Well, hello there and welcome back. My name is Stephanie Safarian and you are listening to

episode 160 of the Sustainable Minimalist podcast. On today's show we are discussing mindful, minimalist parenting as well as

whether intentional parenting is even possible during a pandemic. It likely comes as a surprise to no one that parenting is

really really hard and it's even harder during a pandemic. Research into the difficulty of pandemic parenting agrees. My

friend Leslie Ford who by the way was a guest on this podcast way back when it first started.

She was on episode 23 titled Minimalism and the Mental Load if you missed it,

but Leslie Ford has done extensive research

into how exactly the pandemic has impacted mothers.

Leslie excels at collecting and analyzing data,

and as of this recording,

she has surveyed over 1,200 mothers about their experiences

as they relate to parenting during a pandemic.

The takeaways from Leslie's research are that mothers overwhelmingly report that their mental health is struggling amidst increased mental loads, erosion of work life boundaries, and general daily monotony.

Women report needing time to themselves

to rest and recharge and sleep,

but they're not getting that time to themselves.

They report desiring a quiet house for at least some of the time, which they are not getting.

And they also desire access to professional mental health services, but such access is both uneven and disproportionately distributed.

Now my guests on today's show believe they have created a solution that supports mothers and their mental

health during a pandemic and always.

Jake and Irene Rubin are a husband-wife team who created the Mama Zen app, which is a mindful parenting app that goes so far beyond your average meditation app.

Jake and Irene are here to discuss universal parenting themes.

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