Words from the Wise: Hope & Healing with Erin Christensen

In this grounding and honest conversation, Jackie hosts guest Erin Christensen in the first episode of the Words from the Wise series (one each season) — a space for women who have lived enough motherhood to look back and share wisdom from the heart.

Together, they explore the realities of raising children through both calm and chaos, and the unexpected growth that comes from the hardest seasons. Erin shares her journey through single motherhood, blended family life, healing after heartbreak, and the lessons that helped her release perfectionism and reconnect with her children.

This episode touches on:

• learning to let go of unrealistic expectations
• navigating mom guilt and self-forgiveness
• creating meaningful traditions on a budget
• becoming emotionally safe for your kids
• how changing yourself can repair relationships
• why nothing lasts forever — especially the hard stuff

It’s a conversation full of relief, perspective, and tenderness for mothers in every stage.

Parenting Books Mentioned Links >>> HERE

Transcript

Today on the Whole Motherload, we are featuring our very first Words from the Wise episode. I am so grateful that Erin is our guest today because she is the perfect example of how I want these episodes to go. She has lived more life, love, loss, and growth than we could ever fit into one conversation. And yet, what she shares here might just change the way you see yourself as a mom. This episode is full of clarity, healing, and the truth that hits deep in the best way. Through conversations and stories with moms just like you, the whole mother helps to build the mindset, skillset, toolset, and the heartset of motherhood to support you in raising happy, healthy, whole, resilient kids. So I'm so privileged today to have Erin Christensen. So this is my first of my Words from the Wise episode. Each season, I want to have a woman on who has experienced motherhood in a way that gave her experience, and she can look back on it and share words of wisdom from what she's learned. And Erin Christensen is our first Words from the Wise, and I'm so excited to have her. So Erin shared her little bio, and it was short because I was like, Hey, a short bio, and it's beautifully simple, and I love it.

She says, I am a mother to three and a mom to nine, so a stepmom to six. She's a mimi to 21, and She says that everything good she's ever learned comes because of them. That's so beautiful. So thank you for sharing and taking time for us today. I'm so excited, really.

Yeah. Well, I always I love talking with you, Jackie, and so this is just a fun visit.

Yeah, I love it. So let's just start where you're at right now. What's going on with you and where are you at, where are your kids and all that? Yeah, let's just start there.

So I am in an incredible marriage. It's third time is a charm. And I brought three grown children to the marriage, and he brought six children to the marriage, all All of them grown, except the youngest was still at home. And between us, and that was seven years ago. So we are empty nesters, and we have 21 grandchildren. And it's just so much fun being a grandma. It was worth going through motherhood to get here because motherhood is challenging and hard and heart-wrenching and fun and joyful and all of those crazy emotions. All of our children live near us. The furthest one away is an hour. Our grandkids are all close by, and we get to do things with them constantly. I also get to continue to mother, as my kids call me, with questions and concerns about their own children. So it's a job that just never ends.

Yeah. Thankfully, right? I mean, it's cool. Yes.

Absolutely. I love being a part of their lives and being a part of my grandchildren's lives and going and doing fun things and helping and watching them so the parents can get a break and going to the school activities. It's really fun at this point. Yeah.

And rewarding, it seems like. Just that satisfying. All of what came before has led to this.

Yes. Yeah.

Very good. Yeah. Looking back, if you're ready to maybe talk a little bit about how did you get here? What was it that brought you to this point in your life? One of the reasons why I thought that you would be such a beautiful candidate for this was because your life has not been smooth, right? It's been a little bit of a roller coaster at times, and I've known you long enough that I've seen some of the trials that you've been through and some of that roller coaster. And so I thought, oh, she's going to be amazing for this podcast.

Okay. Well, yes. I was married young. I always wanted children, and I was excited to have a family. I wanted six kids. I came from a family of six. I was the youngest. So I had my first one at 21, and I went into that completely naive of what it took to be a mom. I had ideals and expectations, and it was way harder than I thought, but also just as wonderful as I'd hoped. I didn't expect the hard, which is funny. And I was young and had three kids in three years. And when my youngest was a year old, their father chose another path. And I was a single mother at 26, I think. Totally just scared to death of what the future was bringing, but determined that we were going to make it. I had to go to work full-time, and I had no help from their father, which was fine because in some ways it was easier. But I was stressed out all the time. I was worried about money all the time. I didn't show up as the mother I had envisioned that I would be, and that was hard. Sorry.

