What’s missing in motherhood is honest discussion about how overwhelming and overstimulating it can truly be. I mean, you certainly can’t judge by the annual(ish) family photo, right?
What I see now, 2 whole years removed from that inevitably stressful day, has somehow been softened by the blunt edge of time. But with 4 kids ages 3-9 at that time, don’t you know it was rowdy and hot, and we were tired of yanking and rearranging? Talk about overstimulating. Oh, and smiling through it all, even laughing when told…
Isn’t that life, though? We see the unintentional facades of others & judge ourselves. This realization is what ultimately culminated in starting Sensational Moms.
My facade was decent and even enviable to some, but I was teetering on the edge of depression and anxiety despite my tidy home and all appearance of normalcy. I couldn’t handle the visual clutter because I was already so dysregulated; so yes, it was tidy. I couldn’t even hang things on the wall. It was too much for me. My husband and kids certainly saw past the facade.
See, nervous system dysregulation doesn’t look the same for everyone.
Overstimulation was the last straw that signaled to my occupational therapy brain that something was wrong. And it wasn’t just my kids anymore. It was the perfect storm of health problems, lack of support, a centennial pandemic, kids with health problems.
Despite this knowledge, I was still reluctant to invest much effort in myself. Old habits die hard, right? And the guilt was thick. “I’m a therapist. I should have known this.”
WIth a background in pediatric occupational therapy, I knew one of my kids needed the self-regulation and sensory tools I had, but this kid was not buying in.
Why? I was a mess. After months of trying, I decided to invest the same effort I’d spent on this child… in myself. Slowly, I started seeing genuine personal growth, and the child started being curious.
See, truly our family had a realization: if nothing changed, homeschooling had to go. Then I realized, it wasn’t just homeschooling: it was motherhood, and I couldn’t quit that.
So began the growth journey, and I’m here to share it with you.
I’m excited to combine nearly 2 decades of experience and training in the nervous system with the refiner’s fire that is homeschool motherhood. I’m on mission to show you that you are not alone, and there are things you can do to help you leave behind reactivity and move toward connection and freedom.
We all need to know we aren’t alone. I’m so glad you’re here.
