Mamatoto Radio

Have you ever been in a situation when your kid is acting out, doing something you know they know they are not supposed to do, saying things they are not supposed to say, you know what I’m talking about, and you feel completely embarrassed in front of whomever gets the pleasure of watching? Say you are talking to another parent and a kid and yours says something just rude and won’t let up, just keeps the rudeness going. That kind of thing. What do you feel in that moment?

One of the most important thing for me is kindness. I am one of those people who thinks of a goal and then do whatever it takes to get to that. Same with kindness.   If we don’t know each other, I am Hanna from Mamatoto and I am super psyched that we found each other :)   I don’t think we all need and have the same kind of ways to show and receive affection. We all have our own love language, right? We all have different ways to express and understand things like love and kindness.   I think about this a lot, because the most important thing in my life, for me is to be a great mom, to my kids. Then it’s important for me to be a good partner and a great friend. Social connections and relationships are the most important things for me, no question.   You might have heard me say it before :)   My three kids are really different personalities. If you are into enneagrams at all, they are all different ones and they need to be shown and taught kindness in slightly different ways .   In our house, being kind comes f

This episode is brought to you by The Nest, the online parenting community for parents who want to raise kids that don’t suck. Go to mamatoto.info/thenest and get on the waitlist.   I have something I would like to share with you today :)   It’s a story about community, disappointment and learning new things that you can apply all over your life where you see it fit.   Here it goes.   When I had my first baby, fourteen or so years ago, I was part of a yoga community in San Francisco. I had been doing prenatal yoga through my pregnancy where I had met other moms, and I had finally graduated to the postpartum classes when my baby was six weeks old.   I was excited.   My expectations were high.   I was finally going to start getting back into shape.   I was going to get my body back.   I was going to be that strong mom who did yoga with a smiling baby gazing at me as the pregnancy weight melted off me from all the zen and joy filled yoga and breastfeeding.   So that didn’t happen.   We get to the class, and my b

This episode is brought to you by The Nest, the online parenting community for parents who want to raise kids that don’t suck. Go to mamatoto.info/thenest and get on the waitlist.   Let me tell you a story that used to be funny and embarrassing for me, and now, with time and wisdom is awesome and empowering to me, and maybe it will be for you too :)   When I became a mom I was in grad school. I did not have a lot of mom or dad friends, and none that had babies the same age as mine that lived close by.   My family was on a different continent, and I am not sure it would have been any better had they been closer. The distance might have been a blessing in disguise, and I will tell you why in a minute.   When my daughter was about nine months old it occurred to me that she didn’t have any baby friends.   Not that I knew what kind of interaction babies would have with each other at that point, but I thought that it would be important for her to have other babies in her life.   So I went on a quest to find them.  

This week I talk to Los Angeles based stay at home dad Paul. Paul and his wife have two kids and Paul teaches kids to swim out of his home. Check out his social media @paulswimz  We talk about being a stay at home dad, about parenting and all the things around it. We talk about our identities as people and parents, how our image of ourselves change and how we communicate that.  I loved recording this episode, I hope you enjoy it too :) Don't forget to join our parenting community at www.mamatoto.info/thenest  

I wanted to tell you a personal story about breaking patterns, maybe you will relate :)   I am a music mom, two of my three kids are musicians, the third we don’t know yet, he hasn’t started playing any instruments formally. My daughter is a pianist, drummer and singer, my son is a drummer in a band and a pianist.   I spend countless hours waiting for them to do their music lessons after school, I admire their hard work and their passion, and I love how it manifests in their day to day life. For example, when I take my teenage daughter to a music festival she can explain to me and appreciate different structures and complexities of different compositions, from electronica to rock. I think that’s pretty cool :)   When I was a kid I wanted to play the cello. And I was told that I wasn’t musical, so that was that. I loved music lessons and soaked up the few drumming lessons we had and loved trying out the bass.   But my mom said she wasn’t musical, so I wasn’t musical, so that was that.   Maybe I wasn’t. But may

How do you reach clarity in your body and mind? In this episode I share the story of my first moment of clarity, it was in New York City in 1998 in a smelly yoga studio :) What does clarity mean to you as a parent? Brought to you by my online parenting community, The Nest, at www.mamatoto.info/thenest

Who is in your corner? Who shows up for you? Who do you show up for? What does friendship and community mean to you? Join my community, The Nest, here: www.mamatoto.info/thenest

This week I have a very special guest :) As the first Amazing Father to share his story of parenting my awesome husband visits the podcast :) He will share his very sweet story of becoming a dad, it might make you cry, and we talk a lot of coparenting and raising our kids. I love this guy and I hope you like him too :) And, don't forget to join The Nest: www.mamatoto.info/thenest

This week I talk to my beautiful friend Abi.  Abi mothers from the heart. We talk about slowing down, about being close, about feeling our kids.  We also talk about The Green School in Bali where Abi's kids go.  I loved recording this episode, I hope you love it too :) This episode is brought to you by the Parenting Community The Nest. Join us at www.mamatoto.info/thenest    

This week I talk to amazing mother Steph. Steph is an artist and educator. We went to grad school together where her daughter was five and mine was newborn. Steph mothers a teenage daughter and we talk about that a lot. We talk about our kids calling us out, being a young mom, dressing and acting your age and so much more.  Here is Steph :)

This week I talk to Eva Klein from Toronto. Eva is a sleep consultant, so we talk a lot about sleep. We also talk about enneagrams and how we use them in our parenting. We also talk about finding the balance as parents and we share some self care tricks. To find out more about Eva and what she does you can visit www.mysleepingbaby.com An enneagram book that I like is  The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram: Nine Faces of the Soul by Sandra Maitri.

