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Big Fat Positive: Pregnancy and Parenting (BFP)

Ep. 398: Embracing "Mom Mode"

Big Fat Positive: Pregnancy and Parenting (BFP)

Laura Birek, Shanna Micko

Parenting, Comedy, Kids & Family

4.7 • 531 Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2026

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the special segment “Mom Wins,” Laura and Shanna celebrate their recent parenting achievements, including a clever chemistry-based solution that saved bath time and a surprising moment of jumping into action to help a stranger. Also, Shanna checks in about adjusting to a new chapter now that the kids are back at school and she must figure out what’s next after leaving her job, while Laura shares an unexpected weekend saga that took a sharp turn. Finally, the moms share their BFPs and BFNs for the week, including a full agenda “mommy camp” day and a new hobby that’s quickly becoming a kid’s entire personality. Shanna’s kids are 7 and 9.5 years old, and Laura’s kids are 7 years old and 4.5 years old.


Topics discussed in this episode:

  • Adjusting to life after leaving your job and figuring out what's next
  • Giving yourself permission to have a “fallow period” after a big work/life shift
  • Handling your kid's sudden and mysterious medical symptoms while far from home
  • Solving kid “fairness” problems before they become full-blown meltdowns
  • Citric acid: what it is, how to use it and why Laura swears by it
  • When motherhood changes how you respond in an urgent situation
  • Planning an all-day outing with kids to avoid a wide-open day at home
  • Watching your kid fall in love with a new hobby


Products, links, resources mentioned in this episode:


Past BFP episodes mentioned in this episode:


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Big Fat Positive: A Pregnancy and Parenting Journey is produced by Laura Birek, Shanna Micko and Steve Yager.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to Big Fat Positive with Shauna and Laura. This week, we have our weekly check-ins. We have our special

0:05.2

segment, Mom wins, where we talk about crises we overcame with chemistry and empathy, and we close with

0:11.7

our BFPs and BFNs for the week. Let's get started. Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 398 of Big Fat Positive.

0:25.1

Hi, Shana. Hi. Let's dive right in. Tell me about your check-in for this week. I feel like in my world, 2006 is finally begun because my kids

0:33.0

finally went back to school after winter break. Yay, on Tuesday, by the way. But I'll talk about

0:38.9

Monday later. But I want to check in on what all this brings up for me as a working mom or not

0:47.4

working mom anymore, really, because like I mentioned, my job ended at the end of the year.

0:53.5

And now that the kids are back in school,

0:55.9

I'm left like being like, ah, okay, I got to figure out what's next for me, how to manage my

1:02.3

time, how to figure out what I'm going to focus on. And I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with all

1:09.2

of that. I can understand that feeling. Okay, so, you know, when I

1:12.8

quit my nine to five to go freelance, I didn't have kids yet. So I had like years to adjust to

1:20.6

how that works before having kids. And then of course, you have to adjust to it when you have

1:25.5

kids. But I'm curious what your experience has been like.

1:29.0

Well, there's a lot of stability with having a regular nine to five full-time job, obviously, even though it is stressful to manage both. So I'm starting to panic about the stability. I've got some severance pay that will last me a few months, but even still,

1:45.3

it's like, I know that that's going to run out at some point. I'm feeling panicked. And then on top of it,

1:52.0

I have personal goals, too. Like, you and I are trying to amp up the podcast and do some new

1:58.4

and exciting things with the show. And that is going to take time and

2:02.3

focus. I've got a couple personal projects that I really want to work on. And then, of course,

2:07.7

it's complicated by the fact that I'm parenting and managing after school activities and homework.

2:14.7

And I am like, I feel like I'm standing in front of a title wave

2:19.2

that is just like an open schedule, but yet there's so much I need to jam into it. I don't know.

...

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