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Amy Tiemann has written numerous articles on issues facing new mothers, such as postpartum depression, the "Mommy Wars," preparing for heading back to work, reclaiming your identity after becoming a Mom, and more. Click on the links below to view full, bylined articles. If you wish to reprint them or use quotes from them, please contact us.
Marriage 9-1-1
Six tips for new parents on working together during the first few months with baby.
Congratulations! You are having a baby—your life is about to change! From the moment you and your husband announced the happy news to family and friends to the moment your child arrives, you may be riding the high of anticipation: thinking of names, preparing the baby’s room, and so on. Preparing for the actual presence of a new baby in the house is an entirely different task. You may be taken by surprise at just how much your daily routine, your home, your very existence as a married couple, will change. Download Marriage 911.
How to Keep Your Bundle of Joy from Costing you a Bundle
10 Tips to bring up baby without breaking the bank.
Kids are expensive, there’s no doubt about it. Raising a child through college can easily cost more than a half million dollars, even counting on public university tuition. But there are ways you can start saving from day one if you a savvy consumer and smart investor. Download How to Keep Your Bundle of Joy
Bouncing Back from Mom Burnout
Going back to basics to recharge
Every mom needs to learn how to deal with the challenge of feeling stressed-out and overwhelmed at times. Life, work, kids, and our other relationships can add up to create a great deal of pressure, leading us to feel like something has to give.
No matter how conscientious we are about taking care of ourselves, it is part of the nature of the role of a mother to get burned out from time to time. The key is developing techniques and skills for bouncing back from these challenging periods. Download Bouncing Back From Mom Burnout.
Bridging the Gap between Stay-at-Home Moms and Employed Moms
A career plan is vital for every woman.
The time has come to call a truce in the so-called “mommy wars.”
Everywhere you look these days there are stories about hard feelings and judgments between stay-at-home moms and employed moms. Fortunately, in the real world, I perceive much less conflict than the media portrays.
I have several strategies for healing the mommy wars. First and foremost is to decide that it’s time to work together. Any effort that women spend judging each other is wasted energy that could be used instead to work together for common goals. Download Bridging the Gap.
Reconnecting with Your Self
Four steps for new moms.
As you emerge from the cocoon of the early postpartum period, it is time to start getting to know your new self. This may feel like a time of flux, when you decide which parts of your old life can be carried over or adapted to fit your new life as a parent. This period may be accompanied by feelings of exhilaration, pride, exhaustion, confusion, being overwhelmed—or all of the above. Download Reconnecting with Your Self.
The Transformations of Motherhood
Honoring your “caterpillar self,” as well as the butterfly you have become.
It is tempting to romanticize miraculous transformations. A homely, leaf-munching caterpillar spins a cocoon, incubates, and emerges as a gorgeous butterfly. It’s an image we’re all familiar with, and we are always happy to see the new butterfly stretch her wings.
But I bet you have never asked yourself, “what about the caterpillar?”
The caterpillar is gone. After she enters the cocoon, her cells completely rearrange. The new butterfly is an amazing creature; one that is beautiful, strong, and able to soar to new heights. But one thing is for sure—she will never be a caterpillar again. Download Transformations of Motherhood.
Who Says I’m Opting Out?
"Time off" from work is not a "time out" from life.
You may feel like you’ve heard enough about the “opt-out revolution” debate to last a lifetime, but give me a chance to add a new twist to this discussion. I am not going to argue in favor of or against opting out of the workforce to spend time caring for your children. Instead, I’d like to ask the question, “Who says I’m opting out?” Download Who Says I'm Opting Out.
Life Inside the Cocoon
The Early Months of Motherhood
Calling pregnancy “a marathon” really doesn’t do the nine-month experience justice. No matter how excited you are about having a baby, sharing your body with another person for nine months almost inevitably leads to periods of grumpiness by the end. You barely recognize the form your body has taken, and you haven’t even seen significant parts of yourself, such as your feet, for weeks. By the end, the baby may seem like a selfish roommate who eats the last scoop of ice cream you were saving, steals your favorite pillow, and parties all night while you try to sleep. Download Life Inside the Cocoon.
Dive In and Learn Something New
What kids’ play can teach Moms
Have you noticed how many opportunities for creative activities and learning we create for our kids, and how few we have for ourselves? The trend toward over-scheduling our offspring to the point where they are exhausted and we feel like full-time chauffeurs is reaching a breaking point. My solution is twofold: first, make sure we are signing our children up for reasonable schedules, and second, using our kids as inspiration to join in the fun ourselves. Download Dive In And Learn Something New.
“Done” is Better Than “Perfect”
In Scrapbooking and in Life
Nothing holds me back like the pressure of perfectionism. I feel paralyzed when I can’t get a job done perfectly, so in the worst case, unfinished tasks pile up into unsatisfying messes. Does this sound familiar to you? One good example is the project of documenting my family’s memories with photo albums. I started making a handcrafted, intricately laid-out scrapbook when my daughter was born six years ago. The trouble is, the album only covers her first ten months, when the layout abruptly ends. At that point in our lives, our family moved across the country, and I never recovered enough time and energy to invest in continuing this high-maintenance project.
The Gifts and Challenges of Motherhood
An ongoing conversation among friends
A major focus of my work is to encourage women to talk honestly with each other about the challenges as well as the gifts of motherhood. Continuing this ongoing conversation is a good way to get to know your friends better, so I encourage all moms’ groups to explore these issues. The following ideas were generated by women who attended Mojo Mom parties in my hometown. How is your own experience similar or different? Download Gifts and Challenges of Motherhood.
Guilt, the Mother of All Emotions
As you embark on your quest to reshape your life as a mother, feelings of guilt, worry, and anxiety may begin to creep in. Self-sacrifice is tightly woven into the fabric of our cultural definition of motherhood. Mother inherently implies a relationship between two people—how would you illustrate a mother without including a child in the picture? Therefore, it is not surprising that any attempt by mothers to carve out time away from their children to pursue their separate interests and identities can feel threatening to the whole concept of motherhood. Motherhood is “supposed” to be the ultimate selfless job, so mothers are conditioned to feel that it is wrong for to ask for things that are just for themselves. Download Guilt the Mother of all Emotions.
This is a partial list of articles by Amy Tiemann, Ph.D. Please contact us if you have a specific request.
