Lonely, part 4

When I had John, there were about 20 babies under the age of one in our neighborhood – which was pretty cool. Someone decided we needed a baby-sitting co-op. It was a simple plan where we would babysit each other’s children, which would give us credits into the co-op and we could then spend the credits/hours on someone keeping our child. Someone acted as secretary to keep all the hours accounted for and the secretary would earn some extra babysitting credits. It was a great plan, except for one thing. I realized I really didn’t want another baby to watch. I love children, all children, I really do but changing the diapers of unrelated babies was just not my favorite thing to do. I loved being secretary and tried to do that as often as possible.

What I much preferred was a playgroup concept so that is what I joined. Six of us, with babies within six months of each other, got together one morning a week. We took turns being the hostess. All six Moms with babies would show up around 9 am and just sit around a coffee table or on the floor and drink coffee and eat coffee cake (store bought or a mix was fine) and just talk.  I’m sure we did talk about diapers but we also talked about everything else under the sun: politics, books, our husbands, jobs, etc. We would hang out until about noon or else rush home for naptime. This can work on a Saturday morning or a Sunday afternoon for working Moms. What I know is those women meant a lot to me – they got me through a lonely period.

Girlfriends, mothers, sisters are God’s angels when you are in the weeds.  Be sure to reach out when you need to.