The Making of a Maverick Mum…Jess Taylor

With the right support and community, maybe us mums really can go ‘off into the wild’?!

“When I was younger, before I had children, I used to get regular comments about how I was a little ray of sunshine,” shares Jess. And having met her I can totally understand why. Her warmth and enthusiasm are infectious. Her thirst for adventure is also evident as she nostalgically recalls how she took not one, but three gap years in order to explore the world.

But, when Jess’ pregnancy with her second son aligned with the Covid pandemic and a series of lockdowns, she found herself descending into a deep feeling of being lost. “I’ve got my little toolkit for looking after myself, so I’d go for a walk, because you never regret a walk, right? But I just wouldn’t be able to enjoy it and I just kept wondering, ‘What’s wrong with me?! Who actually am I anymore?!’ I felt so far removed from that person I’d been.”

The sleep deprivation and intense demands of a toddler and newborn combined with the lockdown restrictions became too much. We all know the adage ‘it takes a village to raise a child’, but Jess had been completely cut off from her network at the time she needed it most. Through a journalling exercise, Jess realised that the lack of contact with women in particular, combined with a loss of feeding her adventurous spirit, was contributing to her malaise.

So, as restrictions lifted, Jess got membership at Vobster Quay, a flooded quarry that provides a safe haven for wild swimmers, paddleboarders and divers alike. “I knew that I loved getting in any body of water…and wild swimming came quite naturally to me…and it’s just such a beautiful place.” In this way, Jess met some other women who’d also caught the wild swimming ‘bug’ and fulfilled her need for both a bit of adventure and connection with other women.

Being at Vobster reawakened Jess’ interest in paddleboarding and she covetted her friend’s paddleboard with a pinch of envy, to the extent that for her 40th birthday, family and friends chipped together to buy Jess her own board. She was elated by the gift but, 6 months later, it was still sat in the corner, unused and metaphorically wagging at her like a giant reprimanding finger. Jess realised she wasn’t even sure how to inflate the board and the nervousness about getting it wrong and damaging her gift made her reluctant to take the risk.

So, it felt like a bolt of fate when Rhiannon advertised Maverick Mums’ stand-up paddleboarding sessions at Vobster. “I remember feeling like, ‘I’ve totally manifested this in my life!’” But Jess never anticipated the difference signing up to a paddleboard session would have on her life as a whole.

The classes themselves supported Jess in protecting time to reconnect with herself: “I just got to totally forget about work, forget about my family and thinking about the kids for a couple of hours. I got to have a break and be really present.” The Maverick Mum community also served to further bolster Jess’ commitment to herself: “I think that kind of strong women’s circle is just what you need, you just can’t beat it… Maverick Mums kind of tops you up in that certainty that what you’re doing [for yourself] is right and important.”

And the zest that has reemerged within Jess has totally fed back into her family life because: “I enjoy time to myself, I know I deserve it and it makes me feel good and energised, and then I feel like I can be a better mum because I’m more patient and more relaxed.”

One of Jess’ fondest memories is of the last paddleboard session of the season, where the evening was lit up with glow sticks making it appear like an enchanted fairy kingdom which she then recreated at home in her son’s bedroom, casting the glowsticks in a chain with her hair still dripping from the quarry: “It was just magical!” she recalls.

Following her experiences, Jess has even changed careers - shifting from working in events management, to supporting the development of green spaces designed to support biodiversity and people’s emotional well-being, by reconnecting with nature; and she’s now also a volunteer trustee at Frome Birth Talk – a charity supporting new mothers and families. “I’ve become a bit of a well-being advocate, because I feel like I’ve been through that experience of stress and burnout.” And it’s clear that employer is fortunate to have her passion and empathetic energy on their side; an energy that Maverick Mums helps Jess re-fuel on a weekly basis.

And whilst this transformation would be quite an achievement in and of itself, the next step is even more exciting. “When you become a mother, you are trying to kind of re-find yourself again, and you want adventures, but y’know, you can’t just go wandering off onto the wild!” Jess starts.

But then…with Jess’ adventurous spirit and confidence which Maverick Mum’s has built upon alongside Rhiannon’s passionate organisation of adventures for women to explore both themselves and nature…Jess has just signed up for a huskie tour of Slovakia! “It’s an adventure on my bucket list!” Jess shares, with the excitement and anticipation rich in her voice.

So actually, with the right support and community, maybe us mums really can go ‘off into the wild’?!

If you want to explore yourself and nature, connect with other women and engage in adventures within a supportive community of likeminded women, have a look at some of our Maverick Mum activities and get in touch.