What do you love about where you live? Is it your friendly neighbors? Your kids’ school, a teacher, or coach? A wealth of family-friendly accessible activities or local businesses that helped you transform a house into your cozy home?

As a new mom, I was lonely. I was searching for my village at mommy-and-me yoga, at the playground, and in my neighborhood, but I didn’t find real connections until I started building community with Main Line Parent. Starting with my trusted Facebook Group (which exploded from the four people I knew to hundreds and then thousands almost overnight) and a desire to help others find their village and tell great stories to support small businesses, I dedicated every spare moment to it as my passion project: building a local family lifestyle brand and magazine.

Philadelphia Family was a natural first sister brand to Main Line Parent. When we set out to serve city families, we forged collaborations with business owners and non-profit leaders in the city to generate buzz on the playground-level and beyond. We hosted some amazing events at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Academy of Natural Sciences, The Franklin Institute, World Cafe Live, and Smith Memorial Playground and Playhouse too!

Then 2020 happened. Our Family Focus Media team got lean and scrappy quickly, halting all print magazine and events, switching to digital-only platforms. It was terrifying to abandon the assets that seemed to be working, but resilience meant being flexible enough to pivot.

And here’s what I didn’t expect: The freedom in this pivot allowed me to embrace a beginner’s mindset.

For ten years, I’d been grinding—proofreading in bed with a flashlight after getting the kids to sleep, wearing every hat in the business, struggling with the demands of my small business. Each mistake felt like evidence I didn’t know what I was doing. But when we stripped everything back to our websites, email newsletters, and social media communities, something shifted. Without the print magazine deadlines and event logistics that had consumed me, I had space to breathe. Space to discover what brought me joy outside of work with my family. I fell in love with sailing as a pandemic passion project and started dreaming of living on the water.

This openness to new adventures, to not knowing all the answers, to being willing to learn something completely new—it changed everything about how I approached my work. I was a beginner on the water, and that was okay. More than okay—it was freeing.

When we created Bucks County Parent shortly after, I carried that same open heart into this new community. It felt like a big opportunity to begin again, without the weight of past mistakes or the pressure to have it all figured out. I didn’t have to be the seasoned expert who knew everything. I could be curious, make new friends, ask questions, and build something authentic from the ground up.

We connected with causes that truly mattered—Fostering Hope, NOVA Thrift Shop, and Bakeability, for example—and built relationships from a place of genuine curiosity rather than forcing what had worked before. Starting Bucks County Parent reminded me why I began this journey in the first place: to help families find their village, the way I once needed to find mine.

Today, our team of local women is dedicated to making that connection easier for you. We publish seasonal guides throughout the year—Fall Family Fun, Holiday Magic, Winter Adventures, Spring Exploration, and Summer Fun—to help you discover the best pumpkin patches, holiday light displays, indoor play spaces, spring festivals, and summer camps with your kids.

We also create Focused Guides to help families navigate every stage of life while discovering all that Bucks County has to offer. Each guide is thoughtfully designed to connect you with your neighborhood and beyond. Through expert advice, helpful resource roundups, and trusted local businesses and nonprofits, our guides help you make informed decisions while supporting the people who make Bucks County special.

Our Member directory features carefully vetted local businesses and nonprofit organizations that serve Bucks County families and align with our core values. Each Member has been recommended by parents in our community and maintains high standards of service. These are the businesses and organizations that support our mission of building community—and we’re proud to support them in return. Whether you’re new to the area or have lived here for years, we’re here to help you feel connected.

I would like to invite YOU to be a part of our Bucks County Parent Community!

Feature photo by Carolyn Clement Photography.