Our Story
Aren’t kangaroos the cutest? Their children are born in need of care. They spend 6-8 months of their maximum 25 years of life carrying their children in a pouch in their bellies. They continue their free life while carefully raising their children. This is probably why I like kangaroos so much.
They are parents who take good care of both themselves and their children.
I was born into a family with a foreign mother and a Turkish father. Thanks to my family, I was exposed to different languages since the day I was born and developed a language awareness. Therefore, it was very easy and enjoyable for me to learn English as a third language in high school.
Gülsüm Şimşek Acar
Founder and Child Development Specialist
After graduating from the Computer Technology Department of Balıkesir University, I gave trainings in this field for a while. The trainings I organised gave me different perspectives, what was in my heart was different: Children. After deciding to work with children, I completed my undergraduate degree in Child Development. While working with children on many different platforms, I developed my knowledge and experience of children’s developmental processes.
Motherhood opened the doors of a brand new era for me. Due to my profession, I was familiar with the developmental processes of children, but I was not aware that parenthood is also a challenging process with developmental steps. Moreover, today’s conditions, from social media to environmental factors, make this process even more difficult than before, making the parent lonely. Is it conceivable for a person who feels lonely to be happy? However, the first condition for the child to be happy is that those who care for him/her are also happy.
The first seeds of the idea of opening a centre for families and children were sown during this period. In December 2022, I resigned from my corporate business life and decided to take some time for myself. Like a kangaroo, we embraced our child and hit the road. We visited many places in the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. At the end of the journey, I never expected that I would return to Turkey with the decision to open a family-child centre.
Actually, everything was in order, but a small piece of bread was the reason for us to make the final decision. How? In Denmark, a child has the right to a free loaf of bread in every bakery you enter. In Norway, there is a free fruit shelf reserved for children in every supermarket. This is a small but very valuable detail; while the parent shops comfortably, the child becomes a voluntary part of the process with the fruit or a small toy offered to him/her. In fact, this practice was a reflection of the northern countries’ approach to child development and education. I visited many educational institutions and development centres to learn more.
One day, while admiring the magnificent view of “Sogne”, the second largest fjord in the world and the largest in Norway, I turned to my husband and said: “Let’s go back to Turkey and establish a child-family development centre like the one here.”
We built Mor Mor Kanguru by working hand in hand with my husband, from design to construction, from toys to the library. Now there is a living and learning space in Turkey where children can have fun and learn, where parents can talk to expert educators and psychologists about the difficulties they face in raising their children, and where they can meet and interact with other families.