking and trying to figure out if she needs help,
it would be if feelings are coming up for you
with your with your teenage young adults, because they are
not kids, and we are not allowed to call them that.
(09:17):
But if if I'm starting to deal with my feelings
and frustrations and wanting relief from a situation with you know,
hit a pot or alcohol, that's when it becomes an issue.
Like there are some people that can go remember the
old Sex and the City time when you know the show,
(09:37):
would you know they went out? I remember, like watching
this episode, they just smoked pot on the fly. Somebody
happened to have it, and then they never smoked it again.
Like I wish I could do that. Like for me,
pot is like cookies and sweets and sugar, Like if
it's in the freakin' house, I'm gonna eat it. So
and that's the same thing with certain drinks, right, maybe
not this type of alcohol, but other types of alcohol,
(09:59):
like that's my drink, that's my you know, red Bull
and vodka. Like if it's in the house, I'm going
to drink it. So I would say for moms and
women that are it's it's hard. Life is hard right now,
you know with an adults. But I'm saying that that
if if I'm trying to fix my problems with something
(10:19):
on the outside, then it's never been That's when I
need to start taking a look because AA and alan
On you know, all of the twelve step programs, there's
the twelve steps that are tools for living one day
at a time, dealing with situations one day at a time,
but learning how to use tools to address what's inside
(10:41):
of me versus looking for, you know, something that's going
on on the outside. You know, the feelings of being
a mom go up and down. You know, like sometime
I'm comparing my inside with somebody's outsides, and I you know,
I could look at it at a young adult or
a mom and they're like, oh, my kid goes to
you know, Stanford, you know, or whatever, and they're saying
(11:03):
all this stuff, but I don't know the whole story. Like,
for all I know, they could have had the challenge
to get to that college. Like, look, my daughter is
at a top university, but you know what, she suffers
from migraines. She and wait a minute, they just started
in her senior year. And wait a minute. I didn't
know what a migraine was. So the fact that I.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
Didn't the fact that I didn't know how to interact
with my daughter and to honor her pain. And I
was like, well, what do you, you know, just go
to school and she was under the chair in her senior.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Year, lad a top student. She just like left and
so learning how to deal with that, you know, with
the twelve steps was really helpful. And that's when I
almost went out and I leaned into AA. I called
other moms, and I found out that it was really
common and that she was just trying to set boundaries
and thank god that she met a teacher account.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
That helped her deal with that boundaries with me. Yeah,
you know, so, I guess the thing is what a
lot of people deal with stressors different ways. And if
your stress relief is I'm feeling stressed, I'm going to
have a drink or smoke pot or whatever, then maybe
that's identifies to you that. But you know, it's also
(12:26):
when you're at that place, it's not easy to get
past that. I think one of the big biggest tests.
And I told, you know, my kids when they were
in high school about drinking and everything, and I tried
to the reason I personally tried to warn them about
alcoholism was because my grandfather was an alcoholic and I
(12:49):
heard stories from my grandmother or my mother who watched
my grandfather physically beat up my grandmother when he was drunk,
and the next day he would say, did I do
that to you? Because he'd see her all black and
blue and didn't even remember it. So we knew growing
up that and there's some there's some genetic component to
that too.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
So I always told my kids, if you start drinking
with your friends or whatever, and if you feel like
you can't stop, or you feel stressed or whatever, and
you feel like I need a drink because I've this
is overwhelming me, then maybe you need you need you
have do you need the help? And I praise you
that you.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Do stop at one. I mean that if somebody can
be like, I'm stressed and I'm just gonna have a
glass of wine, well that's an alcoholism, right. Yeah, it's
when it's when I'm going after Oh that makes me
feel good, but yeah, another one, Oh that makes me
feel good. Let me and by the time I'm done,
(13:48):
I'm having six seven drinks. But yeah, it is adit
it is hereditary. I'm one of five children and I'm
the only one sober, and every single one of us
has it. Yeah, And so when my kids were young,
I used to call them mommy meetings. I would say, okay, mom,
I'm going to a meeting and they would say, well,
where what do you and I'm going to mommy meetings?
And what do you do at mommy meetings? These are
(14:09):
these AA meetings And I'd say, well, we learned how
to be a good mom and we don't hit our kids.
