I had the absolute joy of sitting down with Ansley Watson — host of Good Morning Arkansas, working mom, toddler mom, and eight months pregnant at the time of taping, by the way — a certified legend. We talked about my debut collection, Poems of a Burned Out Toddler Mom. And friends, I left that conversation feeling seen in a way I didn’t expect from a Monday morning TV segment.
If you’ve ever felt like you belong to everyone else — your job, your kids, your partner, your inbox — but couldn’t quite find you in the middle of all of it? Keep reading. I’ve got words for that.
Why a Working Mom Wrote Poetry (and Why You Should Care)
Here’s the thing about me: I wasn’t sitting around waiting for inspiration to strike. I was a successful nonprofit leader. Good career. Beautiful family. Picture-perfect from the outside.
And I was, by my own words, dying inside.
The poems in this collection aren’t just poems. They’re the actual pieces I brought into therapy to try to figure out what the heck was going on with me. They’re a working mom’s version of a paper trail — evidence of a woman who gave everything to everyone until there was nothing left. I describes it as becoming the Giving Tree, “just cut to the trunk.”
If that image just punched you in the chest a little, you’re not alone.
I realized I had bought into a lie that a lot of moms that work buy into: that I belonged to everyone else. My job. My kids. My community. And in all that giving, I lost myself.
My book is the record of finding my way back.
The Science Behind Why You Can’t Just “Take a Break” on Your Phone
Okay, but here’s where I gets genuinely nerdy and I love it.
We’ve all done it. Three seconds of hiding in the bathroom, scrolling Instagram or TikTok, telling ourselves it’s a break. But here’s the thing — it’s not actually a break. And there’s real brain science behind why.
I explain it like this: scrolling on your phone blocks your brain’s default mode network — the part of your brain that activates when you’re awake but resting. That quiet, wandering mental space? That’s where restoration actually happens. When you hand your brain a phone, you’re keeping it in a state of low-grade stimulation that feels like rest but isn’t.
For working moms in particular, this matters. A lot. In my research, the number one word that came up again and again was exhausted. Not stressed, not overwhelmed — exhausted. And we’re reaching for the one thing that’s making it worse.
The alternative? Books. Art. Actual face-to-face conversation. I call these revolutionary acts in our current culture — and I mean it. Art and poetry are clinically shown to decrease stress by up to 32%. You don’t have to read a whole collection. You can just look at something beautiful for a minute and let your brain do what it was designed to do.
That’s the whole pitch. And it’s a pretty good one.
The Full Good Morning Arkansas Interview
Ansley Watson, Good Morning Arkansas: Well, Zoe Miles Loeser is a poet, facilitator, and a mom of three. And she’s sharing tech-free tools for working moms. She’s also going to perform one of her poems for us this morning. Zoe, thank you so much for being here. I feel like you just recently had a baby — three months postpartum — you have two other kids on top of that. So I’m so excited to talk to you about all the mom things. But first of all, give us a little background information about what you were doing before you just decided to start writing and releasing your poems.
Zoe Loeser: Yeah. I was a successful leader in nonprofits in our community. And I was doing something I really cared about. And I had a beautiful family. And I — from the outside — looked like I had everything. But I was just dying inside.
The poems in this collection in particular are the actual poems I took to therapy to process what the heck was going on with me. And I realized that I believed a lie — that I belonged to everyone else — and that I pushed me to give so much of myself that I lost me. I was the Giving Tree, just cut to the trunk.
And becoming a mom, and that identity shift that is breathtaking and heartbreaking — it just does a number on you. And so here I was, just wrestling and processing through those things.
Ansley Watson: So you came out with this book — it’s titled Poems of a Burned Out Toddler Mom. And I think many moms can relate to this. I have only gotten to read about a third of the way through your book here, but do you mind reading a poem or something?
Zoe Loeser: Yeah, absolutely!
Cuffs on her wrists. I have cuffs on my wrists.
Poem Copyright 2025 Poems of a Burned Out Toddler Mom, Zoe Loeser LLC
I confess to revolutions playing small,
a vibranium hole plug with a to-do list.
Nauseous, apathetic, bitter-tongued anger
coiled on a patio chair.
Should I walk if my back is out?
Sit at a desk and do work without shriveling,
crashing, malnourished.
The motivation was how important it is.
Get to the other side.
Mix the paint.
Create the life that bursts
Phoenix power. Ignite a sun.
Lift the walls off your chest,
boundaries you crawled under and died.
This thing on my face cannot keep going.
I am not nameless. “I belong to everyone
else.” The truth got Daughter here:
Walk into the world with your work.
Ansley Watson: Of course, that was titled “Cuffs on Her Wrists.” What were you going through during the time when you wrote this?
