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News 12 Staff

419spotlightnj2_2025-04-19-09-21-55

We are putting the spotlight on modern Mom probs. Tara Clark is the founder. I love that name. Where did that come from? Uh, thank you. I appreciate that. Uh, it actually is modern Mom problems, but when I was doing my Instagram, I thought it's too many letters, it's too long, so I cut it down for modern Mom probs, but I like to say that whether it's on my Instagram account or in my book or on my podcast, I like to talk about anything that falls underneath the umbrella of a modern mom problem. It's something I'm gonna talk about. We will tackle those problems. I love that. Yeah, speaking of your Instagram page, how many followers do you have? I have nearly 800,000 followers. I've been doing this since 2016, years ago before I actually started my account. I worked at Nickelodeon and I worked in social media at Nickelodeon and for a time I was Dora the Explorer on Facebook. Really? I love it. Yeah. And so I left Nickelodeon when my son was born to stay home with him full time, but when he was about 3 years old. I was looking for a connection and I, we were living in New York City at the time and it's a big city and sometimes it could be a lonely city so I started my account to connect with other moms and we were making jokes about things we were talking about what it was like to raise toddlers and then when I moved back to New Jersey, I changed the name to modern mom problems at the time because I had it was NYC mom problems which New York City mom problems are different. Problems, but I changed the name to Modern Mom Problems and the account just took off from there and people all over the country all over the world say yes, I have modern mom problems and uh we're happy to talk about them. Now when you say New York City problems are different, um, gosh, it could be anything from getting your stroller down the subway stairs. Good point. Or uh trying to get into certain schools or I mean, having all the toys in the apartment or the stroller and the bicycles and everything all in the apartment, there are so many different things. So how did this take off once you launched it? I really think the name had so much to do with it because when I said modern mom probs people said oh I have modern mom problems and whether they lived in California or Des Moines or in Wayne they say yeah I I relate to that I understand let's talk about it let's talk about the silly things whether it's a run to target or really serious things like postpartum depression and maternal mental health like I said, as long as it falls underneath that umbrella, it's something I'm gonna talk about.

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419spotlightnj3_2025-04-19-12-20-30

Tara Clark is the founder of Modern Mom Probs. You travel all over the place on speaking engagements. Just recently you were in Orlando, Florida. Tell me all about this. I was, yes, so I am a frequent speaker at women's conferences whether it's Alt Summit or Mom 2.0. I just got back from. 2.0 where I was speaking about navigating content creation as our children age and I often speak at women's conferences about various different topics because I think it's so important to one connect with each other in person and not just digitally and to share the knowledge and information that I have. You also were on Tamin Hall. I was. What was that experience like? You're right. I was on Tammarin Hall just about a year ago right now. Um, my girlfriend Dina was supposed to fly from Florida to New Jersey for a girls weekend that I was hosting, and unfortunately her flight got canceled and all the other girls flew into New Jersey, but Dina made a video. About how sad she was and about how she never had the opportunity to take time for herself until now and this was her moment this was her big moment and the video sort of went viral and it caught the attention of Taron Hall's producers so they called Dina and said we want to fly you to New York and Dina said, Sure, that'd be amazing. And then also could I bring my friend Tara who organized the event and they said sure and so Dina. And I that was the first time we met in person because she is my internet friend and we met uh in the green room at Tamern's show and so Dina and I were on the show and I am pleased to say that this past weekend my girlfriends and I, including Dina, got together for a girls weekend. That's so exciting. It is. It really was. What does a girls weekend do? We've seen the movie, but what does it do for you all? Oh. It's almost hard to put into words. If I could say if I could sum it up in one word, it would be magical. It is magical to have somebody that is there to listen to you and to nod and to understand and to look in your eyes and know that even if their journey and experience might be a little different, that's OK because she's there to listen to you and listen to yours and to validate you. We also ate a lot of. Soup, which normally you don't think like, oh girls are getting together, eat soup. We had soup for like 3 meals. It's been kind of cold here in New Jersey, so I don't know that was your comfort food that was our comfort food. We've been eating a lot of soup, but we're there to listen to each other, to hype each other up, to be each other's biggest cheerleaders.

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420spotlightnj4_2025-04-20-08-28-09