Just memories go through my head as I think back on that time, and I'm just surprised we survived. We made it, though. We always had what we needed. And I did get a lot of help from friends and family. But when you're a single mom, the majority of it is you're on your own. I realized quite quickly as my kids got older that I didn't have a clue what I was doing as a mom. I was mom and dad, and I wanted them to just get love, all the love I could give them, but also all of the guidance. I had to teach them everything. I had to make sure that they had everything they needed. It was just overwhelming, and I really wasn't who I wanted to be.

It feels like a lot of pressure.

I put a lot of pressure on myself to be a perfect parent. And the irony of that is I was so not the perfect parent. I should have just put pressure on myself to be a mediocre parent. It would have been so much better. Let's just survive the day. Instead of, let's be perfect in every way. And we made it. We survived. I was single for 11 years and then remarried and moved Moved the family, sorry, kids, from their base in Utah to New Hampshire, where we knew nobody. And that was a challenge in and of itself, but also a blessing because that is where I discovered that I had anxiety and depression, and I was able to get on medication and also stay home for the first time and be a part of their lives. They were teenagers at this point, so they were like, Mom's home all the time now. She knows what we're because they got away with a lot when they were younger. But so that was a gift in and of itself. That marriage also didn't last. And at this point, my kids are adults and having children of their own.

And now, here we are. So Yes, it was very, very bumpy. It was very challenging, but a lot was learned. And I had to go to my kids each individually and apologize for some things that happened as a parent, the mistakes I made and for losing my temper and not being as patient as I wish I had been. We have good relationships now, but I had to change me to change the relationships. That was a huge life lesson for me in all my relationships, it was about me changing me because we can't change other people. And that was a gift to learn that, that I had some control over who I could be. And that was a gift.

Yeah. To get to the point where you are, there were lessons that you learned. And so what was the catalyst for that? Or maybe what did you do that helped you there?

In one of my relationships, there was addiction, which put me on the path of doing that. It was like an Al-Anon, but it was a generalized twelve-step meeting for family members. Originally, I was just going to support the loved one and quickly realized I needed also to learn these steps. And in And in doing that, there's one step where you do a life... I can't even think of the word right now. But you analyze your life and things that maybe you didn't do so great. And then you I've confessed those to your mentor or your sponsor. And going through that list was heart-wrenching to see how I had influenced or affected other people or hurt them because I consider myself a kind person until I went through that list and I was like, Oh, this hurts. And then I approached those people and made amends, and my kids were absolutely on that list. So that was the catalyst, was going through the 12 step. And for the first time in my life, looking at me as a problem.

I see. Yeah.

I hadn't done that before. It was always in my first marriage, it was all him. And in other situations, well, it was them, them, them, and turning the mirror on me and realizing, Oh, you have some things you need to work on, too, which is really a hard, hard thing to do. And I took me... I was doing the 12 step for probably two years before I actually did that because it's not an easy process. Sure. So that was the catalyst for sure. And then I approached my kids and made my amends to the best of my ability, and then just had to let them be where they were with wherever they were with that. If that doesn't even make sense. But except where they were, Whether they wanted to also make amends and move on and improve our relationships or not. And they were all so gracious with me.

And that took a lot of courage.

Yes. It was very scary to do, but necessary. It's been such a gift to have that honesty in our relationships. I don't want to disparage anyone in my life, but I did grow up in a home where there were not apologies from parents when mistakes were made. And so that's how I parented, I think. I look back, I'm trying to remember, did I do that, too? And so it was a realization to me that, yes, parents, we make mistakes, and we need to apologize to our kids, and that doesn't make us less than in their eyes. It makes us more lovable and more relatable.

I think it also creates an emotional connection.

I feel like it did. It did for me with my kids. And I just couldn't be more proud of my children and who they are. And I've learned a lot because of them. It was because of them that I wanted to change because they were the most important relationships.

Yeah, that makes sense. I think you probably have a PhD in dealing with mom guilt. I'm wondering if you could share some of your tips on how did you deal with that? Because it's probably, well, I don't know a mom that hasn't experienced it. And so how did you handle that for yourself?