We don't because I was abused as a kid, right,
I had something similar, and so we learned how to
take care of our bodies and we don't put things
that aren't good for us. And I remember being so terrified, like,
oh my god, my kids are going to know that
I'm an alcoholic. How am I going to address it?
And I would have I would lean into the program
(14:30):
with other moms and they would like, don't worry about it.
Did they ask you why are you stressed about it? Answer?
And then I would answer appropriately of where they were
at the time, So if they said, I would say
mommy meetings. And then as they got older, it was
like then I could talk about AA and what it
is and how addiction runs in the family, and unfortunately
I would say, well, you see Uncle Kavin, how he's
(14:51):
passed out on a Sunday and there's twenty beer cans
around it. Well that's alcoholism.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Well I commend you.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
For and then it like kind of just as they
got older.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah, I commend you for your husband too. You know,
it's not easy to address that with someone else to say,
and that's probably one of the hardest things to because
there's more of there's more of this in the society
than we want to ever admit people. Most people won't
even admit they have that problem. And they do, and
then it's up to their friends. Their friends notice it
(15:23):
in mind. But he's brave enough to say, I'm your friend,
and you know what you're drinking every day and doesn't
seem like it's helping you. You know, how do you?
I mean, what are your thoughts about? Because you're you're
a young person who you probably see a lot of
kids that you went to college with. You may a recognize.
I mean, I know my son has talked about some
of his friends like he's an alcoholic. Mom. He recognizes,
(15:46):
now this kid in college is an alcoholic. But how
do you tell him? How do you we?
Speaker 3 (15:51):
I also, I wanted to say thank you to all
of you guys who are working at the Felicity House
and doing these things to support sober mothers and with
sobriety for women, And because even though Laurie and I
were just talking about how there were a lot of
drugs available in like the eighties, but in a way
it's just as bad as it was then now because
(16:13):
of the media and because of how stressful in polarizing
this time can feel, and because of social media, vape
ads are being targeted towards young adults where it's not
even legal for them to buy it. There's social media
and advertisements for alcohol are everywhere, and you see advertisements
(16:35):
on your phone when you scroll. It's just really hard
to avoid those substances. And it's still a part of
college culture as well. There's like an expectation to try things.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Yeah, it's a tough.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
And it is a hard line because you want to
be there for your friends, but you also don't want
to lose their friendship by bringing up something they're not
ready to.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Be brave enough. So when your husband addressed this with you,
did you resent that at first or disagree with him?
Or were you appreciative that you know what I think
you've you told me. You just said what I know
you were thinking and I needed to do.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Yeah, I mean I kind of driving. And that was
a big deal too, because he was like, look, he
sees me drinking in the house and then going out,
and then he's like, if you get a DUI, I'm
responsible for that too. You're the mother of my child.
He said, I didn't marry this. This is not what
I signed up for, is what he told me. He
did say he had to go to therapy to get
advice on how to interact with me because he loved
(17:38):
me and he didn't want to lose me. But he
was ready to walk away. And unfortunately, I've heard many
stories in the rooms of AA where people took that
ultimatum and just said, well, you know, and they ended
up getting divorced. So I feel very fortunate. I mean,
I'm married twenty five years because I'm sober, like, I'm married,
you know, my kids are thriving because I'm sober.
Speaker 6 (18:01):
Like.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
That is such a gift to be able to you know. Like, however, however,
my higher power needed to like deliver that message. It
did because if somebody would have been you know, he's
such a nice guy that he did it with such
love and calmness. The way he told me that, I listened.
You know, I was just I was just a party
girl on a rampage and didn't want to grow up.
(18:22):
You know, I was just being immature. And then once
I became a mom, it was like, you know, these
these Kauds are my focus. So when my daughter acted
out as a young adult and I was like, what
so and so sobriety and motherhood is like leveled up
at a whole different level because now I have to
you know, I talked to other moms that are sober,
(18:43):
like how do you deal with your teenage daughter? And
they're like, don't call her? Like I'm like what wait
for her to call you? You know, stuff like that,
and I'm like, what do you talk? So that was
the best advice I forgot, you know. And I have
a son and a daughter and they're completely different, like
the way I interact with you know. So it's that
motherhood that's navigating is.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Really being a mom? Yeah? Absolutely, well tell us. So
the other gift is Felicity House. So can you describe this?
