Ever been swallowed by the raging waves of shame when it comes to your child's body and eating habits? You're not alone, mama. Join me, Crystal, as we tackle this pervasive issue head-on, creating a safe haven of acceptance and unconditional love for our little ones. This empowering episode focuses on the immense weight of shame many mothers carry, especially those healing their own relationship with food and their bodies.
We delve into the tumultuous journey of our children's body transformations, particularly during the fragile stages of pre-adolescence and puberty. No subject is off-limits, as we scrutinize society's fat phobia, its influence on our children's eating habits, and the emotional turmoil it causes within us. Remember, it's okay to reach out, it's okay to feel, and it's okay to ask for help.
Moreover, we shed light on how our childhood traumas can manifest in our parenting style, leading to the perpetuation of unhealthy generational cycles. But don't worry, we also explore the healing power of self-reflection, reparenting and the importance of understanding our own stories. After all, it's only by making peace with our past that we can fully accept and champion our children's narratives. Trust me, you – yes, you – are parenting superbly, and your kiddos are truly blessed to have you in their corner. Let's journey together towards a shame-free parenting experience.
Questions about today's episode or do you have topic requests for future episodes? Please send your feedback via email to hello@crystalkarges.com or connect with Crystal on Instagram.
Ever been swallowed by the raging waves of shame when it comes to your child's body and eating habits? You're not alone, mama. Join me, Crystal, as we tackle this pervasive issue head-on, creating a safe haven of acceptance and unconditional love for our little ones. This empowering episode focuses on the immense weight of shame many mothers carry, especially those healing their own relationship with food and their bodies.
We delve into the tumultuous journey of our children's body transformations, particularly during the fragile stages of pre-adolescence and puberty. No subject is off-limits, as we scrutinize society's fat phobia, its influence on our children's eating habits, and the emotional turmoil it causes within us. Remember, it's okay to reach out, it's okay to feel, and it's okay to ask for help.
Moreover, we shed light on how our childhood traumas can manifest in our parenting style, leading to the perpetuation of unhealthy generational cycles. But don't worry, we also explore the healing power of self-reflection, reparenting and the importance of understanding our own stories. After all, it's only by making peace with our past that we can fully accept and champion our children's narratives. Trust me, you – yes, you – are parenting superbly, and your kiddos are truly blessed to have you in their corner. Let's journey together towards a shame-free parenting experience.
Questions about today's episode or do you have topic requests for future episodes? Please send your feedback via email to hello@crystalkarges.com or connect with Crystal on Instagram.
Hey there, mama, you're listening to the Lift the Shame podcast. I'm your host, crystal, mama of Five and your family's intuitive eating dietitian, here to help you cut through the diet culture clutter so you can enjoy feeding with food as a family. I'm on a mission to help you end the generational legacy of diet culture in your home so you can experience motherhood free from food guilt and body shame. Listen in weekly for guidance on how you can ditch diet culture, heal your relationship with food in your body and confidently raise intuitive eaters. Let's dive in and lift the shame together. Hey, mama, welcome back to the show. I so appreciate you tuning in today and hanging out with me for this podcast episode, and today's episode might sound a little different.
Speaker 1:I have really been thinking through this particular topic and I don't have a set number of tips that I'm going to share today, although I hope to share some ideas to encourage you. I have just been noticing this, come up in a lot of conversations and realizing the immense amount of shame that mothers carry when it comes to this topic, and you know that this podcast is all about lifting the shame right, challenging the shame, moving away from that internalized narrative of shame that so many of us carry, and these are things that have been passed down through generations, and I think it's time to start talking about it and to create a space where we can be real about things that are happening as we navigate raising our kids in a culture that is predominantly dieting and idolizing an unrealistic body image. There's so much that's coming up, and this is especially true if you are also healing your own relationship with food and your body, or if you have had a history of an eating disorder or a difficult relationship with food and your body. The truth of the matter is that there's so many things that surface for us when we're raising our own kids, and a lot of this has to do with parallel processing, where our kids go through similar things that we do, and if those things are unresolved within ourselves, it's so easy for us to project onto our kids, to assume experiences that our kids may have because of the bodies that they're living in or the behaviors that we see around food, and in a lot of ways, this can create a perfect storm where we are finding ourselves triggered in situations around food and bodies with our own children and when you are doing so much work and putting in so much effort to shift away from these generational cycles of food guilt and body shame, there is immense pressure to get it all right. I get it.
