Casey Crowe Taylor 🌼

you know I could not resist a classic 2010s flat lay for this one 💅

here’s the thing. every single day the internet finds a new way to remind me I’m doing it wrong. not gentle enough. wrong words. too much screen time. not enough enrichment. and I consumed all of it. for years. trying to be better, do better, keep up. and every single time I came away feeling worse about myself as a mother. not inspired. not motivated. just... behind. here’s what I finally figured out: that content isn’t designed to make you feel good. it’s designed to make you feel like you need more of it. so I stopped 🚫🚫🚫 and I started doing something different — small, quiet refinements to my actual life instead of chasing someone else’s version of a good one. that’s what That Mom (my Substack) is. a place where we’re done feeling behind. where the goal is a life that feels like yours — steady, good, and actually enjoyable. if that’s what you’re looking for, you found it. follow along @caseycrowetaylor 🤍 #momlife #honestmotherhood #momtok

we’ve been sold this lie that ambition has to look a certain way. that if you’re not building something with a logo and a launch date or climbing the corporate ladder you’re somehow wasting your potential. but waving at trucks with your two year old while the to do list and the laundry sits unfolded? that IS ambition too. it’s just the quiet kind. and nobody talks about it because the narrative is built around motherhood being a sacrifice and “giving up your life” instead of being an ambitious endeavor and maybe THE most ambitious endeavor ever? I mean we’re only *just* creating life and the future but yeah let’s only define ambition by monthly revenues and job titles? it’s gonna be a hard NO from me dawg 🙅🏼‍♀️ let me know if thus resonates!!! and if you’re a SAHM with ambition, follow me @caseycrowetaylor and let’s be friends!!!

call me a quitter, less really is more!!! we keep adding things to our lives to feel better. but the thing that’s actually made me feel the most like myself this year? taking things away. don’t worry, you’re going to hear wayyyy more about this in tomorrow substack post as per usual. but I’d love to know what you’re quitting and opting out of right now!!

Motherhood can swallow you whole if you let it. I should know, I almost let it. But somewhere between school drop-offs and 5:30AM workouts, I decided this season wasn’t going to erase me. It was going to refine me. Discipline. Self-awareness. Ambition in the margins. Three kids. No village. Still building a life I don’t need to escape. If you’ve felt that quiet pull for more — not more stuff, not more noise — but more depth, more strength, more ownership… Follow me @caseycrowetaylor if you’re sick of subscribing to the struggle bus side of motherhood and want something more. You’re not crazy for wanting that. You’re just waking up.

you are not burned out because you have too much to do. you are burned out because somewhere along the way you decided that doing everything at a level of excellence was required. the house has to be 100% clean. the meals have to be homemade. the ingredient label scanned. the kids have to be stimulated. the marriage has to be nurtured. the career has to still be progressing. the body has to bounce back. and you have to do all of it without complaining because other moms are doing it. except they’re not. they’re just performing it. the same way you and me are. and I don’t know about you, but I’m tired. millennial moms are performing a version of motherhood that is just not sustainable. we are pounded over the head with more information in a ten minute scroll than our mother were in one entire year. and we wonder why we’re exhausted before Monday even comes. what if the answer isn’t doing more or getting more help? what if the answer is doing less on purpose? not because you’re lazy. because you’re finally ready to be honest with yourself. and radically choose yourself in motherhood. that’s what my Substack, That Mom, is about. if you want more motherhood chats like this, follow along @caseycrowetaylor

we had to say a very unexpected goodbye to our Abby girl this weekend. the vet asked us if we had had her since she was a puppy and was she a wild terror as a pup and she just truly was the sweetest angel girl dog from day one. she was the comfiest dog in the world and loved a nice clean pile of laundry to lay on and never missed an opportunity to curl up on a blanket. our hearts are broken and we will miss her forever 💔🐾 the last photo was from the very first day we got her 🥹

things only millennial moms who have quietly figured it out understand. 👇🏻 1. they know “good for her, not for me.” they stopped keeping up with the performance of motherhood and just live their version instead. 2. they know a tough phase with their kid doesn’t mean they’re doing something wrong. it’s just a developmental shift. it passes. 3. they know that prioritizing themselves doesn’t just fill their own cup — it overflows to their kids and their home. 4. they don’t spiral when they snap at their kids. they know they’re human, they model the apology, and they move on. no mom guilt here. 5. and they know the difference between a hard day and a hard life. that last one took me years to learn. a hard day is just a hard day. it doesn’t mean something is wrong with your life. it doesn’t mean you’re failing. it doesn’t mean it’s always going to feel this way. it just means today was hard. and tomorrow you get to try again. if this is the kind of mom you’re becoming (or the kind you already are and just needed someone to say it out loud) you’re in the right place. follow along here @caseycrowetaylor . this is what That Mom (my Substack!) is built for. 🤍

the lie is that you need more. more help. more time. more money. more support. a village. a partner who does more. kids who are easier. a slower season. I believed that lie for years. I kept putting my enjoyment of my own life on layaway — waiting until I had more before I let myself feel good. and then I realized the moms around me who seemed to have more….more help, more hands, more backup — weren’t happier any than me. they were just as stuck. felt just as behind. and were just as convinced the good part was coming later. the good part isn’t coming later. it’s here. it’s now. it’s the life you already have. you just need to stop waiting for “easier days” to enjoy it. enjoy the now before it’s gone 🥹 that’s what That Mom is. follow along here @caseycrowetaylor 🤍

this week broke me a little. and also cracked something open. for the mom in the thick of it right now — this one’s for you. 🤍

I know. that one stings a little. because we’ve all been sold the village dream. the idea that if we just had more help, more hands, more backup — then we’d finally feel on top of our lives. and I spent years grieving the support I never had. but here’s what 7 years of no village actually taught me: the moms who are thriving aren’t the ones with the most help. they’re the ones who stopped waiting for it and built a life that works with what they have. structure over chaos. intention over overwhelm. small quiet systems that hold your days together even when no one is coming to save you. that’s not a consolation prize. that’s the whole game. if you’re a no village mom who is tired of feeling like you’re one breakdown away from losing it — you’re exactly who I’m building That Mom for. follow along here @caseycrowetaylor . I’ll show you what I’ve figured out as I’m figuring it out :)

I dropped the wrong ball last year, here’s what I figured out 👆🏻 this is an excerpt from a longer form post I published in my Substack yesterday, you can read the whole thing by visiting the link in my bio 🤍