How moms can find more holiday joy for themselves: Margaret Ables | Spawned Ep 300

It’s been some year. To say the least. With the holiday season in full swing, it can be tough to find the joys in a tough world, let alone trying to make happy holiday memories for our kids. And in doing so, moms often put ourselves last. How can moms be part of the fun and not just the people behind the fun?

The perfect person to discuss this with me: Margaret Ables, the co-host of your other favorite parenting podcast, What Fresh Hell. Take a listen for some terrific tips, sweet memories (the pancakes for dinner story made our engineer John tear up), really smart insight and much-needed laughter. Let’s take the pressure off us just a little bit this year, okay? You’re doing great, moms!

“If you’re too busy making it perfect, you can miss some of the magic.”
– Margaret Ables

This really felt like the perfect podcast to bring back Spawned after a way-too-long hiatus. Sometimes life, including the not-so-merry parts, can really get in the way of a podcast that talks about parenting life, so thanks for bearing with us. It feels good to be back.

Related Episodes and Other Reading:

–  KJ Dell’Antonia on how to be a happier parent
– Liz’s family tradition: The Jurassic Pole display
– Jennifer Senior’s classic All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood
– Pancakes for dinner? Yes!
– 8 easy gratitude activities for kids
– Find the over-the-top Christmas light displays near you — Mommy Poppins is a great resource.
– Margaret’s Cool Picks of the Week: Audible is helping her finish 50 books a year! (PS Liz is reading more now with Audiobooks too.)
– Liz’s Cool Picks of the Week: Local neighborhood bookstores like Books Are Magic, perfect for last-minute gifts.
(And d’oh, I mentioned Books of Wonder which is also a terrific local bookstore, but not in Brooklyn).
– bookshop.org is also great for for shopping indie bookstores online, and libro.fm as an Audible alternative.

Our amazing sponsor: Disney Villainous: Intro to Evil (bwahahahah):

We put together 8 reasons that we’re big fans of Disney Villainous — including the fact that adults will have as much fun playing this creative strategy game as our tweens and teens. Plus it now comes in a gorgeous Disney100 limited edition for you Disney super-fans! Great gift for siblings or anyone who wants to freshen up the screen-free family game night stash.

Be sure to subscribe to Spawned  wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for listening!