Beyond the Front Door: a conversation with Josée Bergeron About Motherhood, Nature, and Starting Small
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When outdoor life stops feeling natural
In this episode of The My Outdoorsy Mom Podcast, I’m joined by Josée Bergeron, creator of Backwoods Mama and author of the new book Beyond the Front Door: Embracing Nature for a Happier, Healthier Family. What I loved most about this conversation is that Josée doesn’t talk about the outdoors from atop a pedestal. She speaks from lived experience — from motherhood, overwhelm, disconnection, and the slow work of finding her way back.
Josée shares how a major life transition — moving during the pandemic, pregnancy, isolation, and the mounting pressures of modern parenting — slowly pulled her family away from the rhythms of outdoor life that had once felt natural. What followed was not just less time outside, but a deeper sense of disconnection from herself, her children, and the natural world.
A conversation for the overstimulated mom
One of the most moving parts of this episode is Josée’s honesty about the season of motherhood that shaped her book. She talks about the weight of driving kids to activities, managing screen-filled days, navigating pregnancy, and feeling like the values she once held were being slowly eroded by the pace of everyday life.
As I read her book, I kept thinking: this is the kind of story so many mothers will recognize. The moment where you realize something isn’t working anymore. The moment where you feel stretched too thin, overstimulated, and like you’re standing at the edge of either making a change or staying stuck in what’s familiar.
Josée describes a pivotal moment when she instinctively left the house and drove somewhere outside just to breathe. That moment didn’t fix everything overnight, but it gave her space to ask a better question: Is this working for our family?
Nature is not another box to check
A message woven throughout this episode is one I think so many parents need to hear: outdoor time is not just another item on the to-do list.
Josée talks about the difference between treating outside time like a checkbox and building a relationship with nature. That shift is so important. When we reduce outdoor parenting to a performance metric, we miss the beauty of what it actually offers: regulation, awe, attention, peace, and connection.
This episode is a reminder that nature doesn’t have to mean a big hike, a camping trip, or an all-day adventure. Sometimes it’s the tree in your backyard. The birds at the feeder. The dandelion in the crack of the sidewalk. The breeze moving through the leaves. The front steps. The lake on the way home from practice.
What it means to co-parent with nature
We also talk about one of my favorite ideas from Josée’s book: the idea of co-parenting with nature.
So often when we talk about getting kids outside, we focus only on the benefits for children. But in this conversation, Josée reminds us that nature supports parents too. When we step outside, the pressure in the house often eases. Our nervous systems settle. We gain perspective. We come back calmer, more patient, and more present.
That part of the conversation really resonated with me because I’ve seen it in my own life too. Our kids are watching the way we relate to the outdoors. They are learning from the way we regulate, the way we notice, the way we pause. Nature isn’t just something we hand to them. It’s something we model.
Why older kids still need the outdoors
Another powerful part of this conversation is Josée’s insight into older kids and teens. While we’re seeing more momentum around forest schools and nature-based early childhood education, that same energy often disappears once kids hit adolescence.
But teens still need nature. In fact, Josée argues they may need it even more.
We talk about the research around the “teenage gap” — that period where many kids begin to disconnect from the natural world — and how parents can respond without panic. Her encouragement is both practical and freeing: keep modeling it, keep protecting time for it, and keep looking for small ways to weave it into everyday life.
That might mean family time on the weekend, a walk with the dog, or a spontaneous stop by the lake between activities. It doesn’t have to be dramatic to matter.
The beauty of seasonal rhythms
I also loved our conversation around seasonal living. Josée structures her book around the seasons, and it led us into such a meaningful discussion about family rhythms. Nature has seasons of rest, growth, abundance, and stillness — and families do too.
That was such a helpful reminder for me personally. We spend huge stretches of summer outside, but winter looks different. Fall looks different. And instead of guilting ourselves over that, maybe we can trust that those seasonal shifts are part of a healthy rhythm too.
This week’s Outdoorsy Challenge
At the end of the episode, Josée shares a simple but powerful challenge: notice three good things in nature each day this week.
That’s it.
Write them down in a notebook or in your phone. Invite your kids to do the same. It’s such a small practice, but it creates more awareness, gratitude, and connection — especially in a season when so many of us are craving exactly that.
Want the full episode?
Listen to Season 3, Episode 31 of The My Outdoorsy Mom Podcast with Josée Bergeron wherever you get your podcasts.
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