I believe that our childhood experiences shape us as adults and can help empower our knowledge and actions as parents.
Are there things you wish someone had taught you? You had to learn things independently, but the experience would have been much easier if someone had warned you or told you the truth about it. I wish I knew more about things. I wish I knew more about marriage before I got married, or I wish I knew more about parenting before I became a parent.
In each episode, we’ll have conversations with other women, and sometimes men, about childhood lessons learned and lessons lost and how they impact us. Hear from real women as they discuss relationships with their mothers, their relationships with their children, what they learned from their mothers, and what they teach their children. We dive into other relationships, like marriage, and relationships with other women, struggle with anxiety, fear of failure, and success.
What I Wish is an excellent opportunity to learn from other women and hear how all mothers have shared experiences. Are you ready to find deep meaning in parenting?
We’ll share real-life tips and approaches to navigating life, using what we wish we knew to help us be better parents and better to ourselves. My goal is to help mothers and daughters have a good relationship from a young age into adulthood.
Recent Episodes

TenderHearted Teacher. How Early Childhood Education Impacts the Development of Children
At a Higher level, critical thinking skills allow us to take in new information, use it, and allows us to form new ideas. Set goals, communicate, and collaborate with others.

The effect of societal norms on the mental health of men
Men are often told to be strong, suck it up, and not show emotions.

What I Wish My Mother Taught Me About Marriage and Raising College-aged Kids.
Teach my kids to use their voices and learn to advocate for themselves.

What I Wish My Mother Taught Me about Validation and Judgement.
From our conversation, I learned to validate my kids and appreciate the importance of validating my children’s feelings and talents.

How to Build the Most Fulfilling Relationship with Your Children
Intentional parenting requires parents to heal their childhood wounds to give their best to their children.

Taking Ownership Of My Trauma and Healing Childhood Abandonment. What I Wish My Mother Taught Me about Resolving Abandonment
Healing and moving forward from childhood trauma can feel like an uphill battle.
What I Wish My Mother Taught Me About Menstrual Cycle

Preparing your Daughter For Her Menstrual Cycle.
Thank you for joining me on another episode of What I Wish My Mother Taught Me. In this episode, I chat with Briana Villegas. Briana helps women understand and leverage the different stages of their cycle. Turn the menstrual cycle into something that works for you instead of something you are pushing through or ignoring. Her mission is to empower women by demystifying money and providing them with an infrastructure that allows them to build confidently. She coaches her clients on how to build a relationship with their money, heal financial trauma, and understand finances by breaking it into bite-size digestible pieces. Her program gives women tools that help women get unstuck and move forward.
Highlights:
Understand the 4 phases of the menstrual cycle
1. Menstruation
2. Reflection. The brain is more focused. Sensitivity to things happening in our environment. Sit with the emotions and determine if it is a reoccurring pattern. Journal practice. Take action
3. Follicular: our energy shoots up and boosts in creating. Appetite shifts. Work on projects. Take advantage of the boost in energy.
4. Ovulatory phase. 3-4 days, estrogens highest, boost in libido, the glow happens, really good at problem-solving and communicating. Set up to have conversations around the support you need.
Connect with Briana on Instagram
Visit Briana’s Podcast page for more information.
Hormone Rants Podcast: Cycle Syncing for Tweens & Teens Waitlist:
Be sure to check out my book What I Wish My Mother Taught Me and What I Teach My Daughter and Journals.
For more visit our website
How to Teach Your Kids Effective Communication: The Magic of Communication with Anna Scoby

