No Guilt Mom | Overcoming Mom Guilt, Parenting Tips, & Self Care for Moms

New here? Start with our Start Here playlist — five episodes that will change how you think about motherhood.

Have you ever caught yourself thinking, in the middle of an especially relentless week, that a minor car accident might actually be a relief — if it meant a doctor's note to lie in bed for two days? No serious injuries, just... permission to stop?

Yeah. Emily and Julie get it.

JoAnn sits down with Emily Jones and Julie Dobbs, hosts of the Mom Game podcast, for an honest, unfiltered conversation about what it's actually like to be a high-achieving mom who cannot turn her brain off. They talk about the badge of honor we've attached to being busy, the two kinds of mental load (logistical and emotional — and why the emotional one never stops), hormones, perimenopause, the mom volunteer spiral, and what has genuinely helped each of them find moments of real relaxation in the middle of all of it.

In this episode:

The "minor car accident" fantasy — and why even joking about it should be a warning sign

Why high-achieving moms struggle to turn their brains off even when they technically have downtime

The difference between the logistical mental load and the emotional mental load (and why the emotional one follows you everywhere)

Why you're only as happy as your saddest kid — and what to do with that

How hormones and perimenopause are contributing to the overwhelm nobody talked about until now

The mom volunteer spiral: who's creating it, who's perpetuating it, and why moms are sometimes part of the problem

Why normalizing imperfection — including being open about your kid's ADHD diagnosis — actually helps everyone

What's genuinely helped each of them relax: girlfriends, court sports, a good group chat, and improv comedy

How to know when you need an outlet before you explode (and why you never want to wait until you do)

This one feels like sitting around with friends who get it. No solutions required — just a conversation that makes you feel a little less alone in all of it.

Find Emily and Julie on the Mom Game podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

If you're listening on Spotify, hit the Follow button right now — it's the best way to make sure you never miss an episode and it helps me reach more moms like you.

Remember: the best mom is a happy mom. Take care of you.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New here? Start with our Start Here playlist — five episodes that will change how you think about motherhood.

Have you ever gotten a rejection — or even just an eye roll from someone — and felt it for days? Like actually felt it, physically, in a way that seemed way out of proportion to what happened? There's a reason for that. And it's not that you're too sensitive or too fragile. It might be exactly how your nervous system is wired.

In this episode, JoAnn gets personal about Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD), why it's strongly associated with ADHD brains, and why understanding it changed everything about how she deals with rejection. She shares the story of her first job out of college — working in the mailroom at Endeavor talent agency in Beverly Hills — and what happened when she dropped calls on an agent's desk for the first time. And then she walks through three tools that have genuinely helped her stop letting rejection run her life.

In this episode:

What Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria actually is — and why rejection can feel like physical pain for some nervous systems

Why rumination doesn't process rejection — it rehearses it (and what to do instead)

The NLP tool of association vs. disassociation — how watching yourself like a movie gives you access to compassion you can't find from inside the spiral

How disassociation helps you find the "why" of the other person — which makes the rejection feel a whole lot less personal

Why JoAnn's new goal is to collect as many no's as possible (and why that's not self-punishment — it's strategy)

The national board certification story: why the second rejection always hurts less than the first

Why failure is literally the fastest path to learning — and why being mistake-free makes you deeply unrelatable

The improv comedy lesson that reframes every stage fright into evidence you're growing

Whether or not you have ADHD, if rejection hits you harder than it seems to hit other people — if one critical comment can undo a week of confidence — this episode is for you.

Episodes mentioned:

Guy Winch on rumination — When Work Stress Hijacks Your Home: Stop Ruminating

Dr. Josh Davis on updating your beliefs — The Beliefs Fueling Your Mom Guilt (And How to Update Them)

If you're listening on Spotify, hit the Follow button right now — it's the best way to make sure you never miss an episode and it helps me reach more moms like you.

Remember: the best mom is a happy mom. Take care of you.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New here? Start with our Start Here playlist — five episodes that will change how you think about motherhood.

If you've ever said yes when you meant no, stayed silent when something bothered you, or felt guilty the moment you tried to set a limit — this episode is going to name exactly what's been going on. And more importantly, it's going to give you a way out.

JoAnn sits down with Hailey Magee, people-pleasing coach and author of Stop People Pleasing and Find Your Power, to dig into why so many women become people pleasers in the first place, what's actually happening when boundaries feel impossible, and the small, practical shifts that make it easier to start standing up for your own needs — without feeling like the villain.