Speaker 1:I totally understand that we just want to do right by our kids, and when you have struggled with food and body, that is something that you never wish on anybody, especially your own kids, and you don't want your kids to go through life with some of the same struggles that you may have dealt with or that are currently dealing with, because you understand the immense pain and struggle and the battle that it can be and how much of your life that it really can strip from you. And so I know, as a parent in recovery or as a parent trying to navigate diet culture and heal your relationship with food, that you also feel this pressure to get it all right because you don't want your kids to struggle in the same way you did. You don't want your story to become their story. And because of that, I think that we often have unrealistic expectations about how we should think, how we should feel, how certain situations should play out, and putting this pressure on us to have it all figured out. And on the same note, I also see that when we struggle as parents, when we're trying to figure these things out with our kids, and if we notice that things are coming up for us, this is where I see a lot of moms struggling with immense shame. When you feel like I'm not doing this right or my kid is struggling and this must be my fault, it's so easy to internalize the things that our kids are going through as our fault or things that fall on our shoulders, and, again, I know the heavy burden of shame that that can inflict because of the misunderstanding.
Speaker 1:I think that's often wrapped around how we need to be showing up for our kids and for our family, and so I just wanted to introduce this topic today, and I appreciate your patience, as I feel like I'm somewhat entangling my own thoughts around this. I know it's important, though, because it comes up in a lot of conversations with the moms that I work with, moms that I'm connected with. This is something that I know is much more common than we think and is often hidden in secret, and this particular issue has to do with feeling like we can't accept our kids bodies or maybe their behaviors around food, and this is really hard and this is really challenging because, again, I think it's easier to hide these thoughts and feelings in secret. But when we keep these things hidden in secret, it's easier to build shame around those things. And you may have heard me talk about this here on the podcast or in different spaces.
Speaker 1:This is a common idea that really what our kids need from us in order to have that healthy relationship with food in their bodies and to build a sense of trust and embodiment within their selves. They really need to feel that from us right. They need to feel like we trust them. They need to feel like we accept them unconditionally for who they are. I know this is a prominent message. It's something that I have talked about myself here multiple times on the podcast.
Speaker 1:And yet I see that for many of us and myself included, because this has definitely come up for me in my own parenting journey and I know for so many of the moms that I work with a lot of us have parts of us that cannot fully accept our kids where they're at or find that there are parts of us that are triggered by different things that we see in our children and there's a reason for that and I know that some of those feelings that can come up, whether it's finding yourself uncomfortable the way your child's body is changing, or finding yourself angry or frustrated at the way you're seeing your child eat or the foods that they're gravitating towards. There's so many different scenarios that can bring up challenging feelings within ourselves towards our kids, where we might feel angry, frustrated, scared, anxious, triggered. All the things that we may notice are coming up for us as we engage with our kids around food and their bodies, and so I'mi make a video right there and I'll show it so you can see that it's important to watch out, take care. As a mother in recovery or as a mother working on your relationship with food and trying to do your part to help your child preserve those innate intuitive eating abilities, you might notice a lot of shame around those parts of you, around those feelings that are coming up that can feel really negative. It's almost like I shouldn't be feeling this, and this is a reoccurring thing that I'll often hear in conversations that I have with with moms different moms that I work with is I feel so bad saying this? That's often something that I'll hear I feel so bad saying this. I shouldn't be feeling like this towards my child. I feel like a terrible mom to even think some of these things or have some of these thoughts. And how can I feel that way about my own child when I'm trying so hard to break this cycle? That's the common theme that I think a lot of us, as moms, are caring and again internalizing, noticing that we have a negative feeling towards our own child, whether it's difficulty accepting their body as it's changing, especially through puberty, or difficulty accepting their appetite or their preferences, whatever it is. When we feel those things, there can be a sense of shame attached to it, where we shame ourselves for feeling those things. It's like we are taking responsibility, as in. If I have this feeling, it is negatively affecting my child and now I'm screwing them up and that's my fault.
