Episode 1: Welcome to the Permission to Pursue Podcast

Welcome to Episode 1 of the podcast! I am so happy to be here!!

I’ve been a stay-at-home mom now for 6 years after an 8 years career as a high school Theology teacher. I loved my work, but I knew that eventually, I’d leave the classroom and live the dream of being home with my kids and homeschooling. That was the hope from the beginning and my husband and I worked hard to make it a reality. And after my 3rd child was born and my oldest was finally old enough to start school, I quit my job to stay home with the kids.

But in the beginning, I struggled. A lot. I was lonely and unprepared for the demands of stay-at-home-mom life. I had virtually no community and no idea how to run a household. And, at the same time, I was looking around at my peers and all that they were accomplishing and I began to feel like I was being left behind. At times, I felt like something was missing but then felt guilty for wanting “more” than the thing I wanted more than anything else.

It took a year or two before I felt like I was finally getting the hang of the whole stay-at-home-mom gig and my confidence began to grow. It wasn’t until I gained enough confidence in myself as a mom that I finally stopped looking around and wondering if maybe I had made a mistake.

Over these past few years, I’ve watched closely at the conversation online in Catholic circles and have found some amazing women who are constantly sharing encouraging words for moms. Though I haven’t met most of them, I have gleaned so much from their wisdom and have constantly been reminded of the beauty of my calling as a mom.

But in the past few years, there has been a slight shift in the conversation.

In early 2020, before our world was turned upside down, Leah Darrow, a well-known Catholic speaker, and writer shared a message of encouragement to moms while in labor with her 5th child. (You can search her “acceptance speech” online) She bravely proclaimed that babies don’t keep us from our dreams, but instead enhance them. And from there the #babiesanddreams movement seemed to really take off.

But shortly after I started to notice what I will call a “countermovement.” I doubt that’s what it was intended to be, but I started to see so many responding to the idea of #babiesanddreams with the idea that babies are the dream. I believe that this idea was born out of the well-meaning hearts of women who wanted to encourage mothers, reminding them that if babies were their dream, that’s 100% okay! Your life, your potential, your worth do not hinge on there being another dream you want to pursue. Being a mom is 100% enough.

I believe both messages are valid and important. But I think there’s more to the conversation that is being left out. So, I started this podcast to have more conversations about what motherhood can look like

I want this podcast to be a place of encouragement and inspiration for all moms. I want moms to hear the stories of other moms who have wrestled with the same questions, worries, and guilt over what is the “right” way to be a mom. My hope is that here, at Permission to Pursue, moms will be encouraged to discern what God is calling them to do and pursue it with confidence!

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