Today we’d like to introduce you to Allie Horne.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Allie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
To tell the full story, I’d have to go back almost a decade. My husband, an Army Ranger, was stationed in Germany so we lived overseas for three years. As a Pediatric Nurse, I was given the job of coordinator in the New Parent Support Program. This meant that I assisted military families who had young children and all the things that fit under that umbrella. This service was provided to Army families who are traveling and often away from their extended families and support teams. Being invited into people’s homes to assess their unique situation got to the core of what was going on with them and created a sense of ease and authenticity. I was able to provide such a heightened level of care to these families, and it was inspiring.
When I got back to the states, I completed graduate school and became a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. I started working in a primary care setting, and I began noticing the trends of new parents, and thinking about how much more effective it was when I could go over to people’s houses to help them. So much of new parenting is situational and specific; who you are, who your partner is, who your child is, how your living situation is set up, and who your support team is. It’s a completely different set of factors for each family, and it’s tough to have to save up all your questions and concerns for that one primary care visit every few months or so. I found myself wishing I could be available on a more personal level.
Then, I had children of my own and many of my observations were highlighted in my own experiences. My friends started having kids, and I started being on call for all the late-night questions and round the clock concerns that come with those first months and years. I quickly realized this was something that parents desperately needed- a lifeline. Parents are simply inundated with information, often contradictory, and they lack the time and ability to sort through it all. These days, information is at our fingertips, and the source of that information is not always credible. The deluge of contradictory information on the internet creates fear and anxiety and often relationship strains as parents try to navigate their new world. In an effort to help my patients, my friends, and myself, I began to think of ways to make this better.
The New Normal was born out of a decade of working with young children and parents in pediatrics and realizing there is a personalized level of care that I have the ability to provide. Observing that need, and realizing I could do something about it, has brought me to this moment with The New Normal.
I spent the better part of the last year doing market research, piloting clients, and creating services.
Parenting is a constant evolution and people need a playbook. I like to tell people we are going to work together to establish their “new normal” but to know that it won’t be normal for long. Their children will go through new ages, new phases, and it will be time to adapt and adjust, but with the right tools and the right support, they can approach their new normal with confidence.
Has it been a smooth road?
As someone who is trained in the medical field — business, technology, and marketing worlds are foreign to me. The biggest challenges I’ve had are in those areas- trying to create a brand, build a website, market the services, and develop a following. I underestimated the time this part of the work would take and as a result, I dealt with some self-doubt when I wasn’t acquiring customers as fast as I’d hoped. My advice for anyone embarking on the entrepreneur journey is to be patient with the process. Take pride in your ability to teach yourself anything, but just as I encourage New Normal Parents, find your support team! These are the people who will give of their time, expertise, and resources to help you while continuing to remind you that you are capable of anything. The last thing I’ve learned is to not undervalue yourself. Entrepreneurship is riddled with opportunities for self-doubt, especially for female entrepreneurs. Take pride that there are very few willing to take the entrepreneurial plunge, have confidence in the product or service you’re offering, and most importantly… price accordingly!
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into The New Normal story. Tell us more about it.
I provide individualized parental support, and while it might sound contrived, I’m proudest when I can provide families solutions that allow them to spend a little less time worrying, and a little more time loving each other (or sleeping, because we’ve all gone down that 3AM Google black hole when our kid won’t sleep). What individualized parental support means is that whether you are a first-time parent setting up your registry, a newborn couple struggling to find your groove, or you and your partner are dealing with defiant 4-year-old twins, I’ll help you build a plan of attack that works for you and your kid(s). I bring a wealth of educational training, motherhood experience, and health care provider knowledge to my clients. I specialize in prenatal parental planning, infancy concerns like feeding, sleeping, and general care, as well as toddler potty training and behavioral concerns. I also stay current on the latest trends and science, so that you don’t have to. Just as I build individual support plans, I offer a variety of ways to access my services; in-home consultations, email Q&A subscriptions, and a la carte virtual sessions via facetime or a phone call. One of the other things that sets The New Normal apart is that I’m not just for moms. The New Normal caters to the support team, whether that’s couples or singles, gay or straight, grandparents or au pairs, we encourage involvement by the entire team because it takes a village.
Do you have a lesson or advice you’d like to share with young women just starting out?
I think that women bring a unique perspective and a unique experience to any situation. As a result, women are in a position to create change in the workplace, a workplace that wasn’t necessarily designed for them. One of my goals at The New Normal is to affect this change. I want to give women the tools they need to be effective at home and work. A huge part of this is bringing their parental partners into the fold because as my husband and I have often discussed, working women will never get the opportunity to reach equality in the workplace until their spouses are expected and empowered to be equals in parenting. In my experience, I find that couples will hire an interior decorator to re-do their bathroom, or a financial planner to plan their retirement, but don’t consider seeking preparatory guidance when it comes to becoming a parent. More specifically, I find that many parents haven’t had the necessary conversations about individual expectations or delineation of duties when it comes to raising their child. For example, mom and dad assume dad sleeps through the night because he’s not breastfeeding and has limited parental leave. Or, the office expects mom to go to the doctor’s appointment and just as equally frowns on a dad that has to leave early to pick up a sick kid. When parenthood becomes a partnership there is such strength derived from that. When we create a plan together, we create a series of workplace boundaries and in-home expectations that will lead to mutual success within the family and society. With The New Normal, moms are encouraged to demand support and then empower those supporters; and while The New Normal isn’t just for mother/father family dynamics, I’m excited about the opportunity it provides women.
Contact Info:
- Website: newnormalparenting.com
- Phone: (770) 847-0286
- Email: info@newnormalparenting.com
- Instagram: _the.new.normal_
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/newnormalparenting/
Image Credit:
Virginia Reese Photography
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