What what is Felicity House? How does how does it operate?
And it's obviously an important tools.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
City house is a non Felicity House is a nonprofit
beautiful craftsman house on the West Side. It's a transitional living.
It's the most inexpensive. I think it's like only twelve
hundred dollars a bed, which is crazy because most sober
livings are like a couple of thousand, like a lot
(19:38):
and a lot of times people can get scholarship, you know,
we have lots of you know, tools and programs that
help pay for it. But they've been around since nineteen
seventy four. They've been around a long time, and so
they it's it's a transition house for any woman that
wants to stay sober and you you live there. The
(19:58):
maximum time you can live is about a year and
a half. You have chores, you have everything from yoga,
it's a sound bowl things. On certain nights, you have
to have a job or at least looking for a job.
You have to have a sponsor. Pretty much. It's like
bringing you know, there's a Monday night, there's a Wednesday meeting.
(20:19):
It's open to the public. It's a beautiful candle light
women's meeting that that's open to all and all women
or people identify finding as women. It's anyway we can
be supportive. We have lots of events there. We have
a comedy show coming up on the eighteenth of this
month in Hollywood at the Cuck Lounge. We do a
(20:42):
gala every year and that one's coming up in September.
But it's just all to support women one day at
a time, showing them how to live and that you know,
they make friends. They some people say like I didn't
know how to like make my bed. I didn't know
how to do a checkbook. I didn't know how to
you know, cook, I didn't My daughter when she was
(21:04):
a Girl Scout, she ended up doing her Girl Scout
Gold Award, and she ended up doing teaching life skills
through baking to women in sobriety because some people don't
know anything about baking or measuring or following directions, you know.
And so to be able to integrate that and that
was a great opportunity for my daughter to see like, wow,
(21:24):
remember so and so, Oh she's in jail. Well, you know,
the people relapse, it's part of the story. Some unfortunately
the statistics. So to be able to share that and
just stay dialed dialed in, I mean, one of the
women that you know Denise who's on the on the
zoom she went through the house and she's like the
director of the house. Now another woman who's a sober mom,
(21:44):
she's on the board with me and she went through
the house and she's has like two years like just
to see this path of like the ones that make
it like it's like the starfish thing, like you can't
save every starfish. But we're he but but Felicity House
has been in a beacon of hope and an icon
like that's always been there and we're there when they
(22:05):
want to come back, we're there. If they want to stay,
we're there no matter what. Right it's like parenthood, like
I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Uh yuh no. That's great and it's so valuable. I
absolutely love that.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
I think the community aspect of it is Yeah, by
by far the most amazing part.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Well, and I love that you do a comedy that
you have a comedy show too, because we have our
motto is if you don't laugh, sometimes you're going to cry.
So we believe in introducing laughter into everything. Well, we
have some moms who want to meet you and ask
you some questions and they are our zoomer Moms. Welcome,
Zoomer Moms, Welcome to the Moms Pop. Hello, ladies, We're
(22:47):
so thrilled to have you, and for all you moms
out there, you want to be a zoomer mom, you
need to get in touch with us. Look at our
website inside mom the Inside the Mom's Club dot com
and you just apply to be a Zoomer Mom, because
we know there's a lot of you great moms out
there who want to join us as well. Well, let
me introduce first, Michelle, tell us a little bit about yourself.
(23:09):
Where are you from which and if your full name
so everybody get to know you, and do you have
a question.
Speaker 7 (23:16):
My name is Michelle Elizabeth Williams. I am a native
of New York, but I've been living here home now
in Atlanta for about thirteen years. I am an author
of my book entitled Nobody Ever Told Me, And just
from the title alone, you can almost imagine what Nobody
Ever Told Me. I've been traveling the world telling my
(23:40):
story about sexual, physical, and mental abuse, and what just
touched me about your story was that you overcame alcoholism
and how you're fighting through it every day to be
the best mom, the best friend, the best person that
you can be. My question to you would be, have
(24:01):
you ever taken out time to thank God that he
chose you to be that alcoholic? And the reason why
I asked that question is because you were chosen and
you had to fight through every feeling that an alcoholic
person would have to go through. You had to go
(24:22):
through loss, you had to go through the teenage barriers
of the children. But all of this happened because I
just believe you were chosen by God to have to
go through this, because if you had not went through this,
you would have never opened up that house and you
wouldn't be able to stand there and say to these women,
(24:43):
I know what you're feeling, I know what you're going through.
