Becoming Your Parent-Self: Entering Parenthood Supported and Prepared (Q4 2026 cohort)

About this group

As an expecting parent, you have a lot to prepare: the nursery, the birth plan, the registry, the hospital bag. Most of it is about one day (birth) or the baby. But what about the months that follow – and what about YOU? Something we see in nearly every family: the baby arrives, and a whole second workload arrives alongside. More laundry, more appointments, more of the behind-the-scenes coordination that keeps a household running. It does not go away when time off work ends. In most homes it settles onto one person, not because anyone chose that, but because so much happens out of need and pragmatism, and without deliberately making a moment to choose. This is normal, it happens even to people who are organized and capable and paying attention. You have an opportunity right now, while you still have room to think, to begin planning with intention for the next year of your life. So that is what we will do together over four one-hour sessions. You will start by meeting other expecting parents whose due dates are within a few months of yours - a core part of the village you are building. From there you will decide what you’ll hold onto and what you’ll let go of. You will learn what matrescence is while there is still time to prepare for it rather than meeting it cold. And you will build the household systems that hold when you are running on four hours of sleep. The format is deliberately interactive and community-building, because meeting other expecting parents is part of preparing well. In each session, Jennifer and Kelly guide you through a framework and exercises and facilitate a rich conversation. Your questions, your specific situation, your actual life become the material. Expect to talk, to be heard, and to leave each session with something concrete. You belong here if you are carrying a demanding career alongside this pregnancy, if the logistics of the first year feel foggy, and if you would like a plan and peer mothers-to-be who get it. Sessions cover: Crafting Your Village · The “Go Back” Paradox · Matrescence · Building Your Family Operating System This cohort is intended for parents with due dates from December 2026 through February 2027. Group size is capped to ensure time for personalized interaction and connection. Sessions run one hour and are not recorded. As our founding cohort, the Q4 2026 group runs at an introductory rate. Led by: Jennifer Mickel, founder of The Third Shift, a company that applies management frameworks to parenthood to help parents find greater ease and joy. By calling the work of parenthood what it is: work, parents can apply the same skills they use in paid jobs to tame the load at home. In addition to executive coaching for ambitious parents, she offers family operations consulting for households seeking time freedom and joy. Jennifer is a mother of two, former strategy consultant, JD-MBA, and certified co-active professional coach. She hosts The Third Shift: On the Mental Load podcast and writes The Third Shift newsletter. Kelly Ling, founder of Stork & Spark, coaches career-ambitious expecting and new parents through pregnancy, leave, and the return to work. Kelly holds the belief that pregnancy and parental leave can unlock your best career years yet! Kelly is an ICF-certified executive coach, a Berkeley MBA, and a mother of two, and she spent fifteen years in corporate strategy and learning development at DoorDash, McKesson, and Deloitte before building Stork & Spark. She is also Coach in Residence at the Society of Working Moms and writes the Stork Bites & Mat Leave newsletters.