As a real-life school mom and life coach, I have…

• Packed over 1,710 school lunchboxes
• An 82% success rate on remembering sports uniform day
• Emotionally glued my broken heart for 425 consecutive days of my school kid crying at the doors of the classroom in the early days when I left her each morning at drop-off
• Completed 730 days of ‘learn to read’ and ‘learn to spell’ homework
• Done 1,720 school run morning drop-offs 
• Parked the car over a curb for 755 days of morning drop-offs walking from car to classroom while navigating busy roads, parking inspectors, school gates and stairs
• Driven 500 afternoon-park-and-get-out-of-the-car-and-walk-to-the-school-gates after school pick-ups and stay-for-a-play
• Navigated 1200 afternoon drive-through pick-ups staying-in-the-car
• Spent 1,140 days refining the homework routine
• Been a Room Parent/Parent Class Representative for 365 days
• Attended 84 class assemblies, plays and concerts
• Stood at 52 Saturday morning sports games as sideline support sport parent, with 12 of those as School Mom Team Manager
• Completed 58 social school mom catch-ups
• And additional school mom credentials including my blurred array of managing ‘go-to-school-dressed-in-something-different-other-than-your-school-uniform’ days including crazy hair days, make-a-hat days, pyjama days; costumes for book day, world day, historical day; 18 parent teacher conferences/interviews and 7 school camps.

I became a mom later in my life, which meant that I got the chance to taste the ‘corporate ladder climb’ in financial marketing – which left me with the empty realisation that I had been climbing a corporate ladder that was leaning against the wrong wall.

I had a taste for wanting something very different which charged me up with passion and purpose, so I left the job and wrote a book 'How To Put The Spark Back In You Marriage and In You' but not before having an irregular headache that left me in bed for a year and a marriage on the rocks.

I found out lots of ways to get my spark back, my health and my marriage - enough to write a book about it ten years' ago!

I became a qualified professional life coach and then the most magical thing happened, and after miscarriage heartache, school dad and I became parents to our beautiful girl school kid.  And after 3 and a-half years my daughter started school and I became a school mom.

Now that our school kid is in high school, I am loving writing and creating a feel good lifestyle vibe that re-writes the old rules of being a school mom that are saturated in out-of-date definitions that expired years’ ago, and replacing them with fresh new guidelines, perspectives, value and recognition everywhere in the world that supports school mums, and welcomes in school dads.

I love opening an empty-ish eaten lunch box at the end of the day; a foundation brush that works; staring into the froth of an extra hot cappuccino; and simple big joys of hugs and laughs with my school kid daughter and school dad husband.

So many times I felt that being a school mum was the most exhausting joy in the world which some days left me wondering if I should laugh or cry – or do both!

Doing what seemed like a simple school run of getting to school on time took on an amazing effort with homework done, breakfast made and eaten, teeth cleaned, packed lunches that were delicious and different 200 days of the year, breakfast dishes done, remembering if it’s sports uniform day, doing last minute test revision, squeezing myself into the routine, dressed – with shoes and socks on, hair done – for all of us at.the.same.time. and then...
doing my day and organising afternoon pick-ups with after school snacks that are filling but not too filling and still edible after a day in the school bag, planning dinner, food shopping, cooking dinner while helping with homework and finishing the project due the next day, having fun, giving life advice about friendships in 5 minutes, bath and bed and teeth cleaned, doing dishes, laundry and cleaning, tidying, sleeping sort of and then waking up to do it all over again. OMG!

And so, year after year, I started to figure out that there was a better and easier way to be a school mom, and I wished that I had had this information – and so Feel Good School Mom was born.

And when I discovered that that there are over 40 million of us as school moms and mums - from USA, Canada, UK to Australia - all getting over 1 billion children out the front door to school every day - (which is why I spell mom and mum), I realised that there was never any need for me to feel on my own as we are in this, both as incredible individuals and together, so no more alone and what an amazing strong bunch of important women we are.

As I wrote more and more about Feel Good School Mom, I realised that the school run is a very big deal because it is part of a much larger picture, which is largely invisible but with a high impact for school moms.

