What started as a conversation about anxiety turned into something else entirely.

This week, we explore anxiety not as a diagnosis or a problem to solve, but as a very human attempt to gain control over things that feel uncertain: our children, our relationships, our identities, and how we’re perceived by others.

Through stories about birthday parties, baby showers, Lego frustrations, forgotten raincoats, and parenting in public, we unpack the ways anxiety can quietly shape our decisions. And we explore what happens when we stop trying to manage it alone.

The surprising discovery?

By the end of the conversation, we both felt less anxious.

Anxiety, like shame, thrives in isolation. It loosens its grip when it’s spoken out loud. Maybe the opposite of anxiety isn’t certainty at all, but connection instead.

Join us for another honest conversation about worry, self-trust, motherhood, and why saying the thing out loud with trusted people might always be the first step toward feeling better.

Connect with us at: mommingoutloudpodcast@gmail.com or on

Instagram at mommingoutloudpod

We would love to hear your stories and suggestions for future episodes! Also, let us know if you are interested in being a guest on the show!

*Hosts: Ali OConnell and Mollie Birney

This week we’re joined by a very special guest: Mollie’s husband, Clint.

A therapist, dad, husband, and self-described “new dad getting his butt kicked and trying to reclaim his identity,” Clint joins us for an honest conversation about what happens when parenthood doesn’t look the way you expected it would.

We talk about the identity shifts that come with becoming a parent, the surprising rates of anxiety and depression in new dads, and the isolation that so many parents—especially fathers—experience but rarely talk about. Clint shares what it was like to step into a primary caregiving role, lose parts of himself he thought would always be there, and slowly find his way back through therapy, community, and a lot of hard conversations.

Along the way, we explore resentment, division of labor, sports-induced family meltdowns, avocado toast thrown against a wall, generational patterns, and the healing power of repair—both in marriage and in parenting.

This episode is for anyone who has ever wondered:

• Why does parenthood feel so much harder than I expected?
• Where did my old self go?
• How do couples stay connected when everyone is overwhelmed?
• What happens when the roles we imagined for ourselves don’t fit reality?

Most of all, it’s a conversation about normalizing the chaos. Because sometimes the most helpful thing we can hear is that you’re not the only one struggling to find your footing.

There may not be a neat bow at the end of parenting. But there can be honesty, connection, and people willing to walk through it with you.

We hope this conversation helps you feel a little less alone.

What happens when two generations of mothers sit down and tell our truth out loud?

In this deeply personal episode, we’re joined by former actress, but more importantly, Mollie's mom - Meredith Baxter, for an honest conversation about inherited patterns, motherhood across generations, and the stories we carry about what it means to be “enough.”

Together, we explore the invisible things passed down between mothers and daughters: perfectionism, people-pleasing, shame, humor, resilience, devotion, and the longing to do things differently than the generations before us. Meredith reflects on raising children while navigating fame, sobriety, marriage, and her own unresolved childhood wounds, while Mollie and Ali unpack the pressure modern moms feel to get parenting “right.”

We talk about:

• The difference between surviving motherhood and feeling naturally maternal
• Why moms today seem trapped in the “am I enough?” conversation
• Generational trauma, inherited coping mechanisms, and breaking cycles
• Parenting while still healing yourself
• Shame, femininity, body image, and the messages women inherit about their worth
• The long game of parenting: choosing relationship over control
  

There’s laughter, grief, tenderness, hard truths, and the kind of conversation that only happens when people are willing to stay at the table together.

If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re doing enough as a parent — or wrestled with the ways your own childhood still shows up in your motherhood — this episode is for you.

*****Content note******: This episode contains honest conversations about recovery, parenting, family trauma, body image, and mental health.

Connect with us at: mommingoutloudpodcast@gmail.com or on

Instagram at mommingoutloudpod

We would love to hear your stories and suggestions for future episodes! Also, let us know if you are interested in being a guest on the show!

*Hosts: Ali OConnell and Mollie Birney