Moms are suffering in silence. They are not okay. We are coddled like these precious vessels of life until we give birth and then we are birthed into a world that tramples us with nonstop pressure to be one thing or another to be seen as a good mother. No one asks how we are doing, how we feel, if we are okay!

Moms carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. We carry our babies in our arms and our guilt, fear, and anxiety in our hearts and minds. We are tortured by high expectations set by ourselves and everyone around us. We see instagram moms who lost their baby weight, make pinterest meals, and calm parent. We read articles every other week refuting the tip we read the week before. Everything we do is “harming” our child. We constantly feel like we are failing.

How do we keep up? How do we get it right? When do the worries stop? Everyone says don’t wish these days away you will miss them, but other parents warn it never gets easier just hard in different ways. We live in the limbo between cherishing each moment and drowning in the current storm that hits us.

Who is checking on the moms? We are never enough. Not smart enough, not ambitious enough if we stay home and raise our kids. Not caring enough if we go back to work and let someone else raise our kids. Costs of living are astronomical that sometimes we are forced to work and sometimes we are forced to stay home depending on our circumstances. Childcare is the cost of a mortgage. Grandparents no longer want to watch their grandkids full time.

We are begged to have grandchildren then told they can’t be bothered to help. We are told it takes a village, but our village is spread across the country or working past retirement age. The village becomes our equally stressed out mom friends. We weren’t meant to do this alone, yet we all feel isolated and alone.

The doctors release you back into the wild and barely check in on you after 6 weeks. You are left to find your own support system or suffer trying to do it on your own. Some even feel ashamed asking for help.

The world we live in now has presented new fears for mothers too including gun violence in schools, lead in baby food, toxins in the air and water, politicians that want to strip women of their bodily autonomy. Teachers are at the wits end. Moms can’t keep up with high expectations and low resources for kids in school. How can we possibly keep our kids safe and help them be successful. Children have more mental health issues than most adults of the past generations. Social media steals their innocence and sometimes abducts children all together. What do moms do? We are frozen unable to breathe or move.

The moms are not okay.

That is why I am starting a nonprofit for moms so we can build our own village! Look for more to come about The Mom’s Collaborative. If moms are going to survive we need a large movement to bring moms together to support each other. If no one will be our village, we will make our own.