It’s about time. A group dedicated to approaching mom-hood from a holistic perspective is setting up shop in Tacoma. This is the next stage in the evolution of parenting organizations, folks. It’s called The Holistic Moms Network, and it’s dedicated to providing support and resources for parents who are interested in holistic health and green living for themselves and their kids.



Holistic Moms Network was founded in 2003 by a handful of moms in New Jersey. Founders say the group was born from a yearning for the support and friendship of parents who do their thing outside the mainstream. Thanks to the ever-increasing popularity of alternative medicine and a growing environmental consciousness, Holistic Moms groups have flourished across the country, spawning more than 120 chapters throughout the United States and Canada.



Tacoma Chapter leader Hillary Ryan is a fine example of this kind of 21st-century parenting. She has two of the happiest, bounciest, smiling, most open and outgoing kids you’ve ever met. Tara and Aran don’t watch TV, but Tara has a digital camera. She complains that hers doesn’t have video games built into it like her friend’s camera does. Instead of piles and piles of potentially toxic toys, these kids have a lot of books lying around. Both kids are clearly full of love. They’re surprisingly open, unconcerned by the lumbering journalist that arrives at their door — they both beam smiles constantly.

If these kids are indicative of the kind of parenting promoted by Holistic Moms Network, someone should give these people a big ol’ check.



“I’ve lived in Tacoma for the last four years, and have been in a lot of mothers groups,” says Ryan. “I think this will go well in our community. There really hasn’t been any kind of support or organizational group to help with this kind of parenting work.”



Holistic Moms Network represents a growing demographic composed of holistic-minded parents who are questioning conventional wisdom in the areas of birthing, child-rearing, healthcare, nutrition and wellness, education, personal relationships, and our society’s views about the natural world. In the face of mounting global and environmental problems, holistic parents say their goal is to give their children the love, support and information they need to become informed, compassionate and healthy children who can live in balance with their world. You know, as opposed to just being quiet and buckling to whatever fate their parents would force upon them out of selfish need to have little clones of themselves. Some of the principles behind holistic living include: eating minimally processed foods and exercising to maintain health; using natural and non-invasive healing methods that stimulate the body to heal itself; understanding the connections between mind, body and spirit; understanding the interconnections between life events and between all living things; striving to live in balance with nature and minimizing our impact on the planet; using connection and attachment parenting techniques, such as babywearing, breastfeeding, non-violent communication and positive discipline, to raise self-confident and emotionally stable children.



If that all sounds a little too space age, look at any number of cutting-edge child rearing books and you’ll find these principles being promoted by the brightest minds working in the realms of developmental psychology.



Back here at home, Ryan and her fellow Holistic Moms are planning an open house April 30, at 6:30 p.m., at the Unitarian Universalist special event during World Breast Feeding Week, which happens in August. Other plans include bringing in an organization that will test toys for toxins. Just in case you didn’t know, we have much lower standards in America when it comes to what we allow companies to put into all the toys your kids are chewing on. And just in case you think this group doesn’t know how to have fun, think again.



“We’re planning a trip to the worm farm pretty soon,” says Ryan.