Where We’re Headed
Chelan Mom is a passion project that took root in the months following the birth of my first baby in 2021. I’ve lived in Chelan most of my life, and yet I felt like a stranger after I became a mom. How did I not know that some of my favorite places to eat had horrible stroller access or no changing table in the restroom? Where can I go for a walk that has a place to sit and nurse? Is there such a thing as a family-friendly winery? So many questions about how to function in my own hometown. I didn’t have a Facebook and Google was no help, so the only place I had to turn was good old-fashioned networking with my local mom friends.
So I wondered — if I could combine dozens, if not hundreds, of moms’ local knowledge, could I create a space where mom’s could experience what I did with my friends on a MASSIVE scale? The comprehensive resource for mom’s living in (and visiting) Chelan and Manson. It took me the better part of a year to finish and launch the website, but I finally did it. And boy, was I hopeful that listing submissions would come pouring in.
Cue the realities of motherhood, post-COVID life and (although I had plenty of interest and enthusiasm for my idea) I lost steam in a big way after a tiny drip of participation at the beginning turned into a dry, dry desert. And, duh. Moms are busy. I could hardly blame anyone for running into the same issues I was. So I decided that a few dozen visits to the website a month was a good enough reason to at least keep the website live, even if I wasn’t adding new content. If even a few moms found useful information on there, it was worth it to me.
A couple more years and another baby later, I knew that my passion for this idea is was still there. I still think it’s a great idea, I just needed to go about it a different way. After tragedy struck my family at the end of 2023, I found myself seeking comfort on Instagram (I’m sure many of you can relate) and although I don’t necessarily recommend that as a coping mechanism, it did eventually give me the spark I needed. I was spending SO much time scrolling on Instagram, breezing past posts that made me think ‘'Hmm, that would be a great thing for other moms to know.” when it hit me that it would only take a couple seconds to share those posts to my story on my @ChelanMomDotCom account. Voila! Instant content with very little effort on my end.
So that’s what I did. And I knew I was on to something when my husband told me that a story I posted gave him an idea for something to do with our 3 year old. Victory! After a couple weeks of being active in my stories, a few listing submissions rolled in and I started to get excited. So here I am again, three years after my original idea and two years after launch, feeling hopeful that something can still happen here.
My new goal is to grow my Instagram following to a point where I have a large body of Chelan Mom voices in one place as a resource in itself, and I think if I can do that, the website content will trickle in along the way. So if you’ve read this far, THANK YOU for being here! I would like to share some of my dreams and goals for this space, and then I’m going to ask you for a favor.
Some big ideas I have for ChelanMom.com:
I want the content here to go beyond lists of businesses and organizations. I want to get into the nitty gritty, the INSIDE scoop that only fellow moms can provide. I want a comprehensive list of restaurants and wineries that have changing tables in their bathrooms. I want to know where moms can find a nursing cover in a pinch, and who is having a sale on your favorite bamboo pajama brand. I want people to be able to submit really specific questions to the group and get really specific answers.
I would love to have a space where businesses and orgs can submit and manage their own event listings. What if we had a place to go where we could see ALL the kid-friendly events in one place instead of wading through multiple calendars and websites, hoping that we can glean enough information from their descriptions to know if it’s a good fit for our family? Game changer for weekend plans.
One of my original goals was to have a place where parents can find information related to recurring sports and activities, like registration deadlines for soccer or dates for dance recitals. My hang up is that I don’t want to manage this information myself (in case it changes, I want the info on here to be reliable) so I’d like to figure out a way for people to submit and manage these things independently.
I’m going to level with you. Between the website hosting, domain names and custom emails, this little passion project costs me about $500/year. This is not a business. This is not a non-profit. I’m just a mom trying to give back to my community and I have no plans to profit off of this project. That being said, it would be nice to cover my expenses someday. I don’t know if that will come in the form of paid ad spots on the website or Chelan Mom merch. Maybe both. But I want to be transparent right off the bat that it’s an option for the future. Next level awesomeness would be being able to generate enough funds to donate any surplus to local mom/child-benefiting orgs like Chelan Valley Hope or Thrive Chelan Valley. Submitting a listing or content to ChelanMom.com will ALWAYS be free.
Okay Okay, I know I keep talking about changing tables in restrooms. But hear me out. Changing diapers out and about was one of the most stressful things for me as a brand new mom. I was absolutely terrified of germs (thanks, pandemic) and got easily overwhelmed by all of the “things” involved in momming in the wild, especially in those first few months. My saving grace was my trusty diaper changing pad that would eventually get me through countless questionable butt wipings, but it took me awhile to get comfortable using it. Some of my favorite places to eat are the places I either have to brave the floor (I got some judgement from y’all on this in my stories a few months ago, but I will back my portable changing pad system any day of the week!) or the grass, or a chair, or hike my butt back to my car. And it sucks. There’s no reason places that advertise themselves as family friendly should have restrooms without changing tables. Period. Stormy Mountain Brewing, I see you with your full changing station and ❤️ you for it. Anyways, I digress. Alllllll of that to say, I think my most farfetched dream is to use this platform to inspire real changes and improvements to mom life in Chelan.
And here’s where you come in:
I don’t have the time, energy OR knowledge to do this on my own. I need you! But before I can load up the website with the collective wisdom of all you incredible local moms, I need to find you! And your friends, and your friends’ friends. I’ve shifted my focus from getting listing submissions to building this community on Instagram. Literally all I need you to do right now is follow @ChelanMomDotCom and, if you feel like it might be helpful to your followers, share it to your stories. As a mommy of the neurospicy variety, my inspiration comes in big bursts, sometimes with long gaps in between. There’s no telling how long this one will last, so I’m hoping I can get some momentum going so my brain is motivated to stay engaged and keep pushing to make this happen before another year goes by.
Again, if you’ve made it this far, THANK YOU for reading. I see you, mama. We are not islands, and we are NOT alone, even though I know it really feels like it sometimes.
Looking forward to seeing you all online,
