Episode 93: You Might Have More Time Than You Think: Daria's Realization
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In this episode, I’m joined by Daria, a neonatologist, researcher, and mom of three, who shares what it’s really like to juggle two demanding roles at work while raising a young family. We talk about the mental load of switching between high-intensity clinical care and long-term research projects, and how she used the Beyond Balance framework to find motivation, create better boundaries, and feel more present with her kids.
Daria opens up about the emotional toll of her work, the surprising flexibility of her research role, and the mindset shifts that helped her stop feeling like she was constantly behind. We also talk about the moment she realized she didn’t need more time with her kids—she just needed to see the time she already had differently. From folding laundry on the bathroom floor to doing yoga with her toddler, Daria found ways to create connection in the middle of everyday life.
If you'd like to experience similar changes in your life, Beyond Balance is open for enrollment right now. Visit www.themothernurture.com/beyond-balance to learn more and apply before Feb 10!
links & resources mentioned in this episode:
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What if in just 12 weeks you could feel more relaxed about time and your to-do list? If you're a working mom who's constantly behind stretched thin and wondering how you're supposed to get it all done without losing your mind. I want to invite you into Beyond balance. This is my 12 week group coaching program for working moms who want to stop being behind and start feeling on top of their time.
You'll learn how to plan, prioritize, and actually follow through without needing to quit your job. Outsource everything or overhaul your life. We use my signature time framework to help you get clarity around where your time is going, implement routines and systems to make the most of your time practice prioritizing what really matters.
And get things done. Even when your days don't go according to plan, you'll start seeing changes in the first 30 days. No more racing the clock or squeezing more into your day. Just more time for what matters most. Your work, your family, and you. Applications are open now, but only until February 10th. Go to themothernurture.com/beyond-balance to apply.
That's themothernurture.com/beyond-balance. Now, let's get into the episode.
You are listening to the Life Coach for Working Moms podcast, the show where we are talking about what it actually takes to make life work as a working mom. I'm your host, Katelyn Denning, a full time working mom of three and a certified life and executive coach. I'm so glad you're here and I hope you enjoy this week's episode.
Hello. Hello, and welcome back to the podcast. This is episode 93, and in this conversation I'm joined by Daria, a neonatologist, a researcher, and a mom of three like me who shares what it is like to juggle two very different demanding roles that she has professionally while also raising her very young family.
We talk about the mental load of switching between high intensity clinical care and also long-term research projects.
Daria was a member of the Beyond Balance Program, which you've been hearing me talk about right now as enrollment is open and this episode for Anyone Curious gives you. , a very detailed behind the scenes look at what the group setting is like, what some of the homework items are, like, the time commitment, , and so much more.
But even if beyond, balance is not on your radar for right now.
There is so much to be learned from Daria's lessons in the program that I know you will take something away from listening.
So whether you are in the healthcare field, you do research projects, you have three kids, you have young kids, you are managing lots of different responsibilities and the mental and emotional toll of those roles that you hold.
There is something in this conversation. I truly believe for any working mom and also Daria is just a joy to speak to. So without further ado, I hope you enjoy our conversation today.
Hi, Daria, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
So excited to chat with you today, , and hear more about your life. And so why don't you get us started, set the stage for us. Where are you? What do you do? What, , is your life like these days with, I'll spoil it now.
Three young kids.
Yes, I can do that. , so I'm Daria as you said, I am a mom to three young kids. I have three girls, six. Three and just turned one. So our house is very busy most of the time. For work, I am a physician. I'm a neonatologist, which means that I am a baby doctor working in an intensive care unit to take care of sick kids.
, my. Clinical time is about 30% of my work, which means that most of the remaining time is for research, which is like a passion of mine. And so with that, I have some interesting flexibility in my schedule. , and I'm happy to talk about that a little bit more if you want me to get into that.
Yeah.
Yeah. This is , a schedule that I honestly didn't really know existed until. Getting to see the behind the scenes of what your day-to-day life looks like. You know, when I go to the pediatrician or when we have been in the hospital for different things, I just assume that everybody there, that is what they do all day, every day.
