Momference: A Meeting of the Moms

Starting in the Spring of 2008, Momference will present events geared toward truly changing and empowering the lives of women everywhere!  Events will focus around the areas of:

·Divorce,
·Special Needs Families,
·Domestic Violence,
·Parenting Teens,
·Child Safety,
·Mompreneurs

Visit our new online Momference events calendar to see a complete listing of online tele-conferences and webinars lead by leading experts in the fields of parenting and women’s coaching.

Speaking of News!
Are you divorced, going through a divorce, or know someone who is getting a divorce?  Everyone does!

The upcoming Momference event, “Divorce: Passion, Power, and Play,” is the ideal way to help yourself or someone you love deal with the issues surrounded the break up of a marriage.  As the perfect gift of healing for yourself or a way to help a loved one struggling with the pain of divorce, the small registration fee of $39 includes both days of the event, a special virtual goodie bag, and podcasts of all of the sessions to review at your leisure! 

The keynote speak of the “Divorce: Passion, Power, and Play,” event will be Dr. Pepper Schwartz, the author of Prime: Adventures and Advice about Sex, Love and the Sensual Years. She is a renowned author, lecturer and authority on the subject of sexuality and relationships. Pepper wrote the column “Sex and Health” for Glamour magazine for seven years. She has appeared on such television programs as The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dateline and Dr. Phil, and on programs for the cable television network Lifetime.

If you have not signed up for the upcoming FREE “Divorce: Passion, Power, and Play” preview call with Dr. Pepper Schwartz, then do it now before all the spaces are taken!

Sign up for your FREE Momference Muse newsletter today! Included in every FREE monthly Momference Muse newsletter are tips and topics by industry experts to empower you as a woman and as a mother.

For a limited time, when you sign up for Momference Muse , you receive the best selling Momference podcast “Career Perspectives – from Corporate to Mompreneur” absolutely FREE!

Send Me Momference Muse!

In the Free “Career Perspectives – from Corporate to Mompreneur” Momference podcast, five noted industry Momference parenting experts explore the various work arrangements available for Moms today such as:

• Job Sharing
• Flex Time
• Telecommuting
• Running your own company

Giving you proven techniques to help you discover the benefits of each and how to make them work for you, the Momference podcast “Career Perspectives – from Corporate to Mompreneur,” will show you how to propose them to employers and win acceptance or enjoy the advantages of being your own boss!

Send Me Momference Muse!

Dont wait another moment…Get your free “Career Perspectives – from Corporate to Mompreneur” Momference podcast and Momference Muse Newsletter full of the most mom-ful information on the planet!

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Sign up today for a FREE preview call with noted expert Grace Mauzy or Dr. Pepper Schwartz (as seen on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dateline and Dr. Phil, and on programs for the cable television network Lifetime)!  No obligation…nothing to buy.  While you are at it, you can sign up for both FREE preview calls, but register today as spaced is limited!

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As stated early on, our goal at Momference is to celebrate, empower, and educate moms in all aspects of their lives.  That means that we have strong, life changing events like the divorce, special needs children, and domestic violence events led by industry experts aimed at helping women change their lives.  It also means that we produce podcasts located in the Podcast Plaza on specialized subjects so moms can experience the power of the Momference community in their cars, on the treadmill during exercise routines, or while fixing dinner.

Why?  Women’s lives are busy!  We know…that is the understatement of the year. 

But, there are a few other things that Momference does that you might not know about.  Every season, Momference produces a guide that addresses the stress and success of women.  With Valentines Day coming up, of course, our focus is on Love and Relationships.  So, Momference gathered together 14 top industry experts to contribute articles on how to make the most of love, great ways to keep the sizzle alive, and ways to handle divorce with style!  With over 40 pages of informative and, often, entertaining articles, The Momference Guide to Love and Relationships is devoted to the topic of enjoying Valentines Day whether you are single, committed, or married.

Are you asking yourself….”What does this cost?”  If so, then you will love the price! 

It is free….completely….without charge at all!  You dont even have to buy something to get it free….it is all yours!  Once you download Momference Guide to Love and Relationships, you can even send it to every woman you know who might needs it.  What a lovely Valentines Day email to your friends.  Print it and put it in a Valentines Day card for the special women in your life!  Be creative and share it with as many women—friends, family, coworkers—as you like.  You can put it on your blog or website.  We only ask that it remain intact and completely FREE of charge to all.

