Tell Me I'm a Good Mom with Lo Bosworth Natale

This week, I’m joined by Michelle Maros, one half of Barb & Michelle. Barb is her actual mom, they work together, and I have questions about how that arrangement survives a disagreement.

Can you tell your mom she’s overstepping without making her feel like she failed at parenting? Does every uncomfortable conversation need a boundary? And have we gotten so good at protecting our peace that we’ve forgotten how to tolerate each other?

Michelle isn’t a mom, which is part of why I wanted this conversation. She’s here as the adult daughter. As a new mom, I’m very interested in what our kids might eventually wish we understood.

We get into the difference between setting a limit and trying to control someone, why our moms can still make us feel 15, and what happens when your mother is also the person you have a work deadline with.

We also talk about perfectionism, how a parent can help an adult child unlearn it, and whether being close means telling each other absolutely everything.

And in Good Mom, Bad Decision?, we debate declining your mom’s advice, letting her be disappointed, and apologizing to your child when you got it wrong.

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Topics include:

- Working with your actual mother

- Boundaries versus punishment

- Why advice from Mom can feel like criticism

- Letting someone be disappointed without fixing it

- Unlearning perfectionism together

- Privacy in a close mother-daughter relationship

- Giving parents room to change

- What adult children want their moms to understand

- You can love your mom and still need to end the phone call.

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Thank you to our sponsors:

- Ladder - If you have an iPhone, head to ladder.fit/GOODMOM and take a quick quiz to find your perfect Ladder plan. Use my link and get a free 7-day trial with NO credit card, and $10 off your first month if you join.

- Toothpillow - Head to https://www.toothpillow.com/goodmom and use code GOODMOM.

- Tonies Toys - Visit tonies.com to learn all about Toniebox Lite.

- Exponent Beauty - Visit www.exponentbeauty.com and use code GOODMOM20 for 20% off orders of $75+.

- Merit Beauty - Go to meritbeauty.com to get a free Signature Makeup Bag with your first order.

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📺 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@lobosworth

📖 Newsletter: https://substack.com/@lobosworth

🛍️ Love Wellness: https://lovewellness.com

📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lobosworth

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lobosworth

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Tell Me I'm a Good Mom is part of the Dear Media podcast network.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, I’m joined by Kay Dudley, one half of Kay & Tay, and I have a lot of questions about what motherhood actually feels like when millions of people are watching.

Did you know what you were signing up for? When did it start feeling strange? And how do you protect the messy, private parts of being a mom when sharing your life is also your job?

I’m asking as a mom who posts online, too, and as someone who still has plenty of days where I’m not sure I’m getting it right.

We talk about where Kay draws the line, the comments that can make you question yourself as a mom, and the advice we’d give each other on the days the self-doubt creeps in. We also get into the funny side of being recognized by someone who already knows so much about you.

Plus, parenting with lupus: what helps on the days she feels awful, and whether talking about her health makes her feel supported or responsible for keeping everyone updated.

And in Good Mom, Bad Decision?, we debate asking Grandma to take a photo down and sharing a hard parenting moment that your child could read someday.

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Topics include:

- Becoming a family people recognize

- The parts of motherhood that don’t get posted

- Where Kay draws her boundaries

- Second-guessing yourself after reading comments

- Children’s privacy as they grow up

- Letting people see the hard days

- Motherhood with lupus

- Advice for the days you feel like you’re failing

- You don’t need a huge following to wonder whether you’re doing this right.

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Thank you to our sponsors:

Larineco - Right now, Larineco is offering our listeners up to 50% off at ⁠buylarine.com/goodmom⁠

Right now, Orion is offering our listeners 15% off at ⁠orionsleep.com/goodmom⁠

Shop our picks at⁠ Target.com⁠ and get same-day pickup or delivery.

If you think your baby may have CMPA, talk to your pediatrician about whether Pepticate or Neocate could be right for them. Learn more at ⁠Neocate.com⁠ or ⁠Pepticate.com⁠

Primal Kitchen — Find Primal Kitchen dressings, sauces, and condiments at your local grocery store or at ⁠primalkitchen.com⁠

Visit ⁠tonies.com⁠ to learn all about Toniebox Lite.

Visit ⁠www.exponentbeauty.com⁠ and use code GOODMOM20 for 20% off orders of $75+.

—

📺 Subscribe: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@lobosworth⁠

📖 Newsletter: ⁠https://substack.com/@lobosworth⁠

🛍️ Love Wellness: ⁠https://lovewellness.com⁠

📱 Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/lobosworth⁠

🎵 TikTok: ⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@lobosworth⁠

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Tell Me I'm a Good Mom is part of the ⁠Dear Media⁠ podcast network.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, I’m joined by my friend, chef and fellow mom Sophia Roe, because feeding your baby somehow comes with more homework than feeding yourself ever did.

What do you actually make? Does everything need to be homemade? And what happens when you’re a professional chef and your baby has absolutely no interest in what you’re serving?

I’m asking as a new mom who wants to feed her baby well without turning every meal into a performance review.

We get into making food for a tiny person with opinions, the pressure to get it all right, and which parts of feeding our kids we’re making harder than they need to be. Plus, feeding yourself when you’ve spent the entire day thinking about what someone else needs to eat.

We also make room for Sophia’s experience of pregnancy and postpartum as a Black woman, and what it means to feel heard when you’re the one who needs care.

And in Good Mom, Bad Decision?, we get into store-bought shortcuts, dinner that doesn’t look like Instagram, and taking your baby’s review of your cooking a little personally.