Right on, on whatever their shift is. And I'm sure there are plenty of physicians and healthcare workers where that is the case, but it has been so interesting to see. Both of those roles and how you manage that. And I remember in our early conversations before you joined the group even , that that was a part of the challenge for you.
You are really and truly switching gears, not just in the work that you're doing. , the head space that you have to be in for each of these roles, but then the impact that it has on your family and your schedule and how your husband and your kids have to adjust to these different ways of working.
It's been really fascinating.
Yeah, absolutely. I think I've, I have really had to adjust to it over the years too. And so this was definitely a piece of the puzzle that I was needing help with when I came into, , coaching with you. , because honestly, like, it's like I almost have two completely. Separate jobs, right?
There is the taking care of patients piece, which I absolutely love. It is a really high intensity, high emotion high like thought process, kind of very cerebral thing that I'm in about six-ish weeks out of the year, and then nights and weekends too. And when I'm in that space of working in the ICU taking care of.
Babies when they're extremely sick. I am all in, right? Like it is long, days where I am up before my kids are up, learning about what happened to my patients overnight in the hospital all day, seeing patients, talking to families, doing procedures, going to deliveries, all sorts of things. Teaching residents, teaching fellows.
, and that'll be like these really intense bursts for like one or two weeks at a pop. And that's really all consuming. And then I completely switched gears into my research job, which is a perfect balance in a way for a lot of the clinical work because it is busy, it's intense, it's meetings, but it's a lot, it's a lot more on my schedule.
, and it's something I can either do from home or from my office just by the nature of the work that I do and what I study. . Those days, I have a lot more control of my schedule. I have control of where I can be. I have control over how I spend my time when I plan meetings, and when I finish for the day, or if I need to take time off to, you know.
Go to the doctors or take my kids to the dentist or things like, I have more flexibility there. And so the stress associated with that is a lot more kind of like a longitudinal long-term stress. 'cause that's thinking of, can I write this paper? Is the analysis done? How am I gonna fund this project?
Like I need to write a grant. , how do I advance my career in that way? So that's like a very different kind of stress than the. Oh my gosh, this kid is sick right in front of me right now and I have to do something. And finding that balance of like, how do I plan and anticipate not just for the work days, for each of those two jobs, but also how do I
make sure I'm there as a mom and as a partner is really different in those two weeks, and I felt like I didn't have the skills to ideally be present and be who I wanted to be in each of those separate contexts.
Mm. Is this what you've always known like even before kids? Were you doing this dual identity, dual role kind of scenario set up?
Yeah, so it's, it's interesting because as any physician out there can attest, the, , training that happens after medical school is much more focused to that like intensive inpatient in the hospital time. So for three years of my pediatric residency and then three years of my neonatology fellowship, I was basically in the space of working these like crazy long weeks. All the time.
Hmm.
There would be some rotations that would maybe be a little less intense, but in general, you were working somewhere around 70 to 80 hours a week.
Many of those times it'd be 24 hour shifts at a pop. , and it was really mostly that like high intensity situation, but that meant that when you were off, or at least for me, it meant when I was off, I was off, I was not doing anything. I was literally laying on my couch. And that was all, , pre kids.
It definitely changed a little bit when I had my first of my kids, , in a time between like in the middle of my training and that really shifted things, , for how do I. You know, can't just lay on the couch on my days when I'm not working. I wanted to be with her. I wanted to do things and trying to figure out how to fit parenting into a still, like very clinically, very emotionally demanding job.
That was all I knew for like the first. You know, a couple years of being a parent. So the research time that's more of a relaxing, more not even relaxing but more flexible time, , is something that is still, I'm kind of adjusting to a little bit. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
So that's just been in the last few years?
Yeah, it's kind of grown. Okay. And I would say in the last, like six years, but in the last three years is really when it has been, most of my time. There was a master's degree in there somewhere too, which was totally, of course there was. But I think honestly this last year is the first year that I was, have really settled into this like, true 70 30 split.
