The Sling Consultancy
ABOUT ME
I'm Zoë, and I live in Dorking, Surrey
I studied Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire and graduated with a first class degree with honours, studying topics including Child Development and Attachment theory.
I worked in retail management In central London before having children. We lived in London so we used a sling/carrier for practical reasons with our eldest Mai, who was born in 2008. I can't remember why we bought that particular one and we have very few pictures of me carrying her in it but some with Dad.
We stopped using it after 6 months or so as it had become uncomfortable to use. One day on a train journey I saw a someone carrying an older child in a sling and I asked her what it was called and where she had bought it. I simply did not realise more slings were out there! And so I bought the same soft structured carrier (SSC), which we used until she was nearly 3 years old.
The next chapter of our lives started when we moved to Dorking, Surrey when Mai was 13 months old. Not knowing anyone locally, I decided to volunteer with Dorking NCT.
In 2012 I helped to set up the sling library to try to help other parents on their journey.
By this point there were many more slings on the market and it could be tricky to know what would work without having the chance to try one on as most were sold online with only a few shops selling slings.
We became a family of four when along came Charlie in 2013, I had already bought a stretchy sling and as Mai was at preschool, he was in the sling from the early days. We then moved onto the carrier we had used for Mai, as both myself and my husband found it comfy and easy to use.
When Charlie got bigger, around 16 months old, it was no longer as comfortable and we decided to buy a toddler sling as we were carrying him far more frequently than we had Mai. Having 2 children was very different to having 1! Mai was at school and it was helpful for the school run to have him close to me, as well as making steps and crowds easy to navigate.
I continued to carry him during my pregnancy with our 3rd baby, time pressures on the school and preschool run meant we needed to be quick, which the sling was. I bought a fleece wrap for our January baby, Jude arrived in January 2016 and I was back doing the school run a family of 5, tandem carrying the 2 boys. I enjoyed wrapping him so I moved onto a woven wrap and now have a collection of wraps too as well as a variety of other slings.
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We also enjoy exploring the wonderful Surrey Hills where we live. Using slings/carriers means we could do walks that otherwise would be inaccessible by any other means.
I wanted to support parents and carers further so I completed my consultancy training with Slingababy in 2016.
I set up The Sling Consultancy, to be able to offer a variety of services not available through the sling library. In order to complete my training I also wrote an article that was featured in Juno Magazine in the Winter 2016 issue on Toddler Carrying and why this is important.
I attend continuing professional development (CPD), usually twice yearly, with Slingababy. These help me to keep current with my skills and up to date with research etc as well as learning about other areas linked to parenting and the ethos around this.
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