What Fresh Hell: Parenting, Relationships, and Making Life Better, with Two Funny Moms - TopPodcast.com

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What Fresh Hell: Parenting, Relationships, and Making Life Better, with Two Funny Moms

When you’re a parent, every day brings a “fresh hell” to deal with. In other words, there’s always something. Think of us as your funny mom friends who are here to remind you: you’re not alone, and it won’t always be this hard.
We’re Amy Wilson and Margaret Ables, both busy moms of three kids, but with completely different parenting styles. Margaret is a laid-back to the max; Amy never met a spreadsheet or an organizational system she didn’t like.
In each episode of “What Fresh Hell” we offer lots of laughs, but also practical advice, parenting strategies, and tips to empower you in your role as a mom. We explore self-help techniques, as well as ways to prioritize your own needs, combat stress, and despite the invisible workload we all deal with, find joy amidst the chaos of motherhood.
If you’ve ever wondered “why is my kid…” then one of us has probably been there, and we’re here to tell you what we’ve learned along the way.
We unpack the behaviors and developmental stages of toddlers, tweens, and teenagers, providing insights into their actions and equipping you with effective parenting strategies.
We offer our best parenting tips and skills we’ve learned. We debate the techniques and studies that are everywhere for parents these days, and get to the bottom of what works best to raise happy, healthy, fairly well-behaved kids, while fostering a positive parent-child relationship.
If you’re the default parent in your household, whether you’re a busy mom juggling multiple pickups and dropoffs, or a first-time parent seeking guidance, this podcast is your trusted resource. Join our community of supportive mom friends laughing in the face of motherhood!
whatfreshhellpodcast.com

Copyright: Copyright © 2016-2023 What Fresh Hell, LLC

Latest Episodes:

Bad Mom Moments (with guest Arianna Bradford) Jul 08, 2020

Show notes

Fess up: everyone's got a Bad Mom Moment. Or twelve.

We tend to hold these things really close, our shame rooted in deep certainty that no other mother has ever temporarily forgotten their baby in the toy aisle at Target.

Guess what? You're not alone. Here are some of our listeners' Bad Mom Moments– and more than a few of our own.

Our guest this week is Arianna Bradford, the brains behind The NYAM (Not Your Average Mom) Project, a website dedicated to helping parents -- moms especially -- celebrate the person they are outside of their role as a parent. Her new book, SHAME ON YOU: BIG TRUTHS FROM A BAD MOM, is a hilarious collection of parenting essays that focus as much on a mother's mental health as they do on kids, and how very, very strange they are.

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Ask Margaret - I'm So Worried About Being Away From my Kid Jul 06, 2020

Show notes

Every week Margaret or Amy answers one listener's most pressing question.

This week Margaret answers the question, "I know it's silly but I'm really worried about being away from my child for three nights. How I can deal with this?"

Submit your questions to: questions@whatfreshhellpodcast.com

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What This Has Taught Us About Our Kids Jul 01, 2020

Show notes

This extended pause has been really hard for some of our kids, and actually sort of good for others. For every lonely preschooler who just wants to finally have someone to play “bad guys” with, there’s a formerly rambunctious middle-schooler who became a real scholar without all the distractions of the in-person classroom.

And the happiest kids have sometimes surprised us. The family Eeyore is sunnily certain things will be back to normal soon, while the happy-go-lucky one is taking more naps. We've learned (again) that our kids are more complicated than we imagined.

In this episode, we discuss the things we’ve learned about our kids and will take forward as parents, both for the kids who have weirdly thrived and for those who have struggled.

Here are links to research and other writing on the topic that we discuss in this episode:

Aaron E. Carroll for the NYT: The Coronavirus Has Made It Obvious. Teenagers Should Start School Later.

Nora Fleming for Edutopia: Why Are Some Kids Thriving During Remote Learning?

Randy Kulman, Ph.D. for Psychology Today: Will Distance Learning Produce a Coronavirus Virus Slump?

Debbie Meyer for Education Post: It Was Hard Being a Dyslexia Mom Before Coronavirus, And Now It's Even Harder

Debbie Meyer for Education Post: Here’s How Remote Learning Could Help Struggling Readers

Caroline Preston for The Hechinger Report: ‘A drastic experiment in progress’: How will coronavirus change our kids?

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Ask Amy - How Do I Get My 8-Year-Old to Read a Real Book? Jun 29, 2020

Show notes

Each week Amy or Margaret answers on listener's most pressing question.

This week a listener asks: "Any thoughts on how to get my 8 year old son to listen to/ ead anything outside his go-to genre?"

Amy suggests the "You Wouldn't Want To Be" series as particularly appealing AND educational for grade-schoolers... you can find those books here: https://www.youwouldntwantto.be/

Submit your parenting question- we might answer yours next!

questions@whatfreshhellpodcast.com

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Helping Kids Feel Secure In a Scary World (With Guest Dr. Abigail Gewirtz) Jun 24, 2020

Show notes

No joke: this is a particularly anxiety-provoking time. And even if our kids are little, and we manage to keep the TV off most of the time, they're still picking up on a certain hum in the house, a new and different frequency.

