88: Debunking The Myths of Motherhood with Melanie Shankle

February 24, 2020

In an age where we measure success, influence, Youtube subscribers, and Instagram likes, how do you measure motherhood? What makes a Perfect Mom? And is being a good Mom just not good enough?

In Episode 88, Daniel and Christina interview New York Times best-selling author, Melanie Shankle. Melanie shares her wisdom and humor about the realities of motherhood and helps speak truth into the facade of the “Perfect Mom.”

In This Episode, You Will Hear About:

The difference between a Perfect Mom and a Good Mom
What happens when we parent out of fear
How you know when you should stop having children
What our kids need most from us
Quality time versus quantity time

Resources Mentioned During the Episode:

Grab a copy of Melanie’s newest books, On The Bright Side: Stories about Friendship, Love and Being True to Yourself and children’s book, Piper and Mabel: Two Very Wild but Very Good Dogs
Check out Melanie’s blog, The Big Mama Blog
Listen to our previous episode about Why We Need to Teach Our Kids to Fail
Want to hear more about raising kids that are resilient, passionate, and gritty? Tune into Episode 10: How to Raise Resilient, Gritty, and Passionate Kids
Are you a stay-at-home parent? Listen into Episode 14: How to Thrive as a Stay-At-Home Parent
Needing to learn how to balance your work and home life? Check out our interview with Christy Wright about Work-Life Balance

Quotables and Tweetables:

“The perfect Mom doesn’t exist. And, even if she did, we would all hate her guts.” @BigMama
“The perfect mom is a unicorn, mythical at best. But a good mom is the velveteen rabbit, a little worn from use.” @BigMama
“I’m confident I’m a good mom, because what ultimately makes a good mom is showing up.” @BigMama
“I’ve learned that I sometimes want to parent out of fear, and that’s not good for any of us.” @BigMama
“If we’re scared, then we’re going to raise kids who are scared. And you know what scared kids don’t do? Grow up to be people who impact their world.” @BigMama
“Let’s teach our kids to be brave, even if that means we sometimes have to pretend to be less scared than we really are as we watch them learn to fly.” @BigMama
“And that sums up having a teenager. These are the years that increase our prayer life as we hold on for the ride to see who they are going to become and try to figure out how to show them the way and get out of their way at the same time.” @BigMama
“Perfect parents exist. They just don’t have kids yet.” @imbetweenshow

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Meet Melanie Shankle:

Melanie writes regularly at The Big Mama blog and is the New York Times bestselling author of four previous books. Melanie is a graduate of Texas A&M and loves writing, shopping at Target, checking to see what’s on sale at Anthropologie and trying to find the lighter side in every situation. Most of all, she loves being the mother of Caroline, the wife of Perry and the official herder of two wild dogs named Piper and Mabel. The five of them live in San Antonio, Texas.