Questions asked years ago land differently with time and lived experience. This reflection revisits early concerns with the clarity that only parenting school-age children can bring. It highlights how confidence grows as survival gives way to steadiness.
Mash-up Clip: What the Pandemic Revealed... Parenting in a Pandemic
23/02/2026 | 3 mins.
The pandemic changed everything emotionally, mentally, and physically. This reflection names the unresolved stress many parents still carry and how survival mode lingers long after crisis ends. It offers language for experiences that were never fully processed.
Mash-up Clip: Advocating for My Child Then ... Advocating for Myself Now
19/02/2026 | 2 mins.
Advocacy is a skill learned through necessity and experience. This clip reflects on becoming clearer and more confident when navigating healthcare systems for both children and self. It affirms that self-trust is built through practice, not permission.
Mash-up Clip: Reflections on the Dating Pool from a Black Single Mother by Choice
16/02/2026 | 3 mins.
Dating looks different when your children’s safety, peace, and home come first. This clip reflects on boundaries, discernment, and why neutrality and shared values matter more than pressure. It captures how priorities sharpen with time and experience.
STFM Exclusive: How It Started... Why I Created Start to Finish Motherhood (STFM)
12/02/2026 | 2 mins.
This reflection shares the heart behind continuing the work after the first chapter ended. It centers joy, softness, and storytelling from a Black woman’s lens, honoring the desire to create safe, affirming spaces. It explains why the story needed room to keep growing.
Listen to the full episode at Start to Finish Motherhood w/ Aisha:
Created by: Mocha SMC LLC (Author)
This podcast is an archived series. The journey continues on Start to Finish Motherhood, where Mash-Up episodes revisit these early conversations with updates from parenting school-age children.
Hi, Pod. First, I want to thank you for listening to this podcast series. As you listen, you may notice areas where the episodes have been edited, and that's by design. The Black Single Mothers by Choice podcast is actually based on an original co hosted podcast, which ran from January 2021 through November 2022.
This edited series is a way for me to tease out my individual contributions and those of the guests who generously gave of their time during the interview. These are some of my really good friends who supported me through my SMC journey and I wanted to value their contributions as well. It really mattered to me that the content remained available to Black women considering the SMC path.
It also memorializes who I was, where I was, and how the pandemic impacted me as a solo parent. I have since moved on and created a second podcast series that is solo hosted by me. It's called Start to Finish Motherhood. It was created in November of 2022. This podcast series, Black Single Mothers by Choice, focuses on my trying to conceive journey and the early parts of me parenting two children as a solo parent.
And Start to Finish Motherhood is a podcast that focuses on parenting and on me coming to terms with my own identity post children. I wanted to take a bit of time with this new trailer to explain that to you because I do respect you as listeners. I hope you support both podcasts, Black Single Mothers by Choice and Start to Finish Motherhood.
They're both a labor of love for me. I hope you enjoy. Bye now.
New Zealand