Parents free to spree in high street "theatre"

Saturday 13 October 2018

Days can get quite busy for parents, but a local mum has partnered with local businesses to ensure they get a good dose of high street 'playtime' today.

Mum-of-two Vicky O’Neil (36) has organised a parent day at Voisins with activities spanning make-up chats, VR and craft classes for kids, all in the hope of raising money for local parenting charity Brighter Futures.

The islander created Mumspace last year as a community for local mothers to relax, be inspired, build confidence and meet new people.

Since then, she has gone on to host confidence building workshops, mindfulness seminars and panel chats with the support of Jo Alford from Barclays Eagle Labs.

Pictured: Mumspace has been holding various events in the past year.

This time around, however, Vicky and Jo decided to 'go big' with what Vicky called "theatre for the high street" at Voisins with a focus on busy parents.

The 'Parents Take Over' aims to showcase the island's local talent with pop-up stalls and activities - and Vicky promises there will be "something for everyone" with fashion shows to parent yoga classes and healthy meal making demonstrations.

It doesn't stop there: virtual reality demonstrations, beer tasting, a photo booth, quick mum make-up fix tutorials and a DJ will all be on the agenda too.

The positivity isn't just for parents - local charity Brighter Futures stand to benefit too.

Vicky said she chose the charity as its ethos echoes MumSpace’s: "Brighter Futures is a charity that supports parents, carers, children and young people in Jersey. They provide several free programmes and services to help support the parents and carers they meet.

"The programmes they offer are amazing in instilling confidence back to parents and carers and wanted to repay them in someway so thought by doing a parent takeover at Voisins, we could also raise money for this brilliant charity who quite frankly changed my life and gave me the confidence to start up MumSpace in the first place last year. They really do such amazing work and we really want to support this as part of the parent take over."

Pictured: Mum of two, Vicky O'Neill started Mumspace last year.

Thanking everyone that helped make the day possible, Vicky added: "We really hope that everyone involved enjoys the day and that mums, dads, carers, grandparents, aunties, uncles and kids all enjoy coming in and experiencing something a bit different on the day!"