Why I started The Mother Company

Pin It

Posted By: Abbie Schiller

By Abbie Schiller

I wish I could say there was a definitive “ah-ha” moment.

But rather there was a slow realization that nothing was helping. My daughter was three, I was feeling overwhelmed in my “less than perfectness” as a mother and in need of a daily preschool TV break – for her – so I could make dinner and decompress from the workday.

As a mom who carefully monitored her pregnancy, tries to buy organic food, and cares about the décor in my living room, I found the selection of gently paced and aesthetically pleasing preschool shows to be extremely limited. I searched for something that would help reiterate the messages that I was trying to teach my preschool daughter. Messages like “use your words” and “share your toys” and “don’t bite your friends.”

I wanted a hero that she would look up to and want to be like. A real-person hero (with a calm demeanor, gentle voice, good grammar) that I would trust my daughter to be with for 30 minutes when I needed a break. I wanted that hero to teach her all the things I was trying to teach her but with a magical touch and a special twinkle. A modern Mary Poppins – or a female Mister Rogers.

And while I was at it, I needed resources for myself to become a better parent. A more patient parent. A more confident mother. Being a mother is hard and sometimes lonely. We are often far away from our families, trying to raise children with our busy lives and we are expected to be experts about everything from toxins in toys to vaccines. I’m not a doctor or a scientist or a psychologist but somehow it feels like I’m supposed to know about all those fields to qualify as a good mother.

So I started to talk to friends to see if they needed what I needed out of a children’s show. I talked to moms in parks and on playdates and at ballet class and at birthday parties. We all seemed to be looking for the same thing. Help with our children – help for ourselves – in a well designed eco-friendly package

And little by little my idea grew. My idea for…a mother’s company.

I wanted The Mother Company to offer resources to parents like me from other mothers and experts. Please someone tell me how to cope with tantrums in grocery stores! Someone to tell me what to say when my three year old is curious about private parts. So I thought of “Pop-Up Parenting” which would allow parents to learn how to be more competent parents around the theme of each show by offering tips from experts throughout the program their child is watching. This is my answer to all those unread parenting books on my nightstand. This is also my incentive to watch my daughter’s shows with her.

The Mother Company needed to be about the needs of all mothers for their children – and it needed some financial support. More moms started to join The Mother Company. We are now by moms, for moms and funded by moms on a mission to redefine children’s media.

The Mother Company is just getting started. We hope you join our movement. It is our goal that all moms who share our values and our vision come together. Moms who care about teaching their children character and social and emotional learning will find us as a resource, use our experts, share their experiences. Moms who need a hero in the media getting their child to eat carrots or brush their teeth. Moms who want to encourage their children to use their words to express feelings and needs. It is my hope that The Mother Company becomes the company of the entire generation of mothers who are trying to help an entire generation of children learn how to become kind, communicative, and self aware. We are The Mother Company. We are here for you.

The Mother Company is on a mission to Help Parents Raise Good People. We do this with our children’s Emmy-winning television series, Ruby’s Studio, a series of preschool and early educational picture books, free teacher guides, music and more, all about social and emotional learning.