Model Minority Moms

**Special note to our listeners** Love the show? Help us keep the conversation going! Become a paid subscriber through our ⁠⁠⁠Substack. ⁠⁠⁠Your contributions help us continue to make content on issues related to the Asian-American, immigrant, modern parent experience.THANK YOU to our super awesome listeners who have already signed up!****************One learning from getting older is that you realize that just because people age, doesn't mean they continue to mature or evolve. This can be especially true for issues tied to our families of origin. We might be 14, 40 or 80 but when those old dynamics are triggered, we can be right back where we were as a kid, being shamed, scared, alone and we revert back to old coping behaviors. In this episode, we talk through where we are with our families of origin and how it has (or hasn't changed) in the last 20 years.

**Special note to our listeners** Love the show? Help us keep the conversation going! Become a paid subscriber through our ⁠⁠Substack. ⁠⁠Your contributions help us continue to make content on issues related to the Asian-American, immigrant, modern parent experience.****************Let us explain. No, we haven't bought a red convertible, had an affair or gotten a divorce. But reaching this stage of life, what we once looked as a somewhat baffling, even humorous, stereotype of modern American life... makes a little more sense to us. Or at least we feel like we could see how someone landed there. We take a deep-dive into what we think counts as a mid-life crisis, what we think causes it and how maybe, just maybe, we can channel it into more productive ends. Or to justify that basement pottery studio that you've been dreaming of :)

**Special note to our listeners** Love the show? Help us keep the conversation going! Become a paid subscriber through our ⁠Substack. ⁠Your contributions help us continue to make content on issues related to the Asian-American, immigrant, modern parent experience.****************As we turn the corner into mid-life, we're talking about the questions we're wrestling with at 40 - Am I living a "successful" life? How am I doing with my complicated family of origin? What the f is going on with my body? Midlife crises, anyone?In the first of our series, we tackle a big question: what does it mean to live, and die, successfully? It leads us to some weird places - Gene Hackman, Bryan Johnson who wants to live forever, Lady Gaga and how "success", contentment and happiness might be closer than we think.

**Special note to our listeners** Love the show? Help us keep the conversation going! Become a paid subscriber through our Substack. Your contributions help us continue to make content on issues related to the Asian-American, immigrant, modern parent experience.****************Kindergarten…you think it's far away until it's not. All of a sudden you're faced with a myriad of decisions that you have to research. You may also experience intense anxiety as you worry if you're setting your kid on the right path. What makes for a good elementary school anyway? Is it a warm environment? Diversity? Test scores? How selective it is? Bilingual? Convenient? A PTA vibe that jives? Is this really about your kid or about you?We're going through it now and whether it's pretty or not, we give you the real talk on where we are landing on the big K-question.

Justine Ang Fonte, an award-winning sex educator and professor, reflects on her complex journey of deciding to have children. She discusses the emotional and societal pressures that accompany this choice, including her use of spreadsheets and therapy to navigate her decision. Justine shares insights into the evolving desires around parenthood and the impact of relationships on these choices. The conversation also touches on the importance of self-care and community support, especially for those contemplating their parenting paths.

For many millennials, sex education was about awkwardly passing around a banana with a condom on it in PE class or carrying around a sack of flour pretending it was a baby. We want to do it better for our kids, OBVIOUSLY, but... do we really know how to do it better?We are excited to welcome Justine Ang Fonte on the show. She was featured in the ⁠New York Times⁠ about her work bringing sex ed to New York City's private schools (as well as the controversy she encountered with some parents). She is also the voice and author of the Audible Original How to Talk to Your Kids about Sex⁠. Drawing on her 15 years of experience teaching kids about safety, affirmation and joy in their emotional and physical relationships, she offers some tangible tips for parents who are dreading "the talk" (psst - one tip is that it actually turns out it's not just one big talk, it's a series of mini talks over time).

In true MMM fashion, we are releasing our look-back conversation on releasing our 100th episode... on episode 108 X_X. We talk about what keeps us going with the show (psst - its not the big bucks), what our partners think of it, what topics we've considered but decided NOT to do, what our listeners have shared with us, our favorite episodes (it's so hard to choose!), our controversial name, what our pie-in-the-sky dreams for the show would be, and more. Hope you enjoy and sending <3 <3 <3

Minal Mehta, founder of The Ineffable Leader and seasoned executive coach, shares her insights on overcoming career burnout while juggling motherhood. She discusses the intricacies of balancing ambition with parental duties and the prevalent cultural pressures faced by women, particularly those from immigrant backgrounds. Minal emphasizes the journey of self-discovery, the importance of recognizing one's intrinsic value, and the need to shift from a scarcity mindset to one of abundance. Her practical strategies inspire listeners to embrace their authentic selves in both life and career.

We're so excited to share with you our first collab with another podcast - Add to Cart! Susan was a guest on the show to discuss her book, her love of Costco and her grumblings about the rising price of matcha lattes :)Listen to the trifecta of the Asian Aunties as Susan Lieu joins SuChin Pak and Kulap Vilaysack on this episode of Add to Cart. Susan talks about writing her first memoir, “The Manicurist’s Daughter,” which chronicles her search for answers after losing her mother to a botched tummy tuck. It’s an emotionally raw conversation that will leave you hopeful that generational healing is just as real as the trauma. Then, the Aunties dive into her cart, which is truly an ode to Costco and its generous return policy. Susan also shares her solution to inflating matcha latte prices. Lemonada has teamed up with Apple Books to bring you the Lemonada Book Club. “The Manicurist’s Daughter” by Susan Lieu is our audiobook of the month! Listen here.To hear more episodes, follow Add to Cart wherever you get your podcasts or head to: https://lemonada.lnk.to/atcfd 

If you've been with your partner for awhile now, you may realize that there are certain conflict patterns that happen over and over. He does something that pisses you off, you bring it up, he does X, you do Y, so on and so on, over and over again. Or vice versa :p Or you guys are just so tired from parenthood, work, continued disappointment or dealing with things from the past that you have just settled into a pattern of burying feelings. Have you ever considered marriage counseling? :/On today's show, we talk to Jessica Sather who is a Filipina-American mom and licensed marriage and family therapist trained in the Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) modality. We talk through the common issues she sees in couples and the EFT approach in trying to get a little deeper into the reasons underlying our conflict patterns and reformulate them for (hopefully) a better relationship with our partner where we feel mutually seen, understood and supported.To contact Jessica, please see her website: www.mabuhaytherapy.com She is a fully-licensed MA, LMFT therapist who can see patients in Washington State and California.