As mums, we’re so good at making sure our children have time to play, create, and explore. We sign them up for art classes, set up craft tables, and encourage them to get messy. But somewhere along the way, we stop giving ourselves that same permission.

As adults, there’s still a part of us that loves to play, laugh, dream, and be silly. That part never goes away. It is our inner child.

I was reminded of this last December when I took my girls to Disneyland Paris. It was our first white Christmas in Europe, and at the end of the day there was a big parade where all the Disney characters came out, waving to the crowd.

Before the parade started, everyone squeezed into position. Mums lined prams up to the side. Kids gathered at the front. And then full-grown adults stepped right in front of them.

At first, I thought it was rude.
And then I saw their faces light up.

One by one, the characters we grew up with came to life. Mickey. Minnie. Donald. These adults weren’t just watching a parade. They were fulfilling a childhood dream.

My girls have only known Disneyland for four to six years. These adults had waited 20, 30, even 45 years for this moment.

That is when I realised our childhood dreams don’t die. They grow with us. When you honour your inner child, when you see her, delight her, and give her the experiences she always wanted, it brings a next-level kind of joy.

That trip inspired me to start Inner Child Joy. There is so much joy in doing the things we used to love, or always wanted to try. The same way we feel a little nostalgic thrill when we see a Peaches ’n’ Cream Barbie, smell scratch-and-sniff stickers, or can’t help twisting a pipe cleaner when we see one.

So I thought, why don’t we do those things again? Who says adults can’t play?

Inner Child Joy is about honouring your inner child. Being present. Giving yourself permission to play and have fun. In the same way you would do anything for your child to feel fulfilled and happy, Inner Child Joy asks you to offer yourself that same grace.

Many of us grew up being the “good girl.” The ones who listened, who didn’t speak back, and sometimes didn’t even speak up. Who stayed neat, polite, and sensible. Who coloured inside the lines. Who never used the special stickers.

Those good girls became women who wake up thinking about the to-do list. Women who put themselves last. Who carry the mental load of making sure everyone is okay and everything gets done. The list never ends.

We are human beings, not human doings.

As mothers, especially when we are raising little girls, something else is awakened in us. We are given the chance to reparent ourselves, to care for our inner child while we care for them. How beautiful it is to give our daughters the opportunities we never had, and to say the things we always wanted to hear.

There is a little piece of us inside our daughters. They remind us to look for magic in unexpected places and to find joy in the small things.

Play is not frivolous. It is medicine.

Honouring your inner child doesn’t have to mean therapy or deep emotional work. It can be simple, everyday moments like:

• Asking your inner child to pick your clothes for the day
• Sitting on the floor and playing Barbie with your kids
• Colouring in while they do
• Letting things be messy without stress
• Going on the swings, skipping, running, or dancing

Every time you do one of these things, you are letting your inner child know she matters.

When women come to an Inner Child Craft workshop, I invite them to leave their to-do list and worries at the door. It is a safe, relaxed space where nothing is expected of you. I ask women to bring a photo of themselves as a child, a reminder of who they were before the world told them who to be.

We sit together and create. We make a beautiful mess. We colour outside the lines. We play with stickers, pipe cleaners, ribbons, trinkets, gems, fabric, and hot glue guns. The joy comes from using our hands to get out of our minds, from allowing things to be messy, and from creating without pressure or purpose, simply for the joy of it.

Everyone leaves with a little goodie bag, the way kids do after a party. There are sweet treats, laughter, and space to breathe. Something special happens when women sit side by side creating. We connect.

We talk. We realise we’re not alone in what we carry.

This isn’t about being creative or productive. It is about joy.
You can come on your own to a women’s workshop, or share the experience and quality time with your daughter at a mother-daughter workshop.

It is just as important to show our kids that adulthood isn’t only about work, bills, and laundry, as it is to show them that there is a part of us that never grows up. A part of us that still loves to play, imagine, and have fun.

Honour that part of you. It may just bring you a little joy.

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Inner Child Joy is hosting a Galentine’s Day Workshop on Saturday, 14th February, you can check out all of the details here.