Each quarter, Momlife Quarterly connects with moms and gathers information about their current struggles in hopes of bringing more ease and less stress through the MQ event. We share this research with speakers to help match the needs with specific skills and expertise the speaker has to offer. Here are needs and frustrations moms are experiencing now. Please use them as inspiration for your Momlife Quarterly content. The more you address a specific challenges moms are facing, the more value they will get from it.
"How do you handle social interactions when you have social anxiety and your child acts out in public?"
"How to stay calm when you are upset as a mom?"
"Having breastfeeding issues when the entire world says formula is poison, and if you can’t breastfeed you don’t care about your baby."
"How to you manage the anger around carrying the majority of the mental and emotional load?"
"What do I do if my kids are upsetting issues I thought I could leave in the past?"
"What do I do when my child has a huge tantrum? I want to do the right thing for him."
"What if I don't feel like I'm good enough to be their mom?"
"How to I navigate my parents when I make choices in parenting they don't understand or agree with?"
"What do I do to help my kid and calm myself when she has a crisis, like developing intense OCD?"
"I feel so guilty all the time. Like I'm happy to have time to myself when they are with my ex, yet I feel extremely guilty."
"Solo motherhood. Having to be the good cop and bad cop all in one and carrying the full responsibility."
"Being judged by some family members for making decisions they wouldn't have made."
"Having my kids compared to other kids in the family."
"Seeing my adult kids make some of the same mistakes I made at their age and being powerless to stop them."
"How do I stop reacting in harmful ways towards my children?"
"I realized the reason positive parenting wasn't working. I'm not positive, I never learned how to self-regulate."
"I struggle with consistent boundaries and expectations."
"My challenge is definitely the constant. It’s different from other jobs where you go and leave. It’s just you’re on constantly. From the second I wake up till I go to sleep and sometimes through the night. It doesn’t stop for me being tired, sick, etc, I can’t reallllly be checked out during the day. And being the default parent... Which goes along with the mental load a lot."
"Husband turning perfectly reasonable complaints into a contest of who's more tired."
"Never quite having enough money to make ends meet on one income or enough time and energy to work from home."
"Groceries always costing more than you expect no matter how hard you try to pinch pennies or how well you think you calculated."
"Choosing between stay up late for me time or get rest to be more productive."
"Going shopping with kids and having to say no to multiple things they want and struggling to get them to sit in the cart and not touch anything."
"Not knowing what to do with your kids to keep them busy in the summer when they just want to run around and mess with the neighbor's pets and plants and rocks etc."
"Hearing your kids say they hate you."
"Kids not being able to make up their mind what to eat or wear and refusing to let you decide for them."
"Getting judged for taking too long with hugs and kisses and getting the kids buckled in their carseats and making them late for school because you hate to send them off crying."
"3 potty breaks 10 stories, and 20 snack requests before bed."
"Being judged because you don't always have a clean house and dinner ready and are usually still in your pajamas when husband gets home."
"The kids fighting each other over toys, turns, food and everything else."
"1 kid wants to continue playing outside while the other one needs to go inside to pee or get a bandaid for an owie and no one is there to watch the other kid."
"People saying you just have to "try harder to discipline them" when sometimes you just don't have the heart to do it and other times you went above and beyond and still failed."
"Not knowing if you'll ever have spare time or energy ever again."
"Being a mother while trying to repair yourself mentally & emotionally is the hardest thing I have ever had to do."
"Lack of control over how the other parent speaks to them."
"Wanting to make money but also wanting to be there for them 24/7."
"Feeling like adult interaction is limited, and adult friendships are hard to come by/maintain."
"Self-doubt."
"Not having a mental “reset,” and always being around my kids 24/7."
"Having limited outside help with our kids, and sometimes feeling trapped as a result."
"Feeling inferior as a mom as compared to others."
"Big emotions & behaviors from my kids."
"Mom guilt. My 2 year old won’t go to sleep unless I sit on his floor or let him sleep with me. I’ve been trying to get him to sleep on his own for 2 weeks now but I end up snapping and yelling at him. I feel horrible."
"Self doubt is my biggest issue. Along with losing myself and dealing with guilt when I put myself first at all."
"I struggle with it all. Although the first is 100% due to having a "partner" who isn't a partner. This is no shade, my husband is still learning how to partner (its exhausting). I just hope the men in Gen Z and beyond do better."
"Getting touched out/triggered (childhood trauma + groomed/raped)."
"Capability of entertaining 10-12 hrs a day (imagination/energy to play)."
"Self care + feeling anything more than just a mom."
"I’ve always been so independent because I’ve never been able to depend on anyone so I got burnt out after 3 years of doing everything by myself."
"Learning how to delegate and allow my partner to contribute (letting go of control) was/is my biggest struggle."
"Patience and temper."
"Time for myself comes in mini snippets and is basically a trade off ... self care for self care. I'd stay up WAYYYYYY too late at night just to have time to myself, but then not sleep enough."
"Trying to give them guidelines or things to consider on decisions rather than giving them the answer."
"Not projecting my emotions when I see someone treat them a way I don’t think is ok."
"Understanding at a certain point they just have to deal with the consequences of all actions rather than saving them."
"Anger around carrying the majority of mental & emotional load."
"My kids triggering upsetting things I thought I could leave in the past."
"Making choices that my parents don't understand."