Motherhood came at me like a giant wall of loneliness.

I felt isolated, afraid and like so many of my feelings needed to stay locked inside of me. They seemed far too negative for what was supposed to be a joyous occasion. I closed myself off and shut down.

But then, in my loneliness I found some other mothers.

As I spent time with these women, as we pushed past the pleasantries and into the real, I began to open back up. They fundamentally changed parenthood for me. The hard stuff became funny. The reality was not impossible. Nothing was wrong with me—parenthood was just hard and comes fully loaded with both love and buyer’s remorse.

Those women and their stories are the reason Mamalode exists. I wanted everyone to have the opportunity to be a part of a group of friends like mine—where the stories just might save us. Where truth and tears and laughter bind us together so we know we are not alone.

Love to all of you,

Elke

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About the Author

Elke

Elke Govertsen is a entrepreneur and founder of Mamalode. She has been featured in Real Simple, Forbes, Where Women Create, Ad Tech, and listed as one of Origin Magazine's "Top 100 Creatives." She has been a speaker at The Girls Lounge, Adweek, C2Montreal, HATCH, TEDx and (her favorite) in classrooms. She speaks on a variety of topics from entrepreneurship to overcoming obstacles. She loves consulting in the areas of community design, storytelling and brand building. Her special skills include extreme bootstrapping, overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities. Of the many things she has learned by doing Mamalode, her ability to work with absolute chaos/kids/mess just might be the best. She is learning that slowing down creates more impact.