Finally, a positive and realistic strategy for easing the burden of parenting: Melissa Wirt shows how to build 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 describes how she began making small changes to seek out connection. She also 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, gave rise to a strategy for slowly building back community.

Each chapter is structured as a clear and 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.