Hi there, thanks for dropping by.  I’m Joan, and I live in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire with my husband and our daughter, oh and our great big dog and two guinea-pigs!  I originally come from Dublin, have lived in the U.K. over 20 years.

I first became a Music With Mummy agent nearly 10 years ago, when my daughter was two years old.   I had packed up a full time job to become a full time mum.   I desperately wanted to stay at home with my daughter, teach her values and enjoy being with her and for me I just couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her whilst I go back to work and not seeing her all day. I also figured out that most of my salary would probably go on nursery fees!   I always had a desire to work for myself but didn’t know where to start.

I had taken my daughter to a few Music With Mummy sessions and the Music Leader said she was moving on and would anyone like to take over.  I had seen how structured and educational the classes were and enjoyable for my daughter, and I enjoyed them too.  I think because the classes were small, very personal, and no one was left singing on their own – these factors made me decide to give it a go.  Don’t get me wrong though, as a mum attending the class, my daughter never wanted to sit still, whilst all the other children would sit beautifully, and I (being totally new to motherhood with no family around to give me advice) didn’t have the knowledge to learn that is just exactly what toddlers do!!  They are not programmed to “sit still”.  It is something they have to learn and develop and I think because of that, I have complete understanding with mums that have similar children with “ants in their pants”.  Being quite new to the area, well in fact after giving up a full time job, I didn’t really know many people, and it can be hard to join a group, so at the very least I make sure to say hello and try to make people feel included…… nothing worse than a group that is unfriendly and won’t include newcomers.

So, that’s where it started, in my living room, one and a half classes, and as my daughter grew older, I increased the amount of classes I could run. As she became more independent, she went to pre-school for a couple of hours, on a couple of days, and I started a couple more classes, and then finally to big school, where again I increased the classes. 10 years later I run classes 4 days a week, at various venues with more than 150 children coming along each week.

It is wonderful seeing so many children (and adults) enjoying their time together, and watching how the children develop.  Particularly when I see a very shy child, gradually gaining confidence in shaking hands or another child learning the rhythm of the beat with a drum stick and is years ahead of older kids.  Just knowing I have been part of helping them along is fantastic and incredibly rewarding for me.  I may lend an ear to a mum going through depression, or divorce, or a dad that wants some recognition or not getting any sleep because their child is teething, redundancy, or the joys of a grandma winning £70,000 on the bingo, a mum losing 6 stone in 5 months (I’m writing this as I eat my cheesecake!!) then she put it on again to have another baby to lose it all again, to a child taking their first steps or waving, probably I could write a book!

As a mum I am still learning. I’ve come along way from the first moment I changed her nappy, picked her up and it fell down. Before I had my daughter I hadn’t a clue about kids, as I didn’t “do” kids, but I have learned and it’s not a cliché, they do grow up so very quickly and when she grabs me tight with a huge hug and says she loves me, I know it’s all worthwhile.