Okay. And can I ask, was that a decision that you made because you had kids? Like, did you feel like it was, it was necessary because the other career lifestyle was not conducive.
Yes, definitely. Yes. And then there was another reason as well.
Okay.
I had a very wise mentor that was like, the, having a research career as a mom is fantastic because it gives you opportunity to have a lot more control and flexibility over your time.
And she said, even if that's not where you wanna be, you know, long, long term down the road, like. Explore it and en and enjoy it when your kids are young. , and so I've really tried to lean into that. The other piece honestly is that the emotional toll of my job is really demanding. Yeah. Like I'm meeting families on what should be the happiest day of their life, but ends up being one of the scariest, hardest, most challenging day when their baby, brand new baby is sick.
That takes a lot out of me to meet them with the compassion and the empathy that they deserve. And so I've known for a while in order to be the doctor that I really wanna be like, I can't do that all the time. I want to be all in and be completely present when I am there, but in order to be the parent I wanna be the spouse I wanna be.
That's something that. I can't do a hundred percent, you know, a hundred percent clinical load to do that. So the research life also helps me show up the way I want to as far and as I want to in my clinical work.
Yeah. And it was interesting to hear you restate that the research side is more relaxing and you were like, no, wait.
Flexible, flexible. I, I support actually a number of clients in academia, which I don't know if you would consider yourself that, but Definitely. Right. All. Okay, great. Right? Mm-hmm. This, , this work that, that is longitudinal. That was such a great word that you used.
It is very different to then work on projects that span.
Months, if not years. And how do I keep myself focused and motivated and feel like I'm making progress when this is not a small thing that I can just check off the to-do list today? And. The worry of Of funding.
Yeah.
Meeting those benchmarks and standards that you have to do. And it is a different beast, and I think maybe myself included, some of us look at that and think, oh yeah, that there is a lot of flexibility.
That sounds great. Autonomy over my time when I schedule meetings to choose the work that I'm even gonna do. And it has its challenges for sure.
Yes, absolutely. And I think you, you hit the nail on the head that there is because it is so longitudinal and that time horizon for when things have to happen is pretty broad and, and honestly, like it's a, to me, right.
I think that I struggled with how do I keep myself accountable to get things done on the right timeline because like. it matters. At the end of the day, no one's coming. No one's saying like, oh, your paper's late. Like, it's not like I have a due date like I did when I was in school.
Yeah.
But it is more of like, Hey, we expect you to have so many things published in this year, so where are they?
So it it's, it's these like flexible kind of deliverables that I really. Struggled with because it's so easy to push off those big picture things as I'm focused on the here and now. , and I think that working with you has helped me with those skills of that, like breaking things down into these smaller tasks.
I remember telling you that I was like, there was a paper I was running, I was trying so hard to get it out the door and finished. And you were like, what are all the little things you need to do? Just like check them off one by one, focus on all of those things that you were like, I know you think they're annoying, but you know you have to do them, so write 'em all out and let's hold you accountable to getting them done in a timely fashion.
And I remember coming to the group and being like, I did two of them. I need that. Like kind of more instantaneous like feedback and accountability. And that really, really helped to take these big, big, big, big things and, and break it down and then see progress, right?
Because it was nice to see , I'm actually getting something done, even though it feels like it's a tiny part of this big hole.
It's so interesting that we think we don't need that as we get older. Like, I'm a grownup, I understand, or I've done this a million times before. Like of course I know how to.
Reconcile a budget or submit this paper or whatever the task or project is, and yet we're really just like our toddlers or preschoolers or elementary age kids where you have to you know, I'm saying to my youngest this morning, okay, what's next? Mm-hmm.
Shoes.
Or socks, then shoes,
same conversation every day,
day, every day.
We have to break it down for them and so we think, oh, I'm the adult here. I don't need that. And yet we do, especially for , these bigger things that don't have an immediate deadline where someone isn't waiting for you. There isn't a consequence if you miss the date or it falls behind. And one of the easiest things we can do to create momentum and motivation and focus is to treat ourselves like our kindergartners.
What is the next step? What is the little tiny baby thing that you need to do , to move this forward?
Mm-hmm. Absolutely. And I, I think I just hadn't, I hadn't taken the time to really. Think through that because again, it felt so elemental. So I would, before I started working with you, I'd be like, okay, I have four hours today.
I'm gonna write, well what, what does that mean? You know, like what project am I even focusing on? Which part of the paper am I writing? What things do I need to know in order to be able to even start that? And I now have more skills where I start my day and say .
If this is the angle and this is the deadline I've now set for myself, 'cause I have been better about that. Like what is the next step? And really like forced myself to write it out. And then I get that little dopamine hit of like every time I do one little step, I get to check the box and that feels, it's more obvious that I'm making progress, which I realize I really need.
Yeah, because how do you know if you can cross off? write. Like
if
you put, I have four hours today and, and my to-do item is write.
Mm-hmm.
Like, okay, after the end of four hours, as long as I wrote something like, do I get to cry? Right. It's, we don't know. It's ambiguous. And so you have to write the task in a way that is so clear.
Did I do this? Yes or no?
Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Did
I break it down?
Absolutely. Like exactly the same as my kindergart or my first graders checklist.
Yeah, exactly. So I know that was definitely one of the things that you wanted support with was mm-hmm. Not just , how do I focus and make progress during these weeks, but how do I switch into that head space and set myself up for these productive, .
Weeks where I'm doing the writing and the research. Remind me what else felt like your biggest challenges in day-to-day life?
Yeah. I think the biggest thing I came in. Wanting was being able to really be present and focused with my kiddos, , and my husband when I had the opportunity.
And, and part of it really does relate to what we were just talking about. Like the work piece is either all in clinically demanding that my head is still in that space with this family that I left in the unit, or it was the research stuff, which felt like it was never done. So it was hard for me to transition out of that.
And then on top of it, like all of the home management stuff, right? Like cooking, dinner, cleaning my house, you know, making sure nothing slipped through the cracks. And I had this, this feeling of like, I am, my brain is always somewhere else. And part of that's me. Like I know I'm a person. My husband laughs at me.
'cause he was like, you never stop thinking like you never slow down and relax. Like your brain's always onto the next thing. But I felt like that doesn't have to be true. Like I need to find time to sink in and enjoy my kids. And especially, , we started working together at the time when my youngest was like seven months old and really, , I have this very, you know, she's my last baby and wanting to make sure I was enjoying all of that time with her that I'm never gonna get again.
I knew that's what I wanted. I just didn't know how to go about really fully being present with them.
Yeah. I don't know. Maybe , you used the word present, but there was also this. Insinuation of more time, like, I want more time, or I want better time with them. Yeah. And I don't know if you remember, and this was pretty early on, but from my perspective, I think one of the biggest aha moments that you had in those early weeks was that you actually had more time with them than you realized.
Do you remember that?
Totally. That came out of the time tracking exercise, which was like my favorite thing. I think that we did mostly 'cause it gave you a ton of data and I love data. But I could visually see like, oh, I actually have this solid block of time with them, you know, from the second I get them from school all the way through.
Bedtime then I never thought of as like opportunities for quality time, opportunities for connection, because it was always this flurry of like, who's cooking? When are we doing bath? Like I need to funnel laundry. , and then also still my brain running in the background being like, did you finish sending that email?
Did you finish writing that? And so I think seeing it on paper that like, this is the opportunity that I've got. Like I, I need to shift my thinking more to anything of like, how do I make the most of it?
Yeah, , because a lot of us, when we look at the time tracking data, or when I look at your data.
I can't produce more hours for you.
Mm-hmm.
I can't necessarily, unless you wanna make a drastic change, shorten your work hours, or put your kids to bed later, or change what school or daycare hours are, a lot of that is set.
Mm-hmm.
And so, like you experienced, can we instead decide to see. Drop off in the morning if you're gonna walk or drive or bike.
Your kid to school.
