Mother Plus Podcast

07/05/2024

One day a year, I get to feel like I am flying.

I step on that stage, and I am in my power.

I feel strong and confident and exactly where I’m supposed to be.

For someone who spends most of their days anxious, it’s the most amazing high. To feel so stable.

When we talk about our ADHD superpowers in our club and on the show, it’s THIS. This place where I finally feel is big enough for all my energy and creativity.

Listen To Your Mother (and therefore and and ), you have changed my life.

Thank you for helping me find myself here.

And to all my friend and family who came other support me Saturday night, thank you for being there like that for me. It can literally feel like an impossible feat to get a night away from your kids.

I’m honored you spent that time on me and with the other women in this show. I’d also venture to say it was totally worth it. It was for me 5 years ago when I went to my first show as a new mom.

27/03/2024

Get ready to laugh until you cry, and cry until you laugh again. My favorite show of the year is 6 weeks away and if you’ve never been (and you’re a mom), you NEED to go.

I attended Listen To Your Mother 6 years ago when I was a new mom, brand new to Colorado, and felt so very alone in my motherhood insecurities. Then, the women up on that stage read their essays and opened up my mind to the fact that motherhood is TOUGH for all of us (but a lot of the times, there is humor in the experience). All of our experiences are different, yes, but you’d be surprised how many women are going through something similar to you.

Pinch me because for the last 4 years I have been a cast member of the show, and will be reading up on stage at the Boulder Theater again this year. If you want to hear about crippling motherhood-induced anxiety, you should come listen 😁

All this to say, get your tickets to Listen To Your Mother - May 4th at the Boulder Theater. Ticket link in the comment below…

13/02/2024

Fill in the blank. What are you EXCEPTIONAL at that organized, have-their-sh*t-together moms aren’t?

For me, it’s spontaneity, and an unexplainable comfort with the spotlight. Being on stage is my happy place.

Steph and I talk all about the good parts on the latest episode.

If you, too, struggle with insecurity in your ADHD hot-mess-ness, you NEED to click the link in the bio for a confidence boost.

06/02/2024

To the moms who feel like impostors,
like they missed the memo,
Like the square pegs in cookie-cutter holes…

We see you because we are you.🙏

On the latest episode of the podcast, we are examining motherhood through the lens of ADHD.

We’ve realized that neurodivergence has colored both our motherhood experience by magnifying our insecurities and highlighting the things that we absolutely suck at:

🏡organization
🧺staying on top of things
🕛being on time

🤪remembering the myriad things moms are supposed to manage. . .

And we’ve realized how much ADHD motherhood has contributed to our guilt and ambivalence.

So we are starting a series for other moms—whether neurodivergent or not—who feel like they are failing this motherhood thing. 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️

We’d LOVE for you to follow along, and most importantly, please subscribe to the podcast!

Can you relate?

29/01/2024

Everybody needs a friend who will give them permission when they aren’t able to give it to themselves 😌.

Feel guilty for planting your sick kid in front of the tv all day?
Need confirmation that you did indeed need to stop at Barnes and noble after your grocery shopping for some alone time?

Text THAT friend. The one that will tell you OF COURSE it’s okay. YOU DESERVE IT. They WILL survive.

Thank you . Love you to the moon and back.

Tag your friend that does this for you!

07/01/2024

So I asked my 4-year-old to clean her room the other day. It was a total disaster after her and her sister had set up a stuffy tea party, complete with a Calico Critter neighborhood for the stuffies to "play with." And if you've ever seen a Calico Critter accessory, you know how ridiculously small and plentiful they are. Anyways...

To my surprise, she happily ran upstairs to do it. She was so proud of herself when she was "done!" She took my hand and pulled me into her room to show off her work. What I saw was ALL the toys - big and small - moved from one side of the room to the other. "I CLEANED MOM!" says Maggie.

And it was in that moment, I realized I have never actually taught her HOW to clean her room. In fact, there are so many tasks and everyday actions I ask of my children that I never took the time to teach them. Likely I was too busy doing it myself, assuming I was the only one who COULD do it.

All this to say, kids want to help. And it is GOOD for them to help. We just have to show them HOW they can help. And we have to be confident in the way we show up to do that.

Tomorrow night at 6:30 MDT / 7:30 CST / 8:30 EST, Stephanie and I are getting together with our favorite parenting expert - Cindy Shuster to teach exactly how to do this. How to go from it's-all-on-you, to, we're-all-in-this-together. How to empower your kids to help. How to change the way you view YOURSELF and your role in your household.

Steph and I got a sneak peak at her presentation yesterday and it totally blew us away. By the end of it, Steph literally was teaching her 12-year-old to wash her own bathing suit (instead of the usual, OH! I'll get that in for you honey!).

