Ingrid’s Story

“Being in programs like New Moms kind of changed the trajectory of where I wanted to be.”

In 1998, Ingrid was pregnant with her first child and a friend referred her to New Moms. She stayed in the program through 2000. Ingrid is now the proud owner of her own business, the mother of three adult children, and recently bought a house with her husband in Berwin.

She said during her time at New Moms she learned a lot about herself, and the type of parent she wanted to be. Her experience made her more thoughtful and made her want to do more with her kids. She really committed to being a very active parent that sang, danced, played make-believe, and took her kids on outings.

“My husband says I’m probably the only person who knows every nursery rhyme there ever was.” she laughed.

She said her favorite part about New Moms was the community. She remembers helping cook dinner for parent support group, going on the retreat trip with the other moms, and completing the parent-child activities her coach brought to their home visits.

That sense of community continued after she aged out of the program. She was able to stay in touch with other moms because their children went to the same schools. In an interesting twist of fate, a good friend of hers turned out to be a New Moms’ alumni and so did her mail carrier. Ingrid said she is also part of an unofficial “New Moms Founding Members” chat on Facebook which has helped her keep connected over the years.

To the current participants at New Moms, Ingrid says they should be happy they reached out for help and she’s proud of them for being willing to seek out resources. She said one of her best decisions was simply starting the program and “going through the door.” Reflecting back, Ingrid said it was all the small changes she was able to make in her life while at New Moms that eventually lead to big positive changes.

She wanted to remind young moms that even when it’s hard to keep going.

“Even if you’ve got to do it with tears in your eyes – keep going. Because there’s many days that I had to go sit in the bathroom stall like on “Mean Girls” and just cry. Then I splashed some cold water on my face and kept going because there were people depending on me. I’ve lost jobs. Lost parents. But the motivating factor is that I have someone depending on me and I need to carry the torch as far as I can carry it because I need them to be the ones to take it to the next level.”