As we realize that the greatest gift that can be shared in a community is knowledge, Momference shares this gift with you!  Happy Valentines Day….enjoy your Momference Guide to Love and Relationships! 

Our next guide will be on Mothers Day!  Have topic you think would be great?  Leave a comment!  ~~Dee, the Momference Team

Momference Gossip:  Be on the look out for your way to sign up for our Monthly Momference Muse full of tips and tricks to make being Mom easier!

Are you fed up with too much stress, less than desirable eating habits and a lack of energy? Would you like to achieve optimal health and increase your effectiveness both at work and at home?

Join Wendy Battles, Optimal Health Coach, as she kicks off her Don’t Worry, Get Healthy 12-Week Program starting February 5th.

Taught entirely by teleconference, you will learn strategies to reduce stress, improve your energy, eat more healthfully and much more using her Don’t Worry, Get Healthy System. Don’t miss the chance to enhance your health!

Go to: www.DontWorryGetHealthy.com/12weekprogram for more details. Enter MOM as the coupon/promotional code and receive 10% of the cost of the program! (note: discount applies only to payment in full, not the monthly installment plan). Sign up with a “buddy” and save even more!

As stated in an earlier post, Momference is committed to educating women on the perils of heart disease.  As women and moms, we often put our families and friends first, but heart disease will not wait.

Commit today to learn how you can have a healthy heart.  Encourage your family, friends, and children to join you. For more information how you can have a healthy heart and take the Go Red Heart Check Up, log on to www.GoRedForWomen.org.  Do it for your family….for those you love…but, more, do it for yourself!

Heart disease is women’s No. 1 killer

• The American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women movement is empowering women by raising awareness and helping them make healthy lifestyle changes.
• Cardiovascular diseases – including heart disease, stroke and other blood vessel diseases – are women’s No. 1 killer. They claim the lives of about 460,000 American women every year.
• More women than men die of cardiovascular diseases every year.
• The first Friday in February is National Wear Red Day. Adults and children wear red clothing to work or school to encourage all women to protect themselves from heart disease.
  • Women throughout the United States will conduct heart-health awareness activities around National Wear Red Day.
  • We invite you and your club/group/organization to conduct Go Red educational activities on the first Friday in February or another day of your choice.
  • Thank you for making a difference in your community. We can save lives through heart-health education and action.

 Show your support for women and the fight against heart disease.  Go Red in your own fashion and get others to participate! For more information on how to get your company, favorite local organization, or place of worship involved, log on to www.GoRedForWomen.org.

Momference celebrates, empowers, and educates women who are moms in all aspects of their lives. With this in mind, Momference will present information, such as Momsoon, under the category of Momference News.  As a mom and as a woman, Momference is your global resource of Mom experts. 

Definitions of a Momsoon: 

1–A quick-moving storm resulting from a low-pressure system named Mom.
2–Or, less scientifically put, when your mom rains on your parade.

Call for Submissions
I am compiling an anthology featuring compelling true stories about the experiences and relationships of women with their mothers. 

Mothers:  the women who birthed us, raised us and sometimes make us crazy in the process and beyond.

Your words will inspire, entertain and be something readers can relate to; tales that you can’t tell in front of your mother about your mother.  I’m looking for engaging personal essays, humorous and/or sad, written by women from all walks of life. 

This is not a place for revenge against your mother, but rather a cathartic and heartfelt experience for you to tell it like it is/was, as you reveal how your mom can get to you like no one else can.

Stories can be as short as you’d like, or several pages long, whatever it takes to tell about your own mother/daughter relationship.  As an example, below is my own personal Momsoon story titled Hair Apparent.  Feel free to laugh, cry or relate!

Please be assured that your story will not be used or published as a part of this compilation without your prior consent.  As far as the business aspect of that consent, financial discussions will be held at a later date, after the project has been finished and a suitable publisher is found.  But again, rest assured that nothing you submit will be published without your prior knowledge and approval.

I thank you in advance for your participation in this exciting, new project which will be of use to many women out there who have similar experiences to yours.  Please forward this link to any women friends you have that might like to contribute to the anthology.

Momsoon submission guidelines:

• Must be a true, honest, personal story.
• Include your contact information, full name (if published, you can remain anonymous if you’d prefer), phone number, mailing address and e-mail address.
• E-mail your submissions to MomsoonStories@aol.com. 
• In the subject line, cite Momsoon. 
• Cut and paste the story into the body of your e-mail.  No attachments please. 
   

