We had another lovely Mums' Make Date on twitter last week, attempting to combine tweeting and sewing... Which made us a bit quieter than usual! Still, we shouted loud for Mama Activism, and got sewing (unpicking!) for #imapiece and Save the Children.
We talked about the causes that we support - Save The Children, Shelter, Crisis, the Terrence Higgins Trust, #TeamHONK and their Red Nose Day campaign, Saying Goodbye, One Billion Rising, and many more.
We highlighted the value of education and inspiring individuals like Angela Maiers, Oprah and Hillary Clinton, but the individuals most likely to inspire us? Our children. We strive to be our best, for them. We strive to do good in the world, for them. And these are the people whose lives we most feel we make a difference to.
We're trying to make time to focus on helping ourselves. Being a mother of small children leaves us with little time to tend to our own needs - and we can't help anyone else if we can't first help ourselves.
After our children, we feel most able to help others like us - our friends, other parents. Beyond that, there are so many things we want to change in the wider world that it can sometimes seem impossible to know where to focus our energies. We want a free world, a fair world, a healthy world without war and prejudice. Such huge dreams that they can stop us moving forward. We reminded each other of the value of each small step towards a bigger better world.
How do we measure the success of our 'small steps'? By hearing from those people that our actions or words have made a difference to their lives. By the positive changes we see in our children's behaviour and attitudes towards the environment. And while most of us struggle to see our impact beyond our own homes, we reminded each other that we're making an impact far beyond what we can easily measure.
What holds us back from changing the world? (apart from constantly unpicking stitches...!). The time and energy involved in parenting, exhaustion, confidence, knowledge...
What makes us feel empowered? Sharing stories, connecting with others through twitter and communities like story of mum, seeing the difference that other mothers make (like our fantastic guest posters this month) and again, our children.
We ended by completing the sentence "If the world was run by mothers...". You can read some of the fantastic answers in the storify of our chat highlights below. We'd love to hear how you would complete the sentence in the comments...?
And in celebration of V Day and One Billion Rising, we ended our get-together with a twitter boogie to this fabulous song: Break the Chains. Mama Activism at its best.
PS These first February snowdrops made me stop and admire their fragile hopeful beauty. I was reminded that although we may feel vulnerable and insignificant on our own, when we come together we are a field of snowdrops, a beautiful hopeful inspiration to others. As activists, we can be bright beacons of hope to our children. Spring is coming.
This month we're encouraging mums to embrace their inner Mama Activists and join in with Craftivist Collective's #imapiece project. Find out more about #imapiece and join in with us here.
You might also like these other fab posts in our Mama Activism series:
Activate Mama Bloggers (about Team HONK and Red Nose Day)
Parenting and activism: @Lulasticblog
Powerful mothers: on body distraction and changing the world: @storyofmum
Mumra and other thunderous Kats: @katpearce
How do you measure making a difference? Jenelle @TrashN2Tees
On Empowerment: Teika @mothersmilkbks
An activist at heart: Lisa @lisahassanscott