I know exactly what you're talking about. Have you ever
taken out time to just thank God that he chose
you to be the vessel for your life?
Speaker 4 (25:00):
Michelle, thank you for the question. I definitely definitely do regularly.
I define God as my higher power. And yeah, because
I have been sexually abused and all that, I had
all all the reasons in the world to be an addict.
And then you know, when I started, you know, going
(25:22):
to Felicity House and listening to other stories and hearing
people go to the same thing, and then listening to
their solutions on how they got through stuff. It was
all about higher power and God. You know, some people
are not don't like to see the word God. And
then you just get to choose, you know, whatever it
looks like for you. But for me, I'll okay with that,
(25:45):
and and I do I do in my my daily checkki.
I have a gratitude list that I have on a
group chain with my sponsor and other Silber sisters. Every
time I'm in a meeting, I know that it's a
gift that I that I'm in that room for myself,
and you know, like I'm a human. So every once
(26:08):
in a while goes back and forth like oh, I
wish I didn't have to go through all this stuff.
But then I get what you said, Michelle, that like
if it wasn't for you know, being sexually abused by
my dad as a child, I wouldn't be able to
help other people that went through it. And so like
my kids don't know that. Then in AA it's always like, well,
what's the purpose in your communication? Like they don't need
(26:29):
to know that he passed away. I forget him all
that stuff, and it's and I can let it go
like that, that that abuse cycle is gone. My kids
are thriving, I'm married. You know, there's definitely other stuff
that comes up in life. But I know that when
when somebody shares about being sexually abused, I can share
that person feel they can exhale, like it's not only me, right,
(26:56):
because as we know, right when we're going through it,
we think we're the only ones. When I was, yeah,
we're that young. We think we're the only ones, and
we're not. That's the sad part. The second ies aren't
sharing about it. Literally, in a group of ten people,
five or six of them were like, oh me too,
I'm like, oh my God, Like, it's just so right.
(27:17):
So I do yeah, So I do know that that
God is always watching over me. Right, There's always there's
a lot. I have some other stuff going on now,
and it's like, okay, there's plan A, Plan B and
Plan G. That's God's plan and I'm just showing up,
showing up and doing the work, and you knowing, God's
(27:37):
plan sometimes not at my pace, you know, and I
want it to be fast, but unfortunately or fortunately right,
God wants me to like smell the flowers, slow down,
learn what I need to learn in this, you know,
in this experience called life, and then you know, like
take it with a grain of salt. See what's there
(27:59):
for me to learn. And along the way, like if
someone comes in my life and I didn't expect it,
instead of saying I don't have time for that, like okay, God,
what was the plan? Right? There's the the all the
prayers that you know that we do an AA that
really help, like you know, God's will that I will
be done, not mine that. Yes, I definitely have AI
(28:20):
based AA program that takes anything other than me. So
like if you're not religious and this doesn't hit you
the right way, that's okay as long as it's not you.
Because whenever I try to figure out stuff all myself,
then it's never going to work. And in the city house,
when I'm there with other women, it's moms. It's all
different levels of sobriety. It doesn't matter that I have
fifteen years because I could have went out a few
(28:42):
years ago with my daughter acting out and you know,
and then there's other times when we lean on each other. Right,
sometimes I'm having a better day and someone else is having,
you know, a bad day. And you know, in January,
I was having a horrible month because my business partner
died and bazzled all this money and I'm having to
deal with all this stuff and that is not fun.
(29:04):
But you know what, it's grown up shit and handle it,
you know well.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
I love I love your question, Michelle, and I love
your answer because yeah, being being also being your own
God is not.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Now.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
That never works very well. There's a lot of people
who try that, but that doesn't work. So I think
that's really great. That's the worst. Yes, that's a bad Gretchen,
welcome to the Mom's Club. Tell us your name, a
little bit about yourself, and do you have a question.