This week I talk to my friend Kiki. She is a mother of two, three and a half and one and a half old girls and what I love about this episode is that it is all present. Kiki is right in it, this is for all the moms with small children who are juggling the day to day, mothering around the clock.  We talk about how hard it is to ask for help, and we talk about all the things that are present when mothering small kids.  Kiki and I have been trying to schedule this call for a while, we managed to find a time when her daughter was sleeping, Kiki literally called me from her parked car with her napping daughter next to her to do this episode. I am so thankful for her. I loved doing this episode and I hope you enjoy it too :)

This week I talk to Joanna Povall. Joanna is the deputy head at the school my kids go to and an extraordinary person with some great stories to tell. She will tell us about being a young mom, and grandmother, about the importance of a close and connected family and about juggling a career and family.  Joanna is really open, smart and insightful, it is such a treat having her on the podcast and getting to hear her stories of motherhood.  

This week I talk to Helen Basson. She is raising three teenagers, all a year apart from each other. Helen has always been a working mom (she is very humble and won't tell you in the episode that she and her husband are the very well known Scape Design landscape designers who have won awards and have done awesome projects around the world). She will talk to us about juggling the work and the kids so close together, connecting with all her kids differently and how they have set up a very clever system both for their alone time and for their socks :) I hope you enjoy Helen's episode, she is truly amazing :)  

This week I talk to Elizabeth Bernstein.  Liz and I went to grad school together in San Francisco and she teaches photography at SFAI, and runs Oakland based gallery Nonesuch gallery. And she is Langston's mom. Liz's son has type 1 diabetes and she shares her story of how that has impacted their lives.  She also shares with us her unconventional and absolutely beautiful way of creating a family and coparenting with her ex partner. Liz shares her experience with post partum anxiety and OCD, raising awareness of taking care of your mental health. I am so thankful she wanted to be on the podcast :) The link to nest, you will be invited to join this week is: https://mailchi.mp/mamatoto.info/nestpreview

This week I talk to Katie Wood. Katie is a mom of two living in England. Her story is a little different from most stories of motherhood, her daughter Emma has severe allergies that has shaped their lives and Katie's experience as a mom.  We talk a lot about allergy awareness, about raising a kid with allergies and Katie shares with us the unseen parts of allergies, the hardest parts, the worry and the anxiety. We also talk about the stigma of homebirth, judgement of motherhood and raising kids with a cause. At the end Katie tells us the positive part of raising kids with a challenge.   The link to join Nest is: https://mailchi.mp/mamatoto.info/nestpreview

This week I talk to Paulina Calavera, we are friends from college and she is one of my favorite people.  This episode is not like an interview, it is really two friends talking about motherhood, so this week you get to eavesdrop on us talking, and it gets personal. Paulina shares her experience of postpartum depression, we talk about parenting almost teens and we talk about everything from pregnancy to birth and all kinds of things motherhood.  Paulina is so funny, she is such a joy to talk to and I think you will have fun listening to her story :)   The link for the nest is: https://mailchi.mp/mamatoto.info/nestpreview

This week I talk to Brandi. We went to grad school together and were pregnant with our first babies together.  Brandi has very inspiring birth stories and she is an all around amazing mom to look to for ideas and inspiration.  We talk about parenting tweens and teens, about not liking to wear shoes, the homeschooling hybrid that works so well for her family and the importance of climbing trees.  I love Brandi and I hope you enjoy her stories :) Here is her website: langhusprovisioner.com and on IG @langhusprovsioner and here is the link to join me in Nest: https://mailchi.mp/mamatoto.info/nestpreview    

Sara and I met in middle school when we lived in Brussels. We later went to college together in New York, our paths have crossed many times and I am so happy to be sharing our parenting journey across the Atlantic.  Sara is the founder of Partum Wear, you find it here: www.partumcare.com Take a look, it's very cool stuff :) We talk about our businesses, about helping moms have a better experience. The first part is really us catching up a little, and I left it in because I want you to hear about Sara's awesome company, I am sure many of you will love it. Sara shares her experience of dealing with infertility treatments and finding spirit, community and family at Soul Cycle. We also talk about how fun five year olds are, because, well they are :) The link to join The Nest is: https://mailchi.mp/mamatoto.info/nestpreview