I I do have a lot of mom guilt because I did go in with expectations of who I should be as a mom, but also who my kids should be. I raised them with expectations of who I thought they should be and probably put a lot of unnecessary pressure on them and on myself. That increased the stress level in our home. How did I deal with it? That's a great question. I don't think I dealt with it until they were actually adults. I cried myself to sleep a lot at night. I didn't have the resources that I had later in life. I didn't have therapists to talk to I didn't really have people to talk to, to talk. Now you have social media, and I see some of these videos that my girls send me about these moms that are being honest about the hardships of being a mom. They're very open about it and sharing it. And I just didn't have that. I had books I could read and learn about being a mom, and I did have friends I could talk to, but I just didn't have the resources. And I didn't talk to my mom about...

She mothered different than I did. And so I didn't feel like I could talk to her about what I was trying to accomplish because we didn't relate on that level.

Yeah. And she probably wasn't a single mom, so wouldn't connect on that level either.

Yeah, that's very true. She was not. I did read a lot of books, and it's funny because I don't know what resources are out there for moms today. Books are probably like, No, I don't want to sit and read a whole book. I don't have time for that. But I wanted so bad to learn how to be a better mother. And that's what I had, was books to read. And I took courses. And one of the books I read was Love and Logic, which was super helpful. And when I wish I had read that I was introduced to as an adult is The Boundaries Book by Cloud and Townsend. And that one is quite Christian-based. They quote the Bible a lot. So if Christianity doesn't work for you, that might be a bit too much. But that's a great one. They have Boundaries for Teens and Boundaries for Kids that I really wish I would have had. I now recommend that to my kids and to friends. But learning Boundaries in general as a person really, really changed my life for me, that I could say no to people in a kind way and not feel guilty.

Then another one that I don't even know if it's in print anymore, it's called What's a Parent to Do by Glenn Latham. In that one, my daughter reminded me of this just last night, is I learned prepare your sofa when your children come home and tell you they're pregnant, or your children come home and are drunk or high or have gotten arrested. Prepare yourself ahead of time. Hopefully, it never happens. But prepare your reaction and that you are loving, you are kind, you are patient, and then later go to your room and lose it. Don't lose it in front of your kids. Be open, loving, and accepting for them so they know that you're safe. The other thing that I learned from the book was when they come to you and say, My friend is dealing with... They get drunk, or My friend gets high, or My friend... Something horrible that you'd be like, Oh, my goodness. Well, or you can't be friends with them anymore, or you overreact, realize that they might be testing the waters to see how you're going to react because it might actually be them that is dealing with this, and they're not sure how you're going to take it.

And so when my kids would come to me and tell me about their friends, I'd say, oh, my goodness, that is so sad. I really hope that their parents are supportive and helpful or something like that. Just letting them know, it's like, I am I'm not judging your friends, and I'm sorry that they're dealing with that. So my kids are pretty open with me about stuff, and that in itself actually helped relieve some mom guilt. I said, well, I must be doing something okay. If my kids are coming and telling me some of these things they're doing, where on the inside, I'm like, what? And on the outside, I'm like, oh, honey, thank you for sharing that.

Yeah. I think that's still real, because when you show up as a mom and you are being affected by it and you have the emotional intelligence to step back and say, This is what they need from me right now. I think that's what being a parent is about sometimes.

Yeah. They just need to know that they are safe and loved, and they are going to mess up. I didn't expect my kids to do some of the things. They did because as a kid, I was so scared to do anything wrong. I even asked if I could borrow toilet paper to go toilet paper someone's house. My mom's like, No. Why would you ask me that? I was just so I didn't even steal it or sneak it out. I was like, Okay, I won't take it. Later in life, when I learned some of the things my kids did, they always share as adults and you laugh about it later thing. When I learned about it as an adult, I was like, You did what? I thought I was so aware of everything that went on in my home when they were teenagers and even little kids. It was just like the joke was on me. But yeah, they knew they were loved and safe, I hope. I gave them a safe home. We made good memories. They still, to this day, talk about some of the traditions we had, which I really think you get a lot of your rewards as a parent when they're adults and talk about their childhood and share the, Oh, I remember how we did this every Friday, because we were so broke, Jackie.

