By Daniella GrayShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberA mom's realization about who really needs "the village" has gone viral on social media.
Lina Simpson, 36, shared a post on Threads under the handle @lina_simps about the emotional toll of motherhood and the kind of support women say they desperately need.
Simpson wrote that the oft-repeated adage doesn't refer to the work of raising children at all: "We can raise children on our own, but the mothers suffer very real mental and physical stress for years upon years. The village is for her."
View on Threads
The mom from Virginia went on to explain that the village is the sisters, friends, aunties and other moms who remind a mother that she is still a person—someone worthy of connection, affection and care, even when she feels she has nothing left to give.
Simpson, who works full time while raising her three young children—two boys who are 8 and 5 years old and a 2-year-old girl—with her husband, Ryan, told Newsweek that her realization was shaped by the isolation she felt in the early years of motherhood.
"Even though you have so many people checking on you and bringing you food or offering to help, it's difficult to articulate what you really need when your entire world has shifted—and your identity with it," Simpson said. Despite having Ryan by her side, she said he couldn't fully understand the mental load.
The turning point came when she joined her local MOMS (Moms Offering Moms Support) group. Surrounded by women in every stage of parenting, she suddenly found a space where nothing needed to be explained.
"Those incredible relationships remind me that I am funny and smart, and make me feel like I have so much more to bring to the table as a person, especially on those days where I feel like a walking snack dispenser, and my patience is thin ... for all of the things that mom's juggle."
That is the "village" she now recognizes—women validating one another in a culture that often asks mothers to produce childhood magic, entertainment and "core memories" nonstop. The village, she said, is the counterweight.
"We need the women in our village to tell us it's OK to feel overwhelmed, to skip that fall festival outing or to opt out of driving three hours to go to an apple orchard," Simpson said. "It's about being validated and seen in a world where women operate largely in the background but run almost everything."
Her Threads post resonated with many other moms. At the time of writing, it had over 3,000 likes and shares.
One commenter wrote, "I don't have a village ... and I feel this post with my whole heart. I'm exhausted, like emotionally." Another single mom added that the village now looks like day care and babysitters, essentially "strangers" raising their children: "Moms need more support, period."
Others shared stories of fractured or distant support networks, like one mom whose only dependable connection after childbirth was her father checking in daily from another state.
Another commenter wrote that the village extends beyond mothers themselves, applying it directly to her own teens: "I regularly ask my kids if they can think of four adults they could turn to for help if needed. Kids need to know there are folks who have their back."
...Simpson was surprised at the reaction online, explaining that she wrote the post to "scream into the void."
"I love that so many people shared that sentiment and sent it to other women who needed to hear it and listen—that is ultimately what the village is," she said. "Shared experience, acceptance, being seen."
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