Reframing Me - Self-Development & Parenting Teens for Midlife Moms
by Dr. Jennifer Brubaker
Your kids are growing up - but so are you. Reframing Me is the podcast for moms of teens ready to reframe family, identity, and self-development in midlife. Parenting teens is hard -and parenting while rediscovering yourself in midlife can feel even harder. Reframing Me is the parenting podcast for moms raising teenagers who are also navigating the transition out of hands-on motherhood, identity shifts, and the search for balance, fulfillment, and self-development. Hosted by Dr. Jennifer Brubaker, a Communication Studies professor, mom of three teens, and intrapersonal communication expert, each episode blends family communication strategies, honest conversations about parenting teens, and self-reflection tools to help moms strengthen family relationships while rediscovering who they are as women. Together we’ll talk about the issues moms face but don’t always say out loud: changing family dyn
Episodes
-
Jen is Zen - What relationship do I want to have with this?
Thank you so much for being here!! What relationship do I want to have with this? Much of what we encounter in life, we don’t get to choose, but we do have agency over the relationship we want to have with it. From the everyday annoyances to the life-altering sadnesses, we can still ask…
more -
Fashion Psychology and Identity: Sometimes, I Just Like the Outfit
Thank you so much for being here! Lately, my algorithm has been feeding me content on fashion psychology, and I am obsessed! I needed a fun topic for today, and keeping in line with my intention to be a bit selfish in October, I thought we'd have a conversation about it because it is so…
more -
Good 4 Me: Identity, Expectations, and What I Actually Want
This week on Reframing Me, we’re talking about identity, but not in a “find yourself” or completely reinvent your life kind of way. We’re starting with the way identity is actually built: through our roles, relationships, experiences, the feedback we receive from other people, and the parts of...
-
Jen is Zen - What Would I Be
Thank you for being here! It's nearly October, and after August and September being focused outside - getting a routine in place, everyone's schedules together, all of the pieces in their places, I need a breath. We all know what November and December bring - and so October is a good time to take...
-
Sleepless: The Difficult Conversations with Our Kids That We Can't Avoid
Welcome back to the show! Thank you so much for being here!! As our kids get older, the conversations we have with them get harder. Sex, drugs, alcohol, consent, body image, mental health, relationships, safety, world events, and all of the things we wish we could protect them from forever. In…
more -
Jen is Zen - Version 2.0
Thank you so much for being here!! If I could apologize to the woman I was before…. If you could apologize to the woman you were before, what would you say? Can you forgive yourself for not knowing what you know now? On the first non-sweltering day of September, I was excited to wear my white...
-
Back to Class! My 10 Guiding Principles About Families
Welcome back to the show! Thank you for being here! I am back in the classroom for my 26th year teaching college, but this year is especially exciting for me because after six years of teaching only online, I am back in the in-person physical classroom, and I am loving it! I cannot believe how…
more -
Jen is Zen - Choose Your Frame
Thank you so much for being here! We don’t get to choose everything that happens in our day, but we do get to choose how we greet it. We get to choose how we see something. We get to frame every situation we encounter. We get to frame our lives. Realizing that, how do you want to frame today?
-
Advice for Middle School? Just Lock in. 20 tips for making middle school parenting easier
Thank you so much for being here! It's hard to believe it's been four years since I had my last middle schooler... the wounds are still fresh y'all (haha! - I'm just being "dramatic"). As someone who spent six consecutive years with one or two kids in middle school - two boys, one girl - all...
-
Jen is Zen - What would Dolly do?
Thank you so much for being here! What does it really mean to be a good person? I am inspired today by Dolly Parton’s legacy of kindness and generosity. Has our culture’s obsession with self-improvement distracted us from the most important kind of growth. Through everyday choices to lead with...
-
Call Me, Maybe? (Please?!): How to Communicate with Your College Kid
Thank you so much for being here!! Sending a child to college changes more than where they live. It changes the parent-child relationship, and the way we communicate has to change with it. Supporting independence doesn’t require disappearing, just as staying close doesn’t mean monitoring,...
