Not ANOTHER Coffee Morning

OK. I'm going to be the first one to say it. As a mother, I am sick of dusty old church halls, slobbered-on toys and crappy coffee. Why aren't we doing anything more exciting? I don't know if you know, but it isn't the law that all mothers should give up all expectations of what 'fun' is or that we should all immediately start wearing boot cut jeans and Alice bands. How can we all be so ok with our slide from cocktails at Soho House to a soggy biscuit in a cracked mug at a local playgroup. DON'T MISUNDERSTAND ME!!!!!! These playgroups are GREAT for the little ones - they love it. They go nuts when they are faced with different toys (even if those toys have been through the mouths of a hundred children before them), they love poking other children in the eye, crawling and exploring a new space, singing The Wheels On The (Bloody) Bus...it's great...for them. BUT WHAT ABOUT US???

I hate the atmosphere at these things - I've spoken about the lack of sisterhood between mothers here before so I won't bang on about that again - but they're not exactly welcoming places. Mothers are inherently (and for whatever reason) wary of other mothers probably because they are certain everyone is judging them because, let's face it, most people are judging us every minute of every live long day. It's not surprising that new mums struggle to make new friends that they actually WANT to hang out with (rather than those people who just happen to live in your area and have a baby at the same time as you). Nor is it surprising that we all turn up with our armour on to defend any choices that we have made - this doesn't exactly make for the easy and natural nurture of life long friendships.

So, I'm working hard to try and organise events that you can bring your babies to, that you can breastfeed at or shove formula down their throats at without any fear of being judged. You don't have to make sure the snacks you bring are organic, you can even have a glass of wine if you like. These events will be about fostering the sisterhood amongst mothers - you will be able to drop your armour at the door and relax amongst like-minded mothers who just want to chat about how hard this all really is. You don't need to pretend, you don't need to be mother of the year, you can admit that you don't always enjoy being a mother, you can share all your nifty tricks and shortcuts that work and in return I will provide a cool space that will help you remember what you used to enjoy about social events and interesting people to lead informal chats. I'll get mothers who set up businesses in, specialists in managing relationships after having a baby, experts in how to get your child to sleep, or eat or behave. You can drink DECENT COFFEE, sit in COOL VENUES and enjoy hanging out with like-minded mommas who want to be friendly and find friends.

This is NOT ANOTHER COFFEE MORNING.

Yes, your kids will ALWAYS be welcome but this is about YOU.

Comment below if you are interested and I will hopefully be adding an EVENTS page shortly. Please spread the word - tell your friends with toddlers, tell your friends with babies, tell your pregnant friends. Tell EVERYONE.

WATCH THIS SPACE.