Olga from SlingoMama

I'm Olga, owner of SlingoMama.nl web store. I have a husband and 2 daughters – one is born in April 2006 and the second one in January 2010. We live in the Netherlands, in a small town not far from Amsterdam. My husband and I were born in Ukraine. He came to the Netherlands in 1998 to do his PhD in Computer Science and I came in 2003 for my Master program in Business Administration. We met in 2004, on the plane, when we both were heading to Ukraine to visit our families. Our first daughter was born in 2006.

We love the Netherlands, but of course, we miss our motherland and our families. We used to travel to Ukraine 1 or 2 times a year, but now we have 2 small children and it's not that easy anymore. Fortunately, our families visit us regularly.


My husband loves to play soccer and collect cooking books. Music has been my biggest passion since childhood when I started taking piano lessons. I think we both have a quite an international background. My husband has spend 1 year in Austria studying, and I have spent 1 year in the USA (Indianapolis, IN). I attended High School and lived with the American family, which became a second family to me. We used to travel a lot, and hopefully we can resume our hobby when the kids grow up a bit.

When we were expecting our first daughter, I started paying attention to mothers who carried their children in different carriers. At that time I didn't know much about different baby carriers, but I new that I wanted to have my child close to me.

Our girl was born and the first thing I heard from my mother on the telephone was that we should let her lay in the cradle as much as possible, otherwise she will get used to being carried. :) My mother has 6 children, and my brain told me that it's good to listen to somebody with lots of experience. But I held my baby in my arms, and my heart was screaming “This is right! This is how it should be! Do not listen to anyone, but your feeling...” Since then my heart and my feeling became my guides and they have never failed me.

That was also how attachment parenting came into my life. Babywearing, breastfeeding, co-sleeping felt right and natural. Later I learned that all these things are called the Attachment Parenting. I was greatly inspired by the books of Jean Liedloff, Ingrid Bauer, Michael Odent, Laurie Boucke, Dr. Robert Mendelsohn. My husband shares my views about the attachment parenting. He proudly tells his friends and colleagues that we measure breastfeeding in years and not in months, that our children are diaper free and that we all sleep in a “gypsy style” - in a big family bed.

After trial and error I discovered the “correct” babywearing and bought my first woven wrap. At that time the choice of good carriers and wraps was quite limited in the Netherlands and I had to order mine from Germany. That was how the idea of starting a web store came into my mind. SlingoMama.nl was born in January 2008. I was almost graduating and starting my own business was a wonderful chance to apply my knowledge. I could do what I really liked and apply what I have learned – a wonderful combination.

It's always exciting to create something new, even if it's only a combination of colors. In September of 2008 I organized a contest for the SlingoMama.nl exclusive Girasol. As a result, two first colorways have been selected – Mister X and Mojito. The first batches arrived in December, a couple of days before Christmas.

At this moment SlingoMama.nl has 7 exclusive Girasols – Mister X, Mojito, Symphuo, Drop, Lilia, Donau and Betula. Girasol Betula is our recent design and it should be arriving within 1 week. More designs are in the planning.

All the designs have been woven more than once. Symphuo and Donau are the most popular designs and they are being woven every 10-12 weeks.

We have a big data base with designs – the ones left from the contest and people keep sending new designs in. Usually I select a design which seems interesting to me and together with the person who created it we make changes and improvements if necessary.

We plan to issue new interesting designs in the nearest future. Keep checking for news! :)

~Olga