We surveyed parents across the nation, and learned a lot about how the pandemic changed us
For most of us, the last few years have been a blur. Think about it: we went from just peripherally being aware that there was a virus spreading in January 2019, to being in full-on lockdown by March 2020. For many of us, our jobs switched from in person to remote work. Those who had family members who were essential workers or were essential themselves felt the stress and uncertainty of moving through a world that had all of the sudden grown looming and dangerous. We stayed home. We became teachers. We became full time caregivers at the same time as we were full time workers.
Naturally, the pandemic changed the way we look at our families and the world.
Over the course of 2022 here at Tinybeans, we conducted three waves of research with over 1000 parents across the nation, gathering insight on how the mindset of the modern parent has evolved. And the biggest thing we learned was that most parents were reminded of one resounding thing: that time with their families was more important than anything else. Here are some of the biggest takeaways:
87% of parents confirmed they would rather spend money on experiences versus things.
95% look forward to family vacations that introduce their kids to new experiences.
While 90% express some concern about the economy, most – 4 out of 5 – consider spending on family experiences a necessity
95% carve out time with their kids daily no matter how busy they are
91% of parents said the pandemic reminded them that family time is more important than anything else.
“There’s this new generation of parents who have awoken to the importance of creating meaningful memories with their children, and we are here to support that journey,” says Eddie Geller, CEO and Co-Founder of Tinybeans. “I have four kids myself, and in my household “memories” don’t always equate to joy and cheer, but we certainly try. It’s a journey. I’ve come to appreciate as a parent you go from student to teacher, then back to student. I’ve learned more from my kids than anyone else.”
We all know the pandemic didn’t exactly lend itself to harmonious households, but as we come out of it, take a breath, and reconnect to a more normalized state, the research unveils that parents are feeling more optimistic about their parenting journey and feeling “more attached and committed to their children’s success than before.”
It makes sense. If nothing else, the last few years have shown us how precious time with our family really is.
A new study revealed the “gendered differences” in how working from home and flexible schedules affect moms and dads
File this one under news that will surprise no woman ever: a new study shows that in dual-income families, women who work from home get a worse deal than men. What researchers found is that when women are working from home, they have to do their job tasks and handle more of the home and family responsibilities—but the same is naturally not true for men who work from home.
The study, conducted by researchers at Ohio State University, included two surveys, both done during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first survey was given to 172 married, dual-income families in China, each of whom had at least one child. The second survey was given to 60 dual-income families in South Korea, some of whom had children and some of whom didn’t. In both surveys, the couples were asked to evaluate how many work, home, and family tasks they completed each day for 14 consecutive workdays.
Researchers found that both men and women completed more home and family tasks when working from home than they did when they had to go into an office. But when women worked from home, men completed fewer home and family tasks than when women worked in an office. When men worked from home, women did not complete fewer home and family tasks than when men worked in an office.
In other words, when women in the study were working from home, they shouldered more of the burden of taking care of the home and family. That trend was not reflected when men worked from home.
“These findings suggest husbands can provide more resources and support for their wives to complete remote work tasks when they have flexibility in scheduling their work time and procedure,” the study’s lead author, Jasmine Hu, wrote.
Ask any woman who works from home, and she’ll tell you how difficult it can be to maintain boundaries between work, family, and home responsibilities. This study is just further proof that these challenges fall unfairly on women, and it’s time for men to step up.
An estimated 2.1 million dads stayed home with their kids in 2021, an 8 percent increase since 1989
By now, we all know that gender roles don’t serve anyone. And more and more, Americans are bucking traditional trends when it comes to work, household management, and childcare. According to new research from Pew, an estimated 2.1 million fathers were stay-at-home dads in 2021, which is an 8 percent increase since 1989.
Experts believe the rise of stay-at-home dads across the U.S. is, at least in part, because women are beginning to out-earn their male partners. Women have outpaced men at earning college and advanced degrees for over two decades now, and because of this, more men are choosing to give up their careers when full-time childcare is required. And with the dramatic rise in childcare costs in recent years, it’s becoming more and more necessary for families to have a parent stay home, rather than sending their kids to daycare.
