Community

The words green and posh seemed a bit contradictory to me at first, but then I thought about the city of San Francisco and a little (energy-efficient fluoresent) light went off in my head and I got it.

Green Posh Moms is a forum being developed by two sisters, one of whom lives right here in Loudoun County. The forum is a new resource and its success is dependent upon folks joining and participating in discussions and sharing ideas.

Care to be one of those folks?

I know that even the most privileged moms can feel like their hands are tied when they’re sleep deprived, drowning in diapers, and learning to live on one income or two incomes minus childcare. In my personal journey to continue helping others — even with small children — I have learned a lot of lessons and experienced many false starts:

• Showing up to fix a meal at a shelter with a baby on your back can lead to whooping cough - even if you vaccinate your kids.
• Kids are not welcome in the Red Cross mobile donation vehicles.
• Ditching your partner and kids to volunteer may not lead to domestic bliss.
• While protesting during the first trimester, there will not always be a bathroom handy when you need to pee or throw up.
• Others may not be comfortable when you show up at community meeting with a fussy baby in arms and start to breastfeed.

There’s a great new group of Ashburn and Leesburg moms out there pondering how to make a positive impact on our community by helping other moms in need. This group is convinced that we moms can find a way to help each other, especially those moms who are facing bigger challenges than most. Come join us now while we are still defining our goals and figuring out how to make an impact right here in Loudoun County.

Someone forwarded me a link to “Online, Off Kilter” by Donna Eis, and I thought it was worth sharing. Enjoy!

DC Metro Mommies

This is a large (over 600 members) regional yahoo group. It is inclusive, and ready to welcome all kinds of moms. With a group of this size you need to be ready for a high email volume if you join.

There are also smaller regional subgroups for folks wishing to make in-person connections and get together for local playgroups.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2007
Loudoun County Mommies does a pretty good job of bringing member relationships out of cyberspace and into the real world. I love that the group makes an effort to include both stay at home and work outside the home moms.

In addition to playgroups, moms nights out, and monthly breakfast and lunch meet ups the group has an active cooking club and book group.

Its a friendly, welcoming & supportive group, and I appreciate the quiet efforts of the moderator in maintaining this community.

MOMS Club of Leesburg

Leesburg has two chapters of the international organization MOMS (Moms Offering Moms Support). It is geared towards supporting stay at home moms by organizing events and activities, and the local clubs are run by volunteers.

I have been a member for almost two years, and found:

• participation in the online chat group alone is worth the annual membership fee.
• being a member of a MOMS club playgroup was very helpful during my first year here as I adjusted to stay at home motherhood, juggling two kids, and new surroundings.

As with any women’s group whether or not it is the right fit for you may depend on personalities, but it is a great resource of full of moms who do want to help each other.

NOVA Families for Natural Living

I won’t try to define natural family living myself. The group’s description on yahoo is as follows:

“Northern Virginia’s Families for Natural Living is an organization of like-minded families who joined together to support each other in exploring natural alternatives for themselves and their families. We offer support and education on topics such as nutrition, birth options, attachment parenting, vaccinations, alternative health choices, concern for the environment and much more!”

I consider myself a hybrid mom with one foot set firmly in the natural parenting arena and the other still planted in a more mainstream parenting model. I generally shy away from pushing my alternative ideas on others, but ever since last week’s Oprah there seems to be a lot of buzz about vaccines within moms groups on both sides of this fence. I find myself reading the emails from my local groups, and thinking many folks would benefit from the perspective this group has to offer on vaccinations. And if you are like me and sometimes feel alone in cloth diapering, nursing past 12 months, delaying-preschool, or even choosing a compost bin and a CSA you will welcome the wisdom and encouragement shared by the NOVA Families for Natural Living on many topics.

This is the website for Mothering Magazine which labels itself as “the birthplace of natural family lifestyle.” Despite the arrogance of that assertion I have found their forums to be kind of online home where I can turn for information on parenting in a style that is gentle on my children and the earth. If you are interested in natural family living or attachment parenting, and looking for a place where you can be encouraged, challenged and inspired this is worth checking out.