If you haven’t subscribed to my Substack yet, here’s where I get a little more personal: writing from the heart about self-care, motherhood, wellness, and everything in between. My community loved this post, so I wanted to share an excerpt with you here..
None of us wake up planning We spend more time on our phones than we want. It just… happens. A quick review turns into a 20-minute scroll and suddenly it’s 2pm and you’re not sure where the morning went. We’ve all been there, so I want to say from the beginning: this is not another article meant to make you feel guilty about your screen time.
Here’s the thing: No matter how much intention I put into using my phone, I still have days where I use it way more than I had planned. It comes up all the time in conversations with my friends and definitely comes up in any conversation about parenting in 2026.
Just when I think I’ve figured it out, I can fall back into habits that keep me from the present, free, and fulfilling life I really want to live.
Case in point: A couple weekends ago, Austin was hit by an ice storm and we found ourselves with four full days at home with nowhere to be. In my mind, I had a vision of a cozy, dreamy weekend: playing games, doing art projects with the kids, cleaning closets (just me?), baking cookies, and family movie nights. And while a lot of those things happened, there were also a lot of updates to my Slack notifications and Instagram scrolling.
I could feel my nervous system getting louder, the kind of tired but nervous feeling that comes over you when you consume more than you process.
The fact that it coincided with an incredibly tumultuous time in the world didn’t help. I let myself read too many comment threads of people fighting over politics, hurling insults, and watching incredibly disturbing videos of what was happening in Minnesota. On Monday night, I could feel it in my body: distracted, anxious, yelling at Adam and the kids about things that wouldn’t normally affect me.
Unlock the full post here to read about boundaries that protect the parts of life that matter most to me. When I do this, I feel more aligned, less stressed, and like I have more hours in the day.
