Kanika Chadda-Gupta, TV Journalist and Podcast Host of 'That's Total Mom Sense,' joins ChedHER to discuss the challenges mothers are facing today and gives advice for changing up your career path.

chedHER

Defining 'Mom Sense' and Empowering Parents Through Podcasts

and joining us now, Konica, D Gupta tv journalist and host of that total Moms Sons podcast, Konica, I hope I didn't put your name really worked on this one. Um guests on your podcast range from entrepreneurs like the one and only bobby Brown and other female founders. This is really incredible. Um so what can listeners expect from your podcast? Sure, thanks for having me. So my listeners are predominantly parents and I know that the struggle and the juggle and the snuggle is all too real. I had my three kids in 18 months, I had twins, my son and daughter and then a younger son. So I was thrown into the deep end and when I was scrambling for resources I found a lot of commiserating and complaining and I wanted to change all that and shift the narrative. So that's total Mom's sense is really dedicated to being informative, interesting, inclusive and inspiring and so I bring on these thought leaders who we all know and admire, but I share about their life in a completely different way. So with bobby Brown we know her as this beauty mogul beauty industry mogul, But she also was the P. T. A. President for her three sons Rebecca Minkoff, famed designer and she came out with her book fearless. She shares how she would be pumping or breastfeeding backstage at new york fashion week because that was a priority for her family. And lastly Daphne Oz tv personality who's an incredible cook. She invites her four kids into the kitchen to learn with her and that's a life skill that she's passing on to them and I think that's the most important work that we're doing is we are really building our future. Um it's a responsibility and a privilege that we have as parents, that we're raising the innovators and changemakers of tomorrow. It's really inspirational. And again, the title of the podcast includes Mom's sense. So how would you define that Mom's sense? What does it really mean? Sure. I love puns and and Mom's sense is a fun play on words, but it's essentially are built in sixth sense and I think all parents have this, it's our super power of intuition. And so not only do we know what we need to do for ourselves somehow that extends to our kids, so know that you should trust that inner knowing and no doctor, no teacher, no one can tell you the best way to raise your Children. You already know how we talked about this just a little bit earlier, kind of the pandemics effect on women in the workforce. And specifically mothers really hit disproportionately, what do you think are some of the biggest challenges that moms are facing right now? Yeah, I think there's two of them, one is the childcare crisis and then the second is dividing the workload at home the great resignation is raging on 4.5 million americans left the workforce by choice or by circumstance and many of them were women and mothers and you're absolutely right that we have been shouldering the brunt. So I I feel like that is, you know, the need of the hour is, you know, solving this child care crisis. And There's been so many disputes about President Biden's $400 billion dollars build back better plan. What I'm most concerned about are the single moms, the parents who are divorced and our co parenting or those who have differently wired Children at home or or have pre existing health conditions or can't can't afford Childcare, which ranges from 12,000 upwards of $40, a year. So I want to be able to provide resources to help this community. And um, and then the second thing was dividing the workload at home. It really does take a village and I'm encouraging dads to pull up a seat at the table too. I have had my friend Eve brodsky on the show and she wrote an incredible book called Fair Play and it's about kind of delegating who's doing what task to manage the household and the child rearing. And it really takes that to create harmony at home. And I've also had my friend Michael Perry, he's the founder of Maple and it's a project management app for parents. And he has joined me on a spinoff called what matters most with Maple and we talk about all the issues that dads are facing because I think that's that's important to everyone is feeling the stress and we have to have everyone's buy in to, to raise our kids and and be there for them. Yes, it's really insightful and important here. Um I do want to mention you began your career as an anchor and executive producer for CNN. So what caused you to change your career path and become an entrepreneur and podcaster? Sure, life life. I was fortunate to have CNN as a springboard for my career in media and you know, I was stationed in India where I covered everything from the 26-11 terror attacks to reporting from the biggest slum in the world heavy with a million residents um during Slumdog Millionaire's Oscar Win. But when I moved back stateside and got married and my husband and I were family planning, I, I kind of had this aha moment where I knew I wanted to be involved when I had my kids and I was really seeking flexibility and freedom and so podcast podcasting has afforded me that and it's great to be able to help this community of parents and you know parlay my skills and uh script writing and interviewing and production in this whole new medium to reach them and touch their lives and and provide support because I get it. I think it's so important to be a parent and be able to serve parents in this way. I want to ask you to that end if you have any advice for parents, but specifically moms that are maybe reevaluating their career right now and looking to make a transition, especially during this time. Yes, absolutely. So according to research by legal jobs, women own 12.3 businesses, which is 42% of all the companies in the us. So I think now we're getting a little innovative and we understand that we can apply our skills and become entrepreneurs and self made small business owners. So I think if you have this itch to take your idea forward and you know that you can parlay your skills in a different way, do it, do it, and your kids are gonna, you're gonna be modeling that for your kids. So all the more reason to live your life purpose, Konica chata, Gupta tv journalist and host of that Total Mom sense podcast. Thank you so much for joining us here on chat her.