Lovin has teamed up with Mum Talks to bring you 'Mum Talks From Home' this Wednesday April 8th at 8.30pm. It's a completely free online parenting event with speakers including Helen Steele, 'Fabulous Pharmacist' Laura Mulvany and parenting expert Aoife Lee. Register for your place here
Mum Talks are monthly meetups for women looking to feel inspired, learn something new and make new friends. Bonus points is that they're aimed at mothers.
Mum Talks meetups aren't your average playgroup though, far from it. In fact, kids aren't even the focus, but rather all the mothers in attendance - their goals, ambitions and life passions.
Co-founded by childhood friends Kara Heriot and Lucy Edge, the idea was born as a means to help them both on their own journeys of motherhood - with the driving force behind the business being supporting mums.
This Wednesday, both Kara and Lucy will speak at the Mum Talks From Home online event, which you can learn more about here.
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Understanding the need for a community where women could have adult conversations and social interaction, Kara and Lucy have used their own personal experiences to put together something that resonates with mothers everywhere.
Speaking to Lovin Dublin, Lucy said:
"Supporting mums. This has always been our main inspiration. Be it supporting new mums, or mums going back to work after maternity leave or adjusting to life as a stay at home mum, we want to help to inspire and empower women during these daunting and vulnerable stages of life by creating a community of like-minded women."
Children are the unifying factor that connects Mum Talks attendees but the community goes far beyond that, helping women to navigate not just motherhood but careers and business as well.
"Throughout our Mum Talks journey, we have also been inspired to help and support mums who have or are thinking of starting a new business. Having been through it ourselves we have so much admiration for these women and want to support them any chance we get."
Featuring a special business 'shout out' section, the talks double as networking events that help working mothers to get in touch with each other and discuss all things business and enterprise, with more than a few success stories to speak of.
According to Lucy:
"So many mums come first with a bump, then with their newborn and then join us for our evening events when they go back to work. We have had mums who have been coming to our events since we started and they have gone on to be speakers on our panels. One mum in particular who has become a great friend came to us on her first maternity leave and also on her second at which point she had given up her full-time job and was starting her own business which is now a huge success.
"We added the Shout Out section in the morning where we give a shout out for any mum in the room that has a business and asked everyone to follow. This was because we realised that as well as new mums and babies coming to our events we also had mums with older children who had started school and they had started their own business and saw the morning as a good networking opportunity with other biz mums."
Rarely centred around a specific theme, the one topic that continually crops up (other than motherhood of course), is the importance of minding yourself.
Kara added: "We generally don't have a theme but every month the theme that naturally unfolds is the importance of minding yourself. There are three women on the panel and they could be talking about very different areas, for example, a yoga teacher, a career coach and a TV presenter but their real and honest experience of motherhood is the common reassuring thread for everyone who attends. Everyone leaves knowing that we are all in this together and have the same feelings of insecurities, exhaustion and not feeling good enough and we are all here to support each other."
As for their ambitions for this year? Well, they're by no means resting on their laurels, assuring us that they have big plans for the future.
"We want to take Mum Talks all around the country, we want to do more of our bespoke workshops for women who are setting up their own business and workshops for mums going back to work. We launched Bump Talks last year and want to make that a monthly event. We also identified loads of great brands that we admire that we would love to work with."
The current situation has certainly thrown a spanner in the works, but the twosome is choosing to handle it as it comes. Accustomed to working from home, the true challenge comes in the form of homeschooling. Their advice to anyone facing the same challenges? Go with the flow as much as possible.
"Remember you can just do what you can do, don't be hard on yourself and when you feel like you are about to totally lose your sh*t, step outside (ideally go for a walk), take a few deep breaths and remind yourself that you can only do your best. The whole world is in this together and our number one priority is to keep people safe and to keep ourselves and little ones calm, supported and loved."
Both Kara and Lucy will be involved in our upcoming Mum Talks From Home event, which you can sign up for using the form below.
Rarely centred around a specific theme, the one topic that continually crops up (other than motherhood of course), is the importance of minding yourself.
Kara added: "We generally don't have a theme but every month the theme that naturally unfolds is the importance of minding yourself. There are three women on the panel and they could be talking about very different areas, for example, a yoga teacher, a career coach and a TV presenter but their real and honest experience of motherhood is the common reassuring thread for everyone who attends. Everyone leaves knowing that we are all in this together and have the same feelings of insecurities, exhaustion and not feeling good enough and we are all here to support each other."
As for their ambitions for this year? Well, they're by no means resting on their laurels, assuring us that they have big plans for the future.
"We want to take Mum Talks all around the country, we want to do more of our bespoke workshops for women who are setting up their own business and workshops for mums going back to work. We launched Bump Talks last year and want to make that a monthly event. We also identified loads of great brands that we admire that we would love to work with."
The current situation has certainly thrown a spanner in the works, but the twosome is choosing to handle it as it comes. Accustomed to working from home, the true challenge comes in the form of homeschooling. Their advice to anyone facing the same challenges? Go with the flow as much as possible.
"Remember you can just do what you can do, don't be hard on yourself and when you feel like you are about to totally lose your sh*t, step outside (ideally go for a walk), take a few deep breaths and remind yourself that you can only do your best. The whole world is in this together and our number one priority is to keep people safe and to keep ourselves and little ones calm, supported and loved."
Both Kara and Lucy will be involved in our upcoming Mum Talks From Home event, which you can sign up for using the form below.
