Speaker #0Hello, hello, everyone. Welcome to the Millennial Mom Podcast. I'm your host, Latifah. I am so glad that y'all are here. I have been trying to do this for a very long time, extremely nervous about it, but here we go. Okay. I created this podcast simply because I felt like it was a hard space to be in trying to raise kids. Well, I also kind of feel like I'm raising myself. Right now, it is currently midnight. I'm recording this episode. I have worked all day. I'm exhausted, actually. I put my kids to bed. I kind of did the setup. Shout out to Imagination. I'm gonna always tag him and shout him out along the way. But this has not been an easy day. And so I say that to say I'm in like pajamas. I've showered. I did my makeup, which I'm going to have to shower again, but whatever. I'm drinking a glass of red wine and I'm just going to go off of just my, how I'm feeling about this episode. So I kind of want to tell y'all a little bit about it, why I decided to start it, a little bit about me and just go from there. So like I said, I'm your host Latifah Lawal. I am 28 years old. I am a divorced mom of two. I am a U.S. Navy veteran and I currently work in the HR world. A lot of my professional and educational achievements have been part of the reason as to why I was able to kind of pivot after my divorce, which I'll go a little bit into detail later in the season but um you know I just kind of felt like not everybody is able to decide, okay, this situation no longer serves me. Let me go ahead and dip out. And for me, I felt that I was extremely blessed. I felt that I was also, I don't know. I remember feeling like I was a failure at the time because I was going to be divorced and stuff like that. But during that time, I kind of had to pick myself back up. I had to figure out how I was going to pivot motherhood single at that. And also trying to figure out how to co-parent, which I'll also talk about that a little bit. But the person that I am today has taken a lot of work. I'm constantly in therapy. I'm constantly going to church. I'm constantly calling my friends, crying, doing whatever I got to do just to kind of figure out this life thing. But nobody knows how hard it can be to be this millennial that is also a mother. and has to be a sister, a daughter, a professional, while trying to keep it all together, when in reality, I literally fall short so many times. But with that being said, I've just created this space because I remember feeling like I did not know where to turn. I couldn't really get on social media. find something that would resonate with my situation. And I always felt that like God wanted me to be a vessel to this whole situation and maybe I would touch somebody along the way. So, um, yeah, with that, um, the vision for my podcast is just to create a space for other women that are currently going through this millennial moms. I'm all for mental health. Um, self-care. Also, I feel that like in this economy, two incomes is better than one. So not everybody's situation has changed after having a kid. If you're married or if you're in a relationship with your significant other, that's not going to be everybody's reality. But if it is, then cool. And if it isn't, I still feel that you could learn something from this podcast. New episodes are going to drop every other Wednesday evening. So you can always just tap into that. It's going to be midweek. So at that time, I feel like you've kind of like already come down from the Sunday scaries, Monday, Monday madness, you know. And so with this, some episodes will be by myself. Sometimes I'll have guests. Sometimes I'll answer questions or I'll ask you questions and we'll just kind of go from there. but um A little bit more to my backstory is that like... I have been through so much in my life where, I mean, I failed out of my first semester of college. The first, the first time I went to college, the first time I went away, I failed out and I had to go back home. I've suffered through identity issues. I've suffered through just relationships. I mean, I really don't even know how I got through those times, but I was not like. the best friend. I was not the best person at that time. And I just kind of had to carry myself through that time. And I remember feeling like I have to do something to kind of change everything. I was sleeping on my mom's couch at the time working at Hooters and I was like, I got to do something. Long story short, the idea came into my head that I needed to join the Navy. I knew I didn't want to go to school at the time. So I was like, let me just kind of pivot so that I could have consistent income. Ended up joining the Navy. That ended up changing my entire life. I was extremely disciplined. I gained a level of just, I can't even explain it, but like it changed my life for the best. And during that time and season, I met my now ex-husband. And things were good. Things were great. And this platform is not to bash him in any type of way. If I ever do discuss anything that happened during our time together, I just feel that that time helps me kind of talk about like why I am here today. And so we ended up meeting, had my daughter and then had my son. And then shortly after having my son, that's kind of when it was just like, I think that it's just the best decision to just kind of end things. Now, with that being said, co-parenting has not been easy, still isn't easy. Postpartum literally hit me like a bus both times. I had postpartum anxiety the second time with my son, and I did not know how to navigate through that. And I thought that moving back home to be with family would help me, but it actually didn't. It's just literally a thing of a woman. Like you can't stop it. There's no way to get in between it. You just need a supportive partner. And even if you have a supportive partner, I feel that like our hormones and our mind will just allow us to just kind of think the absolute worst. So with that being said, I had some dark, dark times. And, you know, there was a little bit of betrayal and infidelity in between that. And like I've said. This is not to talk about anything about him. This is just kind of to talk about my experience and my experience only. But during that time, I just kind of felt low. I didn't know who I was. I was definitely going through a hard time. And so my mom was literally my rock through that whole time. And I just kind of felt like, why not be a rock to somebody else or multiple people, if that. A lot of people will always say like, you're so strong and like you, you, you carry this so well and you're such a super mom. And truth be told, like I have no other choice. It's just me. I literally feel kind of teary-eyed right now, but like some days, like I don't want to do it. Some days I don't want to get up, but I have no choice. Like my kids are literally depending on me during the time that they're with me and If I don't get up, who's going to do it? I mean, I know that I can call on help. I do have like a village, but this is my responsibility. This is something that I have curated and it's not fair to them. They didn't ask to be here. So, you know, every day I'm constantly looking for ways to just kind of be better and do better for them so that they don't have to live a life that I guess I lived. And my biggest mantra is that like, I always want to teach them the things early that I learned late. And if that means financial literacy right now, or if that means not being spoiled, like whatever that means, it's just like, that's just what's most important to me. So my biggest thing is I strive to be the best mother that I can be. And I also strive to be the best person that I can be. So at this point, all I want you all to do is just kind of Share this with whoever you think might benefit from subscribing to this podcast, watching these episodes, being a part of this community. I also want you to subscribe to it as well. Share, like it, comment, write a review. Tell me what I could do better. Tell me what you wouldn't like. Ask me questions. I'll also be very, very mindful of asking questions to you all so that you can feel that. I, you know, kind of bring that community together by asking the opinions of others. But yeah, that's just pretty much it. Thank you all so much. Until next time.