Speaker 8 (29:33):
I guess Miam is Gretchen BONADICI and I live in Bisbee, Arizona,
which is south of Tucson, and I did have a question.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
I wasn't quite clear.
Speaker 8 (29:42):
So did you have to check into the Felicity House
and live there while your children were young? And if so,
how did that work for you?
Speaker 4 (29:53):
Okay, so I did not go through the house. So
that's so. There are women on the board, and some
went through the house and some didn't and but to
answer your question, there are women. One of the women
that's on the board now, she was in the Sober
Living for a little over a year and her and
she's a mom, and her daughter was not in the house.
(30:16):
There are sober livings that accept moms and daughters, but
Felicity House is only for women. And so I would
I live close to Felicity House. So for me, that's
how I discovered Felicity House is it's close to my
house and and because it's a home in a neighborhood,
and I would always motherhood was such a big deal
for me, and again that's why I got sober, so
(30:38):
when I always wanted to get to a meeting and
then get home in time to read my kids a
book to put them to bed right. And so that's
why that's what brought me, and that's what introduced me.
But the sober living itself, definitely you can be a mom,
you don't have the moms that were there definitely eat
(31:01):
them through that process too, And so you know, they
lean they lean on me, and I give them resources.
Sometimes I'm sponsoring them through the process because as a mom,
losing your kids, I can't even imagine but that's what
that's where this disease takes us if we don't so yeah,
and answer to your question, Gretchen, definitely, that's what people
would do. They would either the courts have them or
(31:22):
the husband where they're trying to work out stuff.
Speaker 8 (31:25):
And yeah, yeah, well that must be such a motivation,
you know, to get help, because the thought of losing
your children has got to be so horrifying.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
I can't even fathom that.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
Yeah, it's more common than you think. Sadly enough, it's
very common. Yea. Yeah, well that that also is what
gives me passionate about sponsoring, you know, moms, is to
help them get their kids back because I know how
much I love my kids and I can't imagine. But
that's where this disease takes us. And it's not just
drugs and pot anymore. It's that mall and people are
(32:01):
dying anyway.
Speaker 8 (32:02):
Yeah, yeah, well, thank you for that. That's that's wonderful
to know that you can be a mother and if
you need to go, you can go, and that there
are places that'll take a mother and a daughter.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
I didn't know that that. Yeah, that's that's good to know. Yeah, yeah,
let me know if you need resources, I'm sourceful.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
That that is really portant. Gretchen. We're so thrilled to
have Gretchen on the show too. Richard's actually been a
guest of our show, and she had she ran for
mayor of Bisbee by the way, she mentioned Bisbee.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
Wow, so yes, I.
Speaker 8 (32:35):
Did or you didn't win though, but I did, right,
But you know, actually, yeah, you know what it is
an education trying to maneuver politics, you know, because fifty
percent of people are going to hate your guts and
you know, it's really hard to navigate that. But I'm
(32:55):
glad I did it, you know, and my reasoning we're
doing it was so pure and good.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
But you know, I learned a lot.
Speaker 8 (33:03):
So if I decided to jump back in a second time,
I've got a lot more skills than I had before
because I just didn't.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
We'll keep us We'll keep us posted because yeah, and
that can be that's stressful. We're talking about stress on
this show. I think throwing yourself into politics is incredibly stressful.
This is a great We get zoomer moms from all
over the place today, zoomer moms, a lot of them
have been guests on the show. And their authors. Michelle
you know is a good friend, Yeah, better many times,
and and and celebrities and mayoral candidates, and you know,
(33:36):
you actually probably could consider running for a higher office
there in Arizona. Why do you skip the mayor stuff?
Because I think they could use, you know, a good guy.
Speaker 8 (33:45):
Feel like I probably would have a better chance in
all of Arizona than in a tiny town.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
It's just weird here.
