Your Partners In The Parenting Journey
Being a new mom can lead to a lonely place if you don’t have other mom friends around to commiserate with. Listening to a podcast through which you can resonate with other moms who are struggling, too, and hearing answers to questions you feel too vulnerable to ask is a great feeling for those who long to be heard and understood. It’s like you’ve found your crew.
Laura Hunter and Jennifer Walker, hosts of Moms on Call, share a goal to serve all families, creating a space for them to reach out while letting them know that they’re not alone in the motherhood journey.
The friendship of these kindred spirits grew when they both worked as on-call nurses at a busy pediatric office in Atlanta. The two were the lucky ones doing the after-hours calls for the practice.
One day, their boss had a brilliant idea—to start seeing their new families in person. He wanted Laura and Jennifer to go out into the homes of these new parents and provide them with basic day-to-day support. Armed with their little folders and tools for doing so, the friends did just that, giving numerous new moms the love and support they needed.
But they ended up offering much more than just the day-to-day basics.
“We were coming from the perspective of two moms who were also in the midst of it, ourselves. But we also had the confidence to go into these houses to learn what was happening in the families and connecting with heart. It was just so huge,” Jennifer shared. “We felt a responsibility to bring that to a larger audience.”
When they started Moms On Call, it was just a folder that they printed off of their computer. But one day, they did a consultation for Kenny Rogers. While Kenny was flipping through their folder, he said, “No, no, it ain’t copyrighted. It’ll be copyrighted tomorrow morning.”
Sure enough, the next morning, his attorneys from Nashville called, saying, “Look! You can’t hit a bullseye without throwing a few darts. Girls, this is worth throwing a few darts.”
And that’s what they did. They self-published, adding DVDs to the back of their book and packaging all their orders in the basement.
“There was no YouTube then, or any other easy way to get the information to these families. This was just one of the ways that we knew we could help them… to give them some really quick tidbits and support them right where they were,” Laura shared.
As they listened and answered questions from parents throughout the years, they noticed they often received the same ones.
“When we did our speaking engagements, we found that people loved listening to somebody else’s question. By doing so and hearing the advice offered, it’s like getting a little peek into the lives of other parents who have babies and toddlers and what they’re going through. We found that so encouraging. So that’s the format we’ve landed on—we just answer parents’ questions like we would when we were at the office… it’s a lot of fun,” Jennifer said.
Laura and Jennifer’s desire to support and help moms feel less alone inspired them to start the Moms On Call podcast.
Jennifer recalled, “When we would go into the homes of all these different families—families who had dreams, families who were exhausted—we would try to help them get organized, give them confidence, and answer their questions. We let them know that they weren’t doing it alone. I wanted to invite people into our friendship and leave them with the confidence to do the things that resonated with them as a parent. And that was our tagline for the podcast: ‘The best decision is the one that you make.’”
For them, the podcast is a vehicle that allows voices be heard. It’s also a blast, for these friends and co-hosts.
“Jennifer and I have tried so hard to build a show based on a foundation of access to other opinions and voices. We want to give back some confidence… some hope to families who sometimes seem to be drowning. Other times, they’re figuring it out pretty well, but they just need somebody to come alongside them,” said Laura.
Laura and Jennifer believe there are some beautiful things residing in each person’s heart that could help other people.
“Bring it out. You have no idea the impact those things can have. You might save a parent from chaos, or make somebody laugh when she feels like crying, or give somebody confidence.”
That confidence is what Jennifer saw in Laura.
“I watched her give that to other people. So, we worked together to do that on a larger scale through the podcast. She recognized in me the potential for books and resources, and she spoke into that. We work together to bring these things out in others,” said Jennifer.
Moms On Call can be considered a partner on the parenting journey. Offering online courses, books, essential products, apps, and more through their website, it’s basically a one-stop shop through which they harness every type of digital technology in order to get their message out.
“But we wanted it to be even more,” Laura said. “And that’s where that Knowledge Center comes into play. The Knowledge Center is where you find the blog posts and free videos that talk about the basics. We wanted to make that accessible for every parent who has a need and desire to watch it.
“Additional free resources there include the solid food introduction calendar and the pre-made progression cheat sheet families can customize. We just want to get the information to as many families as possible.”
Curating all this amazing content into one place is a true gift to moms.
“We really tried to make it simple and fun,” Jennifer said.
Laura and Jennifer have gotten amazing results from their resources that continue to blow them away.
“In one magazine interview, the writer asked Gigi Hadid about a book that inspired her, and she said, The Moms On Call. We are so thankful that our book has done that for her,” Laura said.
They also receive overwhelming feedback and emails from moms who are thankful to the pair for saving their life.
Laura and Jennifer are also thankful for The Moms On Call community, which has been so kind and generous to them.
They would like to leave parents reading this article the following advice:
“You are strong, adaptable, and resilient, and so are your kids. You can absolutely do this. Even if you didn’t have access to the entire internet or any technology at all, you can be an awesome parent.”
November / December 2022 Issue
