mom next door Meet Michelle Lyman
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It’s really important that you laugh, cry, giggle, and debrief sometimes with the things that are going on in life, take a step back and take a deep breath when you’re in the moment.
BY AMELIA ROESSLER
Despite the age gap and different parenting styles, Michelle knows what works for some families doesn’t work for others. But she’s found that finding fellow parents who have similar parenting styles can be beneficial to talk through things. Michelle is currently a stay-at-home mom, having lost her job in advertising shortly after COVID hit. She plans to go back to work in the fall, when her daughter goes to kindergarten, but does some work currently for her significant other’s ski and bike shop in Breckenridge, where the family resides. “I enjoy the fact that I get to parent and make the rules and spend time with her. I know what she’s learning, and I’m aware of her activities in a day, whereas sometimes when you send them off to daycare, you just don’t know exactly what’s going on,” says Michelle. Because of that, Michelle has been able to let Ryder participate in a multitude of activities including swimming, gymnastics, ski and snowboarding lessons, soccer, and French lessons. Michelle feels like a good balance of learning the fundamentals of life and being a good person and learning the things taught
in school is important for children.
“So I feel like when she’s at home, you have the autonomy to do those things and kind of go with the flow a little bit, but have a structure as well. Really just keep an eye on your child, make sure they’re growing up healthy and getting fresh air and all that stuff,” she says. Michelle adds that living in Colorado is the perfect place to create the balance of learning and getting outside to enjoy the ski town and activities they live near. The best piece of advice Michelle says she ever received was to just take a deep breath. They told her, the second you take one, perhaps things have changed. “Don’t get so worked up about stuff, because once you feel like you’ve gotten in a rhythm, everything changes. And it is so true that you blink and it changes,” she explains. Michelle says kids evolve every day, every minute, every hour. She knows that learning to ebb and flow is important because things that seem big now might not be that big shortly in the future.
10 COLORADO PARENT MARCH 2026
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