The woman behind the Maternity Paternity and Children Fair

2023 Author: Anita Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 18:44

This year, the Maternity Paternity and Children Fair of Montreal is celebrating its silver anniversary. Twenty-five years of success serving the community and helping families. We present to you Louise Benoit, the one to whom we owe this resounding success.

At the other end of the line, this woman with a smiling voice tells me about her baby, this project born from a flash on the terrace. In the early 90s, Louise Benoit sat at a table in a café watching mothers strolling on Outremont Avenue. Looking back on her motherhood, she realized how ill-informed, equipped, and left mothers were to fend for themselves. At that time, all subjects still seemed veiled in taboos. This is where the idea of a living room began to germinate.

Beginnings

It took him two years and extraordinary determination to develop the project, bring together a team, find exhibitors and convince sponsors to get on board. Moreover, in this regard, Louise Benoit says "Jean Coutu pharmacies were the first to join the Salon and today they are still there".

At the opening of the first Maternity and Parenting and Child Fair, in 1993,70 exhibitors were gathered. Today, they are more than 250 to participate in the Montreal event. Like what, the relevance and the need for such a show have not diminished over the years.

Big Changes

In 25 years, Louise Benoit has seen the face of motherhood and its industry undergo great changes. In a quarter of a century, it has seen fathers take their place and parents become informed consumers on the lookout for all the new. Ms. Benoit remembers: “In my time, we didn’t talk about the conditions of childbirth offers. The birthing rooms, all that, we didn't hear about these things. Safety issues, homeopathy, baby massages, breast milk banks, we did not see that at the first Salon. These are products and services that we saw appear in the early 2000s.”

A tip for parents

Unclassifiable businesswoman, Louise Benoit is a mother and grandmother twice. Work-family balance, sacrifices and pressure, she knows well.

When asked what advice she would give to young career women, and parents in general, the answer is not long in coming. It's okay to make lunches in the morning, to run so that the children are on time for school, to put on make-up and put on your nice suit and then arrive at work and perform until 5 p.m., she says. But in the evening, back home, you have to close everything and simply become a mother, a woman again. Because to have time toquality with your children, you must not be burned”.

Live the experience of the 25th^e Maternity Paternity Children's Fair in Montreal and the 4th Maternity Paternity Children's Fair in Quebec.

Reminder

Montreal

When? April 6-9, 2017

Hours? Thursday and Friday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday: 10 a.m. to 1 a.m.

Where? Place Bonaventure, Montreal.

How much? $14 adults, $11 seniors/students. Free for 12 and under.

Pre-sale: buy your ticket online.

Quebec

When? April 21 to 23, 2017

Hours? Friday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Where? ExpoCité, Quebec.

How much? $14 adults, $11 seniors/students. Free for 12 and under.

Pre-sale: buy your ticket online.