Haylee Collins on Working Through Maternal Rage and Being Robbed By The Pandemic

Life After Birth with Yara Heary

Hi mamas. Today on the podcast I’m joined by Haylee Collins, who is a book publisher and creator of the magazine, Howl, which is how I came to know her. Howl is an incredible magazine that explores the intersection of motherhood and creativity, and was born out of her own observations of watching and speaking to other artists, writers, designers and photographers who are also mothers about how they occupy both of those identities at the same time.

In this episode we discuss Haylee’s experience of becoming a mother and, in particular, her experience of contending with maternal rage. This was exacerbated by postpartum depression, being robbed of the experience she had hoped for by the pandemic, and the let down from the romanticism of the notion of motherhood that society so often creates.

We also discuss this in the context of the anger we observed and were at the receiving end of from our parents when we were children, how we relate to this now, and the need for compassion for them and for ourselves as we navigate this with our own children.

We also discuss:

• Raising boys as a feminist and having to unpick the one dimensionality of masculinity that is pushed onto boys early on, as well as how to add nuance to some of the shorthand we apply to feminism with regard to girls which excludes boys from the conversation.

• Choosing to have no more children and the factors that play into this decision, including the need to honour our own boundaries, energy and capacity. We discuss the weight of this decision and the helpful and not-so-helpful advice around this subject.

• Haylee’s experience of pandemic parenting and the loss of the opportunity for her to share her son with her loved ones due to the restrictions, which was further heightened by her decision that this would be her only child. We also discuss how this played into the anger she experienced.

This is such a raw conversation and I’m so grateful to Haylee for sharing her experience so candidly. I hope you get as much from listening to this conversation as I did from having it.

Here is where you can find out more about me (Yara), how to work with me and some resources:

Why Am I So Angry Workshop

*** Waitlist for The Rebirth, Group Coaching for Mamas ***This is my signature 3 months online group coaching container for mothers which covers family of origin, inner child work, nervous system basics, anger, boundaries and much more.

@lifeafterbirthpsychology

www.lifeafterbirth.com.au

Free Inner Critic Workbook

Free Values Aligned Living Workbook

Find out more about Haylee:

@hayleecol

www.howlmagazine.com.au

www.hayleecollins.au

Looking for support for anger while you mother? To access my Why Am I So Angry Workshop click HERE