Tag: parenting

🤍 Mom Possible Self-Care for the Week Ahead of Scorpio Season

We’re just over a week out from the start of Scorpio Season, Oct. 22, 2025, and the theme for us all is reflective self-care.

And I know — for most of us mamas, time is not on our side. We don’t have the luxury of hour-long morning routines, weekly spa days, or daily meditation-led yoga sessions (lol). But that doesn’t mean drop it altogether. We just need to find practices that actually fit. And they do exist.

Here are a few simple efforts I’ve tapped into over the last couple of months that have actually been working!

🎭 Set Your Stage

Someone recently told me, You and your daughter are so theatrical. And honestly — he was right, my life with her often does feel theatrical.

Life is a production, and moms, we are the stage managers.

The comment got me thinking: stage managers focus on setting up each scene to create a complete production by the end. So, I started breaking down my “scenes” throughout the day and noting where they turn into “chaos zones”.

For me, it’s my house. I wake up in my biggest chaos zone. As a single parent of a little, I’m the only one capable of meaningfully keeping things maintained at home, and I know I don’t have to tell you, in what ways households are a lot. chores take hours to do properly start to finish. Which leads to the choice: prioritize the house or being present with my girl. Birdie wins a majority of the time which means chores get done about 50% of the way before being abandoned… and y’all, it shows. And if I’m honest with myself, it does add up and sometimes it does eat at my confidence.

The main “chaos zone” for me at home? The kitchen. So I did a full review — clipboard and all. I went through every cabinet, drawer, the pantry, and the fridge and realized, freaking duh I’m strung out in here – this place is nuts. I Ordered cabinet dividers, tiered risers for the pantry so I actually see what I have, instead of buying an 8th can of peas at the store next time, OMG! Overall this little endeavor cost me about $80, but yall – I spend so much time in that kitchen – every bite of food that myself or my daughter eats was procured and prepared from grocery to table by me so I set my stage! And its paid off – don’t get my wrong, I still spend an obnoxious amount of time in the kitchen BUT the time I do spend is far less stressful. Being able to see and find what I need, instead of constantly being on some weird side quest searching for the matching lid to the container Im trying to use for Birdie’s lunch, which inevitably takes 10 min before I finally just wrap the whole thing in cling-wrap and pray for the best, whew! I mean, I should probably write a whole separate entry on the difference this effort has made, but I digress …

👉 So spend this week taking inventory of your “chaos zones”. Where do your days get hung up? How can you better set up your stage? Once you’ve reviewed your own process, don’t try to address them all at once – determine where the biggest difference will be made and make a plan for getting just that functioning and maintainable. You can address anything else after you’ve lightened your load with the big one.

⏸️ Practice the Pause. Breath.

If you’re like me, you often feel like you’re holding your breath.
And y’all — we have got to breathe.

But, question: how do we catch our breath when life is a constant sprint? Answer: find the moment our day really begins. It exists for all of us — we just have to notice it.

For me, it’s the exact moment I get Birdie into school and head back to the car. My mind kicks right into overdrive — all my mental tabs immediately start yelling over each other and that sets my productivity marker. Mentally cluttered and impulsive. Not good, and lately, I’ve been pausing right there in the parking lot. I’ve put a small notebook in my cup holder and Im using it to make note of things I want or need to prioritize on this day. Is there anything that is time sensitive? Do I have a call scheduled? The simple few minute pause to birds-eye view daughter free hours has for real been a game changer for my nervous system – BIG WIN for everyone!

Wherever that moment is for you, that’s the moment to practice the pause. Don’t wait for a stopping point, literally pause before you start, whatever that looks like for you. Make a coffee. Walk around the block. Sit on the sofa. But do it in silence – no emails, no scrolling, no podcasts. Just be with yourself breath and focus so you dont get dragged by the noise all day.

A breathing exercise my life coach introduced to me, it’s called Coherent Breathing:
Inhale through your nose for 4–6 seconds, exhale through your nose for the same. Do this several times – it helps center your nervous system, and allows a certain amount of mental “disconnect”.

☀️ Elevate Your Daily’s

Turn ordinary tasks into mini self-care moments:

  • Light a candle before tackling your inbox or weekly schedule.
  • Crank up music and sing in the shower — because why not?

Your personal joys don’t require an occasion.
This week, unapologetically make them and take them wherever you can.

🤍 Coterie Check-In

Motherhood — single or not, doesn’t come with many rest days. It’s hard, a lot of the time. So stay tuned in and turned on to the small wins: Got everyone fed? Victory. You drank your 64 oz of water? Girl, bonus points!

Remember, it’s okay not to do-it-all. Imperfect days are normal days too.

🕊️ Your Permission Slip for the Week:
You’re allowed to rest. You’re allowed to say no. You’re allowed to choose you.
This week, like all weeks, is a reset button — not a restart test.

Let’s end on connection – What is your “chaos zone”? Drop it in the comments so we know we aren’t the only ones who get stuck sometimes.

Support & lots of love.

Bridie’s Mom

An open interview: The Single Mom Coterie

An open interview-style introduction — the who, what, where, and why behind the Single Mom Coterie movement I’m so thrilled to start.

First, I am so glad you’re here and please know my hope is that this page grows into a platform, which later turns into a movement, through and for all of us moms. Because here’s the truth – it took me over 5 years into motherhood to accept: moms set the bar. If we’re stuck on a low vibration, isolated and in the struggle of only “surviving each day,” that’s likely the bar across all the other areas of life. But even small doses of feeling seen and realizing we’re not alone, can make a huge difference for ourselves and our babies; and that’s the kind of difference I want make for myself and my family, and for you and yours!

