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mom about town
LEONIS ROUSSEVE
BY MADISON VOORHIES PHOTO BY AARON LEWIS
Occupation: Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Content Creator Husband: Ryan Rousseve Sr. Children: Dylan, 16; Jordan, 4; and Ryan Jr., 18 months Hobbies: Going to brunch, attending festivals, getting outside, reading, watching reality TV
It gives my heart the most joy because I created all three of these humans, I love them, and to watch them love each other in the way I love them is indescribable.
WHAT DOES A NORMAL DAY LOOK LIKE FOR YOU? LEONIS: I work from home, so I’ll wake up at about six-ish, 6:30. I go straight into getting the kids ready for school. I bring them to school and get back home at about eight o’clock. That first hour is about eating breakfast and checking my emails. I do what’s called a “money minute,” so I check all my bank accounts, check my credit score, my credit cards, and things like that. I take five minutes and go through all the financial stuff. If I do it early in the morning, then I don’t have to worry about it for the rest of the day. I also use that first hour to post my content for the day. I usually don’t put on my “coworkers” (a.k.a. the cast of Dance Moms) yet because I’m still trying to be productive, but I get all those housekeeping things done first thing in the morning. And then at 9-ish, I’m already logged in and checking my emails, and that’s when I’m really focused on my work. I go pick the kids up at about three-ish, and I start cooking dinner at about five-ish. Jordan comes in a lot of the time and helps me. We make it like a lesson, and we eat dinner by 6:30, bring the kids up for a bathtime and bedtime is right after that. Usually, the kids will go to bed by about eight-ish, and then my husband and I will sit up and watch our TV shows. That’s our time to enjoy each other in the evening. WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO PURSUE YOUR CAREER? LEONIS: I had my oldest son a month after I graduated high school. I had gotten accepted to a really prestigious HBCU in Atlanta, Spelman College. I was in the gifted program, and I was Leonis Rousseve is a resilient mom of three and deftly balances her family, career, and self-care. From managing her personal brand to nurturing her children’s diverse needs, she finds joy in family traditions and watching her children care for one another. With a supportive husband, a passion for trashy reality TV, and her authentic personality, Leonis embodies modern motherhood with grace and determination.
the homecoming queen runner-up. I was supposed to be going places, and then I got pregnant. So I told my school counselor, and the way they responded to me was in a very negative way, and it did not make me feel supported. From then on, it was like, I want to do that, but I want to do it in a different way; I want to be a person that girls can reach out to or a person girls can feel supported by because I didn’t have that at such a vulnerable time. Before that, I wanted to be a child psychiatrist. But when I got pregnant, I realized that was going to take too long. So that’s where I kind of fell into the social work role. I went to school for psychology at UL back at home; then, I found a social work program at Tulane, moved to New Orleans, and I just stayed here after that. WHAT ARE SOME JOYS AND CHALLENGES OF BEING A MOM? LEONIS: It is a challenge having the big age gap, but there are joys and challenges in both. It’s tough sometimes to be present in the developmental stage that each one is in. My 16-year-old has autism, so he struggles with communication and expressing himself sometimes. So I have to be very mindful of how I word things or how I ask questions. I also have to be a mind reader sometimes because he’s not able to express certain things. Then, I have to be in the mindset of a four-year-old who thinks she’s super independent, but still needs a lot of help. There’s also an 18-month-old that’s just into everything and I’m having to literally run behind him and stop him every five seconds. So
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14 MARCH 2024 | NOLAFAMILY.COM
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