In February 1999 my first baby was born. At the time I had lived in Todmorden for 3 years, but had been working full time and it was only after Robert was born, the initial euphoria had died down, my husband had returned to work and I found myself at home, alone, with just a tiny baby for company, that I discovered how little I knew about the town where I lived.
Fortunately for me, we had made friends with neighbours and friends of friends who also lived in the area, some of which had young children themselves. They showed me the ropes, took me to a playgroup, introduced me to other mothers and showed me the side of the town I had, up until then, been blissfully unaware.
Soon after my second child was born we were asked to dinner by a collegue of my husband's. They also had a young family and his wife had given up working to raise them. However, she had not been idle. She had put together a magazine and proudly showed me the first issue. It was brilliant. A list of activities going on in the area for pre-school children, ideas for family days out, reviews on local restaurants and the "child-friendlyness", even the adverts were all useful for young families. I kept that magazine for over a year and kept looking and wishing we has something similar. Then suddenly it dawned on me that I was holding a perfect solution to my own dilemmas.
I wanted to get back to work, but didn't want my second child to miss out on my being around; I knew from my own experience that Todmorden could use a magazine like this and I was prepared to give it a go.
That was in December 2002.