Plus, with the rise in remote work and flexible work schedules, it’s becoming much more possible (and common) for men to work from home while caring for their kids. This means dual-income families are able to stay that way, even while having a parent stay home with the kids.
All these factors have converged during a time when dads are also taking a more active role in child-rearing than they ever have, historically. In 2016, fathers self-reported that they spent about eight hours a week taking care of their kids. While we’re going to ignore the fact that that’s still way too low, it is three times as many hours as dads reported spending engaged with their kids in 1965. The same trend is happening with household chores—2016 dads reported spending about 10 hours a week on chores, compared to just four hours in 1965 (moms, on the other hand, report spending 14 hours a week on childcare and 18 hours a week on housework).
The economic turmoil of the last few decades may be at play here. During the Great Recession, 2.2 million fathers became stay-at-home dads after losing their jobs. And during the COVID-19 pandemic, many men left the workforce and still have not returned—federal jobs numbers show that as of last month, there were 7 million U.S. men ages 25 to 54 who were unemployed and not looking for work.
The understatement of the millennium is that there have been a few changes in how, when, and where people work since the start of the pandemic. But beyond an idle observation, companies are taking note of what this means for them, and how this changes the expectations of their employees.
In a recent Gallup’s State of the Workforce study conducted in May/June, key findings point toward workers in the U.S. working at least some of their hours remotely after the pandemic. Another survey conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Rippling showed that three-quarters (76%) of respondents said they’d even apply to a role outside of their current industry if it were completely remote. This is big news for employers, indeed—particularly when a labor shortage rages.
Components of the labor shortage have been debated, but regardless of how you believe politics, policy, and demographics are contributing to it, it’s clear that some forces are having an impact. Women, for instance, have had to make particularly difficult career decisions as school boards across the country shut down schools for much of 2020 and 2021. Turns out, being an instructional facilitator and providing educational tech support for a houseful of unmotivated and sometimes depressed or anxious kids doesn’t do much for the ol’ career path. Shocker. In January’s jobs report, the labor force participation rate for men was 67.9 percent, compared with 56.8 percent for women.
But working from home—particularly when you’re not simultaneously running a virtual learning academy from your kitchen table—has brought with it a suitcase of successes. In the OnePoll survey, 77% of around 2,000 respondents reported finding simple pleasures in working from the comfort of their home. More frequent coffee or snack breaks (54%), more time with family (51%), a more casual dress code (50%) and more comfortable seating (50%) were all big-ticket reasons employees liked the set-up.
Gallup reported key findings that of nearly 9,000 Americans surveyed, “91% of workers in the U.S. working at least some of their hours remotely are hoping their ability to work at home persists after the pandemic, 54% of employees who work remotely at least some of the time say they would ideally like to split their time between working at home and in the office — a hybrid arrangement and 3 in 10 employees working remotely say they are extremely likely to seek another job if their company eliminates remote work.”
So what’s a company to do? There are clear benefits and comforts of remote work, but OnePoll found that “it presents a challenge for people to communicate with their co-workers and manager (48%), have their work recognized (44%), and maintain a work-life balance (44%).” Particularly during the onboarding process and for younger associates who might rely on seasoned employees for career progression, a fully remote workplace means more challenges and fewer opportunities.
One thing’s for sure: the future of the workforce is going to look very different from its past, and a hybrid model is what’s appearing in many an employer’s glass ball. Mark Lobosco, VP of Talent Solutions at LinkedIn tells ZDNet “Now that companies have built the framework – and experienced the cost and time savings associated with it – there’s no real reason to turn back.”
“I’ve got plenty of spare time!” said no parent, ever. From playtime to meals to baths, our days are packed with plenty of to-dos, so anything that saves us time and helps us stay organized is a welcome addition.
Enter OneDrive, a busy parent’s best bet for keeping track of documents and photos all in one place. From family photos to school essays, OneDrive streamlines your virtual desktop and your real-life desktop into one neat, easy-to-access place to find the important files you need, right when you need them. No more struggling to find their latest report card, your favorite photo of Grandma, or your mortgage doc.
Read on for our top five reasons busy parents need OneDrive in their lives.
