exciting news

I am thrilled to share some exciting news with you. I have had the great honour of being asked to join my dear friend in launching a new online community space for families interested in living more naturally.

Rebecca and me at the Staverton Fayre last summer.

Rebecca Watkins, who I have had the pleasure of knowing for the best part of 20 years, is the person who first introduced me to the ideas of living more simply, of taking greater care over the food I eat, and of parenting by instinct. We met when our eldest children were newborn babies (those 'babies' are now approaching adulthood!) and we now have seven children between us. Through our families' emigrations - us to America and them to France - and subsequent returns to England, our friendship has remained strong, and we have continued throughout the years to share a yearning for a simple, natural lifestyle.

A few months ago, Rebecca and her husband John realised that whilst there are plenty of parenting websites and communities on the net, there was a definite lack of social networking geared towards families choosing to live gently and parent gently. A seed was germinating.

John, me and Rebecca at their wedding in 2001.

Natural Mothers Network aims to provide a place where families can come together and share the parenting journey. You can start a blog (perhaps you already blog but would like a space where you can concentrate on another aspect of your family life - gardening, health or education for instance), there's a chat cafe, a webzine and the facility to network with like-minded families. For a lot of us, it's easy to feel a little isolated sometimes; I have friends who are the only person they know of in their local area using cloth nappies, for instance. The internet has provided the opportunity to connect with like-minded friends wherever we are in the world. We are hoping to create a space where you'll find lively debate and discussion about the topics that are important to families, whilst still being a supportive, friendly environment.

Becoming a member of Natural Mothers Network is free, quick and easy. We also have a Facebook page and a Twitter account (naturalmothers) - we'd love it if you joined us over there (and bear with me while I get used to tweeting!).


We have some big plans in the coming months...sponsored giveaways, guest writers, book reviews and more. Come check us out!