In this episode:

Why people-pleasing is a safety mechanism, not a personality flaw — and the three kinds of safety it's trying to protect

Why neurodivergent women and women from marginalized groups are especially likely to develop people-pleasing as a survival skill

The crucial difference between a boundary and a request — and why your "boundaries" might not be working because they're actually requests

Why boundary guilt is almost universal — and the reframe that makes it survivable

The "meaning vacuum": what happens to your identity when a major life chapter ends and the new one hasn't started yet

How to tell when you have an unmet need before you even know what it is (Hailey's need signpost tool)

Why feeling "too sensitive" or "too demanding" when you set a boundary is actually a sign you're doing it right

The post-boundary self-care plan — why you need one and what it looks like in practice

One small shift to start rebuilding self-trust: track what drains you vs. what energizes you

JoAnn also shares the real dinner table moment that prompted a boundary conversation with her family, and the first time she ever redirected a draining professional relationship by email — and how it felt on the other side.

Find Hailey and her book Stop People Pleasing and Find Your Power at haileymagee.com.

If you're listening on Spotify, hit the Follow button right now — it's the best way to make sure you never miss an episode and it helps me reach more moms like you.

Remember: the best mom is a happy mom. Take care of you.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New here? Start with our Start Here playlist — five episodes that will change how you think about motherhood.

You know you shouldn't care what other people think. You've probably told yourself that a hundred times. And yet — you still rearrange your behavior for people whose opinions you don't even fully respect. You do the laundry because of some imaginary judge. You say yes when you mean no. You replay comments for days. You hold back your real opinion in a room full of people.

Today, JoAnn gets into why this happens, what you can actually do about it, and shares a very personal story about a professional decision she was terrified to make — and what the response taught her about who she does and doesn't want in her life.

In this episode:

The thought distortion that's behind almost every fear of judgment — and how to catch yourself doing it

Why "people will judge me" is a generalization, and the one question that breaks it open

How to name the actual person you're afraid of — and then ask whether you even respect their opinion

What happened when JoAnn canceled an interview she knew wasn't right for her listeners (and the response that confirmed she made the right call)

Why walking on eggshells in relationships quietly erodes your confidence — and what happens when you stop

First, second, and third person perspective: a simple framework for separating what actually happened from the story you're telling yourself about it

Why not being liked is not your failure — it's a mismatch, and the difference matters

How to find your actual people by being yourself clearly enough that the wrong ones self-select out

You're going to finish this episode knowing exactly who you've been trying to impress — and whether they've actually earned that kind of real estate in your head.

If you're listening on Spotify, hit the Follow button right now — it's the best way to make sure you never miss an episode and it helps me reach more moms like you.

Remember: the best mom is a happy mom. Take care of you.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New here? Start with our Start Here playlist — five episodes that will change how you think about motherhood.

If your home feels like constant chaos — the yelling, the rushing, the dinners that nobody sits through, the mornings that derail everything — this episode is going to feel like someone finally gets it.

JoAnn sits down with Greer Jones, host of the Neurodivergent Conversations podcast and a mom who has navigated her own ADHD diagnosis, her husband's autism, and her son's ADHD and autism diagnosis — all at the same time. What she found is that the chaos wasn't a parenting failure. It was what happens when a neurodivergent family tries to force themselves into systems built for a completely different kind of brain.

Greer shares the specific, practical shifts that took her family from loud, exhausting chaos to a home where everyone's nervous system can actually exhale.

In this episode:

What it looks like when multiple family members are diagnosed with neurodivergence at the same time — and how Greer figured out it wasn't just her kid

Why burnout in a neurodivergent mom costs her family an estimated $1,200 more per month (yes, really)

The counterintuitive first step Greer took to fix the chaos: she started with what SHE wanted

How to work backwards from the morning you want — and find the actual pain points causing the rush

Why getting up 45 minutes earlier is not the answer (and what to do instead)

The 300-seconds trick that works on ADHD brains even when you know it's coming

Brain breaks at dinner: how Greer's son went from not eating to sitting for seven minutes — by being allowed to run around first

The "freeze" method for resetting a chaotic moment in real time

Why modeling calm is the single most powerful thing you can do for a neurodivergent child

How to start teaching your kids to advocate for their own needs — even at age seven

If you've been trying to force your family into routines that weren't built for your brains, this conversation is your permission to stop — and build something that actually works.

Find Greer and the Neurodivergent Conversations podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

If you're listening on Spotify, hit the Follow button right now — it's the best way to make sure you never miss an episode and it helps me reach more moms like you.

Remember: the best mom is a happy mom. Take care of you.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices