Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Kate Bowler sits down with author and creator Libby Ward for an honest conversation about motherhood, breaking generational cycles, and learning how to parent differently than you were parented.
Libby shares how growing up amid instability taught her to become a fixer, a people-pleaser, and the person who could handle everything.
Then motherhood brought her face-to-face with her own limited capacity. She talks candidly about mom guilt, parental burnout, postpartum depression, childhood trauma, and the fear that she might become the kind of parent she had promised herself she would never be.
Together, Kate and Libby explore what it takes to unlearn old patterns, set boundaries with family, trust your own needs, and rethink what being a “good mom” actually means.
Because maybe good parenting has less to do with creating perfect childhoods and more to do with raising kids who feel safe, loved, and able to trust themselves.
In this conversation:
• Breaking generational cycles in parenting
• Parenting differently than your parents
• Mom guilt and parental burnout
• Postpartum depression and maternal mental health
• Healing childhood trauma
• People-pleasing and learning to set boundaries
• Emotional regulation and overstimulation in motherhood
• Letting go of the pressure to be the “perfect mom”
• Why your capacity might look different from someone else’s
• Learning to trust yourself as a parent
Listen to more conversations from Everything Happens with Kate Bowler and subscribe for new episodes.
00:00 Welcome & Meet Libby Ward, Diary of an Honest Mom
03:24 Growing Up the "Helper": Childhood in an Unstable Home
06:01 Life on the Farm & an Emotionally Abusive Stepdad
08:54 Falling in Love, Moving to England & Finding Stability
13:27 Becoming a Mother: Primal Love and Buried Grief
18:20 When the Second Baby Changed Everything: Postpartum Anxiety & Feeding Issues
21:26 The Shame Spiral: Mom Guilt, Comparison Culture & Isolation
23:41 Codependency, Caregiving for Aging Parents & a Speech Diagnosis
29:10 Starting Therapy: "The Great Untangling"
31:43 Unlearning Perfectionism & the Myth of "Core Memories"
34:59 Redefining a Good Mom: ADHD, C-PTSD & Letting Go of Capacity Shame
37:49 Grief, Community & Learning to Trust Other People
41:45 Closing Reflection & a Blessing for Your Back-to-School Season
Subscribe for weekly videos on YouTube: youtube.com/@katecbowler
FOLLOW KATE BOWLER
Instgram: instagram.com/katecbowler AND instagram.com/everythinghappens
Substack: katebowler.substack.com
#katebowler #everythinghappenspodcast #author
Kate Bowler sits down with author and creator Libby Ward for an honest conversation about motherhood, breaking generational cycles, and learning how to parent differently than you were parented.
Libby shares how growing up amid instability taught her to become a fixer, a people-pleaser, and the person who could handle everything.
Then motherhood brought her face-to-face with her own limited capacity. She talks candidly about mom guilt, parental burnout, postpartum depression, childhood trauma, and the fear that she might become the kind of parent she had promised herself she would never be.
Together, Kate and Libby explore what it takes to unlearn old patterns, set boundaries with family, trust your own needs, and rethink what being a “good mom” actually means.
Because maybe good parenting has less to do with creating perfect childhoods and more to do with raising kids who feel safe, loved, and able to trust themselves.
In this conversation:
• Breaking generational cycles in parenting
• Parenting differently than your parents
• Mom guilt and parental burnout
• Postpartum depression and maternal mental health
• Healing childhood trauma
• People-pleasing and learning to set boundaries
• Emotional regulation and overstimulation in motherhood
• Letting go of the pressure to be the “perfect mom”
• Why your capacity might look different from someone else’s
• Learning to trust yourself as a parent
Listen to more conversations from Everything Happens with Kate Bowler and subscribe for new episodes.
00:00 Welcome & Meet Libby Ward, Diary of an Honest Mom
03:24 Growing Up the "Helper": Childhood in an Unstable Home
06:01 Life on the Farm & an Emotionally Abusive Stepdad
08:54 Falling in Love, Moving to England & Finding Stability
13:27 Becoming a Mother: Primal Love and Buried Grief
18:20 When the Second Baby Changed Everything: Postpartum Anxiety & Feeding Issues
21:26 The Shame Spiral: Mom Guilt, Comparison Culture & Isolation
23:41 Codependency, Caregiving for Aging Parents & a Speech Diagnosis
29:10 Starting Therapy: "The Great Untangling"
31:43 Unlearning Perfectionism & the Myth of "Core Memories"
34:59 Redefining a Good Mom: ADHD, C-PTSD & Letting Go of Capacity Shame
37:49 Grief, Community & Learning to Trust Other People
41:45 Closing Reflection & a Blessing for Your Back-to-School Season
Subscribe for weekly videos on YouTube: youtube.com/@katecbowler
FOLLOW KATE BOWLER
Instgram: instagram.com/katecbowler AND instagram.com/everythinghappens
Substack: katebowler.substack.com
#katebowler #everythinghappenspodcast #author
