DEEP DIVE: Giving Help That Works– And Asking for the Help We Need

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

🗓️ 1 June 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This Deep Dive series revisits some of our past episodes on discerning what we need as moms, and then asking for it confidently. Do you hate feeling unable to help people in crisis, or do you worry about getting too involved and stepping on toes? There are ways to give help to people in need that are productive and considerate, and our listeners wrote in with some excellent examples. Amy and Margaret discuss: How to avoid the "let me know if you need anything" trap The "comfort in, dump out" model of caretaking The perils of too many lasagnas The best help you can give may be something that feels inconsequential to you but is actually a huge help to the people in need. Whatever your role ends up being during a crisis, accept it graciously, and don't expect a hero's fanfare for your efforts. Links! Anne Helen Petersen: ⁠A Shortcut for Caring for Others (and Being Cared for Yourself)⁠ Susan Silk and Barry Goldman for the LA Times: ⁠"How not to say the wrong thing"⁠ What Fresh Hell is co-hosted by Amy Wilson and Margaret Ables. 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/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:22.8	entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
0:31.7	I found a five pound cookie. What fresh hell. Laughing in the face of motherhood.
0:38.8	I'm dealing with my sick kid.
0:40.1	Can I help you with your sick kid at the same time?
0:41.8	With Margaret Ables and Amy Wilson.
0:44.7	Best sister is definitely taken.
0:47.7	A podcast that solves today's parenting dilemmas.
0:50.8	So you don't have to.
0:52.4	Guess we could use some popsicles.
1:01.1	Music dilemmas so you don't have to. I guess we could use some popsicles. Hello, everyone and welcome to What Fresh Hell laughing in the face of motherhood.
1:04.6	This is Margaret.
1:05.5	And this is Amy.
1:06.4	And today we're going to talk about how to really show up when our mom friends need help.
1:13.4	What actually helps when people need help?
1:20.6	Yeah, because we want to help. Everybody wants to help. I think there's very few people who are like, Amy, I hope she rots.
1:28.1	Nobody doesn't want to help, but helping is hard. And asking for help is hard and giving help is hard. And we were just were talking before we started like besides dropping off a lasagna, which is definitely nice and you definitely
1:31.5	need that, but you don't need 20 of them. And in these moments, it can be really hard to know
1:36.4	like how to help without helping too much. Does that make sense to you? And being helpful in a
	...

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