DEEP DIVE: Dr. Amber Thornton on Finding Real Balance

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood | Parenting Tips From Funny Moms

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood

Kids & Family, Comedy, Parenting

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We've all felt the guilt that comes with taking time away from our kids to do something we enjoy. But if we're always being told how liberating it is to do things for ourselves, why do we have such complicated feelings about? Dr. Amber Thornton tells us how we can successfully balance our lives both as women and as mothers. ⁠Dr. Amber Thornton⁠ is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Millennial Motherhood Wellness Coach. She is the Founder of Balanced Working Mama, with a mission to completely change the narrative of what is possible for millennial mothers by helping them to better balance work, motherhood, and wellness. She's also the host of the ⁠BALANCED WORKING MAMA podcast⁠. Dr. Amber resides in Washington, D.C., with her husband and 2 little ones. Dr. Amber, Margaret, and Amy discuss: What it means to set a boundary successfully What's really behind mom guilt The perils of secondary expectations It's important to remember that our feelings about our situation don't necessarily reflect the reality that's happening around us. Our guilt about taking time for ourselves as mothers is a commentary on the society we live in, not our actual abilities as parents. Here's where you can find Amber: ⁠www.balancedworkingmama.com⁠ @dramberthornton on IG/FB/YT/TikTok @balancedworkingmama on IG Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode: Joshua Ziesel for The Washington Post: ⁠"I wanted to be a better husband. So I planned my kid's birthday party."⁠ We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/ Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at ⁠www.monarchmoney.com/FRESH ⁠⁠⁠⁠invisible workload, default parent, household equity, household equality, gender household equality, gender household equity, mental load, cognitive load, cognitive labor, emotional labor, second shift, work life balance Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	If I get my kid a phone, I'll be able to keep in touch with them all the time.
0:02.8	We'll be on it all the time.
0:04.1	He could walk to school by himself. She could see something, she shouldn't. He could chat with grandma. Friends, trolls. They can access anything on the internet. They can access anything on the internet. So, should I give my kid a phone? Growing up with phones isn't always easy. Introducing EEE safer Sims. Sims that help moderate usage and shield harmful content on any smartphone.
0:24.2	Choose EE safer Sims. Only on the UK's best network. To verify best network see E.e.com. U.K.S.C. Clames. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Fresh Take from What Fresh Hell? Laughing in the Face of Mother. This is Margaret.
0:38.0	And this is Amy.
0:38.7	And today we're talking to Dr. Amber Thornton.
0:41.6	She's a licensed clinical psychologist and wellness coach and the founder of balanced working
0:46.5	mama with a mission to completely change the narrative of what is possible for millennial
0:51.3	mothers by helping them to better balance work, motherhood, and wellness.
0:56.1	She's also the host of the Balanced Working Mama podcast. Dr. Amber resides in Washington,
1:01.1	D.C. with her husband and two little kids. Welcome, Dr. Amber. Hi. Thank you so much for having me.
1:08.1	So you are not only a mom of two little ones. You're also a psychologist
1:11.9	supporting mothers. So motherhood is central to what you live and think about, but you didn't
1:18.0	always think that you would become a mother yourself. Tell us about that. Yes. Oh my gosh,
1:22.3	that's such a great place to start. I actually never really thought that I would want to become a mom. And it was,
1:29.9	you know, not because I didn't want children, but more so because this version of motherhood
1:34.5	that I had seen growing up just looked really challenging, to be honest. And there was somewhere
1:39.4	along the way I learned that being a mom meant that you had to really forego some of your desires or some of your dreams, your goals.
1:47.0	And I had always been someone who was so ambitious, even still.
1:51.6	You know, I always wanted to create things.
1:54.0	I wanted to go to school.
1:55.3	I wanted to be a learner.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.