How to Teach Your Kids Effective Communication: The Magic of Communication with Anna Scoby
In this episode, I chat with Anna Scoby, a Communication Coach specializing in taking intimidating factors out of public speaking. Anna is the creator of Project Be You, an educational non-profit dedicated to youth. The project was created with one goal to instill confidence in students by teaching them soft skills necessary for future success. Project Be You was created as a project-based focusing on positive association. Years of working with youth provide insights into their development and needs.
Teaching kids the magic of communication and the power of words can open up so many opportunities. If they know how to communicate, they can communicate well with each other, collaborate, and create and advocate for themselves effectively.
It’s important for kids to have good communication skills at a young age because communication is like magic. With one word, you can fall in love, and you can start a war, you can build someone up or break them down.
Taking Ownership Of My Trauma and Healing Childhood Abandonment.
Taking Ownership Of My Trauma and Healing Childhood Abandonment.
Healing and moving forward from childhood trauma can feel like an uphill battle. My purpose for hosting the What I Wish My Mother Taught Me Podcast is to build a community of men and women willing to speak transparently about their life experiences and how those experiences shape them as adults and parents. My guest this week, Karen, spoke transparently about childhood abandonment, the effects of divorce on children, and the importance of seeking help in the form of therapy to heal childhood trauma and abandonment in the case of Karen. This episode is an excellent reminder that you are not alone, and there are so many people who are on that healing journey as well.
The path to healing starts now.
IN THIS EPISODE:
- Anger associated with abandonment
- Adolescent anger carries into college because we do not have the tools to deal with the trauma.
- How parents can communicate better with their kids to support changes in life
- Having Open communication between parent and child can help when a child feels abandoned.
- The loneliness that comes with divorce. Losing siblings, going from a home filled with siblings to feeling lonely because you’ve been removed from your siblings.
- The importance of providing our kids with tools to manage their stresses, anxiety, emotions
- Teaching our sons to be vulnerable and manly simultaneously.
- I wish my parents were more patient with me
- I wish my parents praised me more
- I wish my parents were my coaches and helped me and encouraged me and supported me more.
- I wish I had tools to help me know that I am doing life right.
- I wish someone had told me how money works.
- How narcissistic family impacts our daily life.
- Plus much more…

How to Build the Most Fulfilling Relationship with Your Children
Sandra Trew is the founder of Get Real Parenting Coaching, www.getrealparentalcoaching.com, where she helps working parents balance their work/ home life so they can feel confident and not so overwhelmed. In this episode, we talk about:
How to deal with the common problems parents face
The two things all children want from their parents
How to maintain consistency as parents
How to heal your childhood wounds to better parent your children
I learned from our conversation that intentional parenting requires parents to heal their childhood wounds to give their best to their children; I also learned to appreciate the importance of validating my children’s feelings and talents. We also discuss a father’s role in the home and how dads can fulfill their role as a father by getting their needs met.
What I Wish My Mother Taught Me about Validation and Judgement.

What I Wish My Mother Taught Me about Validation and Judgement.
We all have a friend that just gets you, and when you are together, you just enjoy the time with each other. My guest today is that friend to me. We had a fantastic time talking about love and validation as children and learning to take on the responsibility of validating yourself and not waiting on a parent or adult to validate you. This episode goes off the rails at times. From our conversation, I learned to validate my kids and appreciate the importance of validating my children’s feelings and talents. I knew that words really do matter. My guest was absolutely vulnerable, and this episode is perfect for a girl looking for ways to validate themselves so that they can show up authentically to the world.
The effect of societal norms on the mental health of men

Men and Vulnerability: The effect of societal norms on the mental health of men
Men are often told to be strong, suck it up, and not show emotions. From a young age, society teaches most boys that being vulnerable isn’t what a man should do, and most of them grow up believing that a man should not be vulnerable. I was struck by the fact that all of the mass shootings we have had in the United States were by men. To address my curiosity about the mass shootings, I invited Raymond Chukwuma, a Licensed Counselor, to discuss how societal norms affect men. We also discuss what parents can do to change the message boys receive to help them communicate their feelings much easier and show vulnerability. In this episode, Raymond and I discuss
1. What his mother taught him
2. How societal norms shape the brain of a young man
3. Creating a safe space for men to express themselves freely.
Raising a Daughter from a Father’s Perspective-Trevor Gabbidon
Trevor Gabbidon, author of Daughters Grow Up So Fast: From A Father’s Perspective, joined me on the Podcast this week. I enjoyed listening to him talk about being a father and enjoying the ride and experiences of a girl dad. We dive into what goes on in the mind of a dad as he watches his little girl grow up. We also discuss how girls and boys are raised differently and the essential things every young father should know when they become a parent.
Trevor presented three tips for young fathers.
- Be ready for what life will throw at you when you become a father.
- Don’t hurt your child while you are in the process of adjusting to fatherhood.
- Be mindful not to hurt the child if your relationship falls apart.
- Put on your big boy pants and be as present as possible
- Be the dad that you wanted as a child.
What I Wish My Mother Taught Me About Marriage and Raising College-aged Kids.

I am joined by one of my favorite people in the entire universe. Selina is a mother to 3 amazing children; she has 2 in high school and one child in college. She and I discuss what she teaches her teenagers and how her relationship with her college-age daughter is now one of counselor and less parenting. We also dive into the truth about marriage and how unprepared we are going into it.
What I learned from this episode is
1. To teach my kids to love themselves, continuously tell my kids that they are loved
2. Teach my kids to use their voice and learn to advocate for themselves.
3. Become my children’s SafetyNet. Listen to them without judgment.