Paycheck to paycheck, maybe $5 left at the end of the paycheck. I'm like, How am I going to make it two more weeks? We would go to the library and check out the VCR, Video the Movies, back then in the day for free and take a movie home. We go to Five Buck Pizza, which You can get all the toppings you want. It doesn't exist anymore. And watch a movie every Friday night. That was our thing. I just did it because it was cheap, and they still have memories of it, of doing that and how much they loved that. Traditions. Then once a week, we would go to a restaurant called Eat a Burger because kid meals were like a dollar fifty. And they were these huge hamburgers, huge thing of fries, a drink. And then they had a jukebox machine you could do for free. And so these are the memories they have that at the time, you don't realize that they're going to look back on that with fondness. It was just something that we did and I could afford.

Right. And that's so true. We don't anticipate what their experiences are going to look like, because if you were to interview or talk to each one of them, they would each have their own perspective, too.

Absolutely. I was actually thinking that. Yes. They would all describe their childhood different to you if you were to sit down with my kids.

I love that memory that you've made, too, because it's like just being in that space with them and being present to them. It's like you wanted to do something special or something different or to create something, and you didn't know what it was going to be or later that that was the thing. But how cool is that?

Traditions, having something you do regularly. Our Christmas tradition, it helped me as a mother because we didn't have a lot, but yet we lived in a neighborhood that people did have a lot. Christmas was a challenge as a mom, and I couldn't keep up, so I didn't try. I mean, they got very little for Christmas, but every year we would load up a box of mandarin oranges, some different foods and things that we could take downtown. There was this woman named Jenny that under a viaduct downtown, she would serve the homeless every Sunday, every Thanksgiving, and every Christmas. We did that several years in a row, and we do it before we open presents. I did that on purpose because I wanted them to get a taste of how blessed they were so that when they did open their presents, they were so grateful for what they got. And then their friends would show them all the stuff they got, and they never... I asked them later, Was that hard for you? And they were like, No, it didn't bother us, which says a lot about who my kids are. Maybe not so much about what I did.

Maybe it was just them. But I did do that on purpose. I just felt like, I need you guys to have gratitude. Well, I didn't tell them this. You need to be grateful. I wanted them to experience gratitude Because I feel like gratitude is such a gift in your life, especially when you have so little or think you have little. We actually were quite blessed to always have what we needed.

Yeah. I think that's awesome because recognizing that you had a way to teach that and then taking advantage of that intentionally, that's really cool. So opening your eyes to what's available to you in that sense and then doing it. I think That's amazing. Thanks. Awesome. When you think about the childhood memories that your kids have brought up, what are your favorite things that they've talked about?

I actually enjoy hearing the things they got away with.

Why is that? I'm curious.

Well, obviously, I was pretty clueless to some of the stuff going on. I wasn't there all the time because I was working. But even when I was there, so I'm like, well, you guys were pretty creative. It's funnier as adults because you've gotten through it all and you can look back and go, well, we survived that. But at the time, if I had known everything that was going on, I would have been like, my children are delinquents and they're all going to end up in jail. I would have just gone over the top with the worry. So I'm glad I didn't know. But we just have some really funny conversations sometimes about some of the stuff they did behind my back. Then we can just sit and laugh together. Those are good things to think about. Then I think back to even just sitting there, watching them do their soccer practices or their games, or watching them perform in their dance recitals. I attended everything, and every game, and if I couldn't be there, there was a really good reason because I just was like, I love watching watching my kids engage in life. And so those are really good memories.

And now I get to go and watch my grandkids participate in things. And it's just so much fun to see them having such a great time or succeeding in something they love. Those are the good things, the little things.

Yeah. And I think sometimes as moms, we put, like we talked about, a lot of pressure on ourselves to perform or to show up a certain way or to be that perfect mom. Why do you think we do that?

That is a great question, Jackie. I'm not even sure I can answer why I did that. I went into it with expectations. There may be some societal expectations that we take on that we don't question. I've gotten to a point in my life now where I question a lot of societal expectations that I never questioned any of that when I was younger. I don't know that I even knew I could question it. But yeah, the societal expectations was probably the biggest one. I don't know.

I think, too, what did you want most for your kids at that time?

I wanted them to be happy and successful. But how I envisioned that is different than how it turned out. It turned out far better than I envisioned because they are happy and they are successful. Do they make a ton of money? No. But they're happy. They're in really healthy relationships. Coming from a mother who was married three times, for my daughters to marry really outstanding men who honor their wives and take such good care of their children. Who would have thought? Thank you for not following in my footsteps.

That is powerful. It's powerful to realize that even though you feel like you didn't show up the way that you wanted to, they turned out amazing, right? They still have their own challenges and their own weaknesses, of course. But where they're at is exactly where they were supposed to be in spite of where you thought you showed up or didn't show up.

