Mother-Daughter Project

Hi all,

Through a friend, I learned of an initiative called the Mother-Daughter Project
(http://www.themother-daughterproject.com/index.htm). This project was started by a group of mothers of young girls (a family therapist, a HS guidance counselor, a psychiatrist, 3 teachers, a community organizer, a health professional, and an artist) coming together in 1997 to address the challenges of mothering adolescent daughters in today’s world. To quote them:

“We are a community of women and girls dedicated to discovering and sharing ways mothers and daughters can stay close and thrive together through adolescence and beyond.

We discovered the simple but revolutionary idea that by joining together in small groups, ordinary mothers and daughters can thrive by facing the challenges of adolescence together. Mothers and daughters love staying close and having fun while taking on the hottest issues girls and women face.”

The simplicity of this ideas is appealing to me and in some ways it’s part of what drove me to create this blog. I was trying to find a way to address the support needs of parents who have had adolescents go through intensive therapy. The ideas presented in the Mother-Daughter Project may be one way. From a brief review of their website, based on their experiences, they recommend mothers forming a small community (no more than 4 to 6 mothers) of similar ages (i.e. a 10 year old has different needs/interest than a 16 year old), coming together once a month (in person or online coming together bi-annually) for 6 months, and then having their daughters join in. This 6 month period is not fixed and can be reduced based on the group – the goal is to use this time to get to know each other, align objectives, and set group guidelines.

Through Willows in the Wind I’ve learned that there are monthly face to face support meetings in place for parents of adolescents living in the SF Bay Area. Where there is still a gap is parents who live in other geographical areas. This blog was thought of as a way of supporting this larger group but maybe a hybrid is also appropriate.

Is there space in our community for parents to hold a monthly call checking in with parents located at a distance and supporting each other with the blog being the space for immediate needs and sharing resources?

By they way, they’ve written a book that I’ve ordered for basic ideas. These ideas would undoubtedly need to be tweaked based on our life experiences but thought that, given my two granddaughters, I would at a min. pass this book on to my oldest daughter.

Would love to hear your thoughts,