What Is a Midlife Mompreneur? And Why I Think We Need Our Own Space

I started Midlife Mompreneurs because I kept looking around for women who were in the same stage of life I was in, and I wasn't really finding them. There is so much out there for moms who are starting businesses while their kids are babies, building something during nap time, deciding not to go back to work after maternity leave, or figuring out how to balance a new business with a newborn. And there absolutely should be. But what about those of us on the other side of that? Our kids aren't babies anymore, but that doesn't mean motherhood suddenly got easy or that we magically got all of our time back. Now we're dealing with school calendars, random half days, sports and activities, doctor's appointments, teenagers, college planning, summer breaks and approximately 4,000 different things we're supposed to remember at any given moment. We're dealing with their hormones while we're dealing with our own, and apparently some of us even get the privilege of dealing with mean girls for the second time around, which is absolute bullshit. Meanwhile, we're also trying to run businesses. Some of those businesses are brand new, some we've been running for 5, 10 or 20 years, and some of us are looking at what we've already built and wondering what we want to do next.

That's really what I mean when I say Midlife Mompreneurs. We're in the middle. We're somewhere around 35 and up, our kids are school-aged, teenagers, college-aged or maybe even starting to leave the nest, and we're still very much figuring out this version of motherhood while also figuring out this version of ourselves. And even if we've been in business for years, that doesn't mean we suddenly have that figured out either. We still question ourselves. We still get big ideas and wonder if they're completely insane. We still want to start new things, change directions or decide that something we've been doing for years doesn't fit us anymore. Add in marriages, friendships, aging parents, perimenopause, brain fog and everything else happening at this age, and it's a lot. I've had days where I've bounced between doctor's appointments, school activities and everything my family needed and realized I had about 40 minutes to actually work on my business. I know I'm not the only one living like this, but sometimes it can feel like I am—and that's the part I want to change.

I want Midlife Mompreneurs to be a place where we can find each other. That's why I started the podcast, and it's why I'm working on building something bigger around it. I want to talk to women who are running businesses while raising older kids and hear what this stage looks like for them. I want to hear from the mom who's already survived college applications because I haven't gotten there yet, and maybe I can help the woman who's just entering the teenage years because I'm living that part right now. I want us to talk about business and big ideas, but also about marriage, friendships, kids, aging parents, hormones, confidence, burnout and all the other things that don't magically stay outside the office just because we're business owners. Sometimes we might have advice for each other, and sometimes there isn't going to be a damn thing to fix. Sometimes you just need another woman to say, “Yep. This is hard. I get it.” That's what I'm looking for, and based on the conversations I've already had with other women, I don't think I'm the only one. So if you're reading this thinking, Oh Shit, Thats me too! Then welcome. I think you might be exactly who I've been looking for, too.

Prefer to listen instead? This post came from the very first episode of the Midlife Mompreneurs Podcast, “SO....What is Midlife Mompreneurs?” You can listen to the full episode and hear more about why I'm building this community and what I hope it becomes. [Listen to/watch the episode →Spotify‍ ‍Apple YouTube]