episode 066 - what a weekend alone with kids, really taught me about motherhood

I had my niece (5) and nephew (almost 3) for a full weekend. School runs, cooking, activities, baths, the lot. And by Sunday evening, I had more clarity about myself than I'd had in a while.This episode isn't a hot take on motherhood. It's not a debate about whether you should or shouldn't want children. It's an honest account of what happens when you pay close attention to how you feel — not what you think you should feel — in the middle of an experience that's very far from your normal life.We get into the relentlessness of early parenting that's genuinely hard to understand from the outside. The part nobody warns you about around autonomy and what losing it, even briefly, actually does to you. The social script around this conversation and why it keeps so many women from being honest. And what two US studies — from the University of New Hampshire and Michigan State — actually say about childless women and the threat of regret.There's no clean answer at the end of this one. That's kind of the point.UNH study (the 5.7 million figure): https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/news/release/2025/09/15/study-shows-number-childless-women-us-continues-riseMSU study (the regret finding): https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2023/04/childfree-study-confirmed-april2023--want to book a girl chat session? all the info is here - https://squ.re/45jq3uewant to partner w/The Sage Sorority Podcast? let’s chat - [email protected] a question? send in an (anonymous) one for Q&A - https://tellonym.me/thesagesorority 💘 SUBSTACK// https://open.substack.com/pub/thesagesorority INSTAGRAM// https://www.instagram.com/thesagesorority/TIKTOK// https://www.tiktok.com/@thesagesororityYOUTUBE// https://www.youtube.com/@TheSageSorority subscribe to The Sage Sorority Podcast + leave a (cheeky) 5* rating 💘apple: https://bit.ly/41ZNwO2spotify: https://spoti.fi/4iVPAhnyoutube: http://bit.ly/45ei8wO 💘catch up with, our founder + host, Shantel instagram// https://www.instagram.com/shantelrousseau/ tiktok// https://www.tiktok.com/@shantelrousseauSnapchat// https://snapchat.com/t/fb8LTRCm youtube// https://www.youtube.com/@shantelrousseauonline OUTFITS - ShopMy// https://shopmy.us/shantelrousseauOUTFITS - LTK// https://www.shopltk.com/explore/shantelrousseau💘