If the above forward speaks to you, I got you and read on for more, sis!!

Q1: Who is The SMC for?

A: As a single mom myself, there’s an obvious nod in the name, and much of the content is curated for women walking this same road. But make no mistake, I see that mommin’ ain’t easy for any of us. Whether you’re married, co-parenting, or fully solo — motherhood, while overwhelmingly rewarding, can feel like screaming at the stars on an abandoned island in our minds some days.

If you’re a mom who could use an outlet built on seeing and supporting the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of the mom experience… one that reminds you that you don’t have to lose yourself in the landscape of it all, and that the stars are always listening and answering — then you’re in the right place, sis. And I’m so glad you’re here from the very start!

Q2: What makes this space different?

A: Two things: normalizing the mess + cosmic stardust.

We’re going to get into it. Our current timeline serves daily doses of facades that are seemingly hyper-focused on normalizing — clears throat — perfection?? over reality. Like really, WTF? I cannot thrive under these conditions! It’s sad and super freaking hard to navigate: What’s real? What actually is normal? Does everyone else seriously have it all together?? The answers: Who knows. Nothing. And absolutely not!

But it’s so easy — if not impossible — to not get sucked into the overwhelm. And I wanna talk about it, y’all. I’m an elder millennial in my Mommy Era — my girl is gonna be 6 in November (Scorpios holler back!!). So this “mom-life” is organically where my focus is, and my lord, is it a whole situation!

The things we are expected to either pretend don’t exist at all or present like we’ve totally got them handled — it’s completely bonkers. The messy house (and OMG the mess in the car), the past and present “ugly cry” moments, the setbacks and heartbreaks — not just yours but your kids’ too — ooooff, y’all!

But don’t let me lose you to the dark side. I’m not going to skip the joy our kids bring, the personal triumphs big and small — the stardust! I believe the universe is constantly leaving us little post-it notes of joy and grace, letting us know the stars heard our screams and have our back.

And because I can’t let my mommies miss the cosmic plot twists, sharp turns, potholes, and speed bumps, I’ll be weaving in some mom-focused zodiac readings into the mix — not as fluff, but as a reminder from the cosmos that everything is a season, and we have the opportunity to choose perspective over matter. And that it’s okay to press pause, reflect, and recalibrate when we need to.

✨ I’ll drop my cosmic interpretations for the month ahead on the last Monday of each month — yay!

Q3: So, why did I start The SMC?

A: Honestly? Because I need it too.

In the 5 years since my daughter was born, until recently it’s been some of the darkest time I’ve ever spent. Between a rough split with her dad and the loss of 2 parents, which ultimately led to a move far away from the support of my “village” (which eventually disappeared anyway) — life got super sketch there for a while.

My nervous system was wrecked. I leaned into toxic coping patterns, lashed out, believed the excuses I told myself and others, and constantly muted my inner voice — the one reminding me that life doesn’t stop and my precious girl won’t stop growing just because I was wallowing in it all.

It took 5 YEARS and the slap-in-the-face moment of realizing: “BITCH!!! Your daughter is starting KINDERGARTEN this year — wake TF UP!” And y’all, I felt that deep in my bones. My girl was about to start kindergarten, and I was still sitting here like a bump on a log, letting my mommy era slip through my fingers.

Being stuck in survival mode is no joke because you can’t un-spend time. That realization landed hard and turbulently pushed me into where I am now: motivated to show up the best I can. Cue Tay Tay — “I can do it with a broken heart!”

I dove headfirst, set overdue boundaries, made some painful subtractions, and committed to tough-love self-evaluation. The deep end is… well, deep. It honestly got lonelier at first, but then I realized there’s clarity to be found in the quiet space of “less weight.” And what I found has been priceless and worth every hard moment: ownership of my feelings and perspective.

And while I’m still very much “in it,” I feel more authentic, far less reactive, and more hopeful than I have in years — which is huge for this pessimistically inclined mind of mine. Woohoo, look at me go!!

But I also think I could have gotten here faster if I’d had an outlet to plug into when the overwhelm got too real… a space to witness the wins and celebrations… or just a reminder that we’re not alone and there are others out there who get it.

✨ So there it is, and here we are — the official why of The Single Mom Coterie.

Q4: What can you expect from this blog?

A: Well, TSMC is not a highlight reel. I want to transparently touch on all of what being a mom means, from as many perspectives as possible — no subject “off the table.”

How do we find balance in the burnout? What keeps us going when all we can think about is giving up? Where do we find our greatest joys and proudest moments?

This is a coterie after all — a circle of, in this case, single moms (but really all moms) showing up for each other with the matched energy of motherhood: messy and magical all at once.

Here’s what you’ll find here:
✨ Honest conversations about burnout, balance, and building a life that feels good.
✨ Practical tips — from self-care and life hacks, to side hustles that actually produce, and products that are worth the hype (or total flops!).
✨ Astrological interpretations + mom-centric zodiac insights — because a nudge from the cosmos is sometimes exactly what we need.
✨ Connection — a reminder that you’re not the only one juggling, struggling, or laughing at the chaos.

This is a passion project, and I thank you for making it this far. I hope you’ll stay for all that’s to come 💕 I see you, momma!

With love,
Birdie’s Mom