It's virtual. It's ridiculously affordable. And it will be recorded so you can watch it again and again in your own time.

Here is the link to sign up. I hope to see you there!
https://www.motherplusser.com/parent-workshop

15/12/2023

Confession: I am a Montessori mom failure. 🫣

I tried early early on to make my children independent, to make them feel as though they were contributing members of the household.

But I failed.
Why?

Because I want to be nice. I don’t want to cause a tantrum or rock the boat.
Because I don’t want to add to their already “full” plates (they’re 3 and 6 🙄).

And here I am. Doing it all by myself and resentful for it.

Anybody else relate? 🖐

Tell me about something you do daily for your kids that they can TOTALLY do themselves.

And then, go check out our mom-focused parent workshop. We’re partnering with so it’s going to be GOOD.

14/12/2023

Mom friends! Guess what? Stephanie and I are hosting a parenting workshop. I know what you're thinking....

How are YOU qualified to host a parenting workshop? Wellll we're not, really. That's why we brought in the smartest woman in parenting we know...

Cindy Shuster, PCI® certified parent coach and NURTURED HEART APPROACH® certified trainer.

She was on our podcast and totally BLEW US AWAY with her parenting expertise and methods. So we asked her to partner with us on this idea...

A mom-focused parenting workshop:
It's Good For Kids To Help: Move beyond whining, chore charts, and guilt towards a more cooperative household

Here's the setup:
She will tell us all about how to get our kids to actually help in our household. To work as a team rather than letting it fall ALL ON YOU. And THEN...

For the second half of the workshop, she will answer YOUR questions about parenting so we can get a little more specific about what ails you in your household. Like, how do I get my daughter to not plop her backpack in the middle of the floor EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. No matter how many times I tell her to hang it up on the hook that is RIGHT BY THE DOOR?

It's SUPER affordable. You get to watch the replay whenever you want to. And you'll be supporting me and my entrepreneurial dreams to make The Mother Plus Podcast my full-time job by bringing moms really amazing resources and experiences that they either really need or want in their lives.

I'm going to leave the link here, and you let me know if you have any questions.

Oh! And if you have NO interest or you're not a mom, can you still comment below so more people see this post? Maybe something like..."You Go Glen Coco!" Thank you in advance, friends :)

Move beyond whining, chore charts, and guilt towards a more cooperative household.

10/12/2023

Where are all my Type B moms at? 👋

Do you, too, struggle with keeping up with all the birthday party evites?

I mean, I don’t answer most texts for days from good friends. So if evite is sending me a text, I’m going to file that away for another day.

And then “another day” becomes weeks.

And before you know it, the party is tomorrow and i have no gift and possibly other plans.

Remember when birthday party invites were made of paper? Likely with a Disney character on it or a ballerina or a baseball bat? You would get the coveted invite at school and run it home to your mom so she could put it in her * paper * calendar that hung on the wall, and you would ask every day, how many days till Ashley’s party??

Annoying? Maybe. But you know damn well mom wasn’t going to forget.

I miss those days. I also miss them because I was the kid, which was so much more fun than being the mom who has to remember all the things 😏.

16/11/2023

To my friends who are writers, creators, idea-makers, daydreamers, storytellers — tonight we are putting on our first Emerging Writer’s Workshop and I cannot emphasize enough how GOOD it is going to be. Like, open-up-your-eyes to new skills and angles and ideas you didn’t even know you had GOOD.

My podcast host and very good friend, Stephanie Smith Sprenger, is teaching along with her fellow Listen To Your Mother Producer, Megan Vos and they know their sh*t.

Collectively, these women have…

- Produced 8 Listen To Your Mother Shows
- Listened to HUNDREDS of women’s essays through HUNDREDS of auditions
- Taught mid-life women to tell their stories for 10 years and counting through the HerStories Project
- Published FIVE essay collections
- And been published in places like Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Scary Mommy, Motherscope, Huffington Post, The Washington Post, The Belladonna Comedy, Brain, Child Magazine, Motherwell, M***a Magazine, and The Chicken Soup for the Soul Series

If you’ve ever had a desire tell your story, or maybe even audition it for a show like Listen To Your Mother, THIS is the way to do it.

It’s happening tonight at 7:00 pm MDT, with a follow-up workshop on November 30th.

Both shows will be recorded if you can’t make it.

Hope to see you there ☺️

In this 2-part virtual workshop, we are going to walk you through the important elements of writing a personal essay that will stand out and speak to an audience.