-
Jen is Zen - The Only Expectations that Matter
Thank you so much for being here! How much do you edit yourself to fit others’ expectations of you? Do you let others’ expectations define you? How often do you find yourself editing who you are to be who others want you to be? Or behave how others want you to behave? Or look how others want you…
more -
Jen is Zen - Grateful for this Moment
Thank you for being here! I am grateful for this day. I am grateful for this moment. Most gratitude that we show is situational. It's reactive. That's gratitude because of our circumstances. Intentional gratitude is something entirely different. Intentional gratitude isn't asking, "What happened...
-
Tales from the Beach: Back to Family Communication Basics
Thank you so much for being here! A favorite assignment I give my Family Communication Students is to observe their own family dynamics, applying concepts they've learned. After spending four days with 20 family members in a one beach house, I realized that there are some basic family concepts…
more -
Jen is Zen - Decline the Invitation
Welcome back!! I'm so happy you're here! You don't need to attend every emotional event you're invited to. I have come to realize that there is nothing wrong with declining an invitation and opting to stay home and do nothing - in fact, it's kinda my favorite activity! Similarly, I've also come…
more -
Because You Are: The Manifestation and Identity Connection
Thank you so much for being here! I'm reading Matt Cook's book Beyond Wanting, and I may only be five chapters in, but it has already made such an impact on me. As someone who has both studied identity communication and practiced manifestation for years, I am shook to see a link between the two...
-
Mid-Year Check In on Those January Goals
Available NOW - listen to the free introductions of my NEW courses - Re: Identity and Re: Purpose - both are available now on the Kajabi app/website. Listen now Re: Identity click here Listen now Re: Purpose click here Thank you so much for being here!! It's July! Time to a) Panic that "the…
more -
Have You Listened to Your Body Lately? Exploring Somatic Practices
Available NOW - listen to the free introductions of my NEW courses - Re: Identity and Re: Purpose - both are available now on the Kajabi app/website. Listen now Re: Identity click here Listen now Re: Purpose click here Thank you so much for being here!! What if your body has been trying to tell…
more -
What about your friends? Friendship and Midlife
Available NOW - listen to the free introductions of my NEW courses - Re: Identity and Re: Purpose - both are available now on the Kajabi app/website. Listen now Re: Identity click here Listen now Re: Purpose click here Thank you so much for being here!! I saw a post that said how people often…
more -
Jen is Zen - Cemetery of Abandoned Identities
Send us Fan Mail Available NOW - listen to the free introductions of my NEW courses - Re: Identity and Re: Purpose - both are available now on the Kajabi app/website. Listen now Re: Identity click here Listen now Re: Purpose click here How many ideas have you had that never became anything? What...
-
The Fat Lady Has Sung: When Sports, High School, and Childhood End All at Once
Send us Fan Mail Thank you so much for being here!!! This week's episode is a reminder that endings and beginnings often exist side by side. After losing the state championship lacrosse game in golden goal overtime, my son's high school sports career came to an end - as well as my role as a…
more -
Jen is Zen - Your Summer Body is Here
Send us Fan Mail Thank you so much for being here! In the U.S. (and especially living at the beach!), Memorial Day is the "official" launch of summer! And never is our unappreciation of our bodies as great as it is during the summer. Can we say that we love our body... and mean it? What if…
more -
From the Other Side: Top 20 Things I Learned Parenting a Teen to 20
Send us Fan Mail Thank you so much for being here! In honor of my oldest's graduation from the teen years, here are the top 20 things that I learned about parenting teenagers. Not as someone who has all the answers - because clearly I do not - but just as someone who has not only survived the…
more -
Our Bodies, Our Identities
Send us Fan Mail Thank you for being here! There’s a conversation happening right now between wellness culture, aging, fitness, femininity, and identity, and I think many women are quietly struggling with it more than we admit. In this episode, I talk honestly about the emotional side of body...
-
I Gave Them Space... Now What?
