I Was Told There'd Be a Village

Melissa Wirt recounts her journey and dozens of others in building a supportive “village” to transform oppressive, solitary motherhood into a connected—even joyful—endeavor.

Melissa Wirt thought she had everything—she'd built her own company and moved to a beautiful farm with her family. Then during a personal crisis, she realized that despite having created an online community reaching thousands of moms, she’d also somehow, become utterly isolated.

In I Was Told There'd Be a Village, Melissa leads us through the small changes she made to seek out connection. She also recounts how she talked to mothers from across the country, and soon saw that the beliefs keeping each of us parenting solo – I don’t have time; my life is too messy – were also keeping us from accessing our most powerful resource: each other. The stories she uncovered, combined with her own, became a foundation for slowly building back community.

That journey starts with an intentional shift from an isolation mindset to a village mindset. It might be as simple as smiling at the mom next to you at story-time or sending a quick text to a friend. But it can be much bigger, eventually growing into a thriving, supportive community. Motherhood shouldn’t be this hard, and it doesn’t have to be. Here, at last, is a roadmap for finding your village.