Today... I felt my existential depression... and am so glad I happened upon that term recently.
For reference, I was reading from the book A Parent's Guide to Gifted Children, by James Webb, Janet Gore, Edward Amend, and Arlene DeVries.
Motherhood
After 3 Years... I'm Done Breastfeeding! (S2E3) /
This is a big one for me. I’ve been breastfeeding for 3 years and 2 months and I think…. I think… we’re done. Breastfeeding has been amazing and so hard in many ways, as it typically the case for many women. Sometimes it’s the act of doing it that’s hard… sometimes it’s the emotions around it. For me, it came naturally from a very physical sense but it’s been an emotional rollercoaster from then on. I’ve felt trapped and like my body is being used and on the otherhand I have loved it and been blown away by the awe of it all. Like I said, an emotional roller coaster. But… I think that’s all done now… wow.
The Female Brain with Greer /
Greer (another neuroscientist) and I began talking after I posted something on facebook about how I wanted to honour the female brain. She replied to my post with something like “YES!” and so we planned a conversation without any idea of where it would actually go. We went around and around and covered much ground including: 1) what does a woman leader looks like?, 2) valuing women in the workplace, 3) the female stress response of “tend and defend”and the maternal brain, 4) the difference between rearing boys' and girls’ brains and emotional brain development, 6) women’s intuition, and 7) the validation of #MeToo and #TimesUp. We wrap up with asking what are the characteristics of a female brain? We probably should have started with that, but we didn’t. We even tie in cryptocurrency. It ends a bit abruptly mostly because I deleted about 12 more minutes where we come up with a women's circle plan, which was interesting but a bit TOO much of a tangent. ;)
Read MoreThe Effects of Early Life Experiences on Mental Health and Self Regulation in Children with Fellow Neuroscientist, Greer /
Greer currently lives in LA and was back in Toronto so we decided to meet at Riverdale Park to discuss parenting practices. We cover a lot of parenting topics in our hour and 20 min conversation including sleep training, responsive parenting, discipline, self-regulation, co-sleeping, childcare, and how to balance being a mom with work. We include personal anecdotes about my 2 year old and her dog!
Read MoreExpanding Identities In Motherhood with Lindsey /
We started off with Lindsey reflecting on her maternity leave (which is about to end) and the anxiety she felt during her time off from work. It fed into a discussion about body image, which Lindsey and I have covered to a great extent through our co-founded organized, Body Monologues. The theme of this conversation was our “Expanding Identity”.
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