Zoe Loeser: I believed this lie that I belonged to everyone else, and I was angry. I was angry that I lost me. I was angry that I was put in this position — and I also realized that I had power.
It actually is a super nerdy poem because it’s very Marvel Universe-based. The cuffs on her wrist have to do with Captain Marvel realizing that her power is not isolated to her hands. It’s this moment where she breaks out of her cuffs and she’s flying — and she realizes that she is more powerful than she could ever imagine.
Ansley Watson: And the other reason why you wrote this is because oftentimes we reach for our phones for that entertainment or that break, but you want moms to reach out to something like this or other books — why is that?
Zoe Loeser: Yeah, so actually our scrolling on our phone blocks our brain’s default network. And that is the part of our brain that activates when we’re awake but resting. So when we reach for our phones to take a break, we’re not actually getting a break.
And moms are exhausted — we’re so tired. If you don’t know that about us, we are very tired. We give 110% but we feel like no one in our lives — not our jobs, not our kids — gets more than 50% of us. We always feel like we’re failing someone.
The number one word that came up in my research was exhausted. We are just exhausted, exhausted, exhausted.
And if we’re reaching for our phones for a break — for that three seconds we have hiding in the bathroom — we don’t get one, because our default mode is blocked.
But when we pick up books, when we pick up art, when we talk to someone face to face — those are revolutionary acts in our society. Our tired, precious brains can’t fight the trillion-dollar tech industry. But we can have a conversation, and it will change everything for us.
Ansley Watson: Oh, absolutely. Of course, a mom also wants to get this for themselves — or someone wants to gift this for Mother’s Day. How do we do that?
Zoe Loeser: zoemilesloeser.com. You can just Google me. The buy now button is right there. The best way to stay in contact with me — I actually don’t do social media — but the best way is to buy the book.
I also have a quiz on my site that is the Working Mom’s Hope Assessment. And that can help you know that you’re actually doing better than you think you are.
Ansley Watson: And as art too — people can get the art.
Zoe Loeser: Yes! The art is designed for the places where moms work — our offices, our board rooms. If you hide in your bathroom, that’s a great spot to put it. And you just stare at it for a little bit.
Art, poetry — they are all proven to decrease stress by up to 32%. So if you just look at it, take some breaths, exhale — it does so much for your body and your brain. More than your phone can.
Ansley Watson: I don’t know if this next thing is a secret I’m about to spill… (laughing)
Zoe Loeser: Oh yeah — I have another book. I mean, it’s not out right now — I’m working on it. Yes, that’s fine. Let’s talk about all the books. My next book coming out is Poems of a Postpartum Toddler Mom. It’s actually really hard to write because it is so vulnerable about —
Ansley Watson: I mean, you’re going through that right now.
Zoe Loeser: Yes. That book is based on my experience with my daughter. All the poems are written — we’re just editing and publishing at the moment. And I’m writing through my current postpartum experience. But that’s why it’s so tough to edit those poems, because it’s just so raw and hard and beautiful and rich. I mean, it’s the essence of life — all of its goodness and hardness.
Ansley Watson: Well Zoe, thank you for coming on and being vulnerable. A lot of moms can relate. Of course I can relate — being a working mom. Thank you so much.
Zoe Loeser: Yeah, thank you guys for having me.
What I Want You to Take Away From This
If you’re a working mom who has Googled “working mom burnout” at 11pm while pretending to watch TV — hi, this is for you.
My work isn’t about toxic positivity. It’s not “just go take a bubble bath and journal your feelings.” It’s the real stuff. The angry stuff. The I-gave-everything-and-now-there’s-nothing-left stuff. And it’s also about what happens on the other side of that — when you realize you’re actually more powerful than you’ve been acting like.
A few things worth bookmarking from this conversation:
Your phone break isn’t a break. Next time you’ve got three seconds to yourself, try staring at a piece of art you love instead. Your brain will actually get to rest.
Self care for moms doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming. It can be a poem on your desk. A piece of art in your home office. A book that makes you feel less alone at 6am.
You are not the Giving Tree. You are allowed to keep some branches.
Get the Book (Yes, Before Mother’s Day)
Poems of a Burned Out Toddler Mom makes a genuinely great Mother’s Day gift — for yourself, for your work bestie, for the mom on your team who you can tell is running on fumes and caffeine.
Last day to get it in time for Mother’s Day is Friday, April 14th.
👉 Grab it at zoemilesloeser.com/book
And while you’re there, take the Working Mom’s Hope Assessment on my site. It’s free, it’s fast, and it will confirm that you’re doing better than you think. (We could all use that right now.)
Zoe Miles Loeser is a poet, facilitator, and working mom based in Oklahoma. Her debut collection, Poems of a Burned Out Toddler Mom, is available now at zoemilesloeser.com. Her follow-up collection, Poems of a Postpartum Toddler Mom, is in progress.
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