Thanks to social networks, I met Flore aka Maman Louve who has now become a good friend. Flore is a mother of three children and a full-time entrepreneur. So I wanted to talk to her about her role as a mother, entrepreneur and her simultaneous management of these two very demanding roles. I have transcribed our conversation for you.
My first question: how do you manage your life as a mother?
As best I can! It's not a long, quiet river, but having three little wolves close together was a real desire, so we try to do the best we can. Prioritize quality time over quantity, try to be there for each of them while accepting the helping hands at certain times.
In short, not the perfect mother clearly but I don't think she exists, so despite my flaws, as long as I'm the best mother in the world in their eyes that's all that matters to me.
You have three children, which transition was the most difficult (between the first and the second, or the arrival of the youngest)?
The hardest thing for me was the arrival of the second child. I find that at that time we learn a new aspect of our motherhood: that of having to split ourselves! I found it difficult to have to cope with both of them, who have different needs but at the same time of course! I felt overwhelmed at times and my second also had a very severe RGO, health problems on the side which made it all even more difficult to manage. The arrival of our third child was clearly easier, we were much more experienced in this multiplicity of tasks to accomplish and competitive training to listen to three children with only one brain!
In short, I believe that each story and family construction is different, for us it happened like that, in any case it shaped us well
How did you manage to create your business while you are a mother?
I created my company alongside my job as a journalist when I only had one child. It was for fun at first, just a side hustle that allowed me to have a good time. And then, in fact, it gradually took up more space until I stopped my job as a journalist to devote myself to my company. I had to make a decision at some point, I could no longer do everything and I was expecting my second child, so I decided to throw myself 100% into my company. I think it was my children who gave me the strength to launch myself into something that excited me more. They were my driving force, and even if sometimes it took up space in my family life, we were able to rebalance it so that everyone found their rightful place.
How do you separate the professional from the personal?
I think it's the hardest! Clearly everything is mixed up, especially since my husband works a lot with me. It's hard to never manage to switch off, we talk about mother wolf all the time, even in the evening during our dinners when we tell ourselves that we won't talk about that! But it's part of my life 1000% and suddenly I think it's still a challenge for me to compartmentalize my personal and professional life a little more
You have spoken about your miscarriages several times with great courage. You have completely opened up about it. Can you tell us about your journey?
I am very comfortable with the subject, from the moment I was ready to talk about it without taboo, I decided to make my voice heard. I had 3 miscarriages between my first and second child, I did not expect it at all and yet, for a year I experienced these early pregnancies that ended abruptly. During this journey I was very shocked by the care, by the trivialization of what I was experiencing but also by the taboo existing around the subject. The fourth pregnancy was the right one, my first daughter arrived, since then I have tried in my own way to support women and couples who are going through these ordeals and to raise awareness among others to know how to listen to the suffering. There is still a lot to do but we are talking about it more and more and I would have liked this to be the case 5 years ago when I had lost all hope.
I wanted to thank my friend Flore for taking the time to answer our questions! It's always a pleasure to talk with her.
If you want to follow her adventures, here is her Instagram account: @maman_louve