What Do I Want to Be When They Grow Up?

(And Other Thoughts From a 40-something Mom)

Karen Johnson

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN:
  9781394286300
• eBook ISBN:
  9781394286324
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Personal Development

Helpful, inspiring guide for mothers seeking to flourish and succeed after their kids grow up

In What Do I Want to Be When They Grow Up? (And Other Thoughts from a 40-Something Mom), renowned parenting influencer Karen Johnson provides a fun, easy-to-understand, and inspiring guide for mothers currently experiencing an empty nest, or who see one on the horizon, and are looking to lead their best, most fulfilling lives and feel comfortable that they're not alone in their struggles. This book draws upon stories and experiences from Johnson and mothers around her, helping readers seek out new passions, including new career paths, to avoid feeling as if they are solely defined by motherhood.

In this book, Johnson explores topics including:

• Taking risks, putting yourself out there, getting stronger mentally and physically, and fostering positive relationships
• Navigating the wondrously weird world of perimenopause and aging bodies with confidence, knowledge, and grace
• Working through the very real emotions of guilt, anxiety, failure, and shame that often accompany this transitory period in mothers' lives

What Do I Want to Be When They Grow Up? (And Other Thoughts from a 40-Something Mom) earns a well deserved spot on the bookshelves of all mothers seeking to develop individualism, mindfulness, and genuine feelings of contentment and happiness as they turn the page to the next chapter of their lives.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Prologue
• Chapter 1 What Do I Want to Be When They Grow Up?
• Chapter 2 Guilt
• Chapter 3 You Can’t Do It All, So Quit Trying
• Chapter 4 When Mothers Are Ghosts
• Chapter 5 How Much Are SAHMs Actually Worth?
• Chapter 6 The Default Parenting Ferris Wheel
• Chapter 7 That Day I Hiked 14 Miles and Braced for a Hip Replacement (But Also Realized Something about Me as a Mom)
• Chapter 8 “Hi, I’m Sweating!” (WTF Is Happening to My Body?)
• Chapter 9 On Aging and Beauty Culture (So, I Guess I Have a Turkey Neck Now…? Whatever)
• Chapter 10 On Friendships
• Chapter 11 The Comparison Trap
• Chapter 12 The Water Challenge (and How We Need to Reframe “Success”)
• Chapter 13 Get Thee to a Therapist!
• Chapter 14 Of Course We’re Pissed Off
• Chapter 15 Anxiety, Perfectionism, + a Crippling Fear of Failure = a Toxic Cocktail that Does Not Mix with Motherhood
• Chapter 16 Learning to Get Out of My Own Way
• Chapter 17 Nobody Talks About the Loneliness
• Chapter 18 How Resentment and the “Who Has It Harder” Game Nearly Killed My Marriage, and the Daily Phone Call That Probably Saved It
• Chapter 19 Lessons for My Kids (and for Myself) as We All Grow Up
• Chapter 20 The Death of Martyrdom
• Chapter 21 “Everything Is Fine,” “I Don’t Care What Other People Think,” and Other Lies We Tell
• Chapter 22 How I “Lost Myself” but Found the Pieces and Put Myself Back Together
• Chapter 23 How Did I Get Here? (The Story of Our Gladiator Turtles, Medically Fragile Dog, and One Dead Plant)
• Chapter 24 The Many Forms of Motherhood Grief
• Chapter 25 Always Awkward, Never Cool
• Chapter 26 Halfway There (and Livin’ on a Prayer)
• Chapter 27 Make Me a Promise
• Chapter 28 I’m a Total Fraud (by the Way)
• Chapter 29 We Can Do Hard Things (and Let Me Tell You How I Know)
• Chapter 30 So,What AM I Going to Be When TheyGrow Up?
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• EULA