Meet Chelsea Fielder-Jenks

Hey, y’all! My name is Chelsea Fielder-Jenks and I am excited to be joining Austin Mom’s Blog! As a Central Texas native (that introductory “y’all” is authentic), I’m not new to Austin, but I am new-ish to this whole mom thing.

My husband, Lyle, and I are high school sweethearts and parents to Oliver (2016) and Rowan (2018) – yep, we are just on the other side of the “Two Under Two” phase, which, I have come to learn, isn’t the worst of it.

That’s the thing about motherhood, it keeps you guessing. That’s been my experience, anyway. And I’m talking since the beginning… with pregnancy, and then childbirth, and then mothering an infant and now a toddler and an infant. I feel like I’m always learning something new. I’m curious as to why that is. I’m not the first person to raise tiny humans. 

There’s so much about motherhood that we don’t talk about. This is what I’m most excited about being a contributor to Austin Mom’s Blog – I hope to use this platform to talk about all the realities of motherhood. My mission in life, both personally and professionally, is to send a non-judgmental message of acceptance, compassion, and validation. It’s my philosophy that if we do this, we’ll be more connected in our relationships and more rooted in our genuine selves – and that there, Mamas, is a recipe for a joyous life.

At this point, I should probably mention that professionally I am a Licensed Professional Counselor and founder of Thrive Counseling & Consulting. I share that not to add authority to my writing, but to help validate just how much of a shhhh- show parenting and motherhood is.

Jenks’ Fall Family Photo, 2018. We did our best.

In my practice, I teach clients things like emotion regulation, effective communication, self-care, and parenting skills. I know this stuff inside and out. I’ve studied it and continue to study it. I attend conferences and trainings. I even conduct trainings, teaching others about it. And yet, still in my own life, in my role as a mother, I struggle. Mothering is hard. It’s imperfect, messy and unknowing. No one does it perfectly.

Yet that’s not the message we receive. We scroll Instagram and Facebook and Tumblr – we are flooded with images and posts and blogs about seemingly perfect mothering. We read articles that leave us believing that there is a “right” and a “wrong” way to mother.

When we do have moments where we get a peek behind the curtain of perfection into the realities of motherhood (for example, we discover relatable or “real” content), we mothers often tell ourselves a story that prevents us from extending that permission to be imperfect to ourselves. We tell ourselves a story that allows other mothers to have these messy parts but prevents us from allowing nothing less than perfection for ourselves. Well, Mamas, I want to rip that curtain of perfection from the eff-ing rods. 

I’m here to tell you that perfection is not reality. It’s not genuine. I tell you this with lots of love, care, compassion, and a tender heart (okay, and maybe some anger mixed in too – I mean, it’s insane for anyone to be held to these high standards). This imperfection is what I hope to explore with you here at Austin Mom’s Blog.

So, to all you mothers out there, what I want you to hear loudest is this: While we feel like we are just surviving motherhood, we can simultaneously thrive – we can lead our families with love, kindness, compassion, and raw imperfection!

Keep it real, Mamas!

Chelsea

chelseafielderjenks
Chelsea Fielder-Jenks is a Central Texas native. She is married to her high school sweetheart, Lyle, and together they navigate both the joy and perils of parenthood. Chelsea is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Austin, TX and founder of Thrive Counseling & Consulting, PLLC. It is both her personal and professional mission to share messages of acceptance and validation with other moms. You can follow Chelsea on Instagram and Facebook @ThriveCounselingAustin.

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