iVillage Cares: Connecting To Do Good

Knowing that the largest community of some 16 million women online is literally at your fingertips is both exhilarating and daunting at the same time. Exhilarating because of the power they wield. Daunting because of the responsibility to harness their incredible power. It was precisely that premise that led us to launch iVillage Cares.

For over a decade, women have been connecting on iVillage about issues of both the heart and soul. Now, iVillage Cares is the place where women can both connect and do good in support of all issues that effect them and their families -- what better place and time to celebrate women and their families than the weeks leading up to mothers day and to do so with Arianna Huffington and her mighty Huffington Post?

About 5 years ago, I was being interviewed for an industry business journal and the reporter asked me what was my most favorite title and position I had held to date in my career. Given the professional context of the story, I'm quite certain she expected me to provide a corporate title. I got rather quiet (rare for me!) and introspective and said, quite simply, yet emphatically -- "mom".

I entered the secret and privileged world of moms some 14 years ago with one beautiful son Daniel, followed by his brother Jake a few years later. Ironic to have spent my career building businesses for women and have three men in my life but so it goes!

I have often said the love for a child simply cannot be understood until you have one of your own. Then, the concept of loving someone so selflessly is explained by your willingness to throw yourself in front of a moving locomotive to protect them. But sometimes you just can't.

Enter Juvenile Diabetes.

Nearly 3 years ago, I diagnosed my then 7 year-old son Jake with Type 1 Juvenile Diabetes, making him insulin dependent for life.

It was ironic for me to have diagnosed Jake's symptoms, considering his dad and my husband is a highly credentialed doctor. It was a mother's intuition.

I can recall the day so vividly, feeling like we had been hit by that locomotive, unable to protect our child nor ourselves from what lay ahead.

Then I went into "mom mode". AKA overdrive. When I called my oldest childhood friend in LA (her daughter had been diagnosed 16 years prior), I asked for one piece of advice from another mother who had long since been traveling down the road of diabetes. Both mother and daughter said "never let Jake see you cry -- my Mom cried for 3 years and it never gave me the confidence I needed to manage my diabetes independently."

Enter overdrive.

At that moment, I knew my protection for Jake from that mighty locomotive called diabetes was going to be learning everything we could and imbuing him with the absolute confidence to not only manage his diabetes, but to do so confidently and preserve his normalcy.

It has been nearly three years since his diagnosis and I'm so proud to tell you we've done just that.

But we didn't do it alone. It took not only our "village" of friends, teachers, coaches and the like, but it took the four of us. One mom and her three men. But the most critical role in Jake's learning and management didn't come from us, his parents. It came from his older brother Daniel, who immediately became a junior endocrinologist learning all he could about diabetes management, giving injections (despite his memories of vaccination horror!) and so much more.

You can imagine what went through my mind in realizing the power of all of the mothers behind iVillage who could rally against diabetes -- and everything else that matters most. I couldn't help but see the power of all that goodness happening in local villages across the country and I felt an enormous responsibility to take action. Hence the celebration and birth of iVillage Cares.

And boy do we care.

Daniel and Jake now co-chair our family's effort against the diabetes fight. Fittingly our team name is Brotherly Love.

So my story of motherhood isn't about daughters as you now know - it's about sons and the incredible power of love. And raising them to be good. And do good. They have learned far too young and up close about the power and motivation of philanthropy, and I couldn't be prouder. They have launched a kids fundraising effort called "Dollars for Diabetes" and given the power of their locomotive, you can bet you'll hear more about it!

So be it sons --- or daughters --- my favorite job title will always be mom....

To read more Mother- Daughter posts, click here.