Speaker 1:There's so much to unpack here and I just wanted to start by having this conversation and really just holding space for you as a parent, if you are experiencing any of these thoughts or feelings towards your child, and I will just share and talk about a few examples here. I just want you to know that you're not alone and that you're not a bad parent and that you're not doing wrong by your child. You're not going to cause them to have an eating disorder because you find yourself wishing they were in a different body or wishing they didn't love sweets. Whatever it is, it's natural to have those thoughts and feelings and there's actually deeper connected reasons that I want to share a little bit about today. I just want to start with that you are not a bad parent for experiencing those things and I think the more we can talk about it, the more you can give yourself permission to alleviate that shame that is so easy to carry, because we can't really grow and heal and thrive when we're shaming ourselves or constantly critical of every single thought or feeling that we have as parents. And just knowing that because of your history, because of the complexities that you've experienced around food in your body, because of your unique story and experiences around food in your body, those things will naturally come out when it comes to engaging with your own child.
Speaker 1:And instead of trying to suppress those things or shove them away or shame yourself or feeling any of those challenging feelings, I want to encourage you to get curious about what's coming up and look at it as a healing opportunity. I truly believe that God gives us the kids that we need, that we need that it's like our kids shine light on parts of us that still need love and care and attention and healing, and it's such a beautiful opportunity to continue our own healing work because it's a lifelong thing. I really don't believe that we ever arrive at a place where we're like I did it, I completed it, I completed all the inner work. It's an ongoing thing, and I think when we can have more of an open mind towards that and get curious and be willing to lean in to some of that discomfort that's coming up for us, it can really be an invitation to deeper healing within ourselves and absolutely for our kids too, and knowing that the healing work that we're doing often has a ripple effect for our families, and so I just wanted to start with that.
Speaker 1:I guess another thing to kind of segue into here is just maybe giving you some more examples of situations that I'm alluding to or talking about here. One of the most common ones that I see is difficulty in our kids changing bodies, and I have seen this come up with kids through all ages, so babies, toddlers, school-aged, you know, pre-adolescent, adolescents, teen, late adult. I feel like our kids' bodies are changing so much, and it's inevitable that the way you see your child's body can sometimes bring up distressing feelings towards those changes that you're seeing, and I see this really commonly in pre-adolescents when, typically especially for girls we're seeing their bodies change significantly as their bodies are preparing for puberty and I am definitely hoping to have a podcast episode to talk more about this, because we don't normalize this enough in terms of how our bodies are changing and why they're changing and why we often see our pre-adolescent girls gaining significant amount of weight prior to transitioning into puberty, and that can be very alarming. You might notice your child's body changing, your child's maybe moving into more of a larger body as she prepares to enter puberty and I know I'm generalizing here with girls, but this is absolutely true for our boys as well and as we see our kids' bodies change, this can bring up some discomfort within us, and you may have experienced this yourself, where you notice that you feel uncomfortable with some of the changes that you're seeing in your child. Or maybe you notice yourself being hyper-vigilant to the changes that are happening in your child's body, where you notice them gaining weight or you notice their belly expanding or you notice different parts of their body changing in any way, and I see this in different ways too, where you may have a child that's in a larger body or you may have a child who's in a smaller body, and both of those things can bring up different feelings for you, depending on what your individual experience has been, but I understand that this happens on the spectrum. It can just be challenging for you to accept the changes that you're seeing in your child, or maybe wishing that your child was in a different body. Or maybe you're getting comments from family members or friends well-meaning people who are saying things that bring things on your radar and you find yourself triggered or upset or frustrated and you notice those feelings being projected to your kid or thinking I wish they were just in a different body, or I wish they didn't have that belly fat, or I wish they were a little bit bulkier. Whatever it is, I want you to just examine and just be aware of what are some of those thoughts that have surfaced for you when it comes to your child's body and to be able to look at those things again with a curious, compassionate lens, versus shaming yourself for having any of those thoughts or feelings or emotions towards them.
Speaker 1:Another area and other examples are when it comes to how our kids eat, their appetite or their food preferences. So again, I see this happening on the spectrum and there's so many different ways that our kids engage with food. They all have different temperaments, different personalities, different sensory needs and all of these things play a role in how they engage with food and how they eat. So you might have a child that loves food and has a very high interest in food and loves eating and gladly will sit at the table and eat everything that is put out in front of them, and you might sometimes feel indifferent to that. That might bring up some things for you. You might have a child who's more of a selective eater or who has sensory sensitivities and maybe all they want to eat is beige food and they have very few foods that they will eat. And maybe it's hard to go out with them to restaurants or birthday parties because you're not sure if there will be something there that they can have and that can bring up some feelings for you.
