Caitlin Murray wants to know why we are frothing at the mouth to enroll our kids in every single extracurricular activity? When did over-scheduling our kids become the norm? Parents of the 80s and 90s were also busy shuttling kids from thing to thing but the activities they were engaged in were close to home, not very serious, and didn't interfere with downtime and play. With a cameo from economist Emily Oster, Caitlin explores the benefits of extracurriculars but also how overcommitment can lead to burnout and strain on the family. Caitlin shares her personal experience of getting sucked into over-scheduling and how she approaches it now with more sanity and balance. 

• Follow Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting
• Subscribe to Caitlin's newsletter Soul Snacks (where she shares her playlists and more)

Some of Caitlin's favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF) 
• The best store in the world 
• The second best store 

Emily Tisch Sussman, former political strategist, mother of 3, and host of the podcast She Pivots, joins Caitlin to discuss how motherhood forced her to leave her high-powered career and carve out a new path. Emily reflects on her initial fear and doubt about motherhood, the pressure of family expectations, and the realization that her pre-kid version of success was quickly becoming unsustainable. Emily talks about the profound loss she felt in her article, My Children Killed My Career But Took Me in an Unexpected New Direction, and the visceral reaction she received from colleagues and woman from around the world. 

Check out Emily's dynamite podcast, She Pivots, where she interviews prominent leaders and women about how they successfully redirected their personal and professional lives, turning challenges into growth and opportunity.

• Follow Emily Tisch Sussman @shepivotsthepodcast
• Follow Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting
• Subscribe to Caitlin's newsletter Soul Snacks (where she shares her dance playlists and more)

Today's episode is sponsored by Primal Kitchen. Use Code BIGTIMEADULTING to receive 20% off your entire order at www.primalkitchen.com

Some of Caitlin's favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF) 
• The best store in the world 
• The second best store 

In this refreshing monologue, inspired by one of her most viral reels, Caitlin Murray shares her dirty little secret about what she really craves as a mom of three: alone time. Not just any alone time. It's alone time given to her by her husband. It doesn’t require childcare or coordination or the pressure to be productive. Her mind can be at ease knowing her children are cared for by a parent. And she doesn’t want him to have it easy. She wants him to immerse fully into the chaos and experience the full weight of juggling the shit show that's solo parenting. 

Caitlin goes on to examine how society tells women that motherhood should feel natural and easy and therefore mothers have it easier than fathers who work outside of the home. Caitlin believes by giving fathers the opportunity to solo parent in the early childhood years is one step closer to respecting the role of mothers in society. 

• Follow Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting
• Subscribe to Caitlin's newsletter Soul Snacks (where she shares her playlists and more)

Some of Caitlin's favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF) 
• The best store in the world 
• The second best store 

How often do you inquire about your child's feelings and emotions during the day? In this episode, Caitlin delves deeper into one of her most recent viral reels: why we worry so much about our children's feelings and why we're always preoccupied with the idea that what we say or do might negatively impact them. This attentiveness is well intentioned. We want to shape our kids into confident, well-adjusted, and resilient adults. But it's frankly exhausting sometimes. Caitlin suggests that maybe we're overthinking things and reminds listeners that our kids could benefit from figuring out and sitting with their own emotions from time to time. She reminds us that we're already doing a fantastic job and perhaps we could let go of our need to do more and instead recognize the efforts we're already making as parents. 

• Watch the reel that inspired this episode
• Follow Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting
• Caitlin's magazine Soul Snacks

Some of Caitlin's favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF) 
• The best store in the world 
• The second best store 

Our guest today is the iconic Cris Cavallari, owner of ICCON, a Philadelphia-based fashion studio and online boutique. Cris shares her story navigating motherhood for the second time, 16 years after giving birth to her first child when she was only 16-years-old. Cris expected the second time around to be much smoother because she was an adult and had a partner. But soon into her pregnancy she realized she was going to be alone in her journey. In this conversation, Cris discusses her co-parenting challenges, finding strength in hard times, and how cutting her son's long hair surprisiningly helped her let go of control, anger, and self-pity. Cris is a beacon of inspiration and we’re so excited for you to get to know her. 

