This is part apology, part social experiment…
As a mental health professional, I feel a responsibility to set an example of what asking for help really looks like. By setting my outgoing voicemail and email auto responders to redirect here- Iʻm not necessarily asking anhyone to come over and watch my kids, but to give me grace in this really overwhelming season of life. I’m showing my vulnerability and trying to normalize saying, “I can’t do it all.” My hope is that by doing so, I can find others who share this similar overwhelm, connect to others’ humanity, and maybe invite a little grace and compassion in this very full season of life.
At the same time, I hope others will join me in questioning the cultural script we are living in. In the 1980s, children were often accessories to their parents’ lives. Now, in 2025, it feels as though the pendulum has swung too far the other way—we, as parents, have become accessories to our children’s lives. This child-centric, overcompensatory zeitgeist leaves so many of us exhausted, drowning in tasks, and disconnected from ourselves. If speaking out helps shift the narrative even a little, then the discomfort of my honesty will have been worth it.
As I write this, I currently have 10,000 + emails, 54 missed calls, 47 missed texts, 12 bloom notifications, 4 Gamechanger requests, and 12 talking points updates. I don’t think I am particularly unique in the struggles I face as a mom of young kids and an entrepreneur, but what I do think is unique is the time we are living in: we have optimal technology at our fingertips to make us more efficient than ever, yet I’m willing to bet many of us feel more lost than our parents or their parents ever did in previous analog generations.
I am drowning.
As a mental health professional, employer, and mom, I feel compelled to say that I have no intention of hurting myself and am nowhere near that dark of a place, but in the interest of being fully transparent, I am really struggling to keep up with it all. So if you are having a hard time reaching me directly - here is why:
I am trying to be a good steward to my new business partner after the sale of my massachusetts practice, still practicing clinically, trying to navigate a broken healthcare system as a mental health care provider, trying to be a present mom and volunteer at the book fair, actually know who my kids teachers are this year, and respond to 1200 dings I get throughout the day about what color shin guards so and so needs to wear, who is bringing what snack, venmo requests, sign up genius requests, etc.
I'm also trying to monitor my kids mental health as they emerge as tweens in this new digital landscape, monitoring all the searches, constantly fighting battles with their requests for youtube and whatever other inappropriate yet highly convenient tools are at their fingertips.
At the same time, I am also trying to maintain my mental health, physical health, my marriage, my doctors appts, and just remembered that I've had a back tooth missing for the last two weeks. I'm still grieving the loss of my dog and my best friend of 14 years, Boodah who passed in July.
I don’t think that the volume of tasks I struggle with is new. Yet, I do believe that we also live in a world where the 20 somethings that once helped us manage life whether through babysitting, being an assistant, or any number of roles that could help me clear the chaos right now —> are no longer working these jobs. Why would you babysit for $20/hour if you can make $400/hour by doing a reaction video on TikTok?
If you got this far, if you can allow me for a moment to bring you into a snapshot of my morning. I grabbed my coffee, went to my home office, logged on to try and get my head on right, and was interrrupted no less than 7 times in the span of 33 minutes by my 11 year old son cole who wanted to show me yet another video of fat animals squeezing into tight spaces, my 11 year old daughter izzy asked me to help her find her helmet, water bottle, brush, and math homework, meanwhile my 10 year old son crosby has a concerning new fascination with the Menendez brothers and so obviously I need to call a locksmith.
My cup runneth over in this season of life. I have so much to be grateful for and I am all too aware that one of these days, I will give anything to trade the vacuum lines in the carpet for the chaos and mess I currently find myself in, but until then, I can only say that life is beautifully and impossibly hard at the moment. If you feel this way too, please send me a line (which hopefully doesn’t get buried)- I’d love to hear that I’m not alone. If you’re frustrated with me, I’m sorry. I love you. If you use a tool to help you cut through the noise, I’d love to hear about it and if you have someone who is not a Youtube star, Instagram or TikTok Influencer/trillionaire who would like to babysit or be an assistant, please apply here.