But our job as parents is not to make it feel like like the pandemic, the social unrest, the climate change, and the coarsened social discourse of this moment isn't happening. Our job is to talk with our children about these times in age-appropriate ways.

Here's the good news: we're not supposed to present our kids with the solutions to all the things that might scare them. We're supposed to meet them where they are, help them discuss their feelings, and then ask them what feels like the right thing to do next.

Our guest this week is Dr. Abigail Gewirtz, a professor at the University of Minnesota. She’s an award-winning child psychologist and leading expert on families under stress,

Her new book is WHEN THE WORLD FEELS LIKE A SCARY PLACE: Essential Conversations for Anxious Parents and Worried Kids. There couldn't be a better book for right now! It offers parents a clear and practical guide to discussing sensitive topics in a calm, reassuring, and productive way, that will help kids comprehend and process the world around them.

We also mentioned The Week Jr. as a great resource for your 8-14 year old child to receive clear and non-terrifying information about these newsworthy times. If you have a kid who is asking questions, it's a relief to be able to offer them accurate information that won't be more than they can handle.The latest issue is available for free download here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aqNTPKKk7fs6iNMX2zvCuDRiPJzxHbyC/view

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Ask Margaret - My Husband is a Terrible Gift Giver! Jun 22, 2020

Show notes

Each week Margaret or Amy answers one listener's most pressing question.

Today Margaret answers the question, "What can I do about my husband who gives terrible gifts?"

Submit your questions to: questions@whatfreshhellcast.com

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How Do We Handle This When Everyone Is Doing It Differently? Jun 17, 2020

Show notes

Shutting it all down was definitely hard, but the parameters of the assignment were clear.

Reopening is more like: do what you want when we think you can, or at least aren't fully convinced that you can’t.

Most of us are probably going to need to leave our houses before vaccines are available at your neighborhood Walgreens. But how do we do that safely when kids touch seriously everything? When masks are optional? When all we are learning about this virus is how little we know?

We live in a world where we are entitled to make our own decisions, for ourselves and for our families. But other people's decisions affect us, including some people we are closely related to.

How do we understand and mitigate the actual risks? How are we going to do this when everyone’s doing it differently?

Here are links to writing on the topic that we discuss in this episode:

Carolyn Hax: Balancing snowbird migration and virus mitigation

German Lopez and Amanda Northrop for Vox: How to weigh the risk of going out in the coronavirus pandemic, in one chart

Emily Oster: Grandparents & Day Care

Roni Caryn Rabin for NYT: How to Navigate Your Community Reopening? Remember the Four C’s

Leana S. Wen for Washington Post: Four concepts to assess your personal risk as the U.S. reopens

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Ask Amy - My Toddler Doesn't Listen When I Say "Stop!" Jun 15, 2020

Show notes

Each week Margaret or Amy answers a listener's parenting question.

This week Amy answers the question, "How do I get my incredibly active 2 1/2 year old to stop when I tell her to?"

Submit your parenting question– we might answer yours next!

questions@whatfreshhellpodcast.com

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Talking With Our Kids About Race (with guest Deborah Porter) Jun 10, 2020

Show notes

The idea that our kids are colorblind, and that we therefore should put off talking to our kids about race because they’re too young to understand its complicating factors, is wrong. And mothers of color could have told us that a long time ago.

As parents, we should be talking about race with our kids early and often. Dr. Erin Winkler’s work shows that when parents are silent about race with our kids, or use "colorblind" rhetoric, we may actually reinforce racial prejudice.

Yes, exploring race and racism and its many implications makes many of us uncomfortable. But it may be a lot easier than we're making it, as this week's guest, Deborah Porter, explains:

“You have to be able to tell the truth in an age-appropriate way. To not discuss race is not being truthful. We can be truthful with our children about what race looks like in an age-appropriate way, where for them, it's just the thing that we're talking about today."

We've created a Google doc with lists and articles and videos and social media accounts that can help us all in our work of raising anti-racist kids. You can find the list at bit.ly/raisingantiracistkids. If you see other resources you'd like us to add, tag us or send us an email: info@whatfreshhellpodcast.com.

Here are links to writing and research on the topic that we discuss in this episode:

Mellody Hobson’s TED Talk: Color Blind, or Color Brave?

Dr. Erin Winkler: Children Are Not Colorblind: How Young Children Learn Race

Sierra Filucci for Common Sense Media: How White Parents Can Use Media to Raise Anti-Racist Kids

prettygooddesign.org: Your Kids Aren't Too Young to Talk About Race: Resource Roundup

"White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" by Peggy McIntosh

Margaret Hagerman for Time: Why White Parents Need to Do More Than Talk to Their Kids About Racism

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Ask Margaret - Dealing With My Kids' Coping Mechanisms Jun 08, 2020

Show notes

Each week Margaret or Amy answers one listener's most pressing question.

Today Margaret answers the question, "What should I do about my kids' troublesome coping mechanisms during the coronavirus outbreak?"

Submit your questions to: questions@whatfreshhellpodcast.com.

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