IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - Take it from two women who seem to know what they’re doing - being a mom is hard. But it’s also the most rewarding and important role for many women.
Two University of Iowa alumnae are connecting moms across the country with their Iowa City Moms Blog where women can relish in the picture-perfect moments or cry together over the tough ones.
Kaitlyn Swaim, 28, and Sara Meehan, 29, said the goal behind Iowa City Moms Blog is to build a community for the days when moms feel alone. Meehan had her first son, Sam, 5, while she was 23 and living in Iowa City. She said she felt “old” when she was pregnant and would walk downtown among college students.
“You do kind of feel like there is something missing for moms,” she told the Iowa City Press-Citizen (https://icp-c.com/1lg1y1x). “What we’re trying to do is build a community for moms to feel connected, so they can feel like they can be downtown and be a part of what Iowa City is, because it’s a fun place to be.”
Swaim and Meehan grew up together in Davenport and attended the University of Iowa together. In fact, the two women have experienced most of their significant life moments side by side. They both married seven years ago, gave birth to their first children five years ago, and had their next two children almost concurrently.
“We just do things together,” Meehan laughed.
Swaim earned her undergraduate degree in psychology with a minor in human relations in 2007 and moved out of state with her husband, Joshua.
Meehan graduated in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish, and her master’s in Spanish literature two years later. Meehan taught Spanish at UI, local community colleges and, most recently, at All Saints Catholic School in Davenport.
Meehan said at the same time, she was contributing to the Quad Cities Moms Blog and wanted to be a bigger part of the national City Moms Blog network. Both women were discussing it in separate houses and jumped at the chance to work on a project together, with Meehan living in Davenport and Swaim in North Liberty.
Now, the job is full time for both women.
Iowa City Moms Blog was born in April 2013 and has grown tremendously in its first year. As of last week, the Iowa City Moms Blog Facebook page has just more than 1,700 followers. Swaim and Meehan said the website, https://citymomsblog.com/iowacity, averages 27,000 page views a month from readers across the United States.
Both women earn a profit through advertising, sponsorships and ticket sales to select paid events for readers.
Swaim said many of their readers are moms with no local ties who moved to the Iowa City area for jobs at the university or UI Hospitals and Clinics. Iowa City is a great place to raise a family, Swaim said, because of its diversity, cultural attractions and amenities, but many outsiders don’t know where to start.
Swaim said the Facebook page is useful because the Iowa City Moms Blog community can crowdsource recommendations for local doctors, schools or entertainment.
“In a lot of ways, we provide information about the community, about things that are going on,” she said. “We provide opportunities to connect through mom’s night outs and play dates and stuff like that, but also it’s just a way to read other people’s stories and have an insight into their life, and feel like you’re not the only one who goes through these things.”
Brittany Houwen of North Liberty said a friend recommended the blog’s local playgroup to her last summer. Houwen, a stay-at-home mom with two boys - Reis, 3, and Ty, 18 months - said the playgroup was an opportunity to get out of the house and meet other mothers.
“I think the most helpful thing that they do, they have the playgroups in each of the different towns,” she said. “I’m part of the North Liberty playgroup, and that helps me because I’m a stay-at-home mom, so it’s a way to get out and about with both of my boys and meet other women.”
Houwen said she follows the daily posts, and although she doesn’t find every topic relevant to her own experiences, she enjoys seeing different perspectives of motherhood.
“It’s not necessarily stressful, but there are moments of stress, you know?” she said of motherhood. “Overall, it’s just joyful to be able to raise kids and see them grow every single day.”
Iowa City Moms Blog is run by Swaim and Meehan and has a team of nine contributors who live in and around Iowa City. Posts range from big topics such as birth stories and battling infertility, to light articles about easy dinner recipes or how to get your kid to do their homework.
Meehan said a popular post titled “Perfection Perception” pitted the cookie cutter perfection many moms see on TV or Pinterest against the sometimes messy reality of motherhood.
“I think every once in a while, it’s good to get a reminder,” she said. “Everybody wants to post, you know, their kids looking nice and smiling and looking like they get along, but I mean the reality is your kids are fighting or your kid’s a mess, or your house is a mess, or you made dinner and it wasn’t a success. It’s better to just laugh about it instead of just pretending everything is perfect because it’s not.”
Despite eating mac ’n’ cheese for the third night in a row or rarely changing out of yoga pants - let alone putting on makeup - both women said being a mom is worth it.
“In so many ways, it’s one of the best things that could ever happen to you, just being able to bring a life into the world and just to get to see them learn and watch them grow and have a personality,” Swaim said. “All of those things are amazing. At the same time, it’s a major transition.”
“It’s definitely not easy,” Meehan said. “I do feel like little pieces of me are running over there. It’s like you feel like, when they’re not there you feel weird. I feel weird when they’re not with me. I don’t know, I just love them. . It’s wonderful being a mom.”
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Information from: Iowa City Press-Citizen, https://www.press-citizen.com/
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