Hey friends, we are Alisha and Jasmine and welcome to our little business. We embraced motherhood early (by choice!) at the golden age of 23 and 24 - and combined have 5 gorgeous little blessings! Here's a little more about us and why we started this journey
Jasmine
In a nutshell, being a wife and mother are my two most important roles in life, however some of you may not know that I am also an Occupational Therapist. I have worked in several areas in this line of work, and am currently based at the Stroke Unit in Christchurch Hospital.
I went on maternity leave at the beginning of 2019 before my youngest, Ruby, was born. Having been on maternity leave before (with Jasper!) I learnt many valuable lessons about myself as a mother. Let me briefly share with you..
When Jasper was born, I personally found it difficult to put all my time and energy into my newborn alone. Every new mother handles this situation very differently, but for my mental health I learnt I needed to keep busy, keep active and not just have this sole focus on my newborn. I am not in any means belittling mothers who cherish this time just with baby, I just really struggled with it. Jasper was a tough little cookie and I definitely, as most new mothers do, had my fair share of lows. This is probably why I didn't second guess going back to work. I've always said that stay-at-home-mums are absolute legends, and although work is still work, it was an outlet for me that I felt very fortunate to have.
Anyway, when little miss Ruby came along, I just felt the urge to get amongst something new! Welcome to Twin Treats!! Yes, it is a constant balancing act of juggling all the roles I'm blessed to have, but together, Alisha and I (and our large support crew) make it work!
Alisha
I’ve wanted to have an outlet that Twin Treats gives me for a really long time. Prior to having babies I worked in child and adolescent mental health, and although I really enjoyed my job I was also ready to give it up when Max came along. I was super excited about the chance to be a mother (something I was told from a young age might not be possible), and knew that if we could make it work, I would love to be your typical ‘stay-at-home mum’.
Fast-forward a couple of years and we welcomed Spencer and Penelope into the world, and though my life was busy and full - I couldn’t shake this feeling away that I needed something a little extra. Something that was more about me and less about my kids, and then like usual I would feel guilty about this and so brush that feeling away. I did try returning back to work briefly and enrolled into further studies but nothing seemed to fit in well with my ultimate job of ‘Mum’.
Jaz and I would often go on walks together and this particular time we were walking with Penelope and talking about her upcoming maternity leave. Jaz had mentioned that she had been thinking of ways to keep her busy in her maternity leave and suggested that she might bake raw goods and door knock around the neighbourhood to see if anyone might be interested. Initially I thought ‘Good luck sister, not exactly sure if you're cute enough for door to door bake sales anymore’ but after a bit more chat decided that actually maybe we can make this into something more than that. I started to feel very excited about the prospect of finally finding my extra ‘thing’ - and Twin Treats has been exactly that.
Though we continue to work on the balance of family and business life ( I mean doesn’t everyone?) we are so excited for what we have created together.