The Mom Hour

Does solitude come naturally to your kids, or are moments of solo play far and few between? Meagan and Sarah read some research recently that challenged us to think about the importance of alone time, and whether our kids get enough. In this episode, we dive into our own childhood memories, how our children embrace (or run from) solitude, and how challenging it is to find that just-right balance. Join us!LINKS MENTIONED:Sarah and Meagan referenced the article in The Atlantic titled How Much Alone Time Do Kids Need? by Faith Hill, published in November 2022.Have you checked out our Merch Shop?! We’d love to see you with some Mom Hour gear. Please share photos of you with our merch and tag us on social!The best way not to miss a blog post is to sign up for our newsletter.MORE HELPFUL LINKS:Visit our websiteCheck out deals from our partnersFollow us on InstagramJoin our private listener group on Facebook (be sure to answer the membership questions!)Sign up for our newsletterSee Privacy P

With all the day-to-day planning required to run a household, it’s easy to put longterm planning on the back burner. Today Meagan and Sarah share lessons we’ve learned (or are still learning) that help us look ahead at a whole year, quarter, or month at a time. From knowing ourselves and our seasonal rhythms to figuring out where they keep next year’s school calendar, we’ve picked up a few things over the years, and we’re ready to dive in for 2023. Join us!LINKS MENTIONED:On Wednesday, we’ll be LIVE on instagram for our subscribers only. Go to our instagram page to subscribe to hang with us!Did you enjoy this episode and want more on planning? Here are episodes from the archives All About Planning:Oh Hey, It’s May. (End Of School Chaos): Episode 365How Planners Plan: Voices 68 With Christine Koh and Sarah Hart-UngerStaying Organized & Motivated As A Full-Time Working Mom: Voices 44 With Sarah Hart-UngerProductivity & Time Management Tips For Mom: Episode 169Episodes from the a

C-e-l-e-b-r-a-t-e good times, come on! Today’s episode is number 400! We can’t think of a better way to celebrate hitting a big podcast milestone than talking about how we honor birthdays and milestone celebrations in our families – especially as kids get older. Join Meagan and Sarah as we offer insight into making birthdays special for big kids, tweens and teens; how kids getting older hits us differently as moms, too; and how honoring big kid milestones gets tricker, but still gives us all the feels. Enjoy!LINKS MENTIONED:Great News! You can now listen to all 630 Episodes of The Mom Hour in your favorite podcast app!This episode pairs well with EP 166: Last Firsts & First Lasts (Milestones We Notice, And A Bunch We Miss)Sarah referred to Episode 364: Talking About Our Own Kids Or Not which sheds some light about how we decide what to share (and not) about our kids on the podcast.Check out our latest blog where we share some of our Team’s Best of Oldies episode recommendatio

New year, new you…or, maybe just a bit of new energy? Every January we are bombarded with content about goal setting, resolutions, simplifying things and planning out our calendar in detail for the entire year. And while some years January finds us ready to dive in head first, other years we need a bit of inspiration before getting our New Year’s juices flowing. In today’s episode, Meagan and Sarah share how we’re using the first weeks of 2023 to reflect on the past and gently start to look toward the future. We share what we are doing, thinking about and consuming to help us set the stage for a great year. Join us!LINKS MENTIONED:Check out the latest episode of the Mother of Reinvention podcast that’s all about Meagan and Sarah’s personalities and how our personalities impact the way we make plans and see the world. And if you want to listen to the extended conversation, consider joining Meagan’s community for midlife moms, REINVENT!For bullet journaling inspiration, Sarah loves Meghan Splawn’

Laundry is is a constant: it’s truly with us every day, week, and month of the year. In this first episode of 2023, Meagan and Sarah focus in on the laundry systems and strategies that are working (or not) in our homes, plus our favorite products, the grossest things we deal with, what’s great (and weird) about our laundry rooms, and how seasons of life change the challenges of keeping up with the laundry. If you wear clothes – or live with people who do – this episode is for you.LINKS MENTIONED:Meagan recommends the book Laundry Love: Finding Joy In A Common Chore for a great reference for changing up your laundry game in the new year. (This is an affiliate link.)Sarah gives her laundry product MVP award to this flexible laundry basket.Meagan’s MVP award goes to this square laundry basket.If you loved this episode, check out episode 167 from the archives “Loads And Loads (And Loads) Of Laundry!The holidays tend to make our minds go on overdrive. Our contributor Joanne Ruellos Di