Speaker 8 (33:52):
Because there's so much misinformation because we have like five
thousand people in our town. I feel like you control
the narrative much better if you are covering the whole state,
so I might do that.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
I think you're actually right. So we'll just look forward
to your next campaign state wide in Arizona and.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Then from there Arizona.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
It seems like we're very these days in terms of that. Well, Denise,
welcome to the Mom's Club. Tell us your name and
where you're from, a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 6 (34:27):
Okay, Hi, I am Denise Day, and I am the
executive director for Felicity House, where Kathy is a board member,
and I am a mom to many moms here, usually
nine at a time, five days a week. We app
sometimes except for this weekend, but Kathy. I'm so proud
(34:51):
of your amazing strength and recovery and service work that
you do here at Felicity House, and I do thank
you so much. I'm so great to Kathy for being
such a great board member and support to me. I
came through Felicity House myself twenty years ago. It saved
my life, and about two years ago I came back.
(35:16):
We had a position open here and I was working
at a law firm. That a job I got through
Felicity House, by the way, and a successful career for
fifteen years, and then I did decided to come back
and give a shot at running the house. Didn't have
plans to stay, just was going to clean it up
(35:39):
as a board member and hand it off to somebody else,
and it became a passion. But my question for you,
Kathy would be, how do you talk to your kids
about alcoholism and do they come to meetings with you?
(35:59):
Do you introduce recovery to recovery to them in any way,
shape or form, since it is a generational hereditary disease.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
That's a great question.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
Yeah. Yeah, I before you were managing the house, so
it might have been a little pocket when you weren't there,
but I Felicity House does a graduation for women when
they have been there for a year, and they read
Doctor Seuss all the places you go, and they give
them a chip and we all do affirmations and things
(36:30):
for them, and it's a beautiful thing. So I did
bring my kids to one of those because they knew
one of the moms personally because the mom had a daughter,
and so they have actually seen they've come and given
me cakes early in my sobriety when they were probably
about like ten eleven, and then as young adults, so
(36:53):
they are familiar with it. And I think as they've
been older, so a couple of people, you know, push
are have been addicted to fentanyl and almost died a
few times their age, So now it's becoming real for them.
And so yeah, yeah, and so now since they've been
(37:14):
you know, sixteen, fifteen years old, we the conversations have
become a little more real. And especially now that my
young adults, I keep trying to say, babies, my babies.
My young adults are now away in college and they're
making decisions without me during their senior year, and before
(37:35):
the conversations would be I would say things like Okay, guys,
you know what addiction is, right, you know what I
used to use sugar. They're you know, like as an
analogy when they were younger. But you guys know, you know,
my uncle died of alcoholism. Might like they know people
also that have died. And so when I sent them
off to college, it was like, Okay, you know, you
(37:56):
either have daddy's jeans or you have mommy's jeans. Like,
you don't know what you're going to get. It's gonna
Russian roulette. So when you're offered drugs and alcohol at school,
like I can't stop you from choosing what you're gonna choose,
but I'm gonna tell you that it's Russian roulette. Like
you either you're in university to study and to learn
and to grow, and these are great opportunities for you
(38:18):
and this is the time of your life. And not
that you're never going to experiment, because I'm sure you are,
but my suggestion is that you wait until your brain
is developed a little bit more so that you don't,
you know, so you don't get sucked into because you
don't know which junior you're gonna have. And I've thank god,
I've been blessed enough where they are aware and they're
(38:39):
so far making good choices. It's not like they don't
go to parties where they weren't really big party kids. Anyway,
they're confidence. It's interesting. But my son, he's he's pretty confident.
He never like when I would say something, I would
something somebody said something about him, some girl that he
broke up, but he's like, I don't care. And then
I talked to there just about him. Like that's confidence
that he doesn't care what people think about him. He's
(39:00):
the kid that has been to a few parties now
and he literally bought a breathalyzer on Amazon just for
the hell of it. And see what you're all cao
like that's the way you know, Oh here's my boo.
