Story of Mum: Inspiring Mums of All Ages

your stories can change the world

by: Pippa Best
The Story of Mum

At 35, I was leading a media development agency, loving the creative challenges of a script editing career, stimulating city meetings, and crazy dancing at the weekend. Married to a handsome surf-dude in the film business, living in Cornwall, UK. A perfect setting for relaxation and reflection, but mainly, I worked.  My work was who I was. Travelling home from the hospital after a long and difficult labour, I looked over at my newborn son and asked ‘whose baby is that?’ For the first few weeks, I hid.

I found support for the external challenges: exhaustion, pain, and the struggle to breastfeed my shrinking son. But underneath, I was deeply lost. I had absolutely no idea who I was any more.
 
The hollow space slowly filled with love for my son. I filled it with attempts to be a Good Mother. A workoholic in a mother’s body, I was pushing myself to be perfect again. I had simply shifted from one end of the seesaw to another. Yes, I had a new respect for my body, I felt joy at my son’s development. But I wasn’t there. I missed having a sense of me, beyond my child. I didn’t value my achievements as a mother.
 
A good friend of mine died—suddenly. A mother of two young boys, Laura had been my role model for life/work balance. She took risks, she transformed lives, and she loved her family. Her house was a delicious tip that helped me to understand the choices one can make as a mother. The loss of Laura gave me a sad courage.
 
I started to develop a quirky online project for mums, building on what I’d learnt in my career: Sharing our stories can change our lives. When I discussed it with my own mum, an emotional conversation revealed her difficulties in coping with the transition to grandmother. So together, we developed story of mum, to inspire mums of all ages to make time for ourselves, to value our creativity, explore our many identities, play together, laugh like drains, and celebrate not just our strengths but our flaws.
 
Here at story of mum, we photograph our chaos, make inspirational fridge magnets, ‘bake’ pie-charts to remind us we need a bigger slice of me-time pie, doodle what’s going on inside our heads, express our feelings about motherhood in a giant mums’ poem, and embark on secret missions to remind other mums how brilliant they are.
 
I now have two beautiful children who inspire me to play and appreciate every moment. I work part-time—for money and for me. I think love is more important than an immaculate house, your stories can change the world, and mums, including me and you, are amazing. Please join us.
Category: 
Mummy
Tags: 
the story of mum
inspiring women
becoming a grandmother
becoming a mompreneur
changing careers
starting a new business
pippa best
Pippa Best

I live in Cornwall, UK with my salty-skinned surfing film-making husband, boisterous 4 year old boy who thinks he's an Octonaut, and 1 year old daughter who inspires me by saying YES as if it's the easiest thing in the world.

Life is a constant plate-spin of my work as a script editor and project manager alongside intuitive mothering of my two pre-schoolers. My out-of-hours passion is www.storyofmum.com. An online interactive community for mums of all ages to connect, create and celebrate, www.storyofmum.com shares inspiring, uplifting and downright ridiculous activities for mums of every generation. We want to make mums happier through sharing our stories, good and bad. Join us on the site. To find out more, go ahead and like us on facebook, and follow @storyofmum on twitter to join our regular #somum get-togethers.