Speaker 1:I just want to normalize that all of these different situations can bring up things for us that, as parents, are very challenging to navigate and again, we can project those things towards our kids wishing.
Speaker 1:Inside we have these deep thoughts or feelings that they were just different, if they ate different, if they looked different, if their body was different, then maybe fill in the blank whatever that might look like for you, and part of this, too, can really come from deep ingrained fat phobia.
Speaker 1:That isn't all of us to some degree, and this is part of the challenge of living in a diet culture that really again idolizes and emphasizes that being a certain body type, which is completely arbitrary and unrealistic, is what we should all be attaining for and reaching for.
Speaker 1:Part of this, too, is how our society is in general, where I would say, especially for millennial parents who are navigating, parenting in the age of social media and information overload and there's just stuff everywhere you look and it can feel like how you feed your child or how your child eats, or the size of your child's body is a direct reflection of you as a parent, and so part of the discomfort that may be coming up for you can be stemming from fear of looking unsuccessful as a parent, or fear of being seen as a failure because you have a child in a larger body, or a child in a smaller body, or a child who loves to eat sweets, or you have a child who's a picky eater. Whatever the scenario may be, all of these different things can bring up fear and anxiety when there's a sense of judgment, or I won't be accepted or I won't be seen as successful because of how my child is perceived, and that is playing a large piece of this too. There is another element here that I want to touch on today, and I'm hoping that we can continue to expand on this conversation in the weeks to come, and one thing I just want to encourage before I get into this more, is if any of this is resonating with you, or if you have more questions about this, or if you're wanting to find out more information, or if you have any feedback at all. I would love to hear from you and would welcome any of your thoughts or questions. And just a reminder that you can always send me an email at hello at crystalcargiscom. You can also reply to the weekly newsletters that go out if you're on the email list, or you can send me a DM on Instagram, though I'm not on IG as frequently these days, but you can always try to connect with me there. Bottom line, I would love to hear from you as we're opening up this conversation, and just hear what you're resonating with, what you have more questions about, because there's so much beauty in community and just knowing that there's other people out there who understand what you're going through and that you're not alone, and I love having these conversations and bringing these issues to light to really help break the shame that so many of us are just burdened with.
Speaker 1:With that being said, I wanted to touch on this other piece here that often influences how we feel about our kids, especially when it comes to their bodies and their appetites, and one piece here is that there are things about our kids that can be triggering in us, and what's interesting to examine is where those things that were not accepted within yourself as a child and what I mean by this is that we often find intolerable or unacceptable in our own children that was not tolerated or accepted within ourselves, and this is one of those ways in which these generational cycles can continue and kind of get passed on from one generation to the next, when we never stopped to examine what it was that we needed at these vulnerable ages that we see our kids going through and reminding ourselves that we are still in need of many of those things now and it's really difficult to give our kids or to extend to our children what we haven't ever received ourselves or that we're still struggling or feeling in absence of. So let me give you, or walk you through, an example of this so you can understand more of what I'm talking about, and I can kind of walk through a couple of different examples so you can see different angles of this and maybe you might hear a piece of your story in this. But one example is how we eat as kids and just our appetites. And for many parents, having a child with a large appetite or a high interest in food can be highly triggering and you might find yourself, if as a parent, upset if your child is reaching for more or wanting more, and you might find yourself biting your tongue and trying not to say things to them like are you sure you need more? Or feeling even if, if you're allowing them to eat what they want, eat what they need maybe feeling yourself uncomfortable and feeling like that trigger or that anxiousness rising in your body, even though you're trying to maintain that outside facade that everything's okay, you might find that within yourself it's very difficult to kind of maintain your cool. You're feeling a reaction in your body to the behavior that you're observing within your child and an example of how this may have played out for you.
Speaker 1:You may have had various experiences as a child that were also not tolerated by your parents around food or by your primary caregivers. So perhaps as a child you were forced to clean your plate before you could leave the table, or you weren't allowed to have seconds or extra of the food that you wanted, or maybe sweets were off limits or different foods were off limits, or you felt shame for eating the portions or the amounts of food that you needed. All of those things can be showing up for you when you're noticing parallel experiences with your own child, even though your child may not be going through a similar situation, even if you're not, let's say, forcing your kid to eat everything on their plate or preventing them from eating the amounts that they need. Seeing similar behaviors that were not tolerated in you as a child can bring up that sense of angst or discomfort or distress. It's like replaying those things and, in a sense, a lot of those different experiences that you may have had around food can be traumatic in different ways, and that can come right back to the surface when you're noticing again those similar patterns or behaviors in your own child.
