Stay at Home Mom Guilt and Rediscovering Yourself with Emilie Karun

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Amy Stone speaks with Emilie Karun about breaking free from perfectionist parenting ideals and redefining what it means to want “more than motherhood.” Hailing from central Illinois, Emilie shares her journey from aspiring to be the perfect stay-at-home mom to embracing her own dreams and becoming a life and success coach. The episode explores how societal expectations, family influences, and internal beliefs shape women’s choices, and how Emilie navigated through guilt, identity loss, and self-discovery to create a life and career she loves.

About Emilie Karun:

Emilie is a life+success coach and founder of The Good Girl Revolution, dedicated to helping women break up with the rules that rule their life so they can claim everything they were taught not to want.

Main Topics Covered:

Societal pressures and generational messages about women’s value, motherhood, and self-sacrifice, especially for Gen X and MillennialsThe challenge of losing (or never truly knowing) one’s identity in motherhood—and how motherhood intensifies existing insecuritiesHow extended family dynamics, upbringing, and cultural background can shape both conscious and unconscious life expectationsThe “good girl” programming and its role in fostering perfectionism, people-pleasing, and self-doubtBreaking free from limiting beliefs and learning to trust one’s own desires, even when they don’t align with prescribed gender roles or family/cultural normsThe pivotal role of community, honest conversation, and seeing one’s experience validated by others (“the crack that lets the light in”)How entrepreneurship and life-coaching became transformational tools for self-actualization and lasting changePractical recommendations for cultivating self-awareness and untangling personal desires from societal rulebooks

Quote from the Episode:

“I thought I lost myself in motherhood. But I came to realize later—no, I just never knew myself to begin with. And motherhood will reveal that to you because it will amplify everything. Every insecurity, every fear, every doubt, every place that you don't know yourself or trust yourself, motherhood will serve that right up to you.”—Emilie Karun

Timestamps:00:00 Show intro; Amy Stone welcomes Emilie Karun from central Illinois01:44 Emilie Karun identifies as a proud Gen Xer; family background & generational influences03:30 Early career ambitions, State Farm job, and the dream of being a stay-at-home mom05:14 Reflections on growing up with a working mom, latchkey kid experience, and its (lack of) influence on Emilie’s own decisions06:45 Societal messages about selfless motherhood, the “good girl” fantasy, and needing to be perfect09:41 Navigating social and family environments—how “fitting in” shaped ideas of success13:15 Parenting daughters, changing media messages, and if the perfection pressure still exists17:04 Why women trade their own desires for approval, belonging, and success20:35 The breaking point: realizing “happily ever after” wasn’t enough, discovering Glennon Doyle, and the first “crack in the wall”26:53 Feeling stuck, resisting the “mommy and me” and PTO mom roles, and starting to question old rules31:04 The life-changing realization: there is no one right way to be a mom, just opinions34:30 A slow, years-long evolution into self-permission and possibility35:50 Launching a blog, falling in love with writing, and discovering life coaching39:46 How entrepreneurship forced massive personal growth and self-discovery42:44 Emilie’s current work: helping women reclaim self-trust and burn the rulebook46:02 Book and podcast recommendations—why fiction has surprising power for self-knowledge48:09 Unsupervised online shopping: the joy of simple tools and supplements for perimenopause self-care50:03 Closing thoughts and where to connect with Emilie Karun online

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