Not Working Right Now

Happy 2026 — we’re back!

If you’ve been here since Season 1, you might be wondering where we went. Short answer: life happened. Long answer? The messy middle got really messy.

After telling you we weren’t going anywhere… we kind of disappeared. From September until now, we went quiet — not because we stopped caring about this community, but because everything else got loud. New businesses, career pivots, hard decisions, unexpected pauses, and a whole lot of figuring-it-out-as-we-went.

In this episode, we’re not doing a full recap or tying every...

This week, we’re doing something different — and something fun. We asked you, our Not Working Right Now community, to send us your burning (and sometimes random) questions, and wow, you delivered.

In this special Community Ask Me Anything episode, Alicia and Melyse dive into your submissions with their trademark honesty, humour, and a whole lot of messy realness. From parenting hacks to government pay frustrations and to big transitions back to work, we cover it all.

Here’s what you’ll hear in this episode:

🛑 The biggest quality of life shifts we’ve made in th...

This week on Not Working Right Now, we’re pulling back the curtain on what it’s like to start an SSRI for anxiety. Melyse is just 10 days into sertraline (Zoloft), and she’s sharing it all: why she decided to revisit medication, what the first week of side effects felt like (spoiler: it was a lot like first trimester nausea), and the surprising early wins she didn’t expect to see.

We also talk about:

Stigma, strength, and why moms often feel like medication is “a crutch”

The physiotherapy-for-your-brain analogy that helped Alicia say y...

In this solo episode, Alicia and Melyse are back to share a pulse check on summer, talk about their sanity (or lack of!), and explore what’s next in their messy middle journeys.

Melyse spills details from Mom Camp 2025—the highs, lows, and what she’ll do differently next year (hint: more camps, less chaos), what she’s learning in her coaching program, and her exciting next step: dipping her toes into supply teaching!

Alicia opens up about the growth and healing she’s been focused on during her medical leave, how summer wasn't exactly what she h...

In this episode of Not Working Right Now, we sit down with a grade school teacher Katie, who is also a mom, runner, yogi, and unofficial Christmas sweater influencer to dive into all things school and motherhood.

Katie joins us to pull back the curtain on what really happens inside a classroom—and let’s just say, it’s not what most parents imagine. From managing 30+ kids (with only 40 minutes of prep time a day!) to answering to “Mom,” “Mrs. Teacher,” and “Miss Mommy,” Katie shares hilarious, honest, and eye-opening stories about teaching in 2025.

We cover it all:

In this episode of Not Working Right Now, we sit down with Dr. Sarah Vadeboncoeur, a Naturopathic Doctor who helps women stop running on stress and start feeling like themselves again, because "being a Mom is not a medical diagnosis"

We talk about why so many moms hit burnout in the messy middle years, how our bodies signal when something’s off (hint: it’s not just about being tired), and why rest isn’t laziness—it’s medicine.

Sarah breaks down the difference between being busy and being full, what it really means to listen to...

This one’s for the parents just trying to survive.

In this bonus episode, we’re stepping away from career pivots and diving into the gloriously chaotic world of parenting — specifically, all the questionable hacks we’ve used that definitely wouldn’t make it into a parenting book… but should.

From dyeing Advil red to make it more appealing, to telling our kids that “Le Monsieur” shuts down the parks at night, to casually strapping them into their car seats just to get 3 minutes of silence — we’re laying it all out. We’re ta...

If you’ve ever felt like the version of you at work is shiny and put-together, while the version of you at home is running on fumes… this one’s for you.

In this episode, we sit down with fellow messy mom and NWRN community member Sara, who recently hit pause on her HR career to face something that so many of us try to push through: burnout, postpartum depression, and the crushing pressure to be everything for everyone.

Sara shares her deeply personal story — from colic babies and pandemic...

In this episode, we (Alicia + Melyse) open up about what finances actually feel like in this season of life — pausing careers, raising kids, and carrying the invisible weight of all those obligations while the bank account balance slowly shrinks.

Spoiler: we are not financial advisors (and honestly, you probably shouldn’t take advice from us anyway). But we do know how heavy and lonely the money stuff can feel when you’re trying to make it all work — and we’re here to say you’re not alone.

We share:

This week on Not Working Right Now, we’re doing a little pulse check on life. In true messy-middle fashion, we sat down for a candid chat about what’s actually working for us right now… and what’s definitely not.

No filters, no “perfect systems” — just two moms talking through the little wins, the ongoing struggles, and the hilarious in-betweens of trying to make life, motherhood, and work actually… work.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re crushing it in one area while dropping the ball in another (sometimes a...

We used to think rest meant crashing on the couch after the kids went to bed or booking a vacation we were too burnt out to enjoy. But since hitting pause on work, we’ve had to totally rethink what rest actually is. In this episode, we’re unpacking the messy process of slowing down, how we’ve figured out activities we can do that give our brain the rest it needs, and how doing less is sometimes the bravest thing you can do. If you’re feeling tired in your soul, this one’s for you.

...

In this episode, we’re going back to before. Before the pause, before the unraveling, before we admitted that “fine” wasn’t cutting it anymore. We’re talking about what life looked like when we were juggling careers, kids, and expectations—and silently burning out under the weight of it all.

If you’ve ever smiled through gritted teeth and said “I’m fine” when you were anything but… this one’s for you.

We’re getting honest about the warning signs we ignored, the pressure to keep going, and the moment we realized...

Welcome to the very first episode of Not Working Right Now—a podcast for moms in the messy middle. You know the stage: you’re done having babies, but not done growing… and something about your current life just isn’t working right now.

In this kickoff episode, we’re introducing ourselves, sharing how this whole thing started (spoiler: it began with a coffee and a “me too” moment), and opening up about why we felt called to create this space. Our hope is to build a community where women can be honest about burnout, caree...