Don't Mom Alone Podcast

12What do you do when your kid lies? What about when your kid doesn’t make the team? Is this your failure or theirs…or is it something else? 

We’re taking time this summer (as usual) to be mentored by an experienced mom and benefit from her wisdom. Bonus! My guest for these 6 weeks is both wise AND funny. 

Join me for conversations with wife, mom, author, and podcaster Cynthia Yanof. We’ll answer some listener questions, share our experiences, and laugh a lot. 

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Direct download: CynthiaEp414SofMwk1.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:39am CDT

How does your child’s behavior reflect on you? 

That’s a trick question -  it doesn’t. But it’s easy for us to feel that it does. Parenting a neurodivergent child can heighten those feelings of guilt or shame when our child doesn’t behave in an expected way or when traditional forms of discipline or parenting simply don’t work. Pile on top of that everyone’s summer activity and vacation social media posts and you might be tempted to believe the lie that your family is less than somehow, or always missing out. 

My guest this week, Carrie Cassell, is mom to some fantastic neurodivergent kids. Her profound encouragement to “go with the child you have, not the child you wish you had” reaches to every mom. Through her honesty with her own emotions and journey through motherhood thus far she reminds us neurodivergent brains aren’t bad or broken, they’re unique. 

Carrie created a space online for parents and caregivers of neurodivergent kids, Mosaic Connection. She invites parents into community to free them from isolation and shame, to connect them with themselves and do the inner work so they can help their kids believe the best about themselves. 

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Direct download: DMA_-_413.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:37am CDT

If your God-given assignment is to work outside of your home or the WFH life,  how do you manage the schedules and responsibilities and feelings that accompany those places? 

Mothering well is always hard - whether you work outside of the home or not. But moms who do work outside the home can feel a particular kind of difficulty caught between wanting to be the best mom and the best at work.

My guest this week, Diane Paddison, gives us great encouragement and insight. As a single mom on a global executive team she zeroed in on what was important and built her schedule from those priorities. Diane has served as global executive of two Fortune 500 companies and is a leading advocate for women in the workplace. She is the founder and president of 4Word Women, a mentoring ministry for Christian women. 

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Direct download: DMA_-_412.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:33am CDT

What do you feel when you hear, “It’s summertime”? Dread? Excitement? Anxiety? All three? 

No matter how many summers you’ve been mom-ing it’s the same - there will be fun and boredom, magical moments and fighting and we’ll be tired of it and wish it wouldn’t end. Join me this week as we talk about how to ENJOY summer, navigate sibling conflict, and much more. 

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Direct download: DMA_-_411.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:30am CDT

What are your patterns of prayer? Has it been hard for you to fall into a rhythm of prayer?

We know that prayer matters and works. It changes us, it opens our eyes to where God is at work around us. We want to pray for our kids, for ourselves, for others we love - why does it feel so difficult to jump in? My guest this week is Natasha Miller, The Praying Mama, and our conversation is full of encouragement for your prayer life. Through her own journey into connection with the Lord through prayer, Natasha invites us to know God’s nearness and to leave a legacy of trust in Him. 

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Direct download: NatashaMillerEp410.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:32am CDT

What’s The Thing you knew that you couldn’t talk to your parents about when you were growing up? Emotions you had or mistakes you made? 

As moms we want to connect with our kids, we want to be their source of truth and guidance as they grow, but how do we cultivate that sort of connection and trust? 

My guest this week, mom and author Kristen Hatton, helps us set the stage for walking alongside our kids through the tween and teen years (and beyond!). Her new book, Parenting Ahead, helps you evaluate your parenting and learn strategies for redemptive living and genuine connection with your kids. She encourages us that from the foundation of deep trust in God and his great love for you and your children, you can faithfully coach them through the realities of growing up.

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Direct download: KristenHattonEp409.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:34am CDT

What do modern manners look like? Manners are simply social behaviors or habits - you can have good ones or you can have bad ones. But it's been 101 years since Emily Post first published her book on manners and etiquette and it only seems as though lately we, as a society, have regressed in our social behaviors. 