Tara Clark is one busy lady. She's the founder of Modern Mom Props. She's also an author, and we're gonna talk about her book and she has a podcast. I do, yeah, so the book is called Modern Mom Probs A Survival Guide for 21st Century Moms. How did this come about, including that title? That's a mouthful, right? Um, so I actually got my book deal in the spring of. 2020 during the pandemic during the pandemic, the pandemic just happened lockdown just happened and I was signing the contract for the book deal and I had the summer to write the book because it was due at the end of the summer and my son was home from school and my husband was home and I'm like throwing my son fruit snacks and pretzels and stuff and telling him to go watch another episode of television while I'm writing a book about motherhood. When thoughts were coming out of your head to pour into this book? Yeah, yeah, so the book is organized in 99 problems and I say I got 99 problems, but motherhood ain't 10, I love that. So I had to hit my 99 problems and more fruit snacks, more pretzels, more television while I'm writing this now I'm just playing, but the book came out in April of 2021, which is amazing to think how long ago that seems, but yet still short, you know, it's, it's kind of wild to to think that, but it was a one. Wonderful time um to be home with my family and to spend time with them and also be creative in writing the book at the same time. Did you ever think you'd wind up writing a book? I didn't. That was never my goal. I have a lot of friends on Instagram who are writers by trade, and that was always their goal. And it wasn't necessarily for me. I happened to be featured in a publication in Bergen County, and that caught the eye of an editor, and then the rest was history. You also have a podcast. I do about that. What's the I do. It's Modern Mom Probs with Tara Clark, and my tagline is where we try to solve the world's modern mom problems, but if we can't, at least we're having fun talking about them. Who are the guests you'd like to talk with? So I've had Taron Hall on the show 3 times. I've had Kelly Roland from Destiny's Child. Seriously, yeah, she was. Kelly was amazing. Um, I've had so many wonderful guests whether it's celebrities or medical professionals, authors, lots of authors, uh, it really runs the gamut and we're just talking about all the different types of modern mom problems that we share.

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420spotlightnj5_2025-04-20-09-17-28

Tara Clark is my guest. She is the founder of Modern Mom Probs, P R O B S. That is so cool the way you put that. OK, that looks good too. Thank you. What do you hear are some of the biggest problems women experience as moms? Yes, so on my podcast at the end of every interview, every conversation, I always ask my guest, what do you think is the biggest modern mom problem right now? And they think about it for a 2nd and 9 times out of 10 I'm hearing social media comparison. Whoa, yes, that's huge. We're scrolling our phones sometimes just for entertainment, sometimes for information, but we're getting sucked into this comparison trap. Where who has a nicer cleaner wider kitchen and who's going on what vacation and who just got the latest Amazon haul and what new clothes are you getting and then it makes you feel less than it makes you feel not as good because of all of these different messaging that we're receiving and and it's not just things, right? It's parenting too. Who's doing a better job with sleep training who's feeding their kids organic foods, who's doing what, who's doing that? And you think I'm, am I, am I a bad mom? I'm giving 110% here. Am I a bad mom because I'm not doing what Sue and Jane and Melissa are doing? No, that's not necessarily the truth. So what we have to do. Is break through that messaging, right? We get information overload and we have to just shed all of these expectations of things that we're seeing on the phone. And so that is one of the biggest modern mom problems right now, but Tara, people have to realize there are a lot of folks who are embellishing their lives, you know, now with AI and all that they'll make it look better probably than it really is, so you've got to remember that that's what it is and that's what I try to impart with people too, but. On the whole, I think that's what people are really stuck on right now, which is terrible, right? That that is something that is new to us as a generation of mothers compared to previous mothers. Now it's not to say that we didn't used to have magazines or different things or just keeping up with the Joneses, right? So that's always been the case, but we have this little computer in our pocket that we grab 100 times a day reminding us of this.

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420spotlightnj6_2025-04-20-12-33-22

Tara Clark is the founder of Modern Mom Probs, and you have a following of 800,000 on Instagram, so you must resonate with women around the world. I'd like to think so. I, I also say that it's the topics of the modern mom probs, whether it's loneliness, lack of an in-person village, whether it's the mental load of. Motherhood, uh, women not taking enough time for themselves. There's so many different things that we talk about, but a really big one is moms working so hard to keep everything humming in their families and in their lives as well. She did shout out to my mom. She's extraordinary love her, um. These moms are giving 110% and often. They're not giving themselves enough because they feel guilty about putting themselves first. We've got to get over that. Mom guilt is a huge thing. Mom shame is a huge thing. That's another modern mom problem we talk about shaming moms for the choices that they're making for their family. Yes, but you need to walk in our shoes before you judge exactly that. So there's a lot of things, a lot of things that we cover. There's a lot of stuff going on, but um. Going back to moms needing to take time for themselves, that's why we're hosting the reset retreat on April 26th so that moms can take a day to themselves, make new friends, get reconnected with themselves, re re spark their joy, uh, reignite themselves just so that they could go home and feel refreshed and be like, yes, I could do this. I got this. How often do you hold these retreats? This is my first one. Congratulations. Thank you. I appreciate that. However, I am working with TH Irwin and she has a company called TH Experiences who she is extraordinarily talented when it comes to building unique special experiences. She also hosts the Englewood Night Market in addition to other events. She and I met at a women's networking event and she said that I was a woman who wowed her. And the compliment. I was, I was very I was very pleased by that. So then she invited me to speak on a panel in Paramus called Permission to Pivot back in January, and it just the relationship took off from there and we said, well, why don't we just take this into a retreat? So I'm really excited to be working with TH remind people about the date and the time and where it is in Ringwood, New Jersey at Merced Manor on Saturday, April 26th.

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Founder Tara Clark joined News 12’s Della Crews to discuss the upcoming Reset Retreat event scheduled to take place in Ringwood on April 26.

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