In this conversation, Cat and Malliha get into the territory most mom content won't touch. The grief that comes with every developmental stage your child moves through. The way presence feels almost impossible in a world that is, as Cat puts it, designed for dysregulation. The difference between saying no from fear and saying no from power. And what happened the day her nine-year-old brought her a glass of water and said ”Mom, you need something” a small moment that revealed something enormous about the home they'd built together.

Cat also talks about joy not as a reward you earn after everything else is handled, but as a radical, necessary, non-negotiable act. And why she's centering it for herself so her daughter learns to center it too.

This one is for the mom who is always on, always producing, always giving and is starting to wonder what it might feel like to just stop.

Topics covered:

• Letting go as the central practice of motherhood
• Grieving every developmental stage and why we don't talk about it
• Presence as a practice in a world built to pull you out of the moment
• Why Cat thinks her career choice is connected to her anxiety
• Saying no from fear vs saying no from power
• Partnering with your child instead of leading them
• Joy as a radical act and why it belongs at the center of your life
• Raising a digitally native kid and the social media question she's not rushing to answer
• What rest actually looks like for someone who is always producing
• Becoming a lifelong student as the only real parenting strategy

About Cat: @catjimenez — entrepreneur, producer, creative, single mom, Radical Monarchs troop mom, WNBA Valkyries fan, and someone learning to make space for the questions she doesn't have answers to yet.