Community Corner
Stay-at-home Moms Find Support Within Local MOMS Club
The Dacula-Central MOMS Club, in operation since 2000, offers a support system to local stay-at-home moms.
Being a stay-at-home mom can be tough. Mothers must keep children entertained, fulfill their need to meet other children and, of course, try to maintain a life of their own.
The MOMS Club of Dacula-Central looks to satisfy those needs, and has been a haven for local mothers since 2000.
The International MOMS Club itself began in 1983, and now includes over 2,100 chapters around the United States, with over 110,000 members.
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The organization is designed to offer daytime support to stay-at-home and part-time working mothers.
The president of the Dacula chapter is Andrea Jackson. Before becoming involved with the MOMS Club, she had recently moved to Georgia and only knew her landlord. With a three-year-old son and one on the way, she was eager to find friends for her children, as well as herself.
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“Meeting other stay-at-home mothers was key for me, as they always have a wealth of knowledge that (is) beneficial to any new resident and new mother,” Jackson said. “I met another mother locally who had just joined and loved it, so I joined a month later.”
The club is a nonprofit organization involved in many local charities and community service projects. To Jackson, this factor was a major reason she decided to get involved with MOMS Club.
“We help both our community and its people, which, to me, is the most amazing part of being in MOMS Club,” she said. “We are not only here for each other, but also for every other family in our community.”
As far as activities go, the club has monthly meetings, day outings, playgroups and children’s parties. In addition, there’s a MOMS Night Out evening once a month, encouraging moms to do something for themselves.
“MOMS Night Out is not an event where we discourage children,” Jackson said. “It is, however, a once a month event we design just for mothers, because MOMS Club believes that even stay-at-home moms need a break.”
The club also brings in guest speakers once a month to help continue the education process for stay-at-home moms. For the Dacula chapter, some guest speakers have included representatives from Jackson Electric Management Corporation, Poison Control, Red Cross and other local mothers who believe they have a story to share.
“Having a variety of guest speakers attend our monthly business meetings offers our moms another way of staying in touch with the community, learning more about any given topic, as well as giving us another issue to bond over or offer support to each other on,” Jackson said.
Aside from gaining 35 instant mom friends for herself, and over 70 instant friends for her children, Jackson said the benefits of the club keep rolling in.
“I’ve been able to teach my children firsthand the importance of helping others less fortunate than ourselves,” she said. “Including families who cannot afford to have a mother to stay at home fulltime with their children.”
The next big service project for the Dacula-Central chapter is the MOMS Club Diaper Drive and Bake Sale. It will benefit local charities including: Lawrenceville Food Coop, Gwinnett Children’s Shelter and Lawrenceville PADV Women’s Shelter. It will be held on Saturday, April 2, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., at Hebron Church, Gym E, on Hebron Church Road, off Dacula Road and Fence Road.
The community is encouraged to drop off a new box of diapers and baked goods will also be sold, all to benefit the purchase of more diapers.
“Myself and several other members of our club will be donating our time to this event, either by baking goods for us to sell or by being on site to collect diapers,” Jackson said. “We hope to make this a huge community-wide event.”
Local dads have no fear. While the Dacula-Central chapter MOMS Club currently consists of only mothers, the MOMS Club does allow for stay-at-home fathers to join the club after a vote by the moms. Also, fathers of current club members are always welcome to participate in club events.
“Its open-minded take on a mother’s choice to stay at home with her children was what made me sign up,” Jackson said. “It’s a decision I will be forever grateful for.”
The Dacula-Central chapter serves moms in the 30019 zip code, south of Hog Mountain Road, with the exception of those in the Hamilton Mill Subdivision. It includes moms in Auburn, Bethlehem and Hoschton in Gwinnett County.
For more information on the local chapter, visit sites.google.com/site/momsclubofdaculacentralga/home, or for more information on MOMS Club International, visit www.momsclub.org.