1. Save All Those Precious Works of Art
Free up some space on your fridge and hold onto the memories, not the stuff, by scanning all those beautiful scribbles and saving them to OneDrive. Whether that’s to protect them from fading and spills or to create an archive they’ll treasure, you can also print whatever you want and easily share it with friends and family.
We can’t guarantee you won’t still have a few dioramas around, but you’ll definitely reduce clutter and keep the images that mean the most to you and your kids for the long haul. Plus you know you can keep what’s important: OneDrive keeps your files protected and backed up. With your files in OneDrive, you don’t have to worry about losing them if something happens to your device.
2. Store Important Documents in One Safe, Secure Place
Get organized and save time by storing your most important documents in one safe place. No more fumbling around files or a million desktop folders looking for your insurance documents or tax forms. Put all your documents on OneDrive and you’ll still be able to easily search by text.
And don’t worry about the “oops” moments when you (or one of your kids) have deleted a file. You can undo accidental deletes and edits for up to 30 days.
3. Simplify Collaboration for Family Events
Whether it’s a wedding speech or your next vacation itinerary, OneDrive allows easy collaboration directly in documents. Just share the link with those who you want to weigh in and easily allow them to edit directly in the document, making it possible to coordinate across time zones and schedules.
You can even work with others on the same document at the same time with the latest Office desktop apps, mobile apps, or in Office Online, taking out the stress and putting some of the fun back into planning family events.
4. Keep Track of Each Child’s Progress & Growth
Make a file for each child and keep their report cards, school forms, important health documents, and any assignments all in one, easy-to-find place. If you need your kids to stay on top of a school paper or you just want to see what the latest progress report is, keeping them in one simple place that can be accessed across a variety of devices will ensure they—and you—can find anything with a few quick clicks.
5. Digital Nomad Like a Pro
Thinking about a change of scenery? If you work remotely, you’ll love that OneDrive lets you access and edit your files from all your devices, anywhere. Whether that means looking for a photo while you're in the pickup line or working from the cabin, OneDrive helps you stay organized from just about anywhere you’ll go.
If you’re in the market for an easy solution to keep all of your important papers, colorful artwork, and treasured photos in one safe, secure place (because who isn’t?) you’ll find OneDrive the answer you’ve been looking for. Learn more at microsoft.com/OneDrive.
Being a parent can be tough! That’s why we appreciate any company that creates a shortcut or finds a way to ease the daily grind of parenthood. Startup companies are everywhere, and not surprisingly, many of them are founded by parents in business who had a genius idea and ran with it. After all, who better to solve parenting problems than parents themselves? From kid’s meal delivery services to cribs that rock babies to sleep, we’ve rounded up 15 startups designed to make parenting life easier. Scroll down to learn more.
All parents, at some point, have wished that they could be in more places at once. But, unless you’ve cloned yourself, the reality is that the only way to get it all done is to ask for help. And one place to start is finding transportation for your kids that will help them maintain their educational pursuits without the added stress of playing chauffeur. Sure, parents could use one of the many ride platforms, but precious cargo like kids requires a better solution.
Zūm, a transportation service for kids, offers optimized transportation solutions and fulfills daily transportation needs, “Whether it’s home-to-school transportation, off-campus events, or delivery of meals and educational materials.”
Wonderschool
istock
Wonderschool is often described as an Airbnb for daycare services, and it also helps launch in-home preschools and daycares. The idea for the startup came from co-founders Chris Bennett and Arrel Gray who saw too many parents worried about finding child care. So they designed a company to increase access to high-quality early childhood care for families.
Wonderschool empowers experienced educators and childcare providers to run their own in-home businesses while providing service to other families in their communities. The programs are diverse and designed to educate in the warmth of an in-home child care program.
Otter
iStock
It’s not uncommon for stay-at-home parents in communities to babysit each other’s children on occasion. But sometimes making the connection between parents looking for care and parents looking to provide that service isn’t easy. If you’re new to your neighborhood or just don’t know where to look, this next startup is for you!