My guest this week, Lee Cordon, has long felt called to make an impact on this generation and the next, to help people be gracious in all they do, say, and give. Sure, manners include which fork to use when, but it is much more than that. It’s a way to show love and respect to our neighbors and ourselves. In our digital age where boundaries can be blurry, Lee offers us encouragement in training our children (at any age) to respond with grace and dignity. 

DoSayGive tackles the topics that most traditional manners classes don’t, like social media and texting etiquette, how to be a good friend, and how to communicate with ease and consideration. DoSayGive also offers on demand video courses for tween and teen girls and boys (see links below). 

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Direct download: LeeCordonEp408.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:35am CDT

What is a place you’d rather not go? One that sounds nearly unbearable. The DMV? The school pick-up line?  What about going into a serious medical diagnosis or a financial crisis?  Following Jesus is no safeguard against difficulty in life. God may give you an assignment that feels impossible and overwhelming. That is where my guest this week, mom and author/speaker Cari Trotter, found herself in early 2021. 

But what Cari also found in those hellish months following a difficult diagnosis echoed what concentration camp survivor Victor Frankl says, “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.”  Cari’s life shifted in an instant and her identity, health, and expectations of the future shifted too. But she found a solid rock to anchor to in her relationship with God - wherever he was leading her. However dark or lonely the path she was never alone. Her meaning and purpose were not gone because the Lord was her strength and her song. She is right where she belongs. 

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Direct download: CariTrotterEp407.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:32am CDT

Have you ever seen a “magic towel” that swells and “grows” when you put it in water? Have you shrunk a shirt in the laundry? At different times in our lives God assigns us a space that we have to shrink or swell to occupy. This could mean giving up beloved roles, or taking on responsibilities we don’t want. How do we respond when we find ourselves in these situations? 

My guest this week is Courtney Defeo. At God’s leading she stepped back from a high-profile career and dreams of being a CEO so her husband could step forward in his career pursuits. She put certain things on hold to create the family and home culture she wants. While at first glance it might seem like she’s squandering her talent and intellect, when she looks around her life she sees things that can only be done now. She feels the freedom to use her gifts in the spaces she’s in now. 

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Direct download: CourtneyDeFeoEp406.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:34am CDT

What is my God-given space? How do I figure that out? What if my God-given assignments feel at odds with one another? 

My guest this week is wife, mom, and singer-songwriter Caroline Cobb. She also deeply enjoys studying the Bible and writing songs, and at times, with little margin in her life, she has asked those questions and more. She shares with us how she learned to lean in, not to the perfect formula for time management and balance, but to the relationship she had with God and his daily and minute-by-minute leadings. 

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Direct download: CarolineCobbEp405.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:35am CDT

What is unique about your life experience? Was your first thought, “Nothing”? Even the life that feels ho-hum is unique because no one else is wired precisely like you are, experiencing life precisely like you are. 

My guest this week is author, speaker, and mom, Sally Clarkson. Having moved 23 times in her life she has had to find things she can take with her wherever she goes. A favorite of hers is connecting with people over tea. She encourages us to adopt simple rhythms that fit our experience and wiring and allow us to connect with who and what matters most to us.  

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Direct download: SallyClarksonEp404.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:32am CDT

What do you think when you hear the word “boundary”? Boundaries keep things in, keep things out, and help us feel safe. But they can also feel limiting, and we don’t always get to choose our boundaries. That’s where my guest this week, Cleere Cherry Reaves, encourages us to humbly submit to the space and assignment God has given us. Through her experience as a follower of Christ and a mom, she reminds us of this: in whatever way we are experiencing the boundaries of time and place, we can control where we spend our attention, our perspective, and how we inhabit our God-given space. 

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Direct download: CleereReavesEp403.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:10am CDT

What would it look like for you to live your best life? What if someone told you that you already are living your best life? Not because you’ve accomplished and arranged things just how you want, but because not only is God with you exactly where you are, but because he purposefully placed you there. 

