Have You Ever Felt the Crushing Pressure of Providing Your Kids a Christmas?

The journey through motherhood is never straight. It has dips and peaks, corners and roundabouts and sometimes even a hairpin turn.

Think about your own journey so far, Mama. Maybe you had a hard time becoming pregnant or maybe you had a baby before you were really ready. Did your career take off before you started a family or were you struggling to get by?

Something you may not know about me is that I was once a single mom living on welfare. You’d never know it now, but I relied on the kindness of family, friends and strangers to get out of the hole I had found myself in.

It’s a place that no mom ever wants to find herself; it’s terrifying to feel food insecurity when you have little mouths to feed. Paying bills became a game of Who Have I Owed the Longest and Can Make the Minimum Payment To? And I’m not talking about credit card debt or a mortgage: I’m talking about heat, hydro and water bills.

I remember how stressful it felt just to live day-to-day. It was exhausting.

And then Christmas would come along…

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year was an absolute nightmare for me, filled with guilt and anxiety about how to give my kids a nice Christmas. You see, we do that as moms: we want the best for our kids, especially on special holidays because they only have so many years to believe in the magic of it all! But it makes us sick, mentally and physically, to do it. And when that happens, we’re not giving our kids the best mom.

So, I’m out of my hole now. By sheer will, determination and by asking for help I’ve completely changed the direction of my life. I’m really, really proud of where I am today but I will never forget how it felt to be me 20 years ago.

That’s why I support a family for Christmas through our local women’s shelter every year.

It may seem like an insignificant thing to some people- supporting a mom and her kids during a highly marketed season. You may think, Why on earth would she put her efforts into Christmas when there are so many other times a mom needs help? In the future, I plan to continuously support our local women’s shelter through Mamasoup. But for now, I’m taking away the stress of Christmas  for a mom and giving some kids a little magic during a time when violence and poverty have stripped all of their magic away.

Are you with me?

If you have any products or local services (Kawartha Lakes, ON) to offer this family, would you be kind enough to help me out? I can’t wait to shout out all of the amazing people who help me make a difference!

PLUS,

This means so very much to me, that every single person who helps me on this mission by donating gifts or money towards this family, will be entered into a draw to win a $50 gift card from Amazon courtesy of Mamasoup!

So.

Check out this list of our Christmas family’s wants and needs, and let me know what you can do.

I believe that the truth of humanity is this : People want to help out because it feels good, but they aren’t always sure how.

Just imagine how happy our mom and kids are going to be on Christmas morning to have gifts under the tree, a beautiful Christmas dinner and nothing to worry about for a day or two.

That’s making a real difference.

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