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Well, is that 20 minutes that you can have a conversation or sing a song together or look at the clouds or whatever it is that you're doing or, yeah, in the evening, maybe I do need to fold laundry around my kids, but can I be talking with them or singing with them, or just enjoying or appreciating being in the same room as them, even if that's all we have quote unquote time for
Yes, absolutely. Like I think those that shift in my thinking, allowed me to make. Little tweaks, right? I think I told you like my newest thing that I do is , I put them in the bath, the big ones in the bathtub, and I sit on the floor of the bathroom and I fold laundry while they're playing in there.
And we love that. Yes. Yesterday my 3-year-old wanted to do like. She likes to do this little yoga thing on YouTube, and I was like, you know what? I haven't stretched today, like I'm gonna do yoga with you. And it took like 15 minutes, but you know, we're like giggling and laughing at each other and I was like, cool.
I'm like moving my body and having some quality time with you, you know, getting my 6-year-old to help cook dinner. There are just like little ways that I'm like, we can find that connection in the things we already have to, to do without making big changes.
Yeah. Mean, I, I still remember that light bulb moment for you.
Mm-hmm. And, and then you got to work on that finding and experimenting and trying all these little things throughout the rest of the program while we tackled some of your other opportunities for change when it came to your workday, so that you could feel at the end of a day or a week of, of writing and researching that you had made.
Enough progress.
Yeah,
yeah. You could step away from it that it didn't have to follow you into everything else that you did.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I think that shift of how I structured , my research time, my flexible time, allowed me to bookend my day a little bit better and encapsulate that time.
I think I remember there was one class where you were like, I'm gonna challenge you to close all your tabs on your browsers at the end of the day. And I was like, I can't do that. Like I need, I need those. I'm gonna pick right up and I'm gonna get back to it after the kids are asleep. And you're like, no, truly we need to be mindful of transitioning back into family time and this is one way we can do it.
And I was very skeptical. At first it felt really weird, but it is now something I habitually do because it is in my head this like marker of like, okay, the work is done for, for now. Even if I have to go back later. But we are completely shifting our focus and I didn't realize something that simple could be such a significant marker for me that I'm in a different head space now.
Yes. Not to mention. So I will, I will share that. I still struggle with this. And I went to pick up my kids after school. They come home, get settled. I do usually a little bit more work until I do close down and we make dinner and get ready for the evening. But yesterday I didn't get through everything that I thought I would.
And so I left. I'm looking over here right now, like 15 tabs open. And so not only did those probably, I, I know they did remain open in the back of my mind throughout the evening and bedtime and all of the things. I didn't end up working more last night. I was too tired, and this morning the first thing I do is open up my laptop and suddenly feel behind.
Mm-hmm.
Whereas before I had looked at it. I had chosen my three things for today. , I felt good with my plan and instead I opened that up and suddenly I'm like, oh, there's so much here I didn't get done yesterday. Right. So,
yeah,
it serves so many purposes to, to make that transition. And the reality is if you are gonna come back online later in the evening, you can just reopen the tab.
Totally, totally. You just thought I would
I the document again,
do it and I can, it's not that big of a deal.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
What is there anything else that you feel like has been a shift for you? Or do you feel like those two were your biggest?
I think one thing that. Is helping me a lot now is, is a little bit still related to this.
Like how do I take really big, big things and break them down? , one of those things has really been as far as like from a home and family life, we have been wondering about moving and thinking , we are really outgrowing our house. We need to be somewhere different. But that. Kind of task of like, where do we start?
How do we think about selling or renting our house? Like where are we gonna live? Where like blah blah, blah. There's like, the list would feel like so overwhelming to even start. And so you had introduced us to the concept of the 12 week year, which I really have been leaning into a lot and I think. It makes it feel like you're, again, like the idea is, and you should probably talk about this more than me, but being able to parse out a big, big project, not.
Indefinitely, but to again encapsulate it within these 12 weeks and then break up the steps that you need to get to within that timeframe. So like for me, that's a good timeframe 'cause I can see improvement and feel like I'm doing something, but it doesn't feel overwhelming, like I'm trying to do it all at once.
