"When I was back in my maiden era, I thought [suburbia] was where dreams go to die."

What does the term mother mean to you? 

The greatest role and work of my life. The greatest responsibility of my life. The deepest service of my life and the ultimate embodiment of feminine power and feminine leadership.  

In what ways do you dive into your feminine or stay in your feminine as a mother? 

There are many different archetypes of feminine power and feminine energy, and the mother is a really strong one. The gifts of the mother archetype are nurturing, caretaking and unconditional love, no matter what. Our mother is someone who loves us, or is meant to love us, no matter what. Mother Nature loves us no matter what. She's chaotic and powerful, but we would not be here if it wasn't for the love of the Great Mother. The Divine Feminine, I believe, has many different facets, and the way that I love to explain this and teach on this is through the different archetypes.

Whether you’re a biological mother or not, you have access to the mother archetype within yourself and you tap into this archetype when you are creating, because the mother is also the archetype of creation and birthing. Whether you are birthing babies or creative projects into the world, that is you tapping into your mother archetype. Also, the way that you love others, the way that you nurture and care for others and the way that you mother yourself.  

What's your relationship been like with your own mother and how has this evolved over time, especially now that you're a mother yourself? 

I’ve always had a close relationship with my mother. As I started growing up, I wanted to separate a little more from her and to be more independent, which I think is very normal, but I started to feel almost like we were too close and I wanted to become my own woman and create some distance so that I could do that.

Mother-daughter relationships are generally so layered and complex. We love each other very much and there's also ways in which we get triggered by each other when we're under the same roof again and around each other constantly. We love each other so much, but sometimes we're very intense together and we need space and to take breaks. 

Seeing her become a grandmother is everything. It's so beautiful. It's so precious. It's so healing. Becoming a mother has definitely given me a lot more compassion for my own mother and a lot more appreciation and gratitude for what she went through and what she sacrificed to be the amazing mother that she is and was, and how much that took. You can never really fully understand what it takes until you are in that position. 

The song ‘Put Your Records On’ by Corinne Bailey Rae reminds me of my mum because she used to play that album on repeat at the house. That's when I remember her being in her happiest era. 

What's one piece of cherished advice or a nugget of wisdom that she's given you as a mother? 

It's actually a phrase that came from her mother and it goes, ‘Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive.’ It’s about being honest, not lying, and telling the truth no matter what. My Mum is very loving and she's very honest. She is very in integrity with herself and she's always modelled that to me and my brother. 

I'll always remember that phrase as a form of grandmother wisdom that's been passed down our lineage of ‘Be honest; tell the truth; don't tell fibs, because you're just going to get yourself into such a web of deceit and mess.’ 

Have you got your own phrase of motherhood that you will pass down to your children? 

I just really want our baby boy Sky to know that he can be anybody that he wants to be and he can do anything that he wants to do in this world. It's crazy, even now at 21 months, I can see the things that he naturally is leaning towards and certain things that he's obsessed with. I want to do my absolute best to nurture those gifts with him and not try to make him work on his weaknesses, which I think is what we were taught to do.

It sounds crazy for a 21 month old, but he is very athletic. He's very speedy, very fast and very strong. He's pushing heavy doors apart and pulling them back together. When he throws a ball he can aim really well. He also really, really loves music; not musical instruments, but he loves pressing a button that plays a tune and he loves to dance. He’s also obsessed with books. So we're trying to move more in those directions. 

When we tell our parents, ‘Oh, he's really into this.’, inevitably, one of them will say, ‘Oh, Mel, you were so into that’ or ‘Sean you were so into that.’ So I think some of it is passed down the lineage and some of it is that we do sing and dance with him and now he loves it. Or maybe he started doing it and so we now do it with him. I think it's a little of both. When we hang out with our other friends who have babies the same age, it's really quite beautiful seeing their uniqueness and that they're all into different things.

Have you found that your relationship with your device has changed, being aware that you have a set of eyes on you? 

I remember when he got to six months old, he started picking up on the presence of the phone and he wanted to know what it was and whether he could touch it. It was around that time we decided we didn't want to share his face on social media anymore. We didn't want that to become a part of our lifestyle because it's already such a big part of our businesses, with working online. So it's very tricky.