Helen Mayer, the founder of Otter, was in this same boat in 2020, turning down a dream job because she couldn’t find safe, reliable, and affordable care for her twins. Wondering if she was alone in this, she went to her community for feedback and received overwhelming feedback that cemented her desire to help parents in situations like hers. Shortly after, Otter was born, offering parents a tool that “matches parents who need childcare with stay-at-home parents who can care for their kids.”
Have you heard of the “fourth trimester?” If you haven’t, we're talking about the first three months after giving birth. It’s a time of adjustment for your baby and you that requires a lot of support! Enter the My Fourth app!
Major Care Doulas founder, Mandy Major, created the My Fourth app to help extend the care delivered to her clients into the fourth trimester, saying that their tagline is “put a doula in your pocket,” and adding that “[our mission is] to mainstream postpartum doula care and use digital tools to make it as affordable and accessible as possible. We track pregnancy so diligently in this country but totally fail families in the fourth trimester. We're left to figure it all out on our own. Parents need education, connection, support, and personalized advice! That's why we blend bite-sized content with regular text check-ins from our doulas. Continuous care is what it's all about!”
It’s officially the future, and although many advances in technology have made parenting easier, there are some that have created challenges that parents might not be ready for. Like when your 10-year-old asks for their first cell phone. Gulp. Parents who feel completely unprepared for this big step are not alone. In fact, Pinwheel, “smartphones that enable responsible and healthy usage with modes managed by parents for everyday kids' life,” was founded on that very feeling.
Dane Witbeck founded Pinwheel when his eight-year-old son announced that his friend got an iPhone back in 2019. A user himself, he says “Pinwheel lets [me] see his grades in real-time and helps him focus on what matters most by excluding web browsers, app stores and social media. And of course, it supports all of the basic functions like calls, text, and GPS locations, so I can keep an eye on him if he forgets to tell me that he's going to a friend's house after school!”
Got a kid that’s ready for their very own cell phone? Try Pinwheel and use our exclusive promo code TINYBEANS for 10% off.
Having a new baby is a beautiful experience that brings parents memories to cherish for a lifetime. But it’s also a time of complete exhaustion from all those sleepless nights soothing baby back to sleep every hour. If only there was a crib that would rock your baby back to sleep for you. Oh, wait, there is!
According to Cradlewise Co-founder and CEO, Radhika Patil, “Modern-day baby monitors notify you once the baby wakes up crying and that’s too late already. Cradlewise is the world’s first crib that senses the first signs of stirring and automatically rocks the baby to sleep. This proactive soothing helps safeguard sleep for babies.” The genius crib, made with natural materials, was designed to grow with your baby—adjusting from bassinet to crib—and has a built-in smart baby monitor and sound system for playing white noise and other curated playlists that can be connected to their corresponding app, allowing you to track your babies’ sleep journey, and get some shut-eye of your own.
Vivvi
iStock
Sometimes one of the toughest parts about being a working parent is finding childcare for the kiddos. That’s where Vivvi comes in to make life easier. Think of Vivvi as the Four Seasons of Childcare, but for medium-sized employers. This startup provides employer-sponsored childcare for companies of all sizes. The care is provided either on-site or near the company and is geared toward kids ages newborn to five years old.
Vivvi’s co-founders Ben Newton and Charles Bonello designed Vivvi to make it possible for companies of all sizes to implement a childcare program and change their employees' lives.
Little Spoon
Littlespoon.com
Spending hours grocery shopping, prepping and serving meals, and cleaning up, only to have your child pick at their plate? Yup, it's exhausting. The founders of Little Spoon felt the same way! That’s why they started a meal delivery service for babies to big kids to bring clean, non-GMO meals and snacks right to your door. Its mission is to make parents' lives easier while offering the healthiest, tastiest food options for children. From chicken potstickers to turkey meatballs and even fresh smoothies and vitamins, your time, and your child’s nutrition and tastebuds are covered.
What parent hasn’t scrambled to find a last-minute photographer for birthday parties, holidays and family photo sessions? Shoott.com makes that problem obsolete. This startup provides on-demand professional photography at affordable rates. Shoott.com offers 30-minute photo sessions with an elite-level photographer at select iconic outdoor locations. Sessions are complementary to book, and you only pay for the photos you love at $30 or less. The company started in New York City and now offers services in 35 states.
