Starting out as a local meet-up group and blog for parents, Conscious Parenting Movement has evolved into much more. Founder Paisley Rylance is passionate about intentionally raising healthy children and growing with them. She designs beautiful clothing and products that are developmentally supportive, sustainable and encourage parents to connect with their children, as well as enabling children to connect to themselves. Here she shares her story with us, along with her hopes and dreams for the future.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
My passion has always been mental health and developmental neuropsychology and I’ve been working on a book based around this for over a decade. I wanted to bring together biologically supportive parenting, non-violent communication and body movement to support families with their mental health, while removing so many of the myths that we are being told and sold in societally sanctioned parenting models. In 2017, while pregnant with my daughter, I founded Conscious Parenting Movement as a local meet-up group and a blog to help me find my writing flow.
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
It turns out that sewing is my talent. I am self-taught and I have been sewing since 2011, working in bridal and alterations. I started my own manufacturing business as well as a sustainable adults’ clothing label, using hemps and organic cottons, which I took to two catwalks. Around 2018, I felt drawn to bringing both of my businesses together and so grew Conscious Parenting Movement. I began designing clothing that is developmentally supportive, sustainable and encourages parents to connect with their children, as well as enabling children to connect to themselves.
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
This would have to be the training pants, which have become the foundation of my business. My daughter was standing at 5 ½ months and walking at 7 ½ months, so we had the resistance to laying down changes very early. Understanding that resistance meant that she was trying to communicate something with me. I did lots of research and all I could come up with was ‘put her in training pants once she’s 12 months,’ but this just didn’t resonate with us, so I made her a pair of tiny training pants when she was six months old.
We had been doing elimination communication in full-time cloth nappies since she was 7 weeks old. We used natural timing and baby sign language to grow through this together. I finally ditched the nappies when she was 10 months old and she went to full-time training pants during the day and naked at night. In just four months she only wanted to wear underwear and she was dry at night. It sent me on a journey to look into more supportive ways to get to toilet independence, learning about hormonal regulation, more baby brain development, communication and so much more. I now work full-time creating cloth training pants and supporting families on their toileting journeys.
