Freedom Center Group to Give Moms a Timeout

Forget putting your child in timeout, mom. It's time for you to have a timeout, says one Fenton group.

The Moms group has organized the 3rd annual Mom's Time Out from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. Saturday at Gracepointe Church, 228 Fourth Street in Brighton.

Each mom (you don't actually have to be a mother to participate) gets a table and chair where they can scrapbook, nap, meditate, read books, work or shop. Vendors will be on hand throughout the day and each participant will get three healthy meals. The cost is $25. All proceeds fund the Moms ministry at the Freedom Center.

"It's getting bigger and better each year. Attendance keeps moving up and the auction items get greater in value allowing us to add more activities and reach even more moms in the local area," said organizer Marlena Bravender.

She said mothers from churches from all over Genesee and Livingston County attend. Bravender added that the group having new moms adds to the conversation while learning more things about the community.

The Freedom Center previously hosted a traditional MOPS (Mother's of Preschoolers) group for many years. Although the MOPS was officially under the umbrella of the Freedom Center Women's Ministry, women from churches all over the area participated. Bravender said in the past couple years they found that moms with children in elementary school could really still use all of the tools, networking and tips, that came with the meetings, but wanted to branch out to not only encourage women to stay in the group once their children entered elementary school, but help more area moms out in a number of ways. The group is no longer officially associated with MOPS, but just a moms group still under the The Freedom Center umbrella.

"It allows us to change the "curriculum" to things that are really important and/or interesting to local moms," Bravender said.

Those interested in attending can contact Alise McAleer at 586-322-8076 or axmcaleer@gmail.com.