Speaker 1:Another example here that I know many can relate to, myself included, is seeing your children's bodies change, especially around the age when your body was changing and you were aware of that, or around the age that maybe your eating disorder started or that you were first put on a diet or that you were first made aware that your body was different. That age can be very vulnerable, especially when your own child is maybe arriving at that age and maybe you're noticing that your child's body is changing. Maybe your child's putting on weight, maybe your child has more of a belgy or isn't fitting into clothes, or you're finding yourself having to buy more clothes more frequently. Or maybe your child is involved in a sport that emphasizes a certain body physique and you're noticing that your child is maybe bigger than the other kids on the team. All of that can bring up a lot of distress within your own self, especially if similar things happen to you at that same age when you were a child. So and this is common stories that I hear where you were a kid and you were trying out for a certain sport and you notice that all the other kids your age were thinner or smaller or more athletic and could more easily do the sport that you wanted to do, and you became more aware of that. I know.
Speaker 1:For me, cross country was a big part of my story and also intertwined with my eating disorder. It was a big part of excessive exercising, but I'll never forget reading in a runner's magazine benefits this was actual article that said the benefits of losing weight to be a faster runner and I latched onto that and did everything I could to shrink myself and make myself smaller so that I could perform better. That was a tailspin into my eating disorder. And it's also challenging to see my girls, who are moving into the teen years, arrive at that same age where I remember feeling uncomfortable in my body or feeling like I needed to change my body or feeling like I was so much bigger than all the other kids around me. And it's interesting that those parallel experiences, experiences that we have had and the experiences that we see our kids having, can bring up a lot of those feelings.
Speaker 1:And so if those things are happening and you're noticing, you might notice yourself feeling anxious about your child's body and how it's changing, or maybe feeling like I can't accept the way my child's body is, or, again, I wish my child's body was different. And oftentimes the result of those thoughts or feelings, those distressing thoughts and feelings that come up, is again shame. Or it's easy to tailspin into shame in ourselves as a parent. Or like I can't believe I'm thinking these things about my kid, like I am trying to run away from those thoughts that I had as a 10 year old or 11 year old or 12 year old or 13, whatever the age is that you were, that you remember having those thoughts about yourself or hearing people comment those things about yourself. And now to find yourself thinking those same things towards your kids. Like man, I wish they ate less at this birthday party. I wish they didn't care so much about the cake and the ice cream, or I wish they were in a smaller body or a larger body or whatever it is.
Speaker 1:You may find yourself thinking those thoughts and what I want you to see is yes, it may be related to internalized fat phobia, yes, it may be related to fear of judgment, to fear of being seen as a failure as a parent, and it may also be related to your food and body story that's coming to the surface and trying to speak, so to say, in the sense that it needs more healing and it needs more help. And I think, when we can really start to look at those parts of ourself with compassion and realizing that those parts are surfacing because they're still wounded, those are wounded parts of ourself that are often showing up and engaging with our kids, and it's from that place of woundedness or fear that we might engage in feeding our kids or talking to them about food or their bodies, or maybe do things that we don't want to do, but we find ourselves like not being able to help ourselves, say certain things or do certain things or maybe communicate something in a nonverbal way. It's like that anxiousness or that woundedness is just coming out in unintended ways Doesn't make you a bad parent. That makes you human. That makes you a human who has a unique story that deserves to be heard. And one thing that I want you to just be thinking about as you're listening to some of this is number one can you have some more awareness about when this is coming up for you and can you move towards more acceptance in order to allow yourself space for compassion and healing. Again, we cannot heal from a place of shaming ourselves and I think when we can start to try to shift the narrative from I'm a bad parent for feeling these things to maybe I'm a wounded person for having some of these feelings and I also deserve the same care and love and attention that I'm trying so desperately to give our kids.
Speaker 1:And it's really hard to extend to our children what we haven't been able to give ourselves. And so often I find that many of us often run into a wall when we're trying to figure out like I know I need to unconditionally accept my child's body, I know I unconditionally need to accept their appetite and their food preferences, but it's so hard to do that. And if you find yourself running into a wall, a question to ask yourself is have those things been extended to you? Did you feel like you were accepted unconditionally when it came to your body or your appetite or your food preferences? Or were those things that your caregivers tried to change in you, or that your caregivers were uncomfortable with and projected their own distress and their own discomfort on you? Are those things that you're able to give yourself now? Maybe you're still finding it difficult to extend acceptance towards yourself, towards your body, maybe towards the way that your body has changed over the years. In growing and birthing and feeding kids. Our bodies change so much and you might feel that it's still difficult to accept your body. I'm not saying love your body, I'm saying just accept your body.