As work-from-home moms, we’re perpetually seeking comfort and warmth during the winter months – stopping JUST SHY of living in pajamas 24/7. If your cozy winter wardrobe needs an update or you’re itching to do some post-Christmas shopping, listen to Episode 397 for Meagan’s and Sarah’s cold-weather fashion faves. Join us!LINKS MENTIONED:Meagan’s Cozy MentionsMeagan’s loving her Vuori pants in a wide-legged drawstring style, a jogger, and a harem pant.Sweater favs? This alpaca wool sweater and cashmere batwing sweaters from Quince!Meagan added this green sweater dress and this date-night dress to her wardrobe paired with Sheertex tights.The Gwen tall boot from Vionic has been Meagan’s ride-or-die this winter (Vionic is a sponsor – get free shipping with code THEMOMHOUR)Meagan got some new Land’s End jammies on recommendation from a friend.Harper Wilde Bliss BrasSarah’s Cozy MentionsFavorite pants right now are from L

Running a full-time independent podcast company keeps us busy – so busy that we don’t often pause to let listeners in to how it all works! As we approach the end of 2022, Meagan and Sarah share what’s up behind the scenes at The Mom Hour. We start with a lightning round of frequently asked questions (how’d we meet? do we fight? how does the podcast make money?) and move into bigger thoughts about our industry as a whole and the current economic landscape. We also take a look back at how we’ve grown over the years (particularly the past two), profess our love for fellow women podcasters whose names you’ll definitely recognize, and share what’s next for The Mom Hour. Enjoy!LINKS MENTIONED:Sarah referenced this episode of Pantsuit Politics which provides some behind-the-scenes information about the state of the podcast industry.Meagan wrote a guide for supporting content creators during a recession that’s PACKED with ideasWe couldn’t do this without the support of our podcast people! We encou

You’ve got holiday parenting questions, and Meagan and Sarah have answers. In this very merry Listener Questions episode, we tackle things like how to make the magic happen for your littles while traveling and spending Christmas at grandparents, how to coordinate and facilitate sibling gift giving, how to keep a curious kitten (or two) out of the tree (this is our reality this year!) and suggestions for how to handle the post-holiday blues of packing away Christmas. Join us!LINKS MENTIONED:We have Gift Guides for just about anyone on our Blog this holiday season.Want more on the Cat V. Christmas Tree Topic? Our Facebook Community had lots of advice for handling a curious kitty interested in the tree.We have more Listener Questions, Holiday Edition Episodes! Check these out from the archives: Episode 79, Episode 134, and 2018 Holiday Edition.Sarah wrote an essay titled “Christmas Trees On The Curb” about the bittersweet feelings of putting away Christmas.Don’t miss our I

Got resentment? Managing anxiety? Filled with hope? You’re not alone. The holidays provide a colorful snack platter of emotions – many of which we experience within a single day (or even moment!). Today it’s our honor to bring you the voices of eight moms, each of whom explores a different holiday feeling: anticipation, overwhelm, nostalgia, grief, anxiety, wonder, resentment and hope. In addition to our contributing voices, Meagan and Sarah also chat about our own hopes and feelings about Holiday Season 2022. Grab a cozy warm beverage and settle in!LINKS MENTIONED:We have Gift Guides for just about anyone on our Blog this holiday season! Don’t miss our Instagram live on Wednesday, December 14. It’s all about our fun, fluffy holiday habits!You can read the essay Sarah wrote for The Happiest Home Blog in 2012 (and published in The HuffPost in 2013) about the emotional experience of being a mom and feeling responsible for creating new, family traditions during the holidays. Or you can&n

Planning a festive, event-filled holiday season but worried about having the budget to make it all come together? Meagan and mom-of-four (and regular contributor) Lisa Payne join forces in today’s episode to share how we stretch our budgets in order to create all the behind-the-scenes magic that takes place in our divorced households with large broods. Join us for all our best tricks (and our Mom Hour Facebook Community’s tips) for hitting your food, travel, decor, entertainment and gift budgets this year. Enjoy! LINKS MENTIONED:We have Gift Guides for just about anyone on our Blog this holiday season!Meet Lisa Payne, mom of four, and Mom Hour Contributor. Meagan has used the Flashfood App to quickly and easily find food that saves her money while helping to reduce food waste. Meagan mentioned the Gift List App which keeps track of your gifts for each person and a running total of Christmas spending for you.Read all of our listener’s Best Holiday Bud

