Ep. 293: Redefining Motherhood — Reclaim Yourself by Breaking the Code

Parenting Great Kids with Dr. Meg Meeker

Dr. Meg Meeker

Kids & Family, Education, Parenting, Self-improvement

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this compelling episode of Parenting Great Kids, Dr. Meg Meeker sits down with Dr. Gertrude Lyons, TEDx speaker, parenting coach, and author of the upcoming book Rewrite the Mother Code: From Sacrifice to Stardust. Together, they explore how outdated beliefs around motherhood continue to shape women's emotional lives—and how to break free from them.

They discuss how emotional suppression, lack of boundaries, and perfectionism are robbing mothers of joy. Dr. Lyons challenges moms to prioritize their emotional wellness, set healthy boundaries, and reclaim their identity so they can raise emotionally resilient kids.

What You’ll Learn:

Why self-sacrifice is not the gold standard of parenting
How generational parenting patterns shape today's mothers
Why self-care is essential—not selfish
Tools for rewriting the "mother code"
How emotional intelligence starts with you
The link between maternal burnout and child development

Guest:

Dr. Gertrude Lyons – TEDx speaker, author, transformational coach

Visit: drgertrudelyons.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0	On today's episode of parenting great kids.
0:05.0	We moms are taught early on, and I think it can even start before the child is born or before we've adopted the child.
0:14.5	And it's explicit and sometimes implicit that putting their needs versus selfish, where does that believe come from?
0:23.6	Well, Meg, there's a long story and short story of that. But, you know, to suffice it to at least say,
0:33.4	it's wired in us of generations of mothers feeling like their most important job, why they're
0:42.6	here on this planet at all, is to bear and raise children. So if something has been deemed,
0:50.9	and that's been wired in for generations, that your needs don't really matter.
0:55.9	It's carrying on and, you know, doing the job that you were here to do, which is to care for
1:01.8	others. So in whatever way, at whatever level it was overtly put that way to you, or, you know, it's just how it, how you see it happening in your
1:14.5	atmosphere. It continues to be wired in. And this is, you know, probably 6,000 years of it being like
1:26.2	this, at least, right? But from a time where it really became
1:32.1	clear or we were dictated as women that that's how it goes and that's what it is. And your needs
1:38.6	not only don't matter, you don't matter. I mean, there were times it was really bad, right? Now,
1:46.2	now we're just called selfish and now, you know, it's not, you're still frowned upon for not putting others before yourself,
1:54.0	but it's not quite as dire as it used to be. Well, the truth is, though, when a baby's born,
2:00.0	they can't care for themselves, even when they're one and two and three and four.
2:04.4	So if a mother doesn't put the baby or the child's needs first and her needs first, what happens to the child?
2:12.3	Yeah, so that's, I love that question, Meg, because it kind of points out that how, you know, the wiring
2:20.7	gets started right away, because of course, they're helpless little beings and they're looking
2:25.5	to us for everything. So there is, even in that period of time where you are giving so much,
2:32.8	right? And the focus is on that newborn.
2:37.6	It doesn't mean that you can't still be taking care of yourself, right? It doesn't mean that you
	...

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