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Strollerderby
Remember that college friend who you swore you’d stay close to forever?
The guy you knew you could always call on at 2 a.m. if you were stranded somewhere and he’d take care of you? And then one day you found yourself stranded at the Tampa airport at 2 a.m. with your baby. You did call him and not only did he pick you up but he offered you a joint and wanted to stay up till dawn catching up on old time. You were like “Dude, those days are over. I have to get my toddler settled and then pass out so I can be human when she wakes up at 6.”
OK, maybe that exact thing only happened to me. But we’ve all had awkward moments with friends as we grow and change and some of our friends just … don’t. Or they grow in different directions. Your friend who was taking the bar exam while you were doing childbirth classes might not have as much in common with you now as she did when you were both English majors at Swarthmore.
It’s not just the stoners and high-powered lawyers you’re growing apart from. Turns out, there are a few key points in life when many of us ditch our friends. Becoming a parent is one of them. Continue reading »
Motherhood can be a lonely road. New moms often find themselves, once the fanfare of the baby’s arrival subsides, isolated at home with a very needy little person as their only companion for most of the day.
How do these moms keep from going mad? As my colleague Danielle writes, friendships keep us sane.
But new moms often have trouble making friends, especially with other busy, tired moms. Yet those are the very people new moms need to connect with: each other.
Increasingly, they’re turning to Facebook and Twitter for connection. In a recent British poll, almost a third of new moms said it wasn’t important to them to maintain face to face friendships. Nearly a quarter said they don’t know any other new parents in their area. These moms are finding friends on Twitter instead of at the playground.
The survey authors described this idea as “incredibly worrying” but I think it’s just a sign of the times.
Making mommy friends is vital in being a happier parent.
One of the things that I thoroughly enjoy about having a career in the parenting world is that I have met countless incredible moms throughout the years. Whether they were my writers, staff, or co-workers, the bond that I have formed with the groups of incredibly smart and savvy modern moms has been nothing short of a blessing to me. Even some of my bosses have been loving mothers who have shared much needed advice about their trials as a young moms and offered bits of wisdom they gained along the way since their kids have grown. My daily social media networks have brought my high school and college friends back into my life and now that so many of us are moms, we have picked up that bond that began so many years ago. At my children’s school, the other moms in my kids’ classes have become lifelong friends that started in Pre-K and will likely end up throughout high school and hopefully college.
But it wasn’t always this easy…
You know what a sanctimommy is, right?
She’s the mom at the playground who gives you funny looks when you change your kids diapers in public. Or the know-it-all who lectures you about feeding your kids organic snacks.
Most of all, she’s the judgmental mom who thinks she’s doing a better job of parenting than everyone else and she’s not afraid to let you know it.
So how can you be sure that you’re not a sanctimommy? Continue reading »
I don’t wish to blame the victim here, but we mothers — especially the new ones — can sure be hard on our friends. And not just the childless ones. Judging from two guest posts over at the Motherlode, even other mothers are no fun to be around.
Sasha Brown-Worsham, a writer in Boston, broke up with her childless friend. Granted, said friend offered to pop in a DVD to shut her blob of a baby up and also mentioned relief that she didn’t have the author’s daughter’s “wild mane of hair” to comb. What mother wouldn’t be miffed? Continue reading »
The August issue of Parenting: The Early Years rounds up the six friends every mom needs in her life. Sure, writer Patricia Curtis makes some good points. It’s nice to have friends you can relate to or who push you. But not ones that push your buttons, which I’m afraid the glam-mom recommendation does.
Also, she left a few people off the list whom I would be very unhappy to live without. So I added three more friends at the end. Share yours in comments.
The list: Continue reading »
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
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