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Topics include:

- What a chef actually feeds her baby

- Homemade food and store-bought shortcuts

- Introducing new foods without making every bite a big event

- When your baby rejects what you made

- The pressure to be a “good” food mom

- Feeding yourself, too

- Sophia’s maternal health experience

- Making mealtime feel manageable

- Your baby does not know you saved that recipe on Pinterest.

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Thank you to our sponsor:

Give your clothes a second life with Vinted. Download the Vinted app for free to start selling with no seller fees, so you keep everything " you earn.

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📺 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@lobosworth

📖 Newsletter: https://substack.com/@lobosworth

🛍️ Love Wellness: https://lovewellness.com

📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lobosworth

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lobosworth

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Tell Me I'm a Good Mom is part of the Dear Media podcast network.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, I’m joined by Tiffani Thiessen for a conversation about mom intuition, raising teenagers, and a question I’ve been wanting to ask: are all moms actually witches?

With her new show, Coven Academy, as our starting point, we get into the things moms notice before anyone says a word. That change in your kid’s voice. The “I’m fine” that doesn’t sound fine. The feeling that something’s going on before you know what it is.

But trusting your instincts gets more complicated when your kids have opinions—and instincts—of their own. We talk about knowing when to step in, when to listen, and when your own worry might be filling in the blanks.

Tiffani grew up on television, and now she’s raising a daughter around the age she was playing Kelly Kapowski. We get into what she wants her kids to feel comfortable saying no to, how we talk about our bodies around them, and making room for yourself as they become more independent.

And, of course, we bring a few decisions to the group chat: is a bad feeling enough to cancel a sleepover? Does mom intuition justify reading your teenager’s messages? Loving your kids is the easy part. Figuring out where to draw the line is a little more complicated.

If you’ve ever known something was up with your kid and couldn’t quite explain how, this one’s for you. Because sometimes “Mom just knows” is real—and sometimes we need to let our kids tell us.

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Topics include:

- Mom intuition—and when worry gets mixed in

- Witchy interests and *Coven Academy*

- Raising a teenager after growing up in the spotlight

- Teaching your kids to trust themselves

- Body image and what our kids hear us say

- Making more room for yourself

- The line between protecting your kids and respecting their privacy

—

Thank you to our sponsors:

Shop our picks at Target.com and get same-day pickup or delivery.

Larineco - Right now, Larineco is offering our listeners up to 50% off at buylarine.com/goodmom

If you think your baby may have CMPA, talk to your pediatrician about whether Pepticate or Neocate could be right for them. Learn more at Neocate.com or Pepticate.com

Merit Beauty — Go to meritbeauty.com to get a free Signature Makeup Bag with your first order.

Go to oseamalibu.com and get 10% off your first order with code goodmom.

Visit tonies.com to learn all about Toniebox Lite.

—

📺 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@lobosworth

📖 Newsletter: https://substack.com/@lobosworth

🛍️ Love Wellness: https://lovewellness.com

📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lobosworth

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lobosworth

—

Tell Me I'm a Good Mom is part of the Dear Media podcast network.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, it’s just me—and we have a lot to catch up on. I just turned 40, Love Wellness is turning 10, and I’ve been a mom for almost a year. So I wanted to make a little time capsule of how I got here, what I’m proud of, and what I’m still figuring out.

We’re going back to Laguna Beach: getting cast at 15, filming with my actual friends, and, yes, the Jetta. Then I get into balancing UCLA with The Hills, why those two shows felt so different to be part of, and moving to New York when I was ready to start over.

I also look back at the early days of Love Wellness, including my decision to host the launch in my apartment and what it felt like to be called “the vagina lady.” Women were emailing me because they were relieved someone was talking openly about their experiences. Other people were laughing. Ten years later, I understand those reactions differently.

But becoming a mother brought me to something I wasn’t expecting. After spending a decade encouraging women to talk about their bodies and ask for help, it took me months to acknowledge my own postpartum depression. I talk about that disconnect, what it meant to hear that I wasn’t failing, and how this year has changed the way I understand my work.

And there’s the life I have now: my daughter, my husband, a company I still believe in, and a bedtime that would probably disappoint my younger self.

If you’re approaching a milestone, starting over, or finding that a life you love can still be really hard sometimes, this one’s for you.

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Topics include:

- Getting cast on Laguna Beach at 15

- UCLA, The Hills, and growing up on television

- Moving to New York and figuring out what came next

- Building Love Wellness and being called “the vagina lady”

- Ten years of talking openly about women’s health

- Motherhood, postpartum depression, and asking for help

- Turning 40 without having everything figured out

- I’ve spent ten years telling women they deserve to be heard. This year, I needed help hearing it myself.

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Thank you to our sponsors:

Little Spoon — Get 30% off your first order at littlespoon.com/GMOM with code GMOM

If you have an iPhone, head to ladder.fit/GOODMOM and take a quick quiz to find your perfect Ladder plan. Use my link and get a free 7-day trial with NO credit card, and $10 off your first month if you join.

If you think your baby may have CMPA, talk to your pediatrician about whether Pepticate or Neocate could be right for them. Learn more at Neocate.com or Pepticate.com

Head to https://www.toothpillow.com/goodmom and use code GOODMOM.

Visit tonies.com to learn all about Toniebox Lite.

Shop our picks at Target.com and get same-day pickup or delivery.

—

📺 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@lobosworth

📖 Newsletter: https://substack.com/@lobosworth

🛍️ Love Wellness: https://lovewellness.com

📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lobosworth

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lobosworth

—

Tell Me I'm a Good Mom is part of the Dear Media podcast network.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices