Just under five years ago I was pregnant, expecting my first child, and all alone. My husband and myself had moved out of state just months earlier, for an opportunity to grow in his career. 5 years later, he’s back in the same place, just in a wholly different position, but I digress.
As I was saying, I was pregnant…and alone. Kind of like Naked and Afraid, except without all of the nakedness and wild animals. My mother wasn’t in my life, and my girlfriends were hours away — I had no village to help me. What I did have, however, was a computer with an Internet connection, so I found community online, while researching natural ways to bring my baby into this world and care for him.
I discovered the cloth diaper community, which lead to me discovering babywearing, and I soon found myself buying cloth diapers and researching different carriers. By the time my son finally arrived, I was fully immersed in the cloth diapering community, and belonged to several natural parenting groups.
I think I heard about MommyCon in 2012, shortly after my son was born. I purchased my tickets for Philadelphia MONTHS in advance, and eagerly counted-down to the day, blogging along the way. My son was just one year old when we attended MommyCon Philly, and they were in their first year of the conference, working out kinks, growing rapidly, and giving people like me (on my island) community in-person, if only for a day.

Parenting beyond the baby years means that I find lots of photos like these in my phone (despite my phone being locked!)
My son’s now four-years-old, and I’m not going to have anymore children, having decided, sometime after my third loss, that it was just too difficult to keep losing babies. These days, I don’t refer to what I do as a mother as natural parenting, because the label no longer really matters (if it ever did). I feed my son whole foods, am the annoying mom who tells her kiddo’s school that he’s sugar-sensitive and under orders from his pediatrician to bring in his own snack (well, at his last school, anyway), and generally assert my control over his diet [before I no longer have control in the teen years]. At four, my son has a solid appreciation for nature, and I encourage him to get dirty and play (discover); one of his favorite things to do is to spend time in the creek, hunting for shells and throwing rocks, a nice hike diversion.
I still care about the products I use on my son’s skin, and do the best I can to keep toxins out of our home. In essence, I don’t see myself doing anything really different from the majority of parents out there, so there really isn’t a need to categorize parenting at this stage, is there?
Whereas I was concerned about nurturing my son early on, being mindful of his needs as a baby, I now focus my efforts on nurturing his mind, and tending to his needs in a way that teaches him how to be independent. I guess you could call this age the detachment phase of attachment parenting. With my son’s needs not as great as they were when he was an infant and toddler, I now have more time to focus on my own needs and my own identity, apart from being a mother. So, what does MommyCon have to do with all of this?
Well, my friends, MommyCon is really an all-ages parenting conference, with sessions for expecting parents through seasoned parenting vets. MommyCon San Jose is offering sessions perfect for those parents of older children, such as Geek Parenting: Raising Kids on Comics, Sci-Fi & Fantasy (love it!), Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Your Child from An Oversanitized World, Mom Guilt: Why It Sucks & How to Give It the Middle Finger, and more! And then there’s this:
Yep! Not only do you get to check out all of the MommyCon San Jose awesomeness at San Jose Convention Center, but you get to take part in a COSTUME CONTEST!
If you’ve not yet purchased your tickets for MommyCon San Jose, you can save $5 from each ticket with code: LOWREN16
Okay, back to the costume contest. Costumes will be judged in THREE categories: Babywearing, Family, and Individual (adult costume). Each category winner will receive an awesome prize, with the Babywearing costume winner receiving an ORBIT CAR SEAT! So, put on your thinking caps, grab your tickets (if you haven’t already), and join in the MommyCon fun!
If you’ve attended your nearby MommyCon event, check out the 2017 event calendar! I’m signed-up to attend MommyCon NYC, but have always wanted to visit Memphis, so… Want to save $5 off of your 2017 MommyCon ticket prices? Use my code: LOWREN17
Interested in buying organics at wholesale prices? I now live in the boonies, so Thrive Market is my go-to for organics and natural products. Use my link to save 15% off of your first purchase, free shipping, and donate one membership to a low-income family through the Thrive Gives program. So many benefits, my friends!
This post contains affiliate links.