If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the invisible load of motherhood...

This podcast is for you.

Today, Kirsten and Molly talk about the messy middle of motherhood, from spring energy and cluttered homes to the reality that “finishing everything” is a myth:

• spring transitions and the pressure to do it all
• "Type C" mom life, executive function, and choosing what actually matters
• the invisible stress of clutter, and the mental load
• Molly loses "preferred parent" status and explores the emotions that come with it

Then Kirsten shares a raw and heartfelt update on her eldest daughter's AuDHD journey, and what changed when she and her husband stopped forcing school and started centering safety:

• IEP advocacy, school transitions, and why fifth grade collapsed
• pulling a child from school, and the real work of homeschooling
• AuDHD in girls, high masking, and why how she presents at home can look “worse”
• deciding on trying medication and navigating side effects
• anxiety support, and what improvement actually looks like
• co-regulation at night, and releasing outdated “giving in” narratives
• returning to school with therapy and a plan led by the child
• what a short med gap revealed about regulation and resilience

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with other moms carrying more than most people can see.

Subscribing to our podcast and leaving us a review is one of the best ways for other people to find us. So if it resonates with you, please subscribe and leave us a review.

Support the show

Kirsten's Physical Therapy website

The Nuture Collective

Mama You Belong Instagram

Kirsten's Instagram

Molly's Instagram

Molly’s music Sister Veery on bandcamp

Molly’s music website

Kirsten and Molly trace how micro self care rituals, witnessing a transformative birth, and the mother tree metaphor point to a different way of caring and showing up for each other and our children. We share how mutual aid led by moms keeps communities alive while we practice radical acceptance and parenting through ongoing societal collapse and crisis.

• micro choices that steady nervous systems
• returning to sleep, books, and play
• witnessing Molly's sister's transformative and supported birth
• mother trees as a model for reciprocity and the matriarchy we need
• the inspirational mutual aid organizing led by moms
• asking for help and widening circles
• parenting amid chronic crisis with acceptance
• decapitalizing our daily life and resourcing each other

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with other mamas, subscribing to our podcast and leaving us a review is one of the best ways for other people to find us.

Support the show

Kirsten's Physical Therapy website

The Nuture Collective

Mama You Belong Instagram

Kirsten's Instagram

Molly's Instagram

Molly’s music Sister Veery on bandcamp

Molly’s music website

This episode is a brief glimpse into our upcoming interview with Marsh Naidoo on her amazing podcast Raising Kellan. Please subscribe now to her podcast so you can listen to our full interview when it is released.

Raising Kellan Website here for more info! "Empowering, connecting and educating parents raising a child with a disability. For parents. By parents."

In this episode on Mama You Belong:

• Molly updates for listeners outside of Minnesota that the occupation in the Twin Cities is still happening and there is no end in sight.
• Look for our upcoming interview on the Raising Kellan podcast soon!
• Kirsten shares a letter from a Minneapolis mom and university educator living through Operation Metro Surge and reflect on what daily life looks like when federal raids shape commutes, classrooms, and care plans.
• We highlight independent journalists, legal observers, and BIPOC creators documenting events in real time—voices you won’t always find in national headlines:
• You’ll leave with tools that turn concern into action: Stand with Minnesota for testimonies and mutual aid links, Resistance Guide to match your capacity to real tasks, and Five Calls to reach elected officials with targeted scripts.
• On Instagram:

@onsitepublicmedia
@toussaintmorrison
@minneapolisward2
@sahanjournal
@bygeorgiafort
@nekimal
@minnesota50501
@janashortal
@monarca.minn
@minnesota_neighbors
@standwithminnesota
@immigrantlawcentermn
@immigrantdefensenetwork

@singingresistancetc

• On Substack:

Toussaint Morrison

Zede

• Websites:

Stand with Minnesota - Website that consolidates testimonies, resources, and mutual aid opportunities.

Resistance Guide - Free web app that helps match you to relief efforts based on your location, time commitment, and level of risk.

5 Calls App - Free app that identifies your elected officials, provides contact information, and scripts.

If this conversation moves you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help more people find these stories. What small action will you take today to stand with families in Minnesota?

