'When you have children, you're living in a different world'

"It needed to have the kind of information about bringing up a young child in Kilcullen that I wish I'd had at first."

That's how Iseult O'Donoghue describes the just-launched publication 'It Takes a Village', a collaborative effort by members of the Carer & Toddler Group that meets once a week in Kilcullen's Parish Centre.

Which is, in a way, strange, because Iseult was herself raised in Kilcullen, and the group itself was set up by her mother, local librarian Julie O'Donoghue.

"But when I came back here after being away for 13 years, Kilcullen had changed immeasurably," says Iseult, a teacher like her dad. "Besides, when you have children you're living in a different world. You're looking for different things."

And you find out things like, as she says, that 'everywhere has stairs when you're pushing a buggy'.

Talking with other young mothers, Iseult found them mentioning places they would take their families to that she had never known existed. And it gave her the idea that some kind of handbook or guide to parent/child resources would be very useful.

"In the Carer & Toddler Group we talked about it for quite a while, brainstorming ideas, looking around to see what was out there. Eventually some months ago we decided we'd have to get down to doing it if we wanted a publication done before the summer."



The result is 'It Takes a Village', the title based on the old African proverb that 'It takes a village to raise a child'. The 16-page booklet was distributed last week as an insert to Kilcullen's Community magazine, 'The Bridge', and was launched at an event in The Hideout pub.

It includes listings of places to go out and about with the family in the area, available leisure activities and services, articles on a number of parent-child matters, recipes, and the results of a survey of parents, teenagers and primary school children in Kilcullen.

"It's not perfect, but we're happy that it is a start," says Iseult. "We're looking for feedback, and we hope that services and resources who aren't listed will get in touch and we can add them when we publish the guide on our internet site."

The practical aspects of doing the publication were restricted by the time and work constraints on the crew doing the work, who included Darina O'Brien, Jen Wilson, Siobhan Purves, Lynn Worrall, and Leonie McNabb. "It was put together at our kitchen tables, with kids running around or at our feet," Iseult recalls. "But it was a great experience, both making the publication and working with the other women."

The publication was launched by Mary Berney, one of the founders of the Carer & Toddler Group, who said she was very glad to have been in on the start of 'something that has turned out so well'.

Brian Byrne

(This article was originally published on the Kilcullen Page of The Kildare Nationalist.)