A thought piece on modern belonging and why mothers are rewriting connection.
By Simone Mazloumian — Founder of Eklektik Mama, mother of four, professional chaos curator, and curious observer of modern motherhood.
As a mum, has community become cringe?
We say we want connection, but we flinch when it arrives.
Maybe it’s the forced small talk.
Maybe it’s the awkwardness of meeting strangers when you’d rather stay home in yesterday’s leggings.
Maybe it’s the anxiety of opening up — or the guilt of planning something for you instead of the kids.
Or maybe — and this one stings — it’s because everything is now available at the tap of a screen.
Why go meet people when you can scroll, buy, and vent online without risking eye contact?
Psychologist Francesca Tighinean once said, ‘Everyone wants a village, but no one wants to be a villager.’
She’s right — we crave connection, but we resist the effort it takes to sustain it.
And for mums, that’s even more complicated.
Everyone needs us… constantly.
So what’s left to give back to this so-called ‘village’ when you’re already running on fumes?
Besides, very few of us live in actual villages anymore.
So maybe the language is outdated too.
Personally, I don’t want a village.
Or a tribe. Or a circle.
Those words feel small.
And women aren’t small.
I want an ecosystem of women … larger than life, like the women and babes inside it.
Alive, breathing, talking to each other.
Women who feed and challenge and recharge one another.
Women who support and disrupt.
Who smash ceilings and systems while holding babies, ideas and each other.
That’s the community I want to belong to, and build.
Because real community isn’t a WhatsApp group or an event.
It’s a vibe. A frequency.
It’s being able to show up as your full self - whether you’re at 10% or 110%.
It’s laughing until you cry, crying until you laugh, and knowing the person next to you gets it.
We don’t need polished perfection. We need connection that listens.
Community that evolves with us.
Spaces that hold us accountable and hold us when we fall apart.
The messy kind because motherhood is messy.
Let’s stop pretending we can curate belonging through highlight reels and hashtags.
Community is real life.
It’s the mum you meet at an event who tells you she hasn’t slept in days.
It’s the friend who drops a meme instead of a ‘how are you?’ because she knows you’re not fine.
It’s showing up. Not perfectly, just honestly.
And yes, the irony isn’t lost on me - Eklektik Mama is a business.
But it’s also a rebellion against the commercialised, polished version of ‘community’.
We’re self-funded, self-built and run by the same mothers we serve.
Every event ticket, every membership, every piece of merch helps build something bigger — a world where no woman finds out she’s pregnant and wonders, ‘What do I do now?’ because she already has support.
That’s what I’m building - one messy, magical conversation at a time.
A reminder that we don’t need a village.
We need a movement.
