The Almost Empty Nest—Letting Go, Redefined: Parenting Teens and Finding Yourself Again—with Small Jar Coach

Have you ever noticed that when your kid is struggling, you make it your job to struggle too?

So often, as moms, we let our own peace rise and fall with how our kids are doing. They’re happy, and we can relax. They’re struggling or pulling away, and so we’re anxious, overthinking, and trying to make everything better.

In this episode, I’m continuing the Mindset Trap series with a focus on emotional outsourcing and why it becomes such an easy habit to call into during the parenting teens and empty nest years.

You’ll learn how to recognize when you’ve tied your emotional wellbeing to your child’s mood, choices, or progress, and how to begin letting go of that responsibility without becoming detached.

Motherhood actually doesn’t require you to ride every emotional wave with your kid. You can love and support them, and still create steadiness, confidence, and peace within yourself.

💡 Interested in learning more about how to create peace, confidence and connection as you raise and launch your teen? Join me for my next free masterclass: https://www.thesmalljar.com/class.

💪 Curious about coaching? Check out our Mom 2.0 coaching programs (both group and 1:1): www.thesmalljar.com/Mom-2-0. Know you’re interested in group? Visit: www.thesmalljar.com/momcollective.

❓ Have questions or want to share your feedback? I'd love to hear from you! You can email me at [email protected].

This empowering podcast offers life coaching for moms and parenting support for midlife mothers raising teens as they approach the empty nest, teaching them how to let go of control, stop overthinking, and shift their mindset, while also helping them set boundaries, improve communication, reduce anxiety, release mom guilt, and find purpose in the evolving journey of parenting teens and motherhood.

Have you ever had a moment when the house feels too quiet, your kids are busy living their lives, and you suddenly wonder, when did I start feeling this alone?

In this episode, I’m exploring the different ways loneliness can show up during the teen and empty nest years. Sometimes we simply miss our kids. Sometimes we’re grieving the closeness or relationship we thought we’d have. And sometimes motherhood has shifted so much that we’re beginning to see just how much we want more friendship, community, connection, or purpose of our own.

I’ll help you look beneath the thought “I feel lonely” and understand what your loneliness may actually be asking of you. Because some loneliness is meant to be felt, and some may be inviting you to create something new, without making your kids responsible for filling the empty spaces in your life.

💡 Interested in learning more about how to create peace, confidence and connection as you raise and launch your teen? Join me for my next free masterclass: https://www.thesmalljar.com/class.

💪 Curious about coaching? Check out our Mom 2.0 coaching programs (both group and 1:1): www.thesmalljar.com/Mom-2-0. Know you’re interested in group? Visit: www.thesmalljar.com/momcollective.

❓ Have questions or want to share your feedback? I'd love to hear from you! You can email me at [email protected].

This empowering podcast offers life coaching for moms and parenting support for midlife mothers raising teens as they approach the empty nest, teaching them how to let go of control, stop overthinking, and shift their mindset, while also helping them set boundaries, improve communication, reduce anxiety, release mom guilt, and find purpose in the evolving journey of parenting teens and motherhood.

Have you ever noticed how quickly your mind can skip right past what’s going well and land on the one thing that still feels unresolved?

Parenting teens and navigating the empty nest can hold so many contradictions at once. You can be proud of your kid and worried about them. Grateful for this stage of motherhood and grieving what has changed. Happy for their independence and still struggling with letting go.

In this episode, I’m talking about why our brains keep scanning for problems, why the finish line with our big kids keeps moving, and how that habit can fuel anxiety and overthinking.

You’ll learn how to make room for what’s hard without letting it become the whole story, and how a simple mindset shift can help you feel more grounded, present, and connected to the life you have right now.

💡 Interested in learning more about how to create peace, confidence and connection as you raise and launch your teen? Join me for my next free masterclass: https://www.thesmalljar.com/class.

💪 Curious about coaching? Check out our Mom 2.0 coaching programs (both group and 1:1): www.thesmalljar.com/Mom-2-0. Know you’re interested in group? Visit: www.thesmalljar.com/momcollective.

❓ Have questions or want to share your feedback? I'd love to hear from you! You can email me at [email protected].

This empowering podcast offers life coaching for moms and parenting support for midlife mothers raising teens as they approach the empty nest, teaching them how to let go of control, stop overthinking, and shift their mindset, while also helping them set boundaries, improve communication, reduce anxiety, release mom guilt, and find purpose in the evolving journey of parenting teens and motherhood.

When your big kid is struggling, pulling away, or making choices you don’t understand, how quickly does your brain start asking, “What did I do wrong?”

In this episode, I’m talking about the way we moms can use our kids’ choices, struggles, relationships, and happiness as evidence of how well we’re doing in motherhood. That gets especially painful as we move through parenting teens and the empty nest years, when our instinct to help is still strong but our ability to control the outcome has changed.

I’ll help you separate making mistakes from being a failure, understand why self-blame can actually feel safer than letting go, and rethink what success looks like in this stage of motherhood.

💡 Interested in learning more about how to create peace, confidence and connection as you raise and launch your teen? Join me for my next free masterclass: https://www.thesmalljar.com/class.

💪 Curious about coaching? Check out our Mom 2.0 coaching programs (both group and 1:1): www.thesmalljar.com/Mom-2-0. Know you’re interested in group? Visit: www.thesmalljar.com/momcollective.

❓ Have questions or want to share your feedback? I'd love to hear from you! You can email me at [email protected].

This empowering podcast offers life coaching for moms and parenting support for midlife mothers raising teens as they approach the empty nest, teaching them how to let go of control, stop overthinking, and shift their mindset, while also helping them set boundaries, improve communication, reduce anxiety, release mom guilt, and find purpose in the evolving journey of parenting teens and motherhood.

What happens when you set a boundary, hold it, communicate it clearly… and absolutely nothing changes?

In this episode, I’m talking about why boundaries can feel so confusing when you’re parenting teens, college kids, and adult children. At this stage of motherhood, we often judge whether a boundary “worked” by looking at what our kid does next. Did they change the behavior? Take it seriously? Learn the lesson?

I’ll help you rethink what a boundary is actually meant to do, so you can stop overthinking every decision and putting pressure on yourself to find the perfect consequence or the perfect words. You’ll learn how to get clearer about what you are willing to support, pay for, participate in, or be around, while letting go of the part you cannot control.

That shift can help you feel more grounded, confident, and peaceful even when your big kid is still figuring things out.

💡 Interested in learning more about how to create peace, confidence and connection as you raise and launch your teen? Join me for my next free masterclass: https://www.thesmalljar.com/class.

💪 Curious about coaching? Check out our Mom 2.0 coaching programs (both group and 1:1): www.thesmalljar.com/Mom-2-0. Know you’re interested in group? Visit: www.thesmalljar.com/momcollective.

❓ Have questions or want to share your feedback? I'd love to hear from you! You can email me at [email protected].

This empowering podcast offers life coaching for moms and parenting support for midlife mothers raising teens as they approach the empty nest, teaching them how to let go of control, stop overthinking, and shift their mindset, while also helping them set boundaries, improve communication, reduce anxiety, release mom guilt, and find purpose in the evolving journey of parenting teens and motherhood.