When the I used to tell him, you're gonna get
peer pressure, and so the way that you get out
of it is you tell him I'm allergic to alcohol,
(39:21):
but go for it. Just be cool and be like yeah,
do what you want to do, or like maybe i'll
drive you'a'll be the driver, but don't like negated and
don't talk down because I know that pure pressure is
what sucks us all in. I know that's what sucked
me in, like when I was in high school, because
when I was his age, I was doing cocaine and
drinking and ecstasy and oh my god. I can't even like,
as a parent, like, oh my god. Unfortunately, I've heard
(39:44):
stories from women in the room where their kid ordered
some pot on what was the I don't know if
it was TikTok or whatever it was the time, and
it was laced with fentanyl and he died and the
super son was like eight. So just like that's the
kind of thing that now I'm telling my kids, like,
you no what you're going to get. So I've just prayed,
right Michelle, like God that they just make good choices
(40:08):
and and and just kind of been as real as
possible with them to let them know that, like, whatever
choices you're making as an adult, you know, you could
go this way or you could go that, and you
are now young adult, so you get to make the
choices that are going to predict where that next future is.
And I have, unfortunately too many examples made this choice
and this is where they're at. Or even as a
(40:29):
parent who's married, still I tell them, Look, they have
lots of friends whose parents are divorced. I said, we
could have been divorced too, but mommy made a choice
to get sober and to and that choice literally changed
the trajectory of your life because your dad and I
are still married. Like it could have went one you know.
So I basically just armed them with the tools and
(40:50):
then now I just pray. Now I just pray. But
so far, you know, so far, you know, it's it's
been okay. And but they do know, like I always
told them, like if anybody ever talks about it or
you know, they need you know, there's young people's I
tell them, there's young places for young people. They're not
all old parts like mommy. You know, there's there's parties
(41:11):
that are sober. Yeah, so we do we do a
lot of that. Now I just trust in God and
stay in my lane.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Kudos kudos to you, Katy all the way around. That
mean we're very This has been a great show, very informative.
We thank you so much. Where can people learn more
about Felicity.
Speaker 4 (41:29):
House Felicityhouse dot com. What's our website? Is it Felicity?
Do we add a number on it? Felicityhouse dot com.
Speaker 6 (41:36):
Is Felicityhouse dot com or Felicityhouse dot org.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
Okay, and then we're on Instagram underscore Felicity House, underscore
the ads line, and then we're on Facebook. If if
the young people still use that, when I know the
mom still use it. Facebook is Felicity House nineteen seventy four,
and all the events are all there, but the up
and coming one if you're in the LA area over
(42:02):
at Kabuki Kabok Lounge on the eighteenth is going to
be a fun laughing and mother.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
Yeah, let's have some laughs there and let's check it out.
And as a I'm so proud of myself now I've
learned an a lot about AI. I'm even teaching some people.
So if you have no other way to do it,
get on AI and just say what is Felicity House
and you'll learning about it. So that's another way to
do it. Well, thank you so much Kathy for joining us,
and thank you Zoomer Moms for joining us. We so
(42:28):
appreciate it, and we want to thank our sponsors. We're
talking about you know what what you can do to
relief stress? Well, a good way to relieve stress is
to get the new calm appenence and you see Alms
how you spell it. It helps you sleep better, focus better,
relax and it all uses neuroscience. It is an incredible tool.
(42:50):
And if you put Mom's Club in the code at checkout,
you will get fifteen percent off every month of your subscription.
And you know what else is exciting here, uh Georgia.
We have some moms who have been writing in and
sharing with us some of the products that they're working
on and that they have. And this lovely doctor Candice
(43:12):
Janya sent us. She is an herbal she's an acupuncturist
and pain relief warrior and she has a product called
the Formula. She has the Formula for pain, which I
will absolutely try because you know, every once in a
while I have pain and skin and a product for
skin and it's all natural ingredients. It's based off of
(43:35):
Chinese herbal medicine. I mean it is. It's incredible. I
can't wait to try it. So thank you doctor JANIEA
for sending it to us. Can't wait to try it
out and check us out. If you're looking for on AI,
you can check us out there or at Inside the
Mom's Club, on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and on our website.
Inside the Mom's Club dot com well as always Georgia.
(43:57):
This has gone by way too fast, but thank you
so much for being part of it, and thank you
moms for joining us. We appreciate your time so much.
We know your me time is precious and valuable. Thank
you so much for spending it with us. Remember our motto,
if you don't laugh, sometimes you're gonna cry. Keep laughing, moms.
We'll see you next time inside the Mom's Club. Bye
(44:19):
zoomer bye everyone. Thank you
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