Kirsten's Physical Therapy website

Mama You Belong Instagram

Kirsten's Instagram

Molly's Instagram

Molly’s music on bandcamp

Molly’s website

We sit with the dissonance of parenting during a state crackdown in Minnesota, holding mother rage and grief while trying to protect childhood for our children. Stories from Minneapolis, a terrifying night terror, and our feelings as mothers.

• naming the split between normal routines and escalating state force
• how algorithms, media gaps and proximity shape what we know
• whiteness, safety as illusion and why change is allowed
• anger as data, grief underneath and redirecting hate into love and protection
• night terrors explained, patterns, airway and sleep hygiene links
• nervous system care through movement and community support
• centering children’s experiences and mutual aid
• what it means to keep going without normalizing harm

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with other mamas!

Subscribing to our podcast and leaving us a review is one of the best ways for other people to find us.

Star Tribune Article about changing your mind

Myofunctional Therapist in the Northland

5 Calls app - CALL YOUR REPS

Kirsten's Physical Therapy website

Mama You Belong Instagram

Kirsten's Instagram

Molly's Instagram

Molly’s music on bandcamp

Molly’s website

In this episode, we talk openly about updates to toddler sleep struggles, no more night drives just to get a child to sleep, the decision to retire the crib, and how co-sleeping in a king bed changed everything. We unpack how loving, clear boundaries reduced bedtime chaos and how letting go of the “perfect” 7 p.m. bedtime helped ease our own mom guilt, shame, and anxiety around sleep.

From there, we move into the daily reality of daycare life: big feelings at pickup, sensory overload, and what it looks like to listen to a child’s body that needs movement, wrestling, and connection after a long day. Then comes the daycare illness cycle: colds, strep, and six ear infections since summer... along with the weighty decisions around mild hearing loss and ear tubes.

We name the math no one hands you as a parent: PTO that isn’t rest, missed income from client-facing work, mounting medical bills, and the invisible labor of tracking symptoms, dosing medication, scheduling appointments, and making constant judgment calls. This is where the mental load of motherhood becomes undeniable, and why workplace culture matters far more than empty platitudes. Planning for sick seasons, we argue, should be part of every postpartum conversation.

Along the way, we speak the quieter truths many parents carry: resentment when the default sick parent pushes through, the tug-of-war between caregiving and work, and the grief for the versions of parenthood and careers we hoped to have by now. We also share what genuinely helped.

If you’ve ever felt alone doing the late-night calculus of sleep, illness, work, and parenting, this conversation offers validation and practical shifts you can try tonight.

If this episode resonated, tap follow, share it with a friend who’s in the thick of toddler sleep or daycare sickness, and leave a quick review to help other parents find the show. Your support helps this community grow.

Kirsten's Physical Therapy website

Mama You Belong Instagram

Kirsten's Instagram

Molly's Instagram

Molly’s music on bandcamp

Molly’s website

Winter presses in and everything gets louder, especially the expectations placed on moms during the holidays. In this episode, we return from a hiatus to talk honestly about the mental load of motherhood in December, the pressure to create holiday magic, and how easy it is to perform joy while running on empty.

We swap stories, a road trip that dodged snowstorms, a surprise porcupine encounter, and a partner who literally clapped at a lamp.... But beneath the laughter is a deeper truth many overwhelmed moms know well: the invisible labor, perfectionism, and “shoulds” that make the holidays feel heavy instead of joyful.

We talk candidly about skipping Thanksgiving and Black Friday to protect our peace, how perfectionism hides in traditions we feel obligated to perform, and why some holiday rituals feel more like public performances than meaningful family moments. A gingerbread house meltdown becomes our stand-in for motherhood expectations, how tightly we cling to outcomes, and how quickly they fall apart with toddlers, sensory overload, and messy icing.

From there, we explore a gentler way forward for moms feeling burned out by the holidays: choosing fewer, truer rituals; loosening our grip on results; and letting magic show up where it actually fits, like spontaneous night sledding under yard lights.