Speaker 1:And what I want you to see is that it's really hard to extend and give to our kids what we never received ourselves. If you never had modeled to you an example of unconditional acceptance of these things, it's going to be hard to give those things to your kids. And again, that doesn't make you a bad parent and that's what I hope you can take away from this. And, like I was saying, number one, just work on the awareness piece. Can you be more aware of what's coming up for you? One, it's coming up for you because it's so easy to try to suppress those things, to push those things aside, and we never will have an opportunity to heal or get curious about those things if we're constantly trying to shove them out of the way from a place of shame.
Speaker 1:The second thing I want you to consider here is this question what did I need at the age that I am finding myself triggered by in my own child. This is such an amazing and difficult question, reflection question to think through, and it's also such a powerful one because it can unlock the keys to the things that you're needing to heal and to move forward. And again, when you can heal these parts of yourself, you can be able to extend these things to your kids as well. And so, let's say, I'm just throwing out an example here, but let's say your child is eight and you find yourself triggered by your child at this age at the way their body is changing, or maybe their appetite, and you notice a lot of things coming up for you. You notice a lot of distress, you're feeling uncomfortable for the requests that they have around certain foods, or you notice yourself more hyper, focused on the way their body is changing. That could be a clue that there are things that you needed at that age that your child is also needing as well. So my question to you, or just my encouragement, is to think through and I know this can be really hard and maybe this is something that you can do with the support of a professional counselor, therapist, support group, trusted friend, family member.
Speaker 1:It can be really helpful to materialize some of these things by talking through them and just by reflecting and asking yourself what did I need at that age? What do I think I needed at that age, at the age of eight? What was going on for me as a kid? And I'm telling you that there's often a lot of parallel situations where you might remember that your body was also changing, or maybe that's when a doctor said something to you, or that was the time that a caregiver encouraged you to diet. I mean, there's so many different scenarios that can happen here and it's just not trying to flood your system by stepping too deeply into those memories, but just trying to understand what is what happened around that time. That may be making this same age in my own child equally triggering.
Speaker 1:And then the second part here is asking yourself and just reflecting on, like, what did I need at that age?
Speaker 1:What were some things that I may have needed when my body was changing, when I was ravenous, when there were so many things happening in my life? What were some of the things that I needed? And that can be a beautiful place to start learning how to re-parent yourself as an adult, and I just want to throw out some common denominators that I think a lot of us who are on this re-parenting journey around food and our bodies needed as kids and didn't get. A lot of us needed the same unconditional acceptance that we're trying so desperately to give our kids and we didn't receive that. So it makes perfect sense that it's challenging to be able to give that to your own kid, but a lot of us just needed to know that, no matter how our bodies changed or the size of our body, the size of our clothes, no matter how we were changing, that, there was someone reliably there whose love and acceptance of us was unchanging. Sadly, so many of us didn't have that and we often were encouraged the opposite, where we were encouraged to lose weight or to maintain a certain aesthetic or appearance and there was so much worth and value tied to that, and so there's so much connection there. But I just want to encourage you to reflect on those questions and think about what did I need at that age, what was going on for me, what did I need at that time and how can I learn to give that to myself now?
Speaker 1:I so appreciate you tuning in. I know this wasn't a typical episode In a lot of ways. I just wanted to share from the heart things that I have seen that I know many of us carry within us, and I just want you to know that you are truly doing an amazing job as a parent. Your kiddos are so blessed to have you, and the fact that you're tuning in and learning and listening and eager to learn more shows how much you care for them. So I hope you feel that and again, any questions or feedback on this episode?
Speaker 1:I would love to hear from you If you have found this podcast helpful in any way. I would be so grateful if you could leave a rating or review. It really does help other parents connect to this resource as well. But just know that I am super grateful for you and cannot wait to connect with you next week. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of the Lift the Shame podcast. For more tips and guidance on your motherhood journey, come connect with me on Instagram at Crystal Cargays. Until next week, mama, I'll be cheering you on. Bye for now.