In spite of me. Right?

Yes. So Well, I think that that pressure, something that I'm learning is that pressure also comes from just thinking that we have so much control over them and how they turn out, which isn't true. We put that pressure on us because we think, Oh, this is going to, I'm going to screw up my kids, or they're going to have all these problems because I'm this way, or I have this issue. We just don't have that much power. Because they are independent, powerful human beings, and they're unique in their own way. I think we're like, I have to be a certain way so that they're a certain way. But that's not how it works.

That's absolutely not how it works. And I absolutely thought that. I was that mom and the pressure of, I have to do everything right, and I have to make sure they are involved in all these things. And we all have our different societal influences, depending on where we live or how we grew up, of what we think is right. I think what I know now, wishing I could go back, and of course, I can't, but I have grandkids.

I I know a do-over with the next generation.

I get a little bit of a do-over. What I know now is they need love, they need boundaries, and acceptance of where they're at. That it's okay if you're not the perfect student. It's okay if you don't Excel at sports and become the best at that. It's okay if you make mistakes. It's okay if you fail. It's like, I I love you. I think you're amazing. And we're in this together. Let's do this. Let's go have some fun and let's learn some things together and let's go through this hard thing together.

Yeah. And it's probably easier on the grandma level Because, I don't know if this was for you, but I had this misconception that how my kids showed up was a direct reflection on how other people would see me, and I was uncomfortable with that.

Yes. I I would agree with that as well. Again, the societal expectations. I think I worked through that at a little bit younger age because I knew they weren't a reflection of me earlier than maybe I learned some other things.

Somebody once told me, and this is huge light bulb for me, we sit there and we're like, Oh, my kids are so good. Then that's my fault? No. Well, they're so bad. Oh, that's my fault. No. We have to take both sides of it and take responsibility for all of their choices, and good or bad or whatever. It's like, Oh, no, it's It's selfish to make it all about me in a way, maybe even prideful.

Yeah, I like that. Well, and how they show up, we can really make it neutral, and we get to decide how we think about it. It It just is how they show up. It's not about us. I remember one time, so I'm a member of the LDS Church, and I remember sitting in sacrament meeting once. It's a meeting where we all gather together, and it was what we call a fast Sunday. That's where members of the congregation get up and bear their testimonies, share their beliefs. I remember this young man, his parents were out of town. He was from a different ward, a different congregation. He'd come to our congregation that day, and at 16, got up to bear his testimony. And I was like, This is really impressive. And then he was just so well-spoken and saying his beliefs and this, that, and the other. And I remember just sitting there going, oh, my gosh, that's so amazing. What an amazing kid. And to do that. And I had some kids that were having their own struggles and didn't want to be at church. And I thought I had failed. And And this is all me.

And then I sat there for a minute. I thought, wait a minute. If this was my kid right now, I'd be sitting here so full of pride for the child I raised and what a good job I did. And I immediately thought, no, I'm fine with where I'm at. I can still feel pride in them, no matter where they're at, or I can feel frustration in them, but it's not my doing.

Yeah. And I like how you worded that. It was like you could sit there and feel proud of your sofa raising such an amazing kid or down on yourself because they're not, when really, you can just sit there and be proud of who they are in this moment. It has nothing to do with you.

Yeah. It was an eye opener for me. It's like, whoa, wait a minute. So that was a learning lesson.

That's awesome. So looking at your kids or even just mothers in general now, what is it that gives you the most hope when you look at young moms today?

Oh, my goodness. I'm so impressed with the mothers I see today. I feel like they have so many more resources and so much more support and understanding of how hard their job really is. I see my daughters with their girlfriends and talking about their mom's stuff and laughing together at the hard stuff. I feel like there's a stronger emphasis on, I guess it's called gentle parenting. It is the thing. I see moms talking through things with their kids and helping them to learn and to grow and to reason and to think for themselves. I didn't really get that as a kid. That wasn't my generation of be a thinker. I'm loving that. They're just each I see so many, again, with social media, you see so many different types of parents, and they're all doing it right. They're all getting it right. There is no one way to parent. And so I love that. And that women have... I feel like the expectations have changed, and fathers are way more hands-on than they used to be. And it's not even a, I've had to help me and husband understand how to be more hands-on. It's that a lot of these men are coming into these marriages, not all, of course, because we're all different.

Sure. A lot of these men are coming in understanding, Hey, I'm as much a part of this parenting thing as she is. They're doing the dishes They're helping change diapers, they're taking care of these newborns. Where it used to be, for me growing up, it was mostly the mom doing all of that. Or maybe that was just my situation personally, but that is what I experienced. And so I love seeing dads more involved in their kids' lives and the mom's getting support where they can say, Hey, I'm going out with my girlfriends. You got this tonight? You bet you. You go have a good time, honey.

Yeah, that's awesome. I feel like this episode of looking back and what you've learned and everything really hits on that stages of faith and what I talked about in my intro episode of the simplicity to the complexity to the simplicity beyond the complexity. It feels like you're in that simplicity beyond the complexity, where you went through all of these really hard things. Like at the beginning of motherhood, you were like, Okay, yeah, this is how it goes, and this is what you do, and you have this idea of what it was going to be, and then it gets real.

It gets real and extremely complex.

I also feel like you've shared some of the things that you were able to do to get to that simplicity beyond that complexity. If you had any advice for somebody who is in the complexity part right now for how to maybe step back and see it for what it is to have hope to get to that simplicity beyond the complexity, what would you say?

Well, nothing lasts forever. Change is constant. It's probably not as bad as you think it is. And it gets better.

Yeah, I would agree. So is there anything that you wanted to talk about that we didn't get to talk about or any question that you wish I would have asked?

I think the biggest one, I went through a lot of therapy, and I know not everyone's a fan of therapy, and I wasn't. Some days I didn't want to go because it was hard stuff. But it was so nice to have an outside perspective, whether it's a counselor or a life coach, someone who what they're talking about, basically, to have that outside perspective of what's normal and what's not, and maybe to help give you guidance. I look back now and wish I would have taken advantage of counselors or therapists, and There's so many life coaches out there now today. You can definitely find someone who specializes in what your needs are. I wish I would have had more of that. It helped me get through the complexities because to me, it was just, everything's wrong. This is as bad as it can be. It's never going to get better. I've messed it all up, or this is what my kids are doing, and it's just horrible, and their lives are never going to be good, and yet they are. But to talk to someone for them to just say, You know what? Their behavior is actually pretty normal.

Here's some suggestions maybe to help you get through it. Especially the teenage years were really challenging, and to have someone walk me through that would have been really nice.

That makes sense. I know I've really valued the connections that I've had in that way, too. It makes all the difference, the outside perspective. Thank you so much. This has been just so much fun. I love talking to you. We could talk for hours and hours and hours. Yes, we can.

Or are we done already? We can't talk about more.

Right? And I know there's so many things that we could share. But I think this has been really good because the perspective perspective that you have is a beautiful one because of what you've been through. It's like a lot of times when we're in it, we're like, why? We question why. And like you said, it never lasts. And then you get to the other side, you're like, oh, not only do I have a better perspective, but I can look at myself and recognize I did it. I went through that hard thing. And you can remember that in the future, too, where it's like, oh, yeah, I made it through that. I'm going to make it through this. And you just get more mature about it, I think.

Yeah. I've actually enjoyed getting older. I know a lot of people look at age. So I'll be 56 in next week, in a couple of weeks. And I'm just like, dang, I love it. I love it because I've learned so much and my life is so much more rich. And all of those lessons came through motherhood. And now with all of our grandkids and my stepkids, I'm still learning things. My kids now as adults are still teaching me things, which is such a gift. But there is one thing you had said, something to the effect of why is this happening? But I remember someone once told me, Instead of saying, Why is this happening to me? Say, What can I learn from this? And So I went on a journey, a really intense journey of learning, and I have no regrets.

I love it. Yay. Well, thank you so much. This has been beautiful, and I am so So looking forward to those who get to hear this and what they are able to glean from it for themselves. Was that not just such a beautiful example of how the hard things and the good things can come together and make us and mold us into who we want to become? Thank you, Erin, for sharing your wisdom, your stories, and the gift of experience with us today. If you resonated with this episode, please share this with mama who needs a little bit of reassurance. Also, please rate the show and leave a review so that other mamas can find us, too. Thank you again for joining us for this episode. Remember, nothing lasts. Things will come and things will go, and you can make it beyond the complexities to the simplicity beyond the complexity. Have a beautiful day and know that you are doing better than you think.