Well, I started talking to some of my dear friends...the same ones I had been meeting for coffee, dinner, workouts, girls' weekends, etc. since my eldest was in kindergarten. We had a shared history; we had been watching our girls grow up together. And they were shining! I told them about this book and invited them to read it and think about their interest level in creating a group together. Not one turned me down.
A tricky part was that the group needed to remain fairly small in order to create the circle of trust required for the mature conversations we would have in the future. So, altogether I invited 9 women, with daughters ranging in age from kindergarten to fourth grade. The grand total (including my family) was 26. Not all that small! But manageable. The moms read the book (or skimmed it or got the Cliff's Notes version from someone else) and we met. We sat around at someone's house and riffed ideas and shared parenting stories. We talked about the highlights of the book, as well as the parts we were absolutely NOT doing. We had some shared backgrounds, but mostly not. Our group was in the Twin Cities, but we were not all from here. Some had small families, others large. Some worked full-time, some stayed home. We had to take time to make sure our goals and values aligned -- this group had plans to stick together for many years!
Then we brainstormed. What were some themes we wanted to address? What would the format look like? How often would we meet? Who would run the meetings? So much good discussion! We agreed to start by just meeting with the girls to talk about this idea. By asking them what they'd like to talk about, getting their input for our group name and having them be together for this common purpose, they'd take interest and ownership of the idea. It wasn't just the grown-ups who had a say -- we all did.
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