What if part of what makes motherhood so hard isn’t motherhood itself - but the operating system we’ve inherited for how we think a “good mother” is supposed to behave?
In this episode of The Working Mother Experience, I’m joined by Erin Schlozman, licensed clinical professional counsellor, maternal mental health specialist, author, speaker and mom.
For more than a decade, Erin has worked with women through pregnancy, postpartum and the transition into motherhood. She is also the author of The Myth of the Perfect Mom: From Postpartum Perfection to Everyday Joy, which challenges the impossible standards modern mothers carry and asks us to rethink what being a “good mother” actually means.
Together, we explore the expectations mothers absorb - often without realizing it - and how those beliefs influence the way we build our lives, experience ambition, navigate our relationships and judge ourselves as parents.
We talk about the myth of the perfect mother, the enormous identity transition that can accompany motherhood, the gap between what women expect motherhood to feel like and what it actually feels like, and why so many mothers believe they should be able to manage everything themselves.
Most importantly, we ask a different question: instead of continually helping mothers become better at managing an overwhelming system, what would it look like to change the system?
This conversation is about examining the rules we inherited, deciding which ones still serve us, and intentionally building an operating system for motherhood that reflects our own values, families and lives.
Connect with Erin:
Website: erinschlozman.com
Instagram: @4th.Trimester.Wellness
Facebook: @ErinLevinCounseling
Bluesky: @the4thtrimester.bsky.social
Erin’s book, The Myth of the Perfect Mom: From Postpartum Perfection to Everyday Joy, is available now.
