From Perfect Parent to Reality: What We Swore We'd Never Do
MomTalk Maryland | Episode 3
Listen to episode 1 of the MomTalk Maryland podast, “Founding The Columbia Mom: A Maryland Journey.”
Remember when you confidently declared all the things you'd never do as a parent? Those lofty ideals about screen time, healthy eating, sleep training, and never losing your cool? Yeah, we do too.
In this candid conversation, Claire and Jill officially team up as co-hosts to tackle the humbling reality gap between pre-kid expectations and actual parenting. With equal parts humor and vulnerability, they confess how quickly their principles dissolved when confronted with the chaos of real family life.
From hiding tablets under shirts before restaurant outings to creating elaborate lies about ice cream trucks only playing music when they're out of ice cream, this episode celebrates the creative survival tactics we all develop. The hosts share their surprise at how dramatically different raising boys versus girls can be, despite the same parenting approaches. "It's almost like they talk about the growing milestones for boys," Claire laughs. "You go from Toy Story to trains to hot wheels to cars to dinosaurs, and Grant is literally, verbatim, the poster boy child."
What makes this conversation so refreshing is the hosts' willingness to acknowledge parenting realities that many feel ashamed to admit. Whether it's the overwhelm of sensory stimulation that leads to losing patience or the crushing defeat when sleep training methods that worked perfectly for one child fail miserably for another, Claire and Jill create space for listeners to release their own perfectionism.
Have you pretended to be asleep so your partner would handle a nighttime wake-up? Do you have parenting confessions or topic suggestions you'd like us to explore in future episodes? Connect with us through DM, comments, or email—nothing is off limits in this judgment-free zone of real Maryland mom talk.
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