Making new mommy friends

I have come to discover as I get older that making new friends is not as easy as it used to be.

When I was growing up my family moved around a lot. When I say a lot, I mean A LOT! Before the age of eighteen I had moved seven times and attended seven different schools.  Those are all the moves I remember... There could have been more. My family was very mobile and we went where there were job opportunities. Needless to say I adapted and learned early on how to make friends. Whenever we moved to a new town my little sister and I would go door to door asking neighbors if they had any children we could play with.

As an adult, this type of behavior seems a little inappropriate. Can you imagine a grown adult scouring the neighborhood, going door to door asking for friends? A little creepy right?

When I became a mom I decided to stay at home with my children. Although I love being a stay at home mom, this job is not for everyone. Some people go stir crazy. Some people have to have the daily dose of adult interaction. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a working mother

I don’t know about you but when I became a mommy it became a lot more difficult to get together with my old friends and even more difficult if they didn’t have any kids of their own. When I became a stay at home mommy I found myself feeling a little lost and somewhat alone. I needed to make other mommy friends, people who I could relate to and bounce ideas off of.

If going door to door was out of the picture, how was I as a new mommy going to make new mommy friends?

• I started going to my local library during their Babies & Tot’s Story Time every week. We would sit and sing and dance and read books. It was great. I met other moms and learned about even more ways to meet other stay at home moms.
•  I was introduced to MeetUp.com by a mother from my library group and decided to give it a try. MeetUp.com is an extremely organized way to find local play-groups. There are all different types of groups you can join. I did this until my morning sickness kicked in with my second pregnancy.
• Now I take my kids to different parks in the area. My kids get to be outside and burn off energy. They also get to interact and socialize with other children. I get to observe other mom’s in action with their children. If I think we have similar parenting styles I will usually start up a conversation with the other mom’s at the park. Recently I was told I was “cool” by another mom at a park. We exchanged telephone numbers and have set up a play date for our kids (yeah right- for us moms).
• I have also recently made a great mommy friend through my church/in laws (Here is your shout out Joyce). She is fabulous!

Making new friends only gets more difficult as you get older simply because we as adults don’t put ourselves out there as much. We are no longer sitting in a classroom day in and day out. We do not see the same set of people every single day. We have to make more of an effort to maintain relationships. I think putting myself out there and making the effort is worth it.

Some days I want to pull out my hair because my kids are acting crazy and having a bad day. I need to vent to someone who understands. Sometimes I am completely clueless as how to handle a situation and I need to bounce ideas off of someone else who is also living in the trenches. Moms need other mom friends. At least I know I do.

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