• Follow Cris @cris_cavallari and get your shop on at her online boutique ICCON
• Follow Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting
• Caitlin's magazine Soul Snacks

Today's episode is sponsored by Lesser Evil Snacks! Follow them here: @lesserevilsnacks

Some of Caitlin's favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF) 
• The best store in the world 
• The second best store 

Submit your "big time adulting" story to us and potentially be a guest on the podcast! Write to us at [email protected]. 

Our storyteller today is writer Mal Wrenn Corbin, a cherished friend of Caitlin Murray’s mom. Mal grew up in Worcester, MA a town riddled by poverty, addiction, and violence. Mal grew up in an unsafe home, witnessing domestic violence, alcholism, and drug abuse. Her childhood was tossed in and out of the foster care system and she found solace at school and in her friendships. After a youth marked by neglect and loss, she escaped Worcester and ultimately persevered. She went on to Dartmouth college and built a successful life for herself. But becoming a mother was a turning point that helped her recognize her own self-worth for the first time. Mal’s story highlights the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity. This on is a tear jerker!

Mal has written a memoir, Raising Wrenns, where she revisits her past and begins to embrace her family's flaws.  

• Visit Mal Wrenn Corbin's website
• Follow Mal @malwrenncorbin
• Follow Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting
• Caitlin's magazine Soul Snacks

Some of Caitlin's favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF) 
• The best store in the world 
• The second best store 

Submit your "big time adulting" story to us and potentially be a guest on the podcast! Write to us at [email protected]. Pitch tip: The best personal stories have a plot, characters, conflict, and an aha moment.

Caitlin Murray was a late bloomer and at fourteen she yearned to have big boobs. In this episode, Caitlin shares an embarrassing story from high school orientation aboard a sailboat when she accidentally exposed her little titties out of the side of her speedo bathing suit in front of her classmates. Caitlin reflects on how embarrassing moments from our youth leave imprints on us and how as we grow older embarrassment becomes somewhat inconsequential and maybe even funny. This is all to say that when our children experience the visceral doom and shame of embarrassment, instead of minimizing it, we can show some empathy and turn it around with some humor. 

Tune in to hear from our listeners who submitted their own embarrassing teenage stories! 

• Follow Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting
• Caitlin's magazine Soul Snacks with everything you need to know

Caitlin's favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF) 
• The best store in the world 
• The second best store 

Submit your "big time adulting moment" and potentially be a guest on the podcast. Write to us at [email protected]. Pitch tip: The best stories have plot, characters, conflict, and an aha moment. 

Our storyteller today is one of our podcast listeners, Alex from Washington state! Alex shares the shocking and dramatic story of being held hostage by a customer while working at Tiffany's and Company. At the time, she minimized the event as a crazy and adventurous brush with danger. Soon after, she suffered from panic attacks and other mental health issues but never connected them to the hostage fiasco. A couple years later she was diagnosed with PTSD which popped the lid on having to confront other traumas from her past and why she was so susceptible to this event. 

Join us as Alex walks us through her story in vivid detail. She also talks about the complicated relationship she has with her mother and the abusive she experienced in her first marriage. In anticipation of the birth of her first child, Alex reflects on the lesson she’d like to pass onto her baby girl- to trust her gut and tap into her body's innate wisdom even if it’s at the expense of other people’s comfort. 

Join us for this entertaining, suspenseful, and thought-provoking conversation that will leave you on the edge of your seat. 

Alex’s snack of choice: Albanese Sour Gummy Bears

• Follow Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting
• Caitlin's magazine Soul Snacks with everything you need to know

A few of Caitlin's favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF) 
• The best store in the world 
• The second best store 

Submit your "big time adulting moment" and potentially be a guest on the podcast. Write to us at [email protected]. Pitch tip: The best stories have plot, characters, conflict, and an aha moment. 

