Fresh Take: Mary Catherine Starr on Truly Sharing the Mental Load in Marriage

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

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood

Parenting, Kids & Family, Comedy

4.6 • 962 Ratings

🗓️ 14 March 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Women take on the lion's share of housework in heterosexual partnerships, and that gap in labor becomes a chasm once a child is born. Once Mom is the default parent, it becomes very difficult to even out the distribution of housework and parenting more equally. Mary Catherine Starr, author of the new book MAMA NEEDS A MINUTE, has renegotiated the distribution of labor in her own marriage post-kids and has tips for how other women can do the same. Mary Catherine Starr is an artist, graphic designer, and author. Her hugely popular Instagram account @momlife_comics explores motherhood, marriage, and the double standards of parenting. Mary Catherine and Amy discuss: What inspired Mary Catherine to start Mom Life Comics Why women usually become the default parent as soon as a baby is born Why Mary Catherine's cartoons help women explain the mental load to their partners Here's where you can find Mary Catherine: https://www.marycatherinestarr.com/ @momlife_comics on IG marycatherinestarr.substack.com Buy MAMA NEEDS A MINUTE: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9781797226866 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/ What Fresh Hell is co-hosted by Margaret Ables and Amy Wilson. mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, cognitive labor, emotional labor, mental load, second shift Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Friends, you know that I am extremely protective of my sleep. And I want my sleep to be as
0:06.5	restful and restorative as possible. That's why I'm so excited to share something that's made a
0:11.8	real difference in my life, Beam's Dream Powder. Beam is a healthy nighttime blend packed with
0:18.0	science-backed ingredients shown to improve sleep so you wake up refreshed
0:22.4	and ready to take on the day. Dream is made with a powerful blend of all natural ingredients.
0:28.1	Rishi, magnesium, elthianine, epigenin, and melatonin. And unlike other sleep aids, there's no
0:35.5	next day groginess, but don't take it from me, Beam has already improved over 17.5 million nights of sleep,
0:44.5	helping people, including me, across the country, wake up and feel their best.
0:49.2	Here's the deal.
0:50.1	Beam is giving our listeners, parents are not, their best offer yet.
0:53.8	Try their best-selling dream powder and get up to 40% off for a limited time.
0:58.8	Go to shopbeam.com slash fresh and use the code fresh at checkout.
1:04.5	That's shop, B-E-A-M, beam.com slash fresh, and use code fresh for up to 40% off. By supporting Beam, you support this show and
1:14.0	all of us fellow parents out there. Place your first order of Beam and start getting your best
1:18.9	sleep tonight. Hey, everybody, welcome to Fresh Take from What Fresh Hell Laughing in the Face of
1:26.2	Motherhood. This is Amy. Today I'm talking to my friend Mary Catherine Star. She is an artist, graphic designer, and the author of a new comic memoir about motherhood called Mama Needs a Minute. You know Mary Catherine's hugely popular Instagram account, Mom Life Comics, I am sure, because it has hundreds of thousands of followers. Mary Catherine's hugely popular Instagram account, Mom Life Comics, I am sure, because it has hundreds of thousands of followers.
1:47.9	Mary Catherine explores motherhood, marriage, and the double standards of parenting through hilarious and relatable comics.
1:55.3	She lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts with her husband and their two kids.
1:59.0	Welcome, Mary Catherine.
1:59.8	Thank you so much for having me. I'm a huge fan of you and your podcast. That's great to be here. Oh, my gosh, me too. I mean, I've been a fan of mom life comics for a long time. So tell us how you started it. Yeah, well, I started it just as a kind of therapeutic outlet for, you know, as so many moms do in the early days of motherhood, feeling super overwhelmed. And at the time,
2:18.6	I didn't start it as Mom Life comics. I just started making these little comics for my personal
2:22.6	Instagram. I had like a blog, you know, I was a lot like a long time blogger from back in
	...

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.