Do Moms Need Support Groups?

If you are a stay-at-home mom, the answer to this question is “Yes.” Support groups can provide invaluable help. You can look to other more experienced mothers for their advice. You can ask moms about which doctor to use. You can arrange playdates for your kids of similar ages. And probably most importantly, you can have real conversations about life, religion, and other meaningful topics. And women need this!

If you are a working mother, I imagine many of the benefits are the same. I just know from my own experience that being home with toddlers all day talking about trucks and babies and colors can be tiresome. Beautiful, yes, but tiresome.

As an experienced mother (my 10 children are ages 3 to 27), I understand the value of mom’s support groups. Every time our family would move into a new city, I immediately connected with a mom’s group. If there wasn’t one, I would form one. These groups took on many formats—Mom’s Day Out, Bible Studies, and book clubs. I’ve done Familia, Women of Grace, Upbringing, etc. Currently I am in the “Well Read Mom” which meets monthly. Through all these groups I’ve formed invaluable friendships. And most importantly, was supported in my faith.

Perhaps this is why I feel called to help mothers. In recent years, I ran a simple ministry called Smart Martha. This encouraged mothers in both their faith and vocation of making a home. I know there are many dusty copies of my book lying around, Smart Martha’s Catholic Guide for Busy Moms. This ministry involved a lot of traveling and blogging. Since my primary vocation is still to my family, I decided to try to do something that didn’t involve as much traveling or blogging.

This is how the Catholic Conference 4 Moms was started.

Last year, our first year, the conference was a great success. Thousands of women took part of it. As you can imagine, I learned so much from this first experience. I made many changes, kept some things the same, listened to lots of people’s advice. And I am proud to present to you this year’s conference for Lent, “Faces of Mercy, 2016 Catholic Conference 4 Moms.”

And one of the great changes I am making for this year is to try to get moms to use it for their support groups.

Why not consider doing something awesome for yourself and the moms at your parish? Don’t have a support group? This could be the spark which could get something going.

Yes, I know, “Lent? We’re just getting ready to celebrate Advent.” Yes, the best time to start this plan is now before the crazy holidays begin. This can be as simple as checking and reserving a space at your parish and signing up online.

How does the “Faces of Mercy” Catholic Conference 4 Moms work?

I made it very simple and easy so that anyone, no matter how busy, can host this. These pre-recorded presentations and the live-streamed presentations can be organized into a Mini-conference at a parish or can be used for group meetings throughout Lent or played throughout the day for a “Day of Reflection for Moms.” These are just 20-minute talks with discussion questions. No preparation is required from the attendees.

And the presentations are really incredible! Please take a look!

These will also be available for individuals to view and contemplate throughout Lent, as your own “personal retreat” but I wanted to encourage anyone interested in hosting to take the plunge now and bring this to your mom’s group.

February 20th is the day we are encouraging for everyone’s conference. It will be the day the live-streamed events take place. We are live-streaming Jennifer Fulwiler from the Columbus Catholic Women’s conference in Ohio. The other live-streamed event will be the Divine Mercy Chaplet introduced and then prayed together. The presentations will be available as downloads for anyone who purchases the Hosting Package. This one low price covers everyone in the group. And these are available any time after February 20th if you wanted to use a different date or use them for weekly meetings.

The important thing is to just get together. And it is my hope that “Faces of Mercy” will be just the catalyst you need. And who knows, you might just experience the grace that the Year of Mercy promises when you take that time to reflect on God’s Mercy in your life and provide others that same opportunity of reflection.