The Washington, DC area is full of amazing moms. There are working moms, stay-at-home moms, single moms, moms of multiples, foster moms, adoptive moms, etc. We want to highlight some of those moms like Jessica Wu! Each month we feature one special mom as the Mom of the Month. Know a fellow amazing local mom here? Nominate them here!
Meet our November Mom of the Month: Jessica Wu
Jessica worked in Marketing and then as a Consultant for several years before making the decision to become a stay-at-home mom with her 2 boys. After the height of the pandemic, Jessica became much more involved in the community such as Room Parent Managers for both of her kid’s school classes, on the Board of the McLean Moms Club, and joined the McLean Central Playground Team. Jessica hopes that her involvement with the community will not only allow her to develop friendships and professional relationships, but also be inspirational to other moms who haven’t yet become as involved in the community as they would like. “If it takes a village to raise our children successfully, then let’s build up and enhance that village as much as possible, giving the next generation the best opportunities available.”
Here is our Q&A with Jessica Wu:
1. Tell me about how you made the decision to stay at home?
Before our first son, Jackson, was born, I was traveling about 50% of the time and my husband was traveling about 80% of the time for work. The nature of my consulting work would have required continued traveling. After our second son, Jaden, was born, I decided that it was time for me to take a break from my career so that I could stay home with our boys while my husband continued to travel for work. It was not an easy decision since I enjoy working and am a very mission-driven person. However, it was the best decision for our family, and 10 months later, the pandemic started so it ended up being a blessing in disguise.
Most days, I feel thankful that I have the opportunity to watch my babies grow, learn, and play. However being a SAH mom can feel a little isolating at times, so I started to look for ways to connect with the community around me for both my kid’s and my own well being.
2. Besides being a stay at home, we know that you are the President of McLean Moms Group, what is so exciting about this Moms Group?
The McLean MOMS Club has been such an amazing aspect of my life for over 4 years now. Since I am not originally from this area, I didn’t know too many moms in McLean. The MOMS club, an acronym for Moms Offering Moms Support, has allowed me to not only meet moms who have kids similarly-aged to mine, but also to socialize with local moms with moms night outs and philanthropic events, and be such an amazing repository of information and advice that I don’t think that I would have otherwise had. I joined the Board last year and am the President this year. Since joining MOMS, I have met the most motivational moms who have inspired me to become a lot more involved in local initiatives such as the McLean Central Playground Team (MCPT).
A McLean Mom began the playground initiative after realizing that our town deserves a local non-school playground that our community can enjoy. After learning that the county was allocating a bond to renovate the McLean Central Park, the team was formed to understand what could be done about the playground specifically. The goal of the MCPT is to raise $400K for the renovation of the McLean Central Park Playground, a project that will combine the tot lot and elementary-aged areas and also bring in brand new, safer, and inclusive equipment.
Being a part of the playground team has been extremely rewarding as it has really allowed me to see how kind, thoughtful, and generous that a town can be when working towards a cause that the whole community would benefit from. It’s also been amazing to know that us group of moms are making a difference even though the odds were initially stacked up against us. People contact our team and ask how they can become involved, whether it’s volunteering with us, donating to the cause, or spreading awareness, and it’s been an incredible feeling to see all the kindness that is really out in the world, right in our own community.
3. What’s been challenging?
While the playground project has been extremely rewarding, it has also come with challenges. McLean is somewhat transient and is transitioning to be a much more family-oriented community. It has a small town feel and there are pockets of folks who don’t want much to change. Common pushback that we have received is that “the county should be paying for all of this, not us as individuals”, and “we already have Clemyjontri, so why do we need another playground”? The public saw the county’s plan for the McLean Central Park renovation and requested that the playground be combined, overriding the original plan of just updating one playground area.
There was not enough money allocated from the original bond to combine the playgrounds, so our team volunteered to raise the money within the community. Clemyjontri is an amazing and inclusive playground that has become a destination playground for families all over the DMV. However the playground at our Central Park needs to reflect our community, and we are working extremely hard to ensure that it becomes the playground that we can be proud of. As of October 2023 we have raised $288K. We hope that from now until December, the community can band together even stronger so that we can reach our $400K goal. If you can donate, please consider donating for McLean Playground (www.mcleanplayground.com).
Do you know an amazing mom? Nominate a mom of the month here!