My guest this week, author and mom Vaneetha Risner, encourages us with her harrowing story of intense suffering and God meeting her right in its midst. Frustrated by circumstances and eager to experience God in the same manner others did she felt the Lord gently saying to her, “This is where I've placed you. This is where I'm gonna meet you. I'm not gonna expect you to climb mountains or do things you can't do to meet me.” 

Do you feel out of place? Are you looking for the unique and specific ways God wants to use you? Join us for a series focused around my new book, Right Where You Belong: How to Identify and Fully Occupy Your God-Given Space. We’ll walk together through six stories of women leaning into the varied assignments God has given them.  

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Direct download: VaneethaRisnerEp402.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:38am CDT

What does strength look like to you? Does it look like white knuckling it, holding your breath? Or does it look like putting your oxygen mask on first, and then attending to the needs of others? 

We all want to, need to be strong for those around us. But my guest this week reminds us there is a cost to being certain kinds of strong. Aundi Kolber is an author and therapist and her new book, Strong Like Water, helps unpack what true strength looks like and feels like and how to get there. In our conversation she encourages us in the practices of self-compassion and grounding and helps us see how white knuckling it is actually detrimental to our relationships and if we will pay attention to ourselves we can show up better for the people we hold dear. 

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Direct download: AundiKolberEp401.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:32am CDT

12Where do you turn for answers? Answers in parenting, answers in your career, answers when you encounter the negativity that seems to be lurking around every corner of life these days? My guest this week is a mom who came to a crossroads early in her parenting journey - what will I teach my kids about God? What do I even know about God? 

In the hiddens years of mothering her small children a deep relationship with God was forged that would serve as the foundation for Candace Cameron Bure’s life. It directs how she mothers, her return to the entertainment industry, and her forays into entrepreneurship. 

Candace is, among many other titles, host of the Candace Cameron Bure Podcast where Heather will join her as co-host for season 2 of the show! 

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Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:30am CDT

Join Bruce and Heather for a Q + A episode where they talk about the importance of connection and communication in their marriage (Happy 24th Anniversary!  🎉🥳) and what it looks like to be in the thick of parenting teens. 

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Direct download: BruceHeatherEp399.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:32am CDT

What does a child need to flourish? There are a million answers to that question, but in all honesty, it’s a little different for each child. We have so many tools available to us to help us see our own personalities and tendencies more clearly.

My guest this week is mom and author Karen Stubbs. She challenges us to be students of our kids’ personalities - to tell them the way they are wired is a good gift from God.

She encourages us to learn our kids. Not just to correct or discipline them, but to celebrate the way God has made them, help them grow into their strengths, and give them eyes to see their weakness with kindness and grace. Through her ministry, Birds on a Wire, parents can take a quiz to help understand their child’s unique personality and then be equipped to shepherd each unique personality well. 

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Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:30am CDT

Why do you think God created women? 

We know from Genesis that God didn’t say, “We have all these fish, we may as well have women too,” but instead he said, “It is not good” without women. Women take on all sorts of roles in our society, but it can be particularly difficult to suss out what exactly is our role in church and leadership. 

My guest this week is theologian Joel Muddamalle. Joel serves as the Director of Theology and Research for Proverbs 31 Ministries among other teaching and preaching responsibilities. In our conversation this week we dive into both the Complementarian and Egalitarian viewpoints as well as receiving gentle encouragement of the great value God places on women and the charge to approach these issues with humility. 

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Direct download: JoelMuddamelleEp397.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:30am CDT

With phrases like “you complete me” our culture idealizes connection between spouses or even friends that has no boundaries.  This brand of intimacy sounds appealing but it doesn’t work well practically. Our desire for connection is innate, but vulnerability is messy and risky. My guest this week, Kimberly Galindo, encourages us instead that the point where “I” end and “you” begin is the point where we’re different, but it is our real point of connection.  In our conversation Kimberly gives us some tools to communicate in a way that fosters connection, but maintains our separate personhood. 

Kimberly is a licensed therapist with experience helping married couples and individuals connect well in many areas. 

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Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:34am CDT

Some of our precious kiddos live with their sensitivity and intensity turned up a notch from the rest of us. What we think should be simple or routine can trigger big outbursts from our kids. Daily life might feel chaotic or unpredictable. 

