#MomCrush Monday: Meet Monica Plath, CEO & Founder of Littlebird 

1.) Monica, you are a mother of two, CEO and Founder of Littlebird. Your schedule must be very full! How do you navigate it all and with such grace?

One word: COFFEE!

In all seriousness, I am a single mom with two very active little boys so our house is pretty chaotic. Let’s just say, there’s never a dull moment, and some days are just about survival. One way I navigate our chaos and give myself a little grace is to not sweat the small stuff and cut myself a little (or a lot) of slack. I have accepted that in a house filled with toddlers that toys will be scattered everywhere, random goldfish will magically appear in the couch and the piles of laundry will be never ending AND that’s ok! 

In order to cut down on the stress of running a household and a business simultaneously, I’m a big fan of prioritizing my day and tackling work early on. Like most moms, I am pretty good at multitasking and I find that I am the most efficient in the early morning before my kids get up. So I wake up around 5:30am, get a large cup of coffee and crank out work before I put on my mom hat. Whether it’s answering questions from our engineering team in Ukraine or emailing new customers, I find that the peace and quiet of the morning is the best time to get work done and then after that I can tackle mom duties as best I can until I can get the boys ready and to childcare. It’s not perfect, but it works for us.

2.) Littlebird Toddler CareTracker is the first-ever cellular Bluetooth and GPS wearable of its kind. What inspired you to come up with such a concept? Why do you find that there is a need for this product in today’s world?

I started Littlebird out of necessity. My first son was about 6 months old and I was ready to go back to work. So like most people, I hired a babysitter from a trusted caregiving site. The sitter arrived, I left and then the unimaginable happened. On my Ring camera I noticed she was leaving my house in her car and on my Nest camera I saw that my child was not in his crib…. It was pretty scary!  After that moment, I went online to try and find a product that could tell me that my child was safe and with their caregiver. There had to be something that showed they were connected. Nothing existed and I instantly knew that I had to create it. Hence, Littlebird was born!  

Littlebird’s main goal is to create a connected care ecosystem for families. Our platform offers parents a single point of contact for critical information about your child(ren): where they are, who they are with, and how they are doing. The reality of parenthood for most of us is that we can’t be with our children all the time, even when we want to be. I wanted to share in the daily moments I was missing, as well as cut down on the triangulation of caregivers that help support me and my family. 

Another added bonus of our patent-pending technology is that I wanted the ability to have an invisible “leash” on my little one(s).  Whether we are out running errands at Costco or on a family trip to Disneyland, my two year old son is a runner and he can take off at a moment’s notice. Every parent has had that moment of sheer panic when they lose their child in the blink of an eye. I am thankful Littlebird can help by pinpointing a child’s location when they are wearing our CareTracker. This feature will help many parents, like myself, worry a little less and that’s great!

3.) Littlebird’s mission is to celebrate and support the contributions of all caregivers to strengthen the modern village and provide our children with the best possible care.  You mention the modern village. What does this mean to you? Can you share why it’s important to you and your company?

Our motto at Littlebird is “family first” and our connected-care technology will be a game changer for families. Littlebird offers transparency and clear communication between parents and caregivers – a modern village at your fingertips! Littlebird’s Connected Care App is like a digital daycare checklist allowing caregivers to not only update parents throughout the day about their child’s daily routine via private chat and photo capabilities, but it also allows parents to check in on their little one’s daily activities and whereabouts as well. 

Over these past few years, all of our lives changed drastically. Our homes became our offices and classrooms, and we had to  navigate the new normal as parents. It has been an absolute logistical nightmare across the board and parents have enlisted the help from friends, family, formed pods, schools, and various other caregiving scenarios in order to try and restore balance in their new normals. Mothers have disproportionately shouldered the care burden, and the emotional delegation of care tasks, scheduling, and responsibility of helping our children adjust socially and emotionally – this has truly redefined our personal care networks and villages as we knew them. The points of communication became complex, and I wanted to organize that chaos and have an easy to use platform to connect everyone and relieve some of the burden and feel connected to my child and family.

Littlebird is designed with you in mind, by a mom for moms. 

4.) You talk about how “the burnout is real”  when it comes to parenthood.  Thank you for saying this, so parents realize they aren’t alone in feeling this way. Based on your own journey, what 3 tips can you share about how to navigate this very real feeling of burnout?

Aren’t we all? Send self care tips my way! I am pulled in a thousand different directions every single day, and there are nights when I literally collapse on the couch out of pure exhaustion after the boys are asleep and wonder if I’ve done a good job. I struggle with parental guilt like everyone else. I truly believe women, especially moms, need to be able to give themselves grace in order to avoid burnout. So how do I do that? It’s pretty simple, but here’s what works for me! 

• Ask For Help – It is never a sign of weakness to seek help at home or at work. I am constantly asking for help from family, friends and co-workers. In my opinion, asking for help is a sign of strength in that it shows you truly care about what you are doing.  

• Home “Phone Free” Zones – This means no phones and no distractions during precious family time at home. Whether it’s at dinner time, eating ice cream on the porch, watching a movie or reading a book with my boys, I try to focus solely on them and that means I put my phone away. No exceptions!
  
• Mom Time –  I try to find time for just ME even if it’s just for a few minutes every day. Yes, that’s a hard thing to do and I would be lying if I didn’t mention that I have had a facemask sitting on my bathroom counter that I’ve wanted to do for the last month, but even if I peel away to go grab a (non-room temp!) coffee by myself or take a minute to step outside to get some sun, those little magical moments can recharge me for the rest of the day. Scheduling a sitter to go to dinner and spend time with girlfriends, or even take a shower without phantom “mom!” cries and thuds… It doesn’t take much and you are worth it!

5.) What is your favorite song lyric? Why?

It’s a Rascal Flatt’s song from the Disney movie “Cars” (Yes, my boys are pretty obsessed and it is a welcome reprieve from “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”)

 “Life is a highway.”  

As I get older, I know that there is never one “right” direction and that life is filled with a lot of detours. As a mom and CEO of a startup, I have to be willing to go down some “not-so-safe” roads in order to grow and learn. Trust me, I have definitely taken many unexpected paths, hit a few potholes, run out of gas, turned left when I should have turned right, but that’s what life’s all about – the unexpected journey. I am constantly thrown into many different situations – some good, some not so good – but I try to approach each crossroad as an opportunity to push myself forward.  My advice: grab your keys, fill up your tank and hit the open road because that’s what makes life interesting and worth living.