Send us Fan Mail Welcome! Thank you for being here! There’s a phase of motherhood that no one really prepares you for. It’s not the chaos of little kids, and it’s not the emptiness of the empty nest. It’s the in-between—when your teenagers are starting to launch, and everything is quietly…
more -
Just Be Her: Things I Wish I Knew Sooner - #41-50
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back! I'm so happy you're here! This is part 3 of my Things I wish I knew sooner series - #s 41 through 50. I just turned 50 last week, and to count down, I stepped drastically out of my comfort zone and started recording and posting reels/TikToks every day of things I…
more -
Are you Hypernormalizing? (Probably!)
Send us Fan Mail Thank you so much for being here!! I am so appreciative of you for tuning in! Last year, we had a conversation about hypernormalization that I think it's important to revisit. We’re living in a time when the world feels increasingly chaotic, and somehow we’re expected to keep...
-
Things I Wish I Knew Sooner: #16-41
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I continue my 50 Things I Wish I Knew Sooner series, walking through lessons 16 through 40. This part of the list shifts from what we do to how we experience our lives - our thoughts, our habits, our self-image, and the way we show up in our relationships. This...
-
The Birthday Girl Vibes... are Off
Send us Fan Mail "I am going to warn you in advance that it has been a rough few days and I am not feeling like my best birthday girl self." This was the message I sent to my friend who is coming to visit to celebrate my birthday. Nothing is wrong and yet everything feels wrong. I think a lot of...
-
What were you like in the 90s? Teens and 90s Nostalgia
Send us Fan Mail This week’s episode started with a random moment in my attic looking for an old box of college photos and turned into something bigger. There’s a growing trend right now of teens recreating 90s aesthetics… and even subtle shifts in what’s considered “cool” (yes, including the…
more -
Spring Has Sprung! Living in Balance
Send us Fan Mail As we (in the Northern Hemisphere) enter Spring, can we trust that we are on the right path, even if the balance we seek is only an illusion? Maybe we, like the Earth are only meant to find balance at times, Thank you for listening and being part of this community! Let's get...
-
The Odyssey: "You're Only as Happy as Your Unhappiest Child"
Send us Fan Mail This week I found myself thinking about something a lot of parents probably feel but don’t always say out loud. Two of my kids had tough weeks. Nothing catastrophic, but enough that I spent hours talking things through with them, listening, trying to help them make sense of it.…
more -
You can start any time: Things I wish I knew sooner - 1-15
Send us Fan Mail You can start something new any time. It doesn't need to be January 1st or a Monday - it can be a random Wednesday in February at 2pm when, after YEARS of saying that "I'm going to work on my socials," you finally start. As I approach my 50th birthday, I made a list (that I…
more -
Jen is Zen - Consistency is Better than Perfection
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back! I'm so happy you're here! You don’t need to be your best every day. You just need to show up consistently and be authentically you. After three years of saying that I was going to build my socials/be consistent in my socials/focus on my socials (spoiler: I...
-
Tips for Men: When She Feels It More Than You Do
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back! I'm so grateful you are here! Last week, we talked about men and women processing information differently. I wanted to follow up on that conversation with an episode to share with the men in your life to help them to understand how to better communicate with you…
more -
QZ: Lunar New Year
Send us Fan Mail Thank you for being here for a quick zen with me! Happy Lunar New Year!! As we exit the year of the snake and enter the year of the fire horse, can you reflect on what you have shed - the good and the grief. Are you ready to take on the fire horse?! I am! Thank you for listening...
-
QZ: Declutter
Send us Fan Mail Hello! Welcome back to Reframing Me! I'm so happy that you're here for a quick moment of zen (with Jen!)... I decluttered my pantry yesterday (finally! after MONTHS of saying I need to...), and the mental space it gave me... Thank you for listening and being part of this…
more -
QZ: The Right Amount of Enough
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back! Another quick zen for you today, because I've been reflecting on what is the right amount of "enough?" I feel like one minute I'm convinced I'm not doing enough and another I'm too much. My ideas about what is "enough" comes from the events that shaped how I see...
-
QZ: Clean the Mirror
Send us Fan Mail Thank you for being here! I saw a message I wanted to share - the monks who have been walking for peach across the U.S. reached Washington D.C. today! I saw a speech one gave where his message was to "Clean the mirror right away," and I think it's a valuable one to bring into...