“Mom, is Santa Jesus’s grandpa?” If you’ve found yourself in the (somehow surprising?) position of Adult In Charge Of The Holidays, you too might be on the receiving end of kids’ questions about what’s going on, exactly, with all these rituals and traditions. The answers don’t always come easy, because even as adults it’s not always obvious how (or whether) to carry our own family of origin’s traditions into a new generation, how to merge faiths and cultures with our partners, and how to explain it all meaningfully to our kids.In today’s Voices episode, Sarah chats with three members of The Mom Hour team about bringing traditions forward from the past, creating new ones that feel right for right now, and navigating interfaith and intercultural dynamics. It’s a vulnerable, nuanced, and sometimes funny topic, and while we don’t pretend to have every aspect represented or covered today, we invite you to join us as we learn a little from one another!LINKS MENTIONED:We have Gift Guides for just about any

Planning, shopping, wrapping…Oh My! Today we’re featuring YOUR genius House Rules for gifting and giving this holiday season. We chat creative ways for extending the fun on the big day (without more buying), self care for mom after a wrapping marathon, what Santa brings (and doesn’t), how to handle extended family gift giving, AND gifts from the cat (yep, you read that correctly). Join us!LINKS MENTIONED:We have Gift Guides for just about anyone on our Blog this holiday season!10 Quality Puzzle Brands For The Little & Grown-Up Puzzle Lovers In Your Life8 Kitchen Gadget Gift Ideas For Home Cooks & Hobby BakersLet The Enneagram Guide Your Gifting This Holiday SeasonFacilitating Grandma and Grandpa “Thank-Yous” on Christmas Morning from afar can get tricky. We shared lots of ideas for this in a recent episode.We mentioned St. Nicholas Day a few times in this episode. Not familiar with this Day/Tradition? Learn more about it here. MORE HELPFUL LINKS:Visit our websiteCheck out

Can’t we all just get along? (Or maybe, more accurately: Can ANYONE, EVER, just get along?) From playground drama to cousin power dynamics, sibling bickering to neighborly awkwardness, there’s no avoiding relationship challenges as families grow, change, and evolve. Today’s episode brings together some of the common questions we’ve gotten from listeners over the years about helping kids learn to play well and fight fair. Join us!LINKS MENTIONED:If you listen and one of the recordings was about your child we’d love to hear from you! Ashley asks for advice about how to handle the dynamics of elementary school friendships from Episode 52.Tessa asks how to help a girl trio of cousins get along without forcing inclusiveness or letting hurt feelings dominate from Episode 73.Rachel sent in a question asking how to help her 14-month-old and 4-year-old get along and play together from Episode 122.What’s a mom to do when the sibling bickering is NON STOP? Sarah, a mom from our listener communit

The toy catalogs have arrived and the lists are being made! It’s normal for kids to wish and want all season long, and it’s ALSO normal for all those “gimmies” to get on parents’ nerves (or make us worry that we’re raising entitled kids!). In today’s episode, Meagan and Sarah talk about what it looks like to help kids cultivate gratitude (it’s a long game, trust us), how to allow them to hope and wish while providing reasonable expectations, and how to model accepting gifts with gratitude and grace. Most of all we’re here to normalize this tension between greed and gratitude in kids: It’s not you. It’s not them. It’s just not YET. Join us!LINKS MENTIONED:This episode pairs well with an oldie but goodie from the archives: On Greed And GratitudeSarah’s family does “Appreciation, Aha, Apology” at family meetings. Here’s more on the activity (which she borrowed from an amazing first grade teacher!).Meagan mentioned Nancy Davis Kho’s The Thank You Project: Cultivating Happiness One Le

Trader Joe’s. Yoga. Book Club. Cute boots and crunchy leaves. Today Meagan and Sarah just want to know: “Are we basic?” Join us for a fun More Than Mom episode with deep thoughts on this totally fluffy topic, including a look back at different eras in our lives when we’ve been trend-averse and other times when we’ve embraced mainstream culture. We talk about how it’s not as easy as it sounds to “like what we like” and leave it at that, why Midlife Lady Basic is different from youth culture (duh), and how, at the end of the day, we’re all just humans who like and dislike certain things, right? Enjoy!LINKS MENTIONED:Are you dying to know how BASIC you are (according to Buzzfeed)? Take the quiz and let us know! Sarah shared a quote from Gretchen Rubin about how enthusiasm is a form of social courage. Sarah and Meagan will be talking this topic in the next subscriber-only community on instagram this month. To learn more about our subscriber community hop over to Instagram a