It is time for visibility and value which really is the bigger picture and why I love doing Feel Good School Mom which includes 4 big picture visions for school moms and includes school dads…

Big Vision 1:
School Moms and School Gates – Feeling Good
Imagine…School moms and the school gates being a sanctuary of trust and support, packed with respect, an understanding of differences, and with recognition of the incredible value of school moms everywhere – safe in the knowledge that judgement is a thing of the past and with full acceptance of each mum for who she is as she is – how brilliant.

Big Vision 2:
Work and School Commitments at.the.same.time. – a Perfect Blend
Imagine…Workplaces, companies and education departments in governments acknowledging the reality of people’s lives – school moms and school dads - and what it really takes to raise school kids every day, with employers and other individuals in the workplace seeing the enormous benefits of encouraging and supporting their people to live their lives as whole people - as parents - with no more ‘penalty mentality’ for wanting to have flexibility in work and school arrangements.

Big Vision 3:
School Hours and Work Office Hours – It’s a Match! …and while we are at it… School Holidays Too!
Imagine… Workplaces and schools talking to each other to finally acknowledge the over-the-top stressful reality of mismatched school hours and office hours every.day.for.14.years. and to work together to change them so that school hours and office hours work together to support school moms, school dads and school kids.

Typically schools start at the same time as work places - around 8.30/9am - so how can you be in two places at once? And typically schools finish at 3.30pm but work offices tend to finish at 5.30pm? There is scope for significant re-alignment of start and finish hours to make life easier for everyone.

And while they are at it, workplaces and schools can ‘chat and action’ the stressful situation of the shake.your.head. variety which is the mismatch of the number of school holidays with the number of available work holidays.

In other words, it is time to realign the unrealistic reality of school kids having up to 80 days of school holidays and school parents having up to 20 days of holidays. That is a huge gap. Basically school kids have 4 times the holidays of their working school parents.

For example, there are school holidays of up to 10 weeks over summer break which is 50 days, plus the other extra holiday breaks throughout the school year of maybe another 30 days which means there are approximately 80 days of school holidays.

School parent holidays range within 2-4 weeks of annual holiday leave from work, which is 10-20 days if you are full time, and less if you are part time – which leaves a gap of up to 70+ days of school kids on holidays and ‘who is going to look after the kids?’.

And the other issue is that when there are two school parents working, each school parent plays tag for the holiday so that one school parent takes one part of their holiday to look after the school kids, then goes back to work so that the other school parent can take some holidays to look after the school kids which makes it even more difficult to have family holiday time together.

Big Vision 4: School Mums and Sharing-the-Load at Home and at School
Imagine…School mums realising that we can’t do it all. Here is an opportunity for school moms to live everyday life with a re-evaluation of sharing the load, both at home and at school, in ways that support school moms equally:

At home with sharing the load – in whatever way that suits us – doing the laundry, dishes, cleaning, tidying, food shopping, cooking - and living our lives in the way that respects our own individuality and our shared togetherness with our school dad (if he is there), and our precious school kids.

At school with sharing the load – supporting mums with sharing and reducing the load with total respect, which sees guilt evaporate, when it comes to school requests such as expecting school kids to be dressed in a variety of costume creations (world book day say no more!), plates of food, class projects, and pta requests, so that we can share an easier school run life with schools and teachers. Moms are amazing but they are not an endlessly available free resource to subsidise and provide schools with costume making and washing, donations and plates of food.

I noticed that school dad in our family has never been 'expected' to organise a plate of food or costume in several years – it has been 'assumed and expected' in an unwritten sort of way by all of us – me, school dad and the school - that school mom would do ‘things like that’! It is time to change the load expectation and re-distribute the load.

Feel Good School Mom is here to help make this happen!

Living with the feel good lifestyle vibe keeps you feeling good as your individual self, and is filled with recognition, appreciation, value, importance, acceptance, individuality, inspiration, celebration, support and connection where all school mums are on the same side, wherever they live in the world, living as 'individuals and connected together' so that you can enjoy more and stress less with your school kids, school runs, school dad and everyday life.

Thanks for being here.