Hayley Ryan · Occupational Therapist & Mum
OT-led support for midlife mums who want to feel more like themselves, build meaningful friendships and live a life they get excited about.
More fun. More connection. More you.
Fun Mum Society · Launching 27 November
Friends to call. Plans you can’t wait for. Stories to bring home.
Join the waitlist for your first look inside Fun Mum Society and a Black Friday founding price that won’t be offered again.
Get my Black Friday inviteFor midlife mums
Everyone else has come first for so long, you haven’t invested much time in yourself. You’ve been busy with work, kids, dinner, lifts and keeping everything ticking over. Another week goes by and it feels a lot like the last one.
Now the kids are getting older. They have their own plans and need you differently. You’re getting a little itchy. You want to get back in the groove, out of groundhog day, and bring some fresh energy into your life again.
Friendships have dropped off over the years as life got busy. Now you find yourself with a free afternoon and no one to call. And when you finally have time for yourself, you’re not even sure what you’d really want to do anyway. Making friends in midlife can feel hard. You can have a house full of people and still feel lonely.
This phase is about finding your people, stepping out of your comfort zone and being a little bit brave.
You want to make a decision for yourself without first working out whether everyone else will be happy with it. To have plans you’re excited about, opinions you trust and something to share over dinner beyond what needs doing tomorrow.
You want enough energy left to enjoy being with your kids. To laugh together and have conversations that aren’t always about homework, lifts or putting the phone down.
And you want your kids to see that being a grown woman can include interests, friendships and a life you love.
The Vision
You’ve spent years helping your kids find the things they love. Somewhere along the way, you became the one holding the bags instead of having a go.
Remember laughing so hard with a friend you could barely finish telling her what happened? Or coming home from something you’d been nervous to try, still talking about it an hour later?
Maybe it’s your first netball game in twenty years. You miss the shot, your kids cheer anyway, and you’re already asking when training is.
Maybe it’s going for a swim with a friend and staying for a chat, instead of rushing home to get ahead on the washing.
Maybe you’d love that, but you’re not sure who you’d ask. You’ve lost touch with some friends. Others are in a different phase of life. You want to find people you can have a laugh with and make plans with, without feeling like you’re always the one chasing.
Something you look forward to. Something you come home with a story about. Something that’s yours.
At some point you have to put the drink bottles down and go and play. Especially now.
It’s time to live a little. Have something to look forward to. Wake up feeling excited about life again.
Whatever’s happening in the world, you can start choosing what you do with your own week. People you enjoy. Things you’ve always wanted to do. A little bit of courage to give them a go.
Who’s behind this
I’m an occupational therapist and a mum of three teenagers. And yes, that’s me on the surfboard.
As an occupational therapist, I look at how your nervous system, energy, daily demands and relationships affect your ability to do the things that matter to you.
That includes supporting your nervous system, building resilience and looking after your mental and physical health. Having interests, friendships and choices of your own belongs alongside being there for your kids.
I bring this together in my Fun Mum Formula, the approach I use in my work with midlife mums. It connects what you need with practical changes you can make in your everyday life.
We look at what’s getting in the way, what you miss doing and what you’d like to change. Then we work out how to make it happen in the life you actually have.
The method
Reconnect with yourself, build meaningful relationships and bring fresh energy into everyday life.
Where your energy actually goes, and why it may not be what you’d blame. Understand your nervous system and uncover five everyday energy leaks, so you can begin addressing what keeps you on duty, even when the day is supposed to be done.
When your kids start talking, you want enough left to listen. Regulate helps you recognise your stress responses and explore what helps you settle, so a small interruption doesn’t always feel like one demand too many. It’s part of building resilience and looking after your mental and physical health as everyday life changes.
You were someone before you became everyone’s everything. This is where you stop asking permission and apologising for taking up room in your own week. Your wants, opinions and decisions deserve your own trust.