Being sandwiched between the littles and the grandparents who love them isn’t always easy – and there’s no one right way to do it! Today we’re tapping into the tips, advice and wisdom of our community on a topic we’ve had a lot of request for: facilitating and nurturing grandparent-grandkid relationships. In this Episode, Meagan and Sarah share practical things moms can do to facilitate the relationships we want our kids to have with their long-distance and in-person grandparents. We talk through your ideas for using modern technology to help kids connect with grandparents, making time with grandparents extra special, and how to encourage one-on-one bonding with less of a presence from mom and dad. Enjoy!LINKS MENTIONED:You can see all the comments submitted for this episode in our Facebook Community.Are you ready to plan for this year’s Advent? Need a bit of inspiration? Check out these recent blog posts:13 Advent Calendar Ideas For 2022: Celebrating The Christmas Countdown With Kids Creating An Ex

If you’ve been listening to this podcast for any length of time you know that Meagan’s harbored some serious homesteader fantasies since her early 20s. Nearly 25 years after Meagan’s oldest was born, she’s finally living outside the city limits, and slowly making her “Little House on the Prairie homestead dreams” from long ago come true (well, sort of!). In this episode, Meagan interviews Kendra Martin from the Homesteady Podcast about how she lives off of 100 acres of land with her husband and six children. Kendra shares how she manages to homestead AND homeschool and what their family has in store for their future. Enjoy!LINKS MENTIONED:Want to learn more about Kendra and her family’s homesteading? Visit their website Homesteady, their Youtube channel, Instagram and podcast.Meagan referenced this Homesteady Podcast Episode with Kendra and Austin’s backstory to the homestead lifestyle.Episode 379, Lessons in Motherhood From Chickens and Kittens is a fun episode wh

Million dollar sick-kid question: “are they going to school today, or not?”! After two fall seasons impacted by pandemic schooling in all kinds of ways, Fall 2022 appears to be The One Where The Children Are Sick ALL THE TIME. In today’s episode Sarah and regular contributor Jayme validate (and commiserate) about the plight of kids picking up every possible virus this fall, and offer practical tips for managing kids home with common childhood illnesses. (In addition to having a toddler and a preschooler, Jayme is also a nurse by training and a physician-spouse, so she comes with some legit background…and lots of real talk.) Hang in there, mamas! You are not alone in your wellness struggles, and hopefully next fall will be a little less hard!LINKS MENTIONED:Follow Jayme Sherrod on Instagram or learn more about her on our Contributor Page. Want to hear more from Jayme? Check out Voices 75, Getting Outdoors With Kids.Check out these episodes from the archives all about dealing with child

It’s no secret that Meagan and Sarah can both get pretty into personality tests, particularly the Enneagram. In this fun More Than Mom we have an in-depth conversation about personalities in general (not just the types and tests!), especially as they relates to our significant others (and how they do or do not mesh with ours at times). We discuss how our different personalities play out in our relationships, the ways we reframe our differences, and reflect on our own challenging personality traits. Enjoy!LINKS MENTIONED:Are you unfamiliar with the Enneagram? Here is a free version of the test, and we like the type descriptions and other resources hereWe have found the Type Combinations and Type Misidentification writeups super fascinatingMeagan mentioned the book The Road Back To You: An Enneagram Journey to Self Discovery (affiliate link) Meagan also mentioned the book, The Path Between Us: An Enneagram Journey To Healthy Relationships, to take what you’

From Halloween through New Year’s we’re given opportunities to create new traditions and fulfill holiday wishes – sometimes of our own design and, increasingly as kids get older, sometimes at our kids’ behest. This week Meagan and Sarah talk about the bell curve of holiday parenting: the early influence we have over just how things look and what fun is had, the middle dip as we learn to let go and kid-life dominates, and then the later years when we get to reclaim some control and design a season for our own desires. None of it is all-good or all-hard; but it changes over time and we’re here for your pre-holidays 2022 motherhood pep talk – wherever you find yourself on that curve. Join us!LINKS MENTIONED:Meagan wrote on instagram about how shopping for Halloween looks different with older kids.In our Facebook community there was discussion about the elf on the shelf; want to know our thoughts on it? This episode from the archives tells it like it is.We have you covered with Advent Cal