And so that kind of approach to like project planning, especially as we're trying to figure out moving, makes me feel. Like we're making slow baby steps. It's happening, but it's also not gonna drag on forever because I know that there's an end in a goal.
Yeah. That's interesting because I definitely saw your skeptical face when we went through that lesson, which, which I should say is not my original idea.
It's based on a book called The 12 Week Year. I'll put a link to that in the show notes if you're interested or you wanna check it out. , I've just adapted it for what I think is a more realistic approach for working parents, , and I remember you saying. How would I get this whole project like moving or selling our house done in 12 weeks?
Mm-hmm.
You know, and it is interesting that we, hear a timeframe like that and put pressure on ourselves to have the whole thing done. And it's like, no. I mean, there are certainly some projects that do fit. End to end within 12 weeks. But there are many that your work things, or even household and family projects that span a long period of time and it's just, where's my focus here in these next 12 weeks?
What do I feel like I would love to walk away with having done or completed or thought about in these 12 weeks? And then I can write another plan. Mm-hmm. After that and continue it on. Right. Carry it forward.
Absolutely. And that's kind of what we've ended up doing. So like the first 12 weeks is like, how are we getting our current place ready?
Right? Like there's a bunch of projects and things that have just totally piled up, right? And then the next, and then the next 12 weeks is gonna be like, okay, so where are we going? You know, and how do we strategize and figure that out?
Yeah.
Yeah.
, it's not to say that you have to project plan your entire life, but.
I think it can be really helpful at at home or with our families as well. We say we want to do these things, check these things off our list, or we want to live in this way, or we wanna prioritize this part of our lives that has taken a back seat. Well, what is your plan for doing that? Mm-hmm. , because if you just leave it open and hope that it happens, chances are everything else that is thrown at us with sick kids and all the unexpected things that we just can't imagine, they will overshadow that.
If you don't know what is my next step, what is it that I'm aiming for, and how or where do I fit this in?
Mm-hmm. And I think like it's analogous to what we were saying earlier, just on a longer scale, right? Like instead of a four hour block of write, it's a 12 week of buy a new house, but , we still break it up into those smaller pieces , so that I'm not just confronted with this overwhelming, monumental task.
I'm not distracted by like the shiny things in other places that take my attention, which I'm totally prone to. But instead I have, again, those concrete but more doable kind of things to slowly make , that progress. And I think that I've learned that those slow kind of small steps is really the best way to make changes or make things happen over time.
Right. I'm not good with the huge, big shifts. That's hard to stick to. And you've talked a lot about this too, but like those slow little tweaks to your routine or things, those are ways to make it sustainable.
Yeah, it's hard to stick to. It's hard to fit in. Mm-hmm. We just don't have endless energy and lots of large blocks of time.
That's just not our reality anymore.
Mm-hmm.
Another thing that comes to mind for me with you is, we've talked a lot about your schedule, especially on the weeks when you are in your clinical role.
Mm-hmm.
, is fitting the work that you did in this program in, and I know that's a concern for a lot of people whose schedules, whose. Capacity, their to-do lists are already full. How, how do I fit one more thing in and go all in on this or just get something out of it , how does that fit? Right? Yeah. And I, I would guess that some of those questions came up for you and I'm curious what, on the other side now, what you would say to that?
Yeah, I, I was really worried about that. 'cause I think looking at my schedule, I knew that of the 12 week program, four of them, I was on service, which then I am very much at the whims of whatever is happening on the, yeah. And we had talked about that, like. What happens if I can't be there because I have no control of my schedule those days.
, and I think I was very reassured to know that I could still watch the video calls , and check up on the recordings later, which I always did. , and they were great and I still definitely got things out of that. But I also learned, I really, really like being there in the, in-person discussion.
Like that's just for me, that's how I engage and learn better if it's, something that's happening live. Yeah. And I think it was pretty apparent after the first week of like, I gotta make my schedule work to, to do this, because I think there would be. So much I would get from them. Like, I loved our group, I loved the comradery, I loved hearing, you coach some of the other folks on our call, even if it wasn't me directly.