Hair Apparent (sample story)

All my life my mother has had a love/hate relationship with my hair.  She loves to hate it. The moment they placed me, a newborn, in my mother’s arms and she got a glimpse of my very fine, dark brown hair, she hated it. 

It didn’t help that my mother was a hairdresser prior to having children.  I guess once you’re paid to be judge and jury of other people’s hair, you just can’t help yourself.  Mom still did hair on the side, mostly Saturday afternoons for her friends and neighbors while I was growing up.  During those years, my fine hair developed into a frizzier and fuzzier consistency, yet still remained fine. 

As my hair and I developed, my mom’s flashing silver scissors were always at the ready, and she would snip away in an effort at getting my hair to look like something it could never be.  When she finished clipping away, all I ended up with were short, frizzy curls.  Despite my pleading, I could never convince her that all that cutting would ever result in anything good-looking, swingy or shiny.  It didn’t help that I grew up in the era of Marcia Brady and then a bit later Farrah Fawcett, heartthrobs with hair that I could never achieve or even come close to having.  My mom kept snipping away.

When I was finally free of her scissors and in college, I wandered into a beauty salon near campus and experimented with my first permanent wave.  The tight curls left me with hair shorter than the damage my mother’s scissors had caused.  It was certainly not the sexy, bouncy, college girl hair I was going after.  Worse than that was my mother’s reaction when, during my parents’ visit to campus, I stopped by their motel one night and knocked on their door.  Mom saw me standing there with my new hair under the light of a dim lamp.  “Get out of here,” she shrieked, “we didn’t call for a hooker!” 

I finally found some solace and refuge in the form of higher education when I decided to take up hat making and enrolled in millinery courses at The Fashion Institute of Technology.  There I learned the correct way to deal with problem hair and win the approval of mom at the same time.  I covered it up!  The day I decided to become a milliner, I called mom and said, “I know what I want to do with my life, I’ve found my purpose.  I’m going to design hats for a living!”  She quickly replied, “No one wears hats anymore!”

I sighed as I so often did (and still do) during mom phone conversations.  And then I hung up abruptly as I so often did (and still do) to end mom phone conversations.  With no maternal encouragement as usual, I continued on with my plan.  I became a successful milliner, and the company I designed for did sell a lot of hats, $14 million a year’s worth to be exact.  But ultimately, and I’ve never told her this, mom was right.  Women don’t wear hats; they just buy them. 

It didn’t matter that I took to wearing hats almost all the time since that didn’t make my mom happy either.  I couldn’t wear a hat twenty-four hours a day, and although I tried to keep one on most times when visiting at her senior living community, sometimes I slipped and went outside hatless.  One of those days while she and I were taking a walk, we bumped into one of her neighbors.  She promptly introduced me with, “This is my daughter Diane, but not the hair.”  At least she introduced me, I thought as we continued on walking and talking about lots of things, but not about ‘the hair’.

Fast forward to today, one career change later, no longer a hat designer but now a writer who sits at home where no one looks at my hair, which is now gray, and of course, still fine, a wiry-looking nest kind of thing.  I have given up seeking mom’s approval for my hair and for anything else for that matter.  Of course my mom still doesn’t compliment my hair, but she has taken to complimenting me, a fact I found out indirectly from one of her friends.  “She thinks you are so beautiful,” said her friend Marion as I beamed, almost blushing.  So there it was, finally - a compliment from my mom.  Maybe not a direct compliment, but one nonetheless.  At least now I know she thinks I’m beautiful, but not the hair.      767 words

A mom has a million things to do and countless unrealistic expectations. There’s work and career, meals to cook, laundry to do, and noses to be wiped… and oh, your husband needs your attention too! It’s no wonder that your needs fall to the bottom of the list.

Well this is your chance to walk past the unfolded laundry and focus on a little MOM time. Our experts can help turn your dreams into reality and completely transform your home, health, family, and career.

The Momference is the first ever global expert resource created especially for busy Moms - and it’s convenient! Momference puts you in a “virtual meeting room” with thousands of like-minded women from all over the country… all without the hassles of travel or getting a babysitter!

     1. Find topics you’re most interested in from expert speakers. 
     2. Get expert information you can use today!
     3. Participate. Share your thoughts… get your questions answered.

Does it sound easy?  Too easy?  The Momference Team hopes so because that means we have completed our mission!  Join us today.