“Purposeful Parenthood Planning with Helen Cammack”

Tamsin Williamson, The Parenthood Coach, interviewed Helen Cammack, the founder of Preparental, for her ‘Do Your Thing’ podcast (it’s episode 27), about how the act of purposefully planning her experience of parenthood ahead of time has had a profound impact on how she does her thing in her life and Motherhood.

“After a successful corporate career and several start-up businesses, becoming a parent nearly didn’t happen for Helen because she just couldn’t see past the challenges of parenthood, and couldn’t figure out how it would work for her.

Helen was anxious about becoming a parent for many years, until she finally overcome that anxiety with the planning and preparation required as part of the adoption process.

And when she finally adopted her two children when she was nearly 43 she felt ready to embrace parenthood, her way, and her anxiety dissipated.

7 years later, Helen is now the founder of Preparental.com, a business to help all future parents (not just adopters) with their practical planning and preparation for becoming parents.

Whether you’re a natural planner or not, this episode offers so much food for thought around the power of approaching life as a parent with our eyes and minds wide open.

Because, as Helen so beautifully shares in this episode, she believes that planning and preparing your life – not just your body – for parenthood, enables parents to be more confident, purposeful, aligned, and intentional, and much more likely to enjoy the parenthood ride in our own unique and ownable ways”.

Tamsin Williamson, host of the ‘Do Your Thing’ podcast

What we talked about

Helen’s personal experiences

• How (and why) Helen nearly didn’t plan for parenthood at all – despite being a ‘natural planner’
• How she was not only anxious, but also had mixed feelings about parenthood, even when trying to conceive
• How the adoption process helped her (late in life) to plan and prepare for parenthood
• How Helen has now set up her life for parenthood in a way that works
• How Helen’s experiences inspired her to create her parenthood planning business, Preparental

Helen’s perspectives

• Why more of us should take the time before we become parents to plan our lives better – even though hardly anyone does this
• How hard it is to really visualise parenthood before we’re in it
• Why feeling anxious before you become a parent is not only natural, but rational
• How spending some time creating a plan can reduce anyone’s anxiety
• Why it makes sense to make big changes in your life before parenthood, rather than when you’re in the middle of it
• Why your friends and family won’t always tell you the honest truth about parenthood
• Why ambivalence about parenthood isn’t a bad thing, and you shouldn’t feel you have to be 100% certain you want to be a parent to decide to do it
• How early planning helps you to get on the front foot, and allows you to keep a few steps ahead (and to enjoy the present)
• How making well-formed intentional decisions helps you avoid looking back with regret, and supports you to make peace with yourself despite the challenges of parenthood
• How using your intuition and your gut to make a decision to be a parent isn’t the answer, unless you’re well-informed first
• How it’s not helpful to let our feelings take over when we’re making decisions about becoming a parent
• How parenthood planning techniques can help those who are already parents as well as non-parents
• The benefits of having a shared base of knowledge with your partner about subjects such as childcare, so that you can make good decisions together
• How parents can share their wisdom with non-parents by joining Preparental’s new parent panel