It was always very relevant. , and it quickly became something that I really looked forward to. And so then I just moved things around him, prioritized it, which was good.
Yeah.
Then it was nice to have some of the things that I could do on my own time when I wanted to. And honestly, when I was procrastinating doing other work things, I'd be like, oh, I'm gonna do my homework, or I'm gonna watch the video, or, you know, I'm gonna post on Slack.
And I think that that was nice to know that there was some flexibility and control with it. So a good balance for sure.
Yeah.
So you have this potential move.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
You know, what your year looks like ahead with research and service weeks. What, what is next for you? Where do you take some of this work and what is your focus?
Yeah, that's a great question.
I think the biggest thing that I am really trying to. Work on now is that the season that we're coming into just feels busier . Obviously it's still winter and so things are on hold, but there are new activities that are ramping up. You know, there are more play dates that are happening and my kids just feel a little bigger than they did before when my, you know, my baby's one now, so like, she's bigger.
Yeah. And so trying to focus really on, leaning into that and feeling ready and prepared for that. And we've talked about this a little bit, that I think one of the things that I've struggled with and I think will make this busy season, you know, feel more enjoyable is really building out our community.
Mm.
And we have been so lucky to make great friends here. Our kids have great friends. We feel like very connected to where we are now. That's honestly the thing that terrifies me the most about thinking of moving. And so trying to put those systems into place that amplify the con connections that we have now leaning on each to each other for help and asking people, you know, too.
Take her to gymnastics and I'll watch her on the next random half day that school has and that kind of support. And then also thinking like, how do we start fresh if that's what ends up happening. Mm-hmm. , and what have I learned this time around that could help me feel more rooted in, grounded faster the next time.
Mm-hmm. So that's, I think a lot of like the internal processes that I'm really wrestling with.
Mm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
That was. Definitely a theme in many of our conversations as a group. And when you talked earlier about learning from the others, even if the situation or circumstances weren't the same, you provided a lot of permission and just examples of what building and leaning on community can look like for the other women in the group as well.
And so it is always interesting. The strengths that we each have and, and bring to conversation that when you see it alongside the others in the group, in some ways, can help you appreciate what you do. Mm-hmm. Do well already. Mm-hmm. And I don't know if you would. Say that you feel that way about community, but I, I definitely noticed that for you as something that you already do really well.
And of course we can always make better or stronger.
Mm-hmm.
And so I love that collecting some data for yourself on how did I create this?
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
And what does work really well now so that if I have to or choose to replicate that somewhere else, I can.
Absolutely. I think that was what was really lovely about the group.
'cause we were all at slightly different phases, I would say in our our life, right? We had some folks with slightly older kids, , one that only had one. And just being able to. Recognize myself in where I had been maybe five years ago, you know, at the very beginning of things. And then also to see what life could look like once they do get a little bit bigger.
I think it was really, really amazing just to have folks be able to bring those different experiences and we really did do a lot of learning from each other which. Was super, super powerful. , and honestly, probably one of my favorite, very favorite parts of this entire program.
Yeah. So glad you said that.
It's my favorite too.
Yep. I miss them.
I know, I know. , 12 weeks goes by so quickly when you're sitting at the beginning and thinking about time you know, what is, what is time these days. Mm-hmm.
Absolutely.
Yeah. Thank you so much for. Giving us some insight into what your life looks like, what you're changing.
I love all of your stories and the examples that you share are so relatable. As a fellow mom of three kids, I'm like, yes. Get that. And so I just appreciate you being here and, and being willing to share all of that.
Oh, well, thank you for having me, and thank you for everything you've done. I really, really appreciate it.
Oh, of course. My pleasure.
Thank you so much for listening and as always, for being a part of this Working Mom community. You can find everything related to this episode in the show notes at themothernurture.com/podcast. And don't forget enrollment for Beyond Balance,
my group coaching program for working moms who want to go from feeling constantly behind to having plenty of time is open, but only until February 10th. Head to themothernurture.com/interest to fill out your application today. Again, that's themothernurture.com/interest. I would love to have you join.
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