After years of navigating the emotional ups and downs of parenthood and her own mental health struggles, Hannah Meadows, founder of Mumfulness, transformed her personal parenting journey into a mission to support others. Drawing from her lived experiences, work with children with SEMH needs, and a deep dive into neuroscience and psychology, she now empowers parents to break unhealthy, ineffective cycles and raise emotionally aware children. Here, Hannah shares how her own challenges sparked lasting change, why language matters so much in parenting, and how slowing down can help us reconnect, both with ourselves and our children.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
After encountering a significant hurdle in my mental health journey, I delved into the fields of psychology and neuroscience. This exploration helped me realise that the groundwork for adulthood is laid during our formative years. I began to recognise various behavioural patterns that aligned with these theories and experienced the humbling realisation that I hadn’t created the best environment for my eldest child. While I never resorted to physical punishment, my strict “do as I say because I’m the parent” mentality failed to validate human emotions, allow for mistakes and learning, or foster his confidence in trusting his own judgement. Fast forward a decade, and after five years of expanding my knowledge, acknowledging my past ignorance, and working on healing, our home now promotes healthy emotional expression. We’ve acquired the skills to manage negative habits and maintain an open-door policy for discussing feelings. Witnessing the positive changes not only in my life but also in the lives of my children and partner has inspired me to share this message with anyone willing to listen and learn.
Additionally, my experience working in a primary school for children with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs reinforced my understanding of how nurturing can profoundly affect a child’s development. I learned about co-regulation strategies and the idea that all behaviour serves as a form of communication. Many children struggle to recognise their bodily signals and identify unmet needs. I soon discovered that this issue extends beyond children with additional needs; in fact, most of us fail to teach our children emotional vocabulary, how feelings manifest in our bodies, and how to express them in a safe and healthy way. This isn’t due to a lack of care as parents, but rather because many of us are repeating the behavioural patterns we observed in our own childhoods. The internet is filled with conflicting advice, which can be overwhelming. What we truly need is someone who can listen to our unique situations, give us real-time advice and help us develop personalised tools and strategies that work for us.
Mix together the newfound knowledge and the experience of working with children with the breathing exercises and mindfulness strategies I was now using to keep my nervous system regulated as a parent, and Mumfulness was born!
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
In all honesty, I was fed up with the mum-guilt and had become so tired of the cycle (child shows negative behaviour, I become frustrated and start to yell, child’s behaviour escalates, I feel out of control of the situation and send them away to be alone as punishment, everyone says sorry… no one learns anything). I learnt how my triggers were associated with my own upbringing and once I could see that I was not facilitating a home where my son could express himself, I knew something needed to change. I was the adult here and I was the one who needed to break the cycle. So, the research began, taking notes from books such as The Whole-Brain Child by Daniel J. Siegel, Good Inside by Dr Becky Kennedy, and The 5 Principles of Parenting by Dr Aliza Pressman. I was quickly able to see how changing my terminology yielded different results. The shift in mindset was harder to do initially. I’d find my body would still react a lot and I’d find myself muttering to myself about “how much easier things would be if you just listened and did what I said!”. However, catching myself and owning up to my own mistakes have really helped (and continue to help) when I would slip back into old patterns or behaviours
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
The biggest breakthrough I have found is the impact that changing the terminology you use with your children has. Refraining from asking questions about non-negotiable tasks, such as, “Can you put your shoes on please?”. We often think that by asking our children questions, we are being polite, but in truth, we are giving them a choice. Then we are furious when they say no and refuse to do the task, usually ending up pleading with them to change their mind, or we force them to do the thing we wanted them to do anyway. Take a moment to think about the message that sends to our children… we ask them a question, they say no, we force them to do it anyway.
The words we use are so powerful and children are not wired for politeness. I’m not saying be rude to them, and adding please and thank you to our requests role models manners, but the tone of voice we use and our body language is teaching them a lot more about politeness than asking them questions. Asking a question implies there’s room for negotiation so next time pause, think about what they can choose, and then deliver the request. Back to the shoe scenario: “We are leaving the house now, it’s time to put on our shoes. Which shoes are you going to wear?”.
And yes, adding “OK?” to the end of your request does make it a question too!
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
On very little sleep! This one I find particularly difficult, especially coming back to social media! I came away from social media about 6 years ago and coming back to it, I feel so out of touch and everything takes so much longer than I wanted it to take.
I quickly became all consumed by getting the name Mumfulness out there! My evenings were being taken up tapping away, making content and advertising, trying to stay relevant and reach as many people as possible when actually I’m not looking to become a content creator and I do not have the capacity to post every day. All I really need is a place people can come, with information about myself, Mumfulness and what’s for offer. Then, when I find some spare time to make some content, I do. My little ones will only be little once and I don’t want to miss it because I’m immersed in the online world.
As for the mental load of setting up and running a business, it never leaves me! I feel it’s always in my mind and learning how to manage that has been a skill I’ve needed to learn. I found practising mindfulness strategies whenever I can helps, enjoying some breathwork in the car when the kids are napping, taking time to be present when we are playing together and my all-time favourite: inclusion over entertainment! Get the kids involved with the cooking, the cleaning, the gardening, the food shop… this really helps me slow down and realise that spending quality time together doesn’t need to also be organised fun. All the kids really want is to be close by and feel like they are contributing too.
I also have a very encouraging and supportive partner who helps make family life as smooth-running as possible. He’s hands-on and domesticated. As well as working very long hours out of the house, he switches on dad mode the moment he walks through the door!