“Our website makes it easy for anyone to book a professional photographer on demand for all of life's occasions, big or small—including holiday, engagement and family portraits as well as headshots or content for social media,” said Jennifer Tsay, CEO and co-founder of Shoott.com.
Lovevery
Lovevery
Play Kits by Lovevery are a subscription box service that delivers the right science-backed, non-toxic toys babies both want and need, at exactly the right stage of development, so that parents can rest assured they're giving their little ones the best possible start in life. Kits are delivered every other month and start at $36 per month. Lovevery was created to help parents give their little ones aneasy alternative to screen time, as well as the ability to maintain a minimalist lifestyle, by cutting out the unnecessary excess and delivering all that baby needs for playtime.
"At Lovevery, we make the science of early childhood more approachable and help parents feel confident they're giving their children the best start,” said Jessica Rolph, Lovevery co-founder and CEO. “We work with child development experts to distill all the research into a system of essential products that are stage-based and crafted with care. You can see that care in our Play Kits and our Play Gym, and it's why parents love what we do."
Huckleberry
iStock
If you’re a parent, sleep struggles have likely been a reality with your little ones at one point or another. That’s why Huckleberry was founded, as a new way to improve the way kids sleep. This app uses artificial intelligence and pediatric sleep experts to create individualized sleep plans for every family. Through Huckleberry, parents take a diagnostic quiz, track sleeping hours, naps and bedtimes, and the app predicts when your kiddo will be sleeping next. The program has several other features that can be purchased beyond the free app as well.
Huckleberry was co-founded by Jessica Toh who states that as a new parent, she never expected her baby would wake up every few hours for nearly two years, in spite of all the books and methods she tried. “It turned out there were many others in the same position,” said Toh. “I felt in this day and age there must be a way to solve this for all the sleep-deprived people out there who just want the best for their children.”
Aiko and Egor Animation 4 Autism
See Beneath
Aiko and Egor Animation 4 Autism is an animated video series and interactive app designed to help kids with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The activities use evidence-based principles to create activities that focus on simple animation and language for kids with ASD. The app is produced by See Beneath, whose founders are Gerin Gaskin, Casey Hoffman and Jim Turner, all of whom have a background in autism intervention and research from the University of California San Diego. These individuals spent more than 7,500 hours sitting on the floor with kids under the age of three diagnosed with ASD to develop the app.
“Our visionis a world where all children with autism will develop to their full potential,” according to the See Beneath website. “Our missionis to engage and educate children with autism (ASD) by creating and providing innovative tools that foster positive change and help children reach developmental milestones.”
Peanut
Peanut
Get ready to swipe right on the latest app to help moms make friends. Peanut is a Tinder-type app that matches moms so they can meet other like-minded moms. Once you create an account, Peanut shows you women in your neighborhood with similar-aged kids and creates matches based on shared interests. Then it’s up to you to create playdates and start conversations.
Michelle Kennedy came up with the idea for Peanut after having her first baby, Finlay, and was struggling to meet other moms. She decided to create a product that would make life as a new mom a little easier. “Peanut is more than an app to connect mothers,” according to Kennedy via Peanut’s website. “It’s about recognizing a pain point that millions of women encounter and finding a solution.”
Cognitive ToyBox
iStock
Cognitive ToyBox allows teachers to do what they do best: teach. This gamified early childhood assessment allows teachers to test a student’s learning and social-emotional readiness without spending countless hours administering tests. Here’s how it works: kids play five-minute assessment games and the results are then sent to the teacher automatically. The tool saves the teacher hours of work and provides objective data for teachers and parents.
Co-founders Tammy Kwan and Dr. Brenden Lake created Cognitive ToyBox because they wanted to develop an evidence-based technology solution to support early childhood educators, parents and children. The company currently provides preschool and kindergarten learning assessments.
Every parent has been through it. You confirm plans and then you can’t find a babysitter. That’s where Nanno comes in. This app allows parents to secure a sitter within minutes. There is no minimum hour requirement and you can book as few as two hours in advance. Nanno runs a full criminal background check on all its sitters and requires a skill set for every person. They also offer on-demand matching and booking, quality control based on reviews, and free cancellation protection.
