The Unhurried Mama

My son wouldn't go upstairs alone. Every night for weeks: stalling, hovering, refusing—and I had a story about why. Then one night, I actually asked him. What he said was so unexpectedly tender, made me want to laugh at myself, and completely changed the way I see behaviour. This is the episode about what's underneath the defiance you're most tired of, and why the answer is almost never what you think. If you've ever labelled your child difficult and wondered what you were missing, this one is for you.Subscribe to Substack for weekly show notes and free meditations: https://substack.com/@theunhurriedmama

My daughter spat at her brother. I charged in, took away the thing she loved most, and she slammed her door, screaming, "I hate you!" Later, I found what she'd done while we ate dinner without her. This is the story of what happened when I sat on the hallway floor and stopped seeing my failure, and the five words she said that I still think about today. We talk about why consequences given in the flood almost always land as punishment, what a child's silent destruction is actually saying, and what repair looks like when it's nothing like the parenting books describe.Subscribe to Substack for weekly show notes and free meditations: https://substack.com/@theunhurriedmama

You've been holding it together all day. You don't have to anymore. This one is just for you: a gentle body-scan meditation for the mother who needs to be held, for a change. Put it down for a little while. It'll still be there after.Subscribe to Substack for weekly show notes and free meditations: https://substack.com/@theunhurriedmama

My nine-year-old walked into my office shaking, convinced we'd have to move house. What came out over the next 97 minutes on my lap changed the way I understand what it means to hold space for your child—and why you can't offer what you don't have. This is the episode about co-regulation: what it actually looks like, and the sentence my son said that I will carry for the rest of my life.Subscribe to Substack for weekly show notes and free meditations: https://substack.com/@theunhurriedmama

“Mama, I cleaned up the mess." His voice was so small. This is the repair: the knock, the hug, and the ugly cry. And then the second rupture I didn't see coming: the piano, the flashback, the moment I heard my father's voice in mine and had to let go of the thing I thought made me a good mother. This is what unhurried actually means—not as a mood, but as a way of moving through your life at your own pace instead of the world's.Subscribe to Substack for weekly show notes and free meditations: https://substack.com/@theunhurriedmama

We were already late. The bowl tipped. Coconut milk, the last of it, spilled all over the floor. And I snapped. This is the story of what happened next: the shame spiral, the bathroom floor, and the moment I heard a knock I wasn’t ready for. Why your blow-ups aren’t character flaws—they’re biology. The window of tolerance, what it actually means to notice you’re leaving it, and how to start coming back.Subscribe to Substack for weekly show notes and free meditations: https://substack.com/@theunhurriedmama

This is the first episode of The Unhurried Mama. I'm Michelle, and I'm launching this podcast on my daughter's 12th birthday because she's the reason I started asking: What does it mean to parent from a nervous system that isn't running? The choice I made that changed everything—saying yes to homeschool—the tornado years that followed, and the question I'm still sitting in: What am I trying to outrun by staying busy? If you've been sprinting through motherhood and don't know how to stop, this is for you. I'm still figuring it out, but I'm doing it out loud. Your body already knows the path. This is the work of coming home to yourself.Subscribe to Substack for weekly show notes and free meditations: https://substack.com/@theunhurriedmama