The Village Journal is a collection of reflections, real stories, and practical wisdom for women and mothers.
In the everyday moments — the hurried mornings, the heavy afternoons, the small victories and quiet doubts — there is a deeper story unfolding.
A story of change, of resilience, of becoming.
Here, we gather articles that speak to the realities of matrescence, mental health, and well-being.
Honest conversations. Gentle guidance. Practical support for the seasons of motherhood.
Because you were never meant to do this alone.
In Defence of Tracksuit Pants (and Mums Who Wear Them).
I received an email this week that left me furious. Not because it came from someone with different taste in clothes than me (we can all rock different styles), but because it embodied everything that’s wrong with how our culture talks to new mothers.
When Asking for Help is Hard.
Asking for support as a mum isn’t always easy. In fact, it often comes with layers of emotion and old stories we carry.
Maybe you’ve thought, “I should be able to cope on my own.”
Maybe trusting someone else to care for your baby feels impossible.
Maybe you don’t want to inconvenience anyone.
For me, it was the quiet, persistent belief that needing help somehow made me a bad mother.
Five Tips for Exhausted Mums to Get Better Sleep.
Did you know a mother loses 700 hours of sleep in the first year of her baby's life?
And that's just the average. Some mothers lose much more than this.
When my son was a baby, I never thought I'd sleep again. I actually thought I would go crazy from the sleep deprivation. We (jokingly... or not) say that he is the reason we stopped at 3 kids. There was no way I was willingly going to repeat this again after barely surviving on 40 minute sleep cycles for months and months.
10 Simple Steps to Meal Planning.
For many of us, meal planning is something we do on the fly—thinking up dinner ideas while standing in the supermarket aisle, or just getting through one meal at a time. And for some, it’s not on the radar at all (no shame here).
I’ve heard so many mums say they wake up already dreading the question: “What’s for dinner?”
They’re tired, stretched thin, and worried about whether the kids will eat what’s made—or whether there’s even time to prepare anything nourishing.
Reframing “I can’t” to “how can I?”
How many times have you told yourself "I can't because....."
“I can't exercise because I have no one to watch the kids”
“I can't catch up with friends - it's too hard to take the kids with me”
“I can't afford to join a gym”
“I can't work on my own business or go back to work - it’s impossible to juggle childcare”
My Journey With Perinatal Depression & Anxiety.
I am grieving.
But I'm not grieving the loss of a baby. I'm grieving the loss of the kind of mother I wanted to be and I'm never going to get the chance to do this again. To do it differently with all the knowledge I have now.