You may wonder why Caitlin so confidently makes fun of her kids, bemoans the trials and tribulations of nonstop parenting, dances her ass off in the kitchen like a lunatic, and rattles off pep talks to all the weary moms. 

Today, we’re re-releasing Caitlin’s first podcast episode from 2021 when no one really knew she had a podcast. You will giggle and shed tears as Caitlin describes the life-changing event that inspired her to start blogging, posting on Instagram, and podcasting. 

In December 2016, her 3-year-old son was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia which set her family on a horrific journey of survival. Caitlin walks us through the heart-wrenching moments that led up to the diagnosis and how it forever shaped and strengthened their family. She also talks about why this experience has given her a license to say whatever the f*** she wants. It’s a story that resonates with moms because it reminds us to trust our gut and advocate for our kids. And its a reminder that humor is essential when going through hard times. 

Fast-forward to today, her son is now 10-years-old and thriving alongside his little sister and brother. 

• Follow Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting
• Peruse Caitlin's magazine Soul Snacks 
• To submit your "big time adulting moment" and potentially be a guest on the podcast, write to us at [email protected]

The Big Time Adulting podcast is brought to you in part by a few of Caitlin's favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF) 
• Perfect Bar 
• The best store in the world 
• The second best store 

Today we’re talking about identity, divorce, shame, imperfection and the gift of blowing it with psychologist Dr. Aliza Pressman who is a mother of 2, a clinical and academic wiz, and host of the widely praised parenting podcast Raising Good Humans. In this conversation, Dr. Aliza Pressman discusses how the parenting advice industry has turned into gobbledygook and why she felt it important to write her book, ’The Five Principles of Parenting,’ which teaches parents a manageable framework for raising children: relationships, reflection, regulation, rules, and repair.

Aliza reflects on her “big time adulting moment:” letting go of shame and judgment after her divorce. Aliza and Caitlin also discuss navigating unexpected challenges in life, the loss of the life they envisioned, and the need to reconcile their own desires with the responsibilities of parenting. The main takeaway is that we are all flawed humans. We make mistakes. Shit happens we don’t expect. Not everything is in our control. But we do have the power to normalize imperfections, practice self-compassion, and repair our relationships when we mess up.  Aliza reminds us that when we let go of perfect, we can become positive and transformative influences in a children's lives.

Follow Aliza @raisinggoodhumanspodcast 

Follow Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting

The Big Time Adulting podcast is brought to you in part by a few of Caitlin's favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF) 
• Perfect Bar 
• The best store in the world 
• The second best store 

Milano Buckley is the epitome of resilience. Born to a mentally ill homeless woman named Kat, Milano’s unstable childhood in New York City was marked by unexpected refuge by two unofficial foster parents, an African woman from Ghana and her elementary school teacher. Milano’s grit through uncertain times led her down a path of triumph over adversity. After graduating from Princeton and starting the picture-perfect family of her dreams, she thought attaining such success would free her from her past. But when she became a mother, her childhood trauma surfaced in brutal and surprising ways. 

In this episode, Milano Buckley talks about her crazy upbringing and the daily hurdles of being a mom riddled with remnants of trauma. She reflects on the challenges of healing and the disconnect between her expectations of parenthood and reality. She explores the impact of trauma triggers and the importance of accepting and embracing the journey of healing. Milano and Caitlin also discuss the balance between celebrating joy and acknowledging everyday annoyances. 

Milano’s favorite snack: Babybel cheese with pretzel crisps.

Find Caitlin Murray @bigtimeadulting

The Big Time Adulting podcast is brought to you in part by a few of Caitlin's favorite brands & affiliate partners:

• Knockaround Sunglasses (use code BIGTIMEADULTING for 15% OFF) 
• Perfect Bar 
• The best store in the world 
• The second best store