Liz Oertle, CEO and Co-founder of Nanno, is passionate about leveraging emerging technologies to solve real-world problems of everyday people, especially parents and families. A former startup lawyer turned startup founder, Oertle met Desi McAdam, a software engineer and director of a software consultancy. Together, they decided to build a product that would solve a real-world problem that desperately needed to be solved. That’s when the idea of Nanno took form.
The pandemic has reshaped the landscape of many aspect of our lives, and perhaps one of the biggest is the balancing act of parenting and work. In December 2021, Kuli Kuli, Sylvatex, and Uncommon Cacao (all mom-backed companies) performed a survey of over 1,000 working moms to get a better understanding of how the pandemic has altered their ability to juggle work and parenting.
The survey polled women in all 50 states, with single moms accounting for 45% of the respondents. Seventy-two percent had one or two children, 60% came from low income backgrounds and moms included those who identified as white, Black, Hispanic or Latina and as Asian, Middle Eastern or North African, or multiracial. All that to say: the survey covered a lot of diversity!
While there were many revelations from the survey as it demonstrated the lack of childcare, moms becoming a “default parent” at home, a large exit from the workforce and more, one key point stands out: Flexibility keeps moms working.
Out of necessity when the pandemic started, many moms made the choice to leave the workplace to provide some sense of normalcy and to balance domestic life because their employers didn’t provide enough flexibility. And while 55% of moms said that spending more time with their children was a bonus, moms actually benefit from having work that is flexible as it “significantly relieved some of the pressure points of parenting that were exacerbated by the pandemic.”
Of those surveyed, 79% of moms prefer remote work when it comes to the environment. When they have access to empathetic employers, flexible hours and paid time off they are more likely to stay with their current employer. Many moms found that their employers (especially those with leadership who were parents themselves) were willing to roll with the punches and make swift changes to allow their employees to work remotely.
Stephanie S. from the survey shares, “Going into the office is completely optional. It’s a mutual respect for priorities in both our world’s that has been missing for so long…I’m so glad to be part of a movement to a more equal future that provides respect and support in the most important work we will ever do, raising the next generation.”
While there is much work to be done to continue evolving the workplace to incorporate parenthood, many employers are well on their way to offering the flexibility that is key to keeping moms working. You can read the rest of the survey findings here.
I’m writing this as I watch the peach, purple and blue sunrise over the mountains and through a community of Aspen trees that envelope our little cabin in Fairplay, Colorado. Our faithful dog, Harry is by my side and my family is sleeping peacefully. Tomorrow, I’ll be flying my kids, Lily Love (4 years) and Bear (1 year) back home to New York, while my husband James starts his cross country journey home with a truck full of clothes, toys and his four-legged best friend.
It’s been a month here in the mountains and I can safely say, it’s been the greatest time of my life. We, as a family journeyed here, connected to ourselves, each other and all the beauty around us. We became a more loving family and are now ready to spread that loving energy, like mists of powdery snow, sparkling all around.
Was it easy? Hell no. But nothing great ever is.
My husband and I have worked very hard for a lifestyle that allows us to work remotely. We both have our own businesses and an amazing support team that allows us to make this great escape. We purchase our Epic ski season passes 6 months in advance and rent a sweet little cabin deep in the woods, thanks to VRBO, where we negotiated a discounted rate for the longer stay. The cabin is about an hour outside of the Breckinridge Ski Mountain, making our stay more affordable and the drive to and from is nothing short of awe-inspiring.
While here, our daughter, Lily Love learned to ski and now loves the sport, weaving fearlessly in and out of trees. She went from crushing the bunny slope to being able to tackle groomed black diamond runs. She amazes us and has blown any expectations out of the water—children have a way of doing that.
Our son, Bear had his first experience skiing and although it took us almost 2 hours to get down the slope, due to his tiny skis falling off the chairlift, lots of picking up and resetting and a long, luxurious hot cocoa break, he did it and must have said “woaahhhh” a dozen times. My husband and I didn’t ski together once, as we took turns with our kids but that was perfectly fine, as it was incredible to witness the profound learning going on and to finally see our family having fun together and simply loving this beautiful life together. It was and will be a gift that never stops giving.
