Mommy Friends

I so love my local mommy friends from our "play group"!!  You know when you read an article or blog written by a mom and you think "Yes!  Someone else understands me."??  I am so blessed to experience that feeling in person on a regular basis. 

Less than a year ago I was having the stuck-in-the-middle-of-nowhere lonely blues.  Then one day, on the Facebook swap page for a town about 25 miles away that I frequented often, I noticed that someone (a mom) had asked if there was a mom's group in town.  Several people replied that there wasn't, but they wished there was.  So the original enquirer started a Facebook group for the local moms and I offered to help get a play group started.  There were several of us making phone calls to places asking begging them to let us use their facility as our indoor play area (it was January).  We finally found a church that not only said "yes", but was even excited about it!  So, in February of this year our play group was officially started.  At some point along the way the original founder of the group moved and I became the co-admin for the group (which doesn't mean much...Holli, you are truly the organizer of the group!). 

We have a regular large group meet-up once a month, but usually make it to someone's house from the group another time or two during the month.  When the weather was nice enough to be outside, we would have frequent meet-ups at the parks to play.  So, in all, I at least saw one Mom from our group on a weekly basis. 

Rylee loves all of her friends from playgroup, as most are girls her age.  They all get a long so well too; it's really pretty amazing!  The best part of the group for me though, is the bonding time I get with the other mommas.  It is so nice to have other adults to converse with and share ideas or vent to.  I would say that we all feel pretty comfortable with each other and aren't afraid to share anything about our lives.  As most of us are stay-at-home moms we can relate to each other very well. 

While we don't all have the exact same views on parenting, I don't think anyone in our group is afraid to share their "less than stellar" parenting moments.  My favorite is when a sentence starts out, "Don't judge me, but...."  I always chuckle and know that whatever they are going to say, I have done it too and am glad to have that in common with someone else!  Once the sentence is finished, you might hear, "I can top that story..." and it becomes a comical conversation of our less than proud parenting moments. 

Today we were all complaining about the dirty looks we get when we are grocery shopping or eating in a restaurant and have screaming kids that we just ignore.  Sorry, but we all agree that we are NOT going to just abandon our grocery carts and leave the store, because it's a lot of work just to get to the store and all we want to do is finish our list and get to the check-out counter so we can get out of your way. 

Last week we discussed how much our kids have learned from watching TV and how nice it is to have an electronic baby-sitter sometimes....  Don't judge us, you do it too.  And, more on why I think TV is okay in a later blog post......

The best today....the thing that reminded me why I love these ladies so much was this:  We were leaving play group at the church and I happened to be following one of the moms.  I noticed she pulled into a gas station (I figured to buy a coffee), and I thought to myself, "I should go stay with her kids for her so she doesn't have to take them out of the warm car to run in for coffee".  So, I did a U-turn in the middle of the road and hurriedly pulled into the gas station....just in time to see her going into the store....SANS KIDDOS!!!  Hahahahahahahaha!!!  Yay, someone else that thinks having to take your kids inside with you is just nuts!  I get why it is illegal to leave your kids in the car, but I turn down so many errands just because it will take me longer to get the kids in and out of car seats than the amount of time I will spend inside the store.  Seeing this just made my day...but I stayed by her car until she came out anyway...just in case.  You never know who is going to "tattle"....and I bet they don't have young kids ;)

Anyway, I could go on about why I love my mommy friends, but since Rylee is making me play "Grandma" right now, I will just end with this:  To my new Mommy friends...I love you and am so glad you have come into my life!!  You all keep me sane and entertained :)  I love your children too!!