Swampscott Mother Launches 'The Mom Connection' Support Business

SWAMPSCOTT, MA —As a working mother of a 1-year-old and 3-year-old, Caroline Allen has been there for all the exciting ups as well as the frustrating and, at times, isolating downs of life with a newborn and toddler.

"Everybody has that situation where you are in a Target and your toddler is screaming," Allen told Patch. "It's normal. A lot of things are common and moms need to know that it's not just you."

It's those types of situations — and giving mothers a chance to talk them through, gain support from each other and, perhaps, just vent a bit with others who have been through and are going through the same things — that led Allen to launch "The Mom Connection."

"It's kind of like a book club for parenting," she said. "What do you need in this moment? For a mother of a newborn, it might be to talk about the lack of sleep. For a mother of a toddler, it might be the picky-eating phase. The goal is to nurture important mothering skills by guiding the conversation and allowing mothers to get the support they need."

Allen said the idea came out of the Swampscott Family Festival that she and her husband, John, helped organize last summer, and the outdoor distanced meet-and-greets for families that they coordinated during the COVID-19 health crisis. The goal of those events was to bring people together and introduce community connections, with The Mom Connection aimed at developing those connections at a time when they can be difficult to forge.

"What I noticed about those events is that people were still talking mostly to their friends," she said. "They weren't events where you were necessarily meeting that many new people. And if you were, it was more small talk.

"With The Mom Connection, I want the moms to walk out of it with nine new best friends."

Allen is currently completing her training to become a certified Nurture by NAPS Mom Survival Guide Leader. She said she will then begin two six-week groups in April with one in-person on the North Shore at a still-to-be-determined location and the other virtual and open to anyone anywhere. The plan is to keep the groups to 10 mothers at a time.

Allen's role will be to facilitate the conversations and provide resources when needed.

"That's lacking in our society right now for mothers of young children," she said. "It's easier when they get to kindergarten, or they are playing sports, and you make connections and talk with the other mothers at those events. But you don't really have that when your child is younger and you are dropping them off and picking them up from daycare.

"By establishing The Mom Connection, it is really opening doors to finding those things."

She said the groups will meet once a week early in the evening at a time designed when fathers, or other caretakers, can take on the responsibility of watching the child or children, leaving what Allen called "a time for undivided attention just for moms."

"It's the idea that moms do need a village," she said. "Whether they are working or stay-at-home moms, whether they have one child or three children, all moms need that support and connection."

Those interested in learning more about The Mom Connection, or signing up for one of the group sessions, can do so here or by contacting Allen by email here.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)