The mental load of motherhood gets its due as we unpack the reality of gift planning, budgeting, buying, wrapping, and shipping while juggling work, sickness, and bedtime marathons. Gifting can be creative and loving when it’s supported, so we offer practical ideas for the next ten days: smaller gift lists, one decision a day, delegating pickups and shipping, intentionally sending some gifts late, and trading performative traditions for ones that fit your real family life.

If you’re a mom who needs permission to do less, feel more, and let go of holiday perfectionism—this conversation is for you.

If this episode made you feel seen, share it with a friend, subscribe for more honest motherhood conversations, and leave a review to help other moms find the show.
💬 Tell us: what’s one holiday tradition you’re rewriting this year?

Kirsten's Physical Therapy website

Mama You Belong Instagram

Kirsten's Instagram

Molly's Instagram

Molly’s music on bandcamp

Molly’s website

We follow Kirsten’s path from noticing things about her child to an autism + ADHD diagnosis, showing how clarity changed home life, school decisions, and self-trust. We talk sensory needs, high masking in girls, 504 vs IEP, and choosing connection over forced resilience.

• trusting instincts alongside expert guidance
• sensory needs hidden as quirks and stims
• second child as context for nervous system differences and what's "typical"
• pandemic chaos
• teacher concerns - they finally see what we've been seeing
• 504 accommodations vs legally binding IEP
• choosing a clinic for diagnostic testing
• diagnosis as language, not stigma, for self-understanding
• school focus on tolerance versus environmental change
• boundaries with systems and protecting family energy
• resources for autistic girls and high-masking profiles

This conversation is a map for parents who feel unseen by charts and checklists. It offers language for advocating with schools, ideas for crafting a home that regulates instead of battles, and resources for recognizing high-masking autistic girls. Most of all, it’s permission to replace “tolerance training” with environments that fit. If this resonates, share it with a friend, subscribe for more grounded conversations, and leave a review so others can find us. Your story could be the lifeline another parent needs today.

Resources:

Yellow Lady Bugs - Podcast, book, source of a ton of info for neurodivergent girls and gender diverse youth

Tilt Parenting/Differently Wired book - This is another awesome resource to help make sense of how to navigate parenting neurodivergent kiddos

Telepathy Tapes - A podcast exploring how some non-speaking autistics communicate.

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with other mamas!
Subscribing to our podcast and leaving us a review is one of the best ways for other people to find us.

You can always email is at mamayoubelong@gmail.com to let us know what you think, leave a story of how the show impacted you, or just say "hey"!

Kirsten's Physical Therapy website

Mama You Belong Instagram

Kirsten's Instagram

Molly's Instagram

Molly’s music on bandcamp

Molly’s website

Kirsten traces the journey from pressure-filled, sleep training newborn days to a more child-centered and connected approach to sleep. Together, we share how postpartum rage became a compass, how sensory needs shaped real rest, and why prioritizing relationship over rules brought relief.

• check in: school strain reaches a tipping point and home education is considered; Molly pursuing an amazing creative endeavor!
• Kirsten's experience as a first time mom. The sleep "shoulds" were HEAVY
• postpartum rage named as boundary signal and guide
• the weight of sleep training culture and external validation
• sensory input, proximity, and ritual as sleep supports
• co-sleeping stigma vs what actually works for rest
• unlearning rigid schedules or expectations and centering relationship over expectations
• grief for lost early weeks and permission to choose differently

Resources:

Duluth Perinatal - perinatal mental health and parenting resources curated by a perinatal mental health therapist

My Connected Motherhood - Sleep consultants WITHOUT SLEEP TRAINING. Love them.

Nurture Neuroscience

Subscribing to our podcast and leaving us a review is one of the best ways for other people to find us. So if you enjoy what you are hearing or if it resonates with you, please subscribe and leave us a review. It would mean a lot.

Support the show

Kirsten's Physical Therapy website

The Nuture Collective

Mama You Belong Instagram

Kirsten's Instagram

Molly's Instagram

Molly’s music Sister Veery on bandcamp

Molly’s music website