You know the old saying, “United We Stand, Divided We Fall?” Well, I’m going to put that slogan on a T-shirt and distribute it to moms worldwide. It’s the only way to survive motherhood with a shred of sanity and a sense of humor intact.
I have met more “mom friends” in the six short months since the birth of my daughter then I could have ever imagined. And, their collective support and friendship has kept me afloat. I have a friend who used to joke with her husband that making new friends as a mom was a lot like dating. She used to “pick up” new moms at the playground fairly frequently. Another friend has met moms at the grocery store and has literally exchanged phone numbers while waiting to buy her goods. I’ve struck up conversations at coffee shops and the like. You never know where a new mom friend will turn up.
It’s really all about networking. And getting yourself out there. I moved to Switzerland when my daughter was four weeks old and I knew that I was going to need a support system once I arrived because, for me, no good can come from sitting at home with a newborn. Building a community for myself became a top priority. But, to be honest, it doesn’t even matter that I moved because every new mom needs to find a group of moms she can depend on. It’s just too hard to go it alone.
You may be thinking that the last thing you want to do is drag your post-partum self—and all that that new body brings—out in public. But, it’s worth the effort. Your partner can support you, but it’s another new mom (or, the holy grail of moms, the veteran) who will really understand. Your mom friend will be the one who can talk endlessly with you about the status of your child’s bowel movements and how much he/she is sleeping, etc. She will debate the pros and cons of the newest models of strollers with you. And, she will totally understand your tears of frustration that spontaneously immerge as a result of sheer exhaustion. She has been there too.
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