Your kids get to see that Mum has interests, friendships and ambitions too. You’re making choices for yourself, with more of your own life to share over dinner.
Some people make your shoulders drop the moment you walk in. Others leave you feeling on duty. Recognise the difference, make room for mutual support and change the patterns that ask too much of you. Find your people in this phase of life, while nurturing the relationships that matter to you.
Making new friends in midlife can mean being the one to say hello or suggest a plan. With your kids, it can mean listening, sharing experiences and enjoying time together beyond reminders and lifts. Strong connections need room in your life too.
It’s not about what you feel you “should” enjoy at your age… it’s full permission to let your hair down and find fun again. The kind that leaves you smiling, with something you can’t wait to do again. You might feel nervous walking in. Being a little bit brave gives you a chance to find out what you’ve been missing.
Let your kids see you being a beginner, missing the shot and laughing anyway. Maybe they join you. Maybe they’re the ones cheering this time, and you’ve got a story to tell together on the way home.
You get to be someone with plans again. Someone with things of her own in the diary that the family learns to work around. Bring those choices into your everyday rhythm, so your interests don’t disappear the moment everyone else gets busy. Make room for movement, rest and connection alongside the things that need doing.
“Mum’s netball” written on the calendar alongside the kids’ plans. Some weekends the kids come to watch; other times you each head off to your own thing and swap stories over dinner.
Introducing Fun Mum Society
Find your people. Get some fun back into your week. Be a little bit brave together.
Fun Mum Society is an OT-led online community for midlife mums who want friendship, fun and something of their own to look forward to, with support to make it happen in everyday life.
You want people who remember what you’ve told them, ask how it went and are up for making plans. There’ll be regular opportunities to get to know other midlife mums, find shared interests and build friendships over time. Somewhere to share the good bits and the difficult days, and encourage each other to have a go.
We’ll work on finding what you enjoy now, putting it in the diary and working around the tired days, family demands and last-minute changes that usually push your plans aside. The monthly Fun Prescription is a chance to look ahead, make plans and adjust them to the month you actually have.
As an occupational therapist, I’ll help you explore what overwhelms you, what helps you settle, and when you might need movement, company, quiet or something that gets you going again. We’ll look at how your energy, surroundings and everyday routines affect how you feel and what you’re able to do.
Through OT-led workshops, practical tools and community conversations, you’ll have support to try things, adjust and keep going. To look after your mental and physical health, build resilience and enjoy stronger connections with your kids too.
We’re just getting started. And there’s so much more I can’t wait to share.
Fun Mum Society launches this Black Friday, 27 November, with a limited-time founding price that won’t be offered again. Join the waitlist for your invitation and be first to find out what’s inside.
Your next step
A free, OT-led workshop with Hayley Ryan for Australian midlife mums juggling parenting, work and doing things for everyone else.
Understand what’s missing from your everyday life, why it matters and how to start changing it. Leave with your first Fun Prescription: one meaningful action, a real place for it in your week and an alternative if plans change.
Let’s change the week you keep getting stuck in. Together, we’ll work out what’s draining your energy, what needs to change in your relationships or routines, and how to get your own plans into the diary. You’ll have personal coaching support as you start putting those changes into practice.
Work with me privately, with unlimited coaching by message as questions and challenges come up. Message whenever it suits you. I reply during my weekday coaching hours, Monday to Friday.
Start with a 15-minute discovery callSomething of your own
There’s something you’d love to try. You might have saved it on your phone, sent it to a friend or said, “One day.”
Imagine your kids asking about your weekend plans, and this time, you’re telling them yours.
You want your kids to grow up believing they can try things, take up space and have a life they love. You get to want that for yourself, too. Let them see you having a go.
You don’t want another year of saying “one day” while everyone else’s plans fill the calendar. You want to feel like you again, with fresh energy and people to share it with.
Time to stop feeling like the boring mum. Find your people, be a little brave and give yourself something to look forward to.
Fun IS fuel. Come find yours.
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