VillageMommy – Another Way To Meet MommyFriends!

06/28/2016

“It’s Kind Of Like A Mommy Dating Site.”

Those are intriguing words to a new(ish) mom, home on maternity leave and up to her eyeballs in cloth diaper laundry, “Baby Jake” on Netflix, and preschooler temper tantrums. VillageMommy is a new site marketed at moms to help fill the gap between weekly, baby-centric classes like Mommy Connections, and the camaraderie you find in many online social media groups. Having met my husband using an online dating site, I was familiar with the concept, and I was excited to give Villagemommy a shot at finding like-minded moms to hang out with, hopefully in my neighbourhood.

Let’s face it, this mom gig can get pretty isolating. I swear some days my poor husband must feel like I’ve talked his ear off within 20 minutes of him walking through the door after work – simply because I’ve had no other adult to interact with all day. As someone who has struggled with Postpartum Depression and Anxiety in the past, I know how hard it can be to connect with people when you’re terrified your toddler will make a scene at lunch, or refuses to share, or your baby won’t take a bottle (or nurse under a cover), so you feel like you can’t go anywhere. Finding a “village” of moms that have been there, done that, and you can be comfortable around, can be so very liberating!

The VillageMommy site features 2000+ members, and allows you to find and meet moms near you based on your childrens’ ages, parenting style, interests, languages and more. You can sign up by entering your email address and creating a profile, or link your Facebook profile for easy login. From there, you can search for moms by geographic area, using various criteria, such as:

• Same kids age group
• Same marital status
• Same parenting and family
• Same education
• Same career
• Same languages

I was also asked to list my own interests (like baking, sports, yoga, etc.) from a basic pull-down menu, and check off various parenting interests (like Baby-led Weaning and Breastfeeding for my 8 month old, and ADHD and Spirited/High Needs for my rambunctious 4 year old) while completing my profile. Hopefully, these items will be added to the search criteria in the future.

So far, I’ve searched for and added 5 new “friends” that seem compatible with my lifestyle to my list. The next step will be to take the plunge and contact them for some mommy dates! (Hopefully they won’t go as poorly as some of the online dates I had back in the day, before hubby came on the scene… You KNOW you know what I’m taking about…).

Check back in a few weeks and I’ll let you know how things go!

~ Written by Jen, Mommy Connections Alumni

I am taking part in the Village Mommy blog campaign. While I have received compensation as part of my affiliation with this program, the opinions shared are my own.