29/10/2023

RIP Matthew Perry.
Friends reruns have always been my go-to when I’m feeling down or had a bad day.
So it feels extra hard to hear that today we lost Matthew Perry. He was my reminder of a simpler time, when everything wasn’t so heavy and hard. When I put Friends on, I go back in time.

But if he’s gone, will Friends still feel like a reprieve? Or just a reminder that it’s all pretend? That there’s real people behind those characters, with real problems.

I know. Could I BE any more depressing?

After reading his memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” I realized how unhappy he was. I guess it’s nice to imagine him in a better place, where he’s not in so much pain.

So RIP Matthew Perry, but long live Chandler Bing. In sweater vests, in bad Thanksgivings, in the word BE, and in all things sarcastic. ♥️♥️♥️

19/09/2023

Hello friends! For those of you who haven’t heard me say it, we’re hosting our first ever mom’s retreat this weekend in Denver! Stephanie and I are so crazy proud of what we’ve put together. In short, a very indulgent, creative, grounding afternoon for moms who need a break. It’s just 4.5 hours long on a Saturday afternoon. Take some time for yourself. You deserve it. Not because you “earned it,” just because you are a human being who needs rest and pleasure in her life. Please pass this on to any and all mom friends who need a breather:

An afternoon away that is so life-giving, it feels like a weekend retreat.

12/09/2023

3 hours.
That’s how long it took my hairdresser today to wash and blow dry my hair.

And thought there is nothing like a blowout to make me feel on top of the world, I stopped blow drying my hair after kids.

BECAUSE IT TAKES 3 HOURS.

2 young kids - 3 hours = Error. Error. Error.

But then I heard the brilliant idea from miss to consider outsourcing my blow outs.

Bring my laptop and a coffee, and let somebody else do my hair while I get work done. 🤯

Best part: It’s not nearly as expensive as you might think.
Hint: Allie said that some salons will work a subscription deal with you - a flat fee /month for regular blow outs.

And she was more than right. $70 for a beautiful blow out, that I didn’t have to do myself, that a professional stylist did BETTER than I would’ve, and the opportunity to get hours worth of work done all the while.

It’s brilliant. I actually made money during this appointment.

Thank you Rhiannon for your patience and kindness! You were wonderful and did an amazing job. I’ll see you again soon.

12/09/2023

3 hours.
That’s how long it took my hairdresser today to wash and blow dry my hair.

And thought there is nothing like a blowout to make me feel on top of the world, I stopped blow drying my hair after kids.

BECAUSE IT TAKES 3 HOURS.

2 young kids - 3 hours = Error. Error. Error.

But then I heard the brilliant idea from miss to consider outsourcing my blow outs.

Bring my laptop and a coffee, and let somebody else do my hair while I get work done. 🤯

Best part: It’s not nearly as expensive as you might think.
Hint: Allie said that some salons will work a subscription deal with you - a flat fee /month for regular blow outs.

And she was more than right. $70 for a beautiful blow out, that I didn’t have to do myself, that a professional stylist did BETTER than I would’ve, and the opportunity to get hours worth of work done all the while.

It’s brilliant. I actually made money during this appointment.

Thank you Rihannon for your patience and kindness! You were wonderful and did an amazing job. I’ll see you again soon.

31/08/2023

Link in bio or DM us for details.

Hey mom friend,

Just a quick reminder that Early Bird Pricing ends tonight at midnight for the Mother Plus Mini Retreat!

Here's a quick reminder of what you COULD be doing on September 23rd with us...

Meditating and grounding together as we ignite all your senses
Workshopping whatever is setting your heart on fire (even if that just means finding out what that is in this new stage of your motherhood)
Laying back and letting somebody else take care of you for once (wait until you see the spa menu!)
Indulging in farm to table food and drinks at Denver's self-care mecca (You get to order whatever you want from their allergy-sensitive, yet totally indulgent menu).
Take the day off with us.

We're serious.

Get the early bird pricing till midnight.

Much Love,

Stace & Steph

15/05/2023

Every once in awhile, dreams come true.

I wrote words that were so true to me, yet somehow true to so many women at the same time.

I read them on stage at the Boulder Theater - a place where time stands still and I feel like I’m flying.

On that stage, I sat amongst women 14 other women who I connected with, admired, respected, and loved.

I am still flying. More of this, please. Just more.

♥️

25/04/2023

This episode will change the way you think about parenting.

Seriously.

I have read many a parenting book, followed too many parenting influencers to count, and had Janet Lansbury on repeat for the first 2 years of my motherhood.

NOBODY has ever explained parenting like Cindy has to me.

I cannot unpack it all in this post because there is too much to unpack.