Even though my daughter proclaims her favorite moments were “swooshing” and eating Skittles on the chairlift, my favorite moments were far simpler. My son, who used to sleep in a crib, now loves snuggling up close to his big sister in a big bed and we now all enjoy stargazing under a “blanket of stars.” Lily Love’s favorite toy this whole trip was a giant icicle that grew bigger than her off the side of our cabin.
And more than anything, I was able to understand and appreciate what an amazing father my husband is and to see him become the best version of himself when given the time and space. That, to me is the greatest gift of all—allowing myself and my family the sacred opportunity to be, just be.
To play, to relax, to wander, to push the limits and to do something differently. To do it our way.
I’m a beauty hunter, a dreamer, a learner and a doer. I'm also a mama to 2 wild ones (Lily Love + Bear). As a self proclaimed forest fairy + forest school founder, I believe in nature and magic and know that growth happens when you step outside of your comfort zone.
My son was 17 months old when my twins were born. Like many moms of multiples, I had complications giving birth to the girls and was sent home on bedrest after a long stay in the hospital. My husband is self-employed which basically means if you don’t go, you don’t make money so paternity leave wasn’t on the table for us. My mom was a great help, but caring for twins who eat every 2 hours (24 feeds in 24 hours!) and a young toddler was wearing on her to say the least.
Because of my long recovery time and basically feeling shit-scared most days, I sort of felt robbed of the joyful parts of bringing our babies home for the first time. I thought it was just my family that had this kind of experience. I started Let Mommy Sleep to help new parents like us and since the first day we opened 7 years ago, our phones haven’t stopped ringing. Turns out it’s not just me. It’s a LOT of us, maybe even most of us.
For this reason, In Home Postpartum Visits by a Registered Nurse should be a national healthcare standard for US families. They’re a standard in many other countries and the benefits to families include better safety, lowered readmissions and evidence based education for new parents. Two Hour In Home Visits aren’t paid leave and they might not change things for some families. But for moms on the cusp of postpartum depression, parents who are drowning in the sea of misinformation and families who don’t have help of friends or family, the care of a nurse might be the difference between sickness and health.
With twin girls and a boy born 17 months apart, I'm the owner of the world's most ironically named business, Let Mommy Sleep. Let Mommy Sleep provides nurturing postpartum care to newborns and evidence based education to parents by Registered Nurses and Newborn Care Providers.
My son was 17 months old when my twins were born. Like many moms of multiples, I had complications giving birth to the girls and was sent home on bedrest after a long stay in the hospital. My husband is self-employed which basically means if you don’t go, you don’t make money so paternity leave wasn’t on the table for us. My mom was a great help, but caring for twins who eat every 2 hours (24 feeds in 24 hours!) and a young toddler was wearing on her to say the least.
Because of my long recovery time and basically feeling shit-scared most days, I sort of felt robbed of the joyful parts of bringing our babies home for the first time. I thought it was just my family that had this kind of experience. I started Let Mommy Sleep to help new parents like us and since the first day we opened 7 years ago, our phones haven’t stopped ringing. Turns out it’s not just me. It’s a LOT of us, maybe even most of us.
For this reason, In Home Postpartum Visits by a Registered Nurse should be a national healthcare standard for US families. They’re a standard in many other countries and the benefits to families include better safety, lowered readmissions and evidence based education for new parents. Lactation Consultations are already covered by most plans so it makes sense that a less expensive, more comprehensive service can be available.
In Home Postpartum Visits might not be needed by everyone. But for moms on the cusp of postpartum depression, parents who are drowning in the sea of misinformation and families who don’t have help of friends or family, the care of a nurse might be the difference between sickness and health.
With twin girls and a boy born 17 months apart, I'm the owner of the world's most ironically named business, Let Mommy Sleep. Let Mommy Sleep provides nurturing postpartum care to newborns and evidence based education to parents by Registered Nurses and Newborn Care Providers.
