🎙️ Episode 21: The Gilded Grind: Parenting through Eras & Early Alarms
Welcome back to Fearless and Forty! In this episode, we’re setting the alarm clocks, prepping the backpacks, and trying to figure out if string cheese and a granola bar count as a "balanced breakfast." Yep—school starts next week, and we’re talking new routines, early wake-ups, and real-life breakfast hacks that get us through the morning chaos.
But we’re also zooming out to reflect—on our own school days, how the world shaped us back then, and how much (or how little?) things have changed. Watching The Gilded Age lately has stirred up some thoughts: the obsession with appearance, status, and titles—how deeply rooted that all is in our culture. Is it really so different now? Maybe the corsets have been replaced with Botox and serums, but the pressure to be polished and perfect is still very real.
We get honest about what it's like parenting in a world where perfection is packaged and sold, and how we’re trying to raise kids who look inward—not outward—for validation. We talk about how even in midlife, we’re not immune to the lure of "fixing" things—fine lines, under-eye circles, lives that look a little too lived-in. But guess what? We’re also learning to love the lived-in look.
We’re tired of the pressure. We want easy. We want real. Are we wrong for not wanting to chase perfection anymore? Are we normal for being OK with the small wrinkles and the easy mornings and the imperfect moments?
This episode is a breath of fresh air if you’re feeling worn out by the grind—gilded or not. Let’s get honest, let’s get a little nostalgic, and let’s talk about showing up as we are, not as we “should” be.
#fearlessand40 #parenting #midlife #thegildedage
For your Reference:
The Gilded Age 
The Summer I Turned Pretty
The Hunting Wives
Smartless
The Best People 
The Wedding People 

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