-
QZ: Showing Ourselves Kindness
Send us Fan Mail Welcome back! I'm so happy you're here today for a Quick Zen. I have not been talking to myself very kindly lately - in fact, I've been even unkind. If we can show ourselves kindness, it filters into everything - we feel joy; we see the world with gratitude; we feel confidence…
more -
When Conflict Isn’t Conflict: Information Processing Styles
Send us Fan Mail This episode explores why disagreement feels so much heavier right now - and why so many conflicts aren’t actually about beliefs, but about how people process information, emotion, and threat. Using the current news cycle as a stress test, I explain how people with shared values...
-
Quick Zen: Perseverance and Resilience
Send us Fan Mail Thank you for being here with me! Yesterday's quick check in made me feel so good that I found myself thinking of y'all again this morning. Today, when I asked myself what I want to bring into the day, I was primed by the upcoming Olympics and following Lindsay Vonn and her…
more -
A Quick Touchstone
Send us Fan Mail I'm so happy you're here. This isn't our weekly episode - it's me just reaching out - a touchstone, if you will - to remind you that even though things are crazy and you may feel frustrated or sad or angry or emotional - you're not alone! We need a sense of community now more…
more -
Recognizing Confidence and the Things That Still Make Me Happy
Send us Fan Mail Thank you so much for being here! This episode reflects on how my understanding of confidence has changed over time. What once felt tied to performance, comparison, and getting things “right” now feels quieter and more stable, rooted in self-trust rather than validation. I talk...
-
Does Your Senior Have a Case of Senioritis?
Send us Fan Mail Senioritis, often dismissed as a mere case of laziness in high school seniors, is a complex phenomenon affecting both students and those around them. With symptoms ranging from lack of motivation to irritability, senioritis can disrupt households during the final months of high...
-
Jen is Zen - Believe in Yourself and Be Your Own Cheerleader
Send us Fan Mail Thank you for being here today! Topping my list of "50 things that would have made my life a lot easier if I had known sooner:" Only you need to see your potential. Only you need to understand. Only you need to believe it’s possible. Your opinion is literally the only one that...
-
Raising Teens Mean Balancing Gratitude with Grief
Send us Fan Mail We are complex enough beings to experience multiple emotions at once, and as parents of teens - and oftentimes, also caregiving for aging parents - two of those emotions that we're constantly balancing are gratitude and grief. Gratitude and grief coexist because parents are…
more -
Jen is Zen - Control the Controllable
Send us Fan Mail Thank you so much for being here! What does it look like for you to reclaim a sense of control in your life? This Jen is Zen episode explores what it truly means to reclaim a sense of control when life feels overwhelming. Rather than focusing on fixing everything or forcing...
-
When Your Nervous System Is Overwhelmed but Parenting Doesn’t Stop: Raising Teens Through Unsettled Times
Send us Fan Mail Right now, many of us are being asked to function normally while living through ongoing instability, fear, and institutional breakdown, and that disconnect is exhausting. If you’re struggling to focus, feeling emotionally overwhelmed or numb, pulling back socially, or finding...
-
Jen is Zen - The Only Opinions That Matter
Send us Fan Mail Thank you so much for being here! The only two people whose opinions should matter are the 9-year-old version of you and the 90-year-old version of you. In this first Jen is Zen episode of 2026 - my 50th birthday year! - I reflect on aging, identity, and why I look and feel…
more
About this show
Your kids are growing up - but so are you. Reframing Me is the podcast for moms of teens ready to reframe family, identity, and self-development in midlife.
Parenting teens is hard -and parenting while rediscovering yourself in midlife can feel even harder. Reframing Me is the parenting podcast for moms raising teenagers who are also navigating the transition out of hands-on motherhood, identity shifts, and the search for balance, fulfillment, and self-development.
Hosted by Dr. Jennifer Brubaker, a Communication Studies professor, mom of three teens, and intrapersonal communication expert, each episode blends family communication strategies, honest conversations about parenting teens, and self-reflection tools to help moms strengthen family relationships while rediscovering who they are as women.
Together we’ll talk about the issues moms face but don’t always say out loud: changing family dyn
Hosted by
Dr. Jennifer Brubaker
Categories