Parenting Not What You Pictured?
Grief, Grit, and a Grain Bowl
So you mapped out your future, didn’t you? That picturesque life with a thriving career, a partner by your side, and, somewhere neatly penciled in, kids arriving on cue when your degree was in hand and your ducks were in a row. But if you’re like me (and most families I know), those carefully stacked dominoes tumbled about five minutes after the first positive pregnancy test.
Let’s be real: parenting almost never plays out the way you plan.
If you’re new to this club, welcome to the wild world of holding all the feelings at once. You’re not alone if your dreams of candle-lit baby snuggles sometimes morph into crying in your mom’s living room, looking at tiny matching outfits and wondering, “Can we put them back?” Or maybe you found yourself navigating the early days of parenthood solo, charting a new identity while your partner was deployed overseas or working long stretches away from home. (Check out Megan Cordaro’s story on The Real Family Eats podcast for some serious solidarity on surviving and thriving in those unexpected, seismic shifts.)
When The Parent Guilt and Grief Hits Hard
No one warned me about the grief, did they warn you? No, we expect guilt (hello, social media pressure), but the sense of loss? That one often creeps in on a Tuesday afternoon, somewhere between cold coffee and re-heated mac-n-cheese. We grieve our pre-kid identities, career plans, and sometimes just the false advertising about how blissful those baby years are supposed to be.
Guess what … NONE of this makes you a bad parent. Feeling overwhelmed and stretched by contradictory emotions is part of the package. Megan’s candidness about loving her twins and simultaneously resenting how much her life changed felt like someone switched the lights on in a dark room. Does this hit home for you, too?
It Takes a Village and Real Connection
Here’s another reality no parenting book wants to shout: You can’t, and shouldn’t, do this alone. Unlike what that old “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” saying suggests, navigating parenthood, identity, and relationship changes takes serious support. Megan’s success came from accepting help: from her family, her grad school friends, and even a random crochet circle decades her senior (note: knitting needles make excellent therapy tools). Community makes the hard parts survivable and sometimes even joyful.
Sound familiar? Maybe you’re trying to keep your relationship afloat as you both navigate sleepless nights and shifting priorities. Or perhaps you’re stuck rehashing old arguments because the stress is just. so. much.
Ready for a Reset? Invest in Your Relationship (and Yourself)
Here’s a radical thought: What if you make as much space for yourself and your partnership as you do for your family’s to-do lists?
This is where our Couples Therapy Intensives at Embrace Renewal Therapy come in.
If traditional weekly sessions just aren’t cutting it, an intensive could be your fast track to realignment. Designed for busy, burned-out parents like you, Couples Therapy Intensives offer a supportive, focused space to dig deep, air out the grief (yes, it’s normal!), and start rebuilding the connection that so often gets overshadowed by the daily grind of parenting.
Top reasons Couples Therapy Intensives are a game-changer:
Cut through the noise: Step away from distractions and get to the heart of what’s not working.
Process grief AND hope: Give language to the losses (career, identity, even nap-time fantasies) so you can move forward together.
Reclaim your “us”: Parenting is just one piece of your story. You get to invest in the partnership at the center of your family.
Plus, you leave empowered with real-world tools, not just canned advice. Because who has time for platitudes when your toddler just smeared yogurt on the dog again?
Let’s rewrite the “plan” together
If you’re ready for more than survival, give our Couples Therapy Intensives a try. Your relationship deserves to thrive, even in the chaos. And hey, listen to Megan’s episode on The Real Family Eats for a strong dose of “me too” and a genuinely delicious harvest grain bowl recipe that might just save dinner tonight.
Remember: Grief, grit, and community are inevitable in parenting, but thriving is possible, too.
Follow along with the podcast for more encouragement, relatable moments, and the ongoing reminder that you are not alone, even when the plan falls apart.
Here’s to real renewal—one imperfect step at a time.