But if I could distill it into a few words, it would be this:

1. Stop defining ourselves by what we DO for our family - especially all the things we do that we hate doing.
2. Work on yourself first. Care for yourself first. Know that you're valuable FIRST.
3. After you’ve done your work, THEN you are able to really open yourself to caring for your children in the way you want to care for them.

She is amazing, you guys. Episode is in the bio. Go listen now! Before you pick your kids up from school. Or even if your kids are grown and flown. Her perspective works for every level of parenting.

Love this so much.

Thank you, Cindy 🙏. It was an honor getting to know you.

To listen, click link in bio 👆.
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18/04/2023

Steph and I both lost close friends this year. And today, we talk about the hard stuff.

Funerals.
Memories.
Questioning how we're living our lives.
Feeling alive after experiencing death.

Life has felt very heavy lately. Yet, somehow, talking about it made me feel better.

One thing both Steph and I have discovered after these losses, is that there is nothing that wakes you up more than going to a funeral.

Has anybody else experienced this?

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12/04/2023

Steph broke some pretty big news on a recent podcast she was on.

But she decided to officially break it with us too.

She's writing a book.

And if you've ever read Steph's work, you'll understand what a big deal this is. She is an INCREDIBLE writer.

And somehow, even she, struggles with self-doubt over it.

On this episode, she talks about:
- The "Who Cares?" factor
- As mothers, it's so easy to discount both our struggles and the importance of our stories.
- How Stephanie's nostalgia pilgrimage idea turned into something deeper
- Steph talks about overcoming her discomfort that writing a memoir is a navel-gazing and self-indulgent pursuit,
- HOWEVER, when we tell our stories, the impact stretches to our families, to readers, and to our community in general.

Are you an aspiring writer? Follow along on this podcast and her Substack: https://stephsprenger.substack.com/.

Love you, Steph. So freakin proud of you.

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04/04/2023

Has anybody ever asked you to tell your story? And done so without interruption? Without trying to offer advice or feedback?

Jamie realized that not enough women are given that opportunity. So she created it.

Join Stace & Steph as we get to know Jamie Yuenger, host of the phenomenal "If You Knew Me" Podcast which documents the inner lives of women.

We will talk about:
- Jamie's background in radio, TV, and folklore
- Why Jamie hated her NPR internship
- Defining and creating meaning from our own narratives
- Giving women the opportunity to be listened to
- How she has a partner that doesn't "help," but rather does more than half the work

This one is powerful, my friends.

There's this one part where she explains that she's not promising anything to the women she has on her show. She's just another woman who is there to listen and be 100% present.

I felt a deep exhale when she said that. Because I think on some level we are all craving that.

Go get that link in the bio. Let go. Enjoy.

14/03/2023

Latest episode is up!

The subject: Being torn between pursuing your entrepreneurial dreams and being a happy, present mother.

Visit Mother Plus Podcast, episode 53 to listen 🎧

Stacey explains that she doesn't do half ass; she does "whole ass." Which feels impossible when she's got three very large things on her plate: Motherhood/Family, Work, and a Business. How does she do all of them with all of her?

The answer is likely, she can't. As Shonda Rhimes says, "Whenever you see me somewhere succeeding in one area of my life. That almost certainly means I am failing in another area of my life."

Stacey recounts a time when she heard a mom lament about what she was going to do with her time now that her son is in preschool. She's dumbfounded, but also jealous of this mom who is completely satisfied by motherhood.

Can anybody else relate to this? This messy middle?

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07/03/2023

Allie Lefevere is a mother + writer/marketer and podcaster. She runs Obedient Agency with her best friend, specializing in humor marketing. Join us, as we talk with Allie about:

👏Ambivalence in pregnancy and beyond
👏Life after baby - it doesn't have to be as drastic a change as you think
👏Keeping her identity in motherhood
👏Confidence in entrepreneurship
👏Having “silly goose fun” in motherhood and all areas of life

If you don't know Allie already, look her up. She is the host of three podcasts, one of which discusses fan-fiction erotica, and ranked a top comedy podcast by Apple 😏🍆📚

I promise you, this episode is worth the listen. 😌
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01/03/2023

Latest episode is up! We posted a clip of it yesterday, but you’re going to want to check out the whole episode. It’s only 15 minutes (see link in bio 👆). Though it is short, it is poignant.

In it, Steph is talking about the "3 stages of the momcation":
1. Anticipation/preparation
2. The actual trip
3. The dreaded reentry

Anticipation: the week or two before the trip when you lose your mind because you need a break SO badly and are SO close and start imagining all the things that could go wrong to ruin your vacation.