As a mom of a sensitive or intense child you probably have a good idea of what doesn’t work, but it can be hard to discern what will help in those moments. My guests this week are Lynne Jackson and Lydia Rex of Connected Families. Together, they have compiled research and real life experiences from over a 100 families of children who are sensitive and intense and created a parenting course to support and equip parents. 

Lynne and her husband Jim have been regulars on Don’t Mom Alone encouraging moms (and dads) that it is possible to connect with your child, to coach them, and correct them - you never have to lose one to have the other. Lydia joins Lynne in the thick of parenting her own sensitive and intense children to encourage moms to draw from the limitless well of Christ’s love for yourself and your child in real-life challenging situations. 

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Direct download: LynneLydiaEp395.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:35am CDT

Who saw all that you’ve done today? Anyone? A mom’s work usually goes unacknowledged. We want to measure our work by how the house looks or how the children behave, or by how put together we look when we go out. But my guest this week, Ann Voskamp, invites us to prioritize the unseen. She dares us to prioritize things like the riches of Christ, the promise of an eternity in his presence that is “utterly and completely fulfilling,” and our relationships with those around us.  She helps us see the value in “signpost” parenting - not overly concerned with outcomes we cannot control, but deeply committed to continually pointing our kids to Christ and the sufficiency of His great love for us. 

Ann is a mom to 7, farmer’s wife and author of several books including her newest, Your Brave Song: An Inspirational Children’s Picture Book That Shows How Faith in Jesus Can Help Kids Overcome Fear, Worry, and Anxiety

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Direct download: AnnVoskampEp394.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:32am CDT

What’s the first word that comes to mind if I say, “Describe your body”? 

It wasn’t “good”, was it? 

Fellow human, it should be! Because that’s what God himself says about your body! He says it is good. Just the way he created it - not some past or future version of it, how it is right now. 

My guest this week is Alisa Keeton and she has spent the last 10+ years serving others through her ministry, Revelation Wellness. She wants you to understand not only that your body is  good, but just how very much God loves you. She deeply desires that we would know God - not just about him, but know him. And that is where our journey to health and wellness can begin.  

“Freedom is not a look, it’s a feeling.” 

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Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:35am CDT

You know what you’re seeing of someone else’s life as you scroll isn’t the whole story and yet we all find ourselves longing for that perfect vacation, that look of pure delight on their child’s face, or the silent moments they were able to enjoy. 

We all know “comparison is the thief of joy,”  and we should run from it. But what if, rather than try to immediately silence or distract whatever we’re feeling in those moments, we got curious about what’s going on inside? What if we could filter what we see and discern what is for us and what isn’t? 

In Christ, God has given us a treasure trove of wisdom and knowledge that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, is available to us all the time. We can use that wisdom to guide us as we uncover the “why” behind our comparisons and help us recognize our God-given boundaries.     

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Direct download: HeatherEp392.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:35am CDT

“As parents our job is to be kinder and stronger, and wiser.” 

Those words are simple and sensible, but that directive can be deceptively hard.  How do we mother - how do we live even - as our roles change hourly, monthly, yearly? 

In this second part of our conversation with Kari Kampakis she encourages us that if we are finding our identity in Christ and our joy in Him we can more easily navigate our ever-shifting roles as women. We can be free to teach and guide our children through life and ultimately let go of the reins when the time is right. 

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Direct download: KariKampakisEp391.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:30am CDT

“I’m not a regular mom, I’m a cool mom” are the words of Mean Girl Regina George’s mom. We know she’s not a great example of a mom, but it can be difficult to sort out  which moments are for connecting and which are for correcting. 

You want to be a valid voice in your daughter’s life as she enters their teen years and not just maintain, but grow your connection with her. It is possible to break from what society says and enjoy the teenage years. 

Mom of four girls and author, Kari Kampakis, talks with us this week about how humility and compassion can help us navigate our relationships with our tweens and teens. (Bonus - when they see us live this way, it will help them learn to navigate relationships too!)

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Direct download: KariKampakisEp390.mp3
Category:motherhood -- posted at: 12:35am CDT

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