One of the hardest jobs in the world is being a mom and that’s why Esraa Rothman launched Mom’s Guide Abu Dhabi two years ago. Esraa took time away from her busy schedule to talk to Tempo about motherhood, business and good times…
Tempo: Esraa, Tempo interviewed you two years ago. How have things changed for you as a mom and as a business owner?
Esraa: I feel much more settled now. I feel so settled in fact that I started redecorating our home after three years of living in the same place. You know I was reflecting on this the other day. Fatima, my six year old daughter, asked me “what does our flag look like?” and I started to answer “stars and stripes” and she said ‘no, the UAE flag’. That made me pause for a second and think about how much our daughters consider this home. I definitely feel more settled now, in this home away from home.
Tempo: How have things changed for Mom’s Guide Abu Dhabi?
Esraa: That’s an interesting question because your last interview with me was actually during the launch of Mom’s Guide Abu Dhabi. Back in the first year my effort was focused on having a website and a social media presence. We basically wanted to tell people that we’re here and we exist. The second year, we concentrated on being out in the community and having an on-the-ground presence. So we’ve evolved from being seen as a media information sharing organisation to a community-based organisation that reaches out to moms.
My days now are just as busy as before, but I’ve gotten busier because I now do development consulting in addition to Moms Guide Abu Dhabi.
Tempo: What has been the best event Mom’s Guide Abu Dhabi has organised?
Esraa: That’s a hard one. It is like asking a mother which one of her kids is her favourite! If I had to pick one, the one that comes to mind is The Platform, which is an interactive discussion aimed at informing and educating parents about the different curriculum models available in Abu Dhabi. The overarching goal of “The Platform” events is to foster creative brainstorming, exchange advice, and give mothers and caretakers the opportunity to make well-informed decisions for their families. We had representatives from leading schools in the area including the headmaster of Cranleigh, the superintendent from ACS, the CEO of Al Dar Academies, and the principal of Al Bateen School. This event happened again this summer where we had a similar panel but for nurseries. We love creating child-friendly spaces for moms to get inspired, empowered, and connected.
Tempo: Is that how you know you’re doing things right?
Esraa: Well, success to us is the level of interest and support we get from other moms. We love it when we meet moms and they are excited about Moms Guide Abu Dhabi, and they tell us how much they love our site, or how informative our tweet was, or that they went to an event because we put it up on facebook, or that they are so happy they came to our moms guide meetup and made new friends. That tells us we are doing something right! Unfortunately, we will have to start thinking more financially in the future in order to keep Moms Guide Abu Dhabi here for the long run. We want to be here alive and well to report live on the Expo 20/20 haha!
Tempo: What were the challenges you have had to overcome?
Esraa: Retaining our volunteers in this dynamic, face-paced and transient city is challenging. Running Moms Guide Abu Dhabi with a team that is full of working moms with very young children is also challenging. We do not want to lament the difficulty of running a business while also working full-time, running a house and parenting young children, but the fact remains that it is not easy.
We are now able to overcome some of these challenges by approving new team members to be on board to free us from the administrative tasks. Another solution has been to schedule regular business meetings at night after we put our kids to sleep at 8-10pm on Sundays and Tuesdays.
Tempo: What are your future plans for Mom’s Guide Abu Dhabi?
Esraa: It is to continue to be responsive to the mom community in Abu Dhabi. We want to grow and evolve our current programs. We want to organically grow. It is really important that we at Moms Guide Abu Dhabi stay true to ourselves. When mompreneurs enter this world of start-ups, some start imitating those who are successful in order for them in turn to become successful. But, we believe that we need to stay true to ourselves; if we don’t, we will inevitably lose our loyal following. All those who imitate will eventually find it hard to keep up with the pace of trying to be someone they’re not.
Here are some near future plans: Moms in the city, our Moms Meetup group, was launched in April 2012 and has over 450 moms. In 2015 we will grow the number of services; starting this month we are going to be launching two new products: a mom organizer and a loyalty card. Visit our website to have it delivered to your home. We will try to highlight all businesses that are family-friendly under our “Friends of Moms Guide” section on the website.
Moms Talk will come to the forefront; you will be seeing more moms talk and give reviews on our site. Other than that we will try to just keep doing what we are doing, just a notch better than what we’ve been doing the previous two years.
Tempo: What’s your message to all the moms out there?
Esraa: Don’t try to survive, figure out what type of self-care you need to tap into to THRIVE! Be easy on yourself, forgive yourself, love yourself. “Good is Good enough,” should be your mommy mantra!