The actual escape: Sweet relief! The exhale. This is the part when you realize you have zero responsibilities and you can enjoy absolute freedom and just BE.

The reentry: This could potentially be a time when you integrate all the peace and rejuvenation back into your daily routine, but let's be honest. It's usually a depressing sh*tshow.

What would happen if we got away without our kids—either alone, with a partner, or with friends or siblings—more often? Would we have the same kind of desperate need to escape? Would it make anticipation and reentry less brutal?

Our hectic and overwhelming lives make the contrast between getaways and reality painfully noticeable. Steph asserts that we definitely need vacations to escape reality from time to time, but that it would help if we built in more gentleness, relaxation, and yes, even decadence, into our daily lives to minimize the whiplash effect of reality vs vacation.

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20/02/2023

This episode is PACKED with wisdom.

For one, Lucy is a passionate holistic dietician, and shares three changes you can make tomorrow to change your health for the better (Hint: They are much more mindset than they are about what's in your fridge).

For two, Lucy shares how she made the decision to get rid of guilt after she became a business owner (Hint: it involved a lot more from her husband 😌).

For three, after listening to episode 13 of our podcast (This Mom Took a Vacation By Herself: Here's What Happened), she took her own SEVEN-DAY MOMCATION.

Listen to this episode and let Lucy inspire you, in more ways than one.

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07/02/2023

We've got a writer in the house, my friends! And she is dropping some wisdom on us in Episode 49 of the Mother Plus Podcast.

First off, when I asked her what was on the other side of her plus, she challenged me and said that she was actually a writer first, so...Writer + Mother. 🧐

Damn. Didn't see that coming. 😏

We also talk about:
1. How "Writing things in your head" still counts as writing

2. Her creation, Motherscope Magazine—an online writing and publishing community for moms (that she created when her firstborn was just one year old!)

3. How community is everything. Jackie shares her journey with Motherscope's community events, both in-person and virtual.

4. The importance of storytelling in motherhood: it keeps us present, helps preserve memories, and keeps us connected to ourselves.

5. Coming as you are and "just showing up." How she's learned to adjust her expectations and remember that any work she's doing is important and worthwhile. 

6. Balance—our most loved and hated topic—and how it's much more about taking breaks, patience, pausing, frequent reassessing, and shifting focus when needed. 

7. The comparison games mother + writers can't help but play, and when it feels like you "aren't winning anywhere."

By the end of the conversation, I asked her for the name of her therapist because she just seems so grounded and satisfied with what she is able to do, and what she's not.

Does anybody else flip the "Mother + ____" around and put the other thing first? Tell me below 👇
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24/01/2023

What is your sign?

A question that I used to think was just a fun woo woo way to get to know somebody more.

And then I met Jamie.

The astrological intuitive that -- as dramatic as it sounds -- changed my life by reading my chart.

It was insane how accurate she was about my personality, my needs, my desires, my anxieties, and my battles.

Since I've met with her, I am more comfortable in my own skin. I am at peace, knowing that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. I know who I am and I'm not apologizing for it.

THAT'S what astrology can do for you.

It is my honor to bring Jamie to your ears today in our latest episode, "This Astrological Coach Gives Moms Permission To Be Themselves Again."

So, really, what is your sign? Answer below. 👇
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17/01/2023

We’re back! Yes, we took a lengthy end of year/beginning of year break. No we’re not sorry. But damn did we miss this podcast.

We’re kicking things off with a conversation we haven’t had on the show - and sadly, a conversation many women haven’t had, but need to have.

We’re talking with Mother + Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist, Pauli Hannan all about the pain, discomfort and frustration that we accept as “just what happens” after you give birth.

In this episode, we cover:

1. Pauline, a pelvic floor physical therapist, explains what exactly the pelvic floor is and why it's so important. 

2. How can you tell if you would benefit from pelvic floor physical therapy? Learn the telltale signs of a weak pelvic floor, and remember: don't ignore pain!

3. An important reminder to advocate for your own health as a mother and patient—many doctors in the US do not routinely suggest pelvic floor physical therapy unless you specifically ask, do don't assume that because a physician doesn't recommend it that you wouldn't benefit. 

4. Pauline shares the tendency of women to normalize or minimize pelvic floor issues—"I had a baby, what do you expect?"—rather than take steps to get treatment and not be limited by their bodies. 

5. The emotional component of pelvic floor physical therapy can make it more stigmatizing and prevent women from talking openly about it. 

6. Pregnant and postpartum (even REALLY postpartum!) mamas—knowledge is power! Pauli gives listeners questions to ask, techniques to mention, and things to keep an eye out for as your body is going back to "normal" after babies.

Find episode 46 anywhere you get your podcasts!

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