Dear Mom Group,

Roses are red, violets are blue, when I need some mom help, I love turning to you.

Seriously, you’re the best.  When I was breastfeeding and pumping, you were there like a virtual cheerleading squad even on my darkest days.  When I needed help with my supply, you were there with wisdom and advice. When I needed to vent about juggling work and pumping, you were there.  And when I needed to just have a good cry, you were there precisely when I needed you. I can’t imagine life without you — my kids are great, but dang, my mom group is amazing!

But the best part is that being part of a great, tight-knit mom group has made me more empathetic, more embracing of other experiences of motherhood beyond my own, other opinions, and I feel like my worldview has been joyfully expanded.  

It’s made me less judgy in the grocery store too.  (What IS it about grocery stores and kids misbehaving??  Do they pump in some sort of air trigger only kids can smell that signals it’s time to let loose and be whinier than … I don’t know what, but something really really whiny!)  So many moms I know are going through the mill, or their kids are going through the mill, and it’s easier to look at strangers with compassion when someone I love posts they had the same thing happen just that morning — kids going OFF at the grocery store, judgy looks, the whole shebang.  When you encounter a behavior among friends, I think it’s easier to forgive it of strangers, too. Nobody really knows whose marriage is on the rocks, whose child was in the hospital for weeks and finally finally finally is back in the humdrum world and all out of sorts, whose kids had a pet die, who was bullied at school, who bullied at school and broke their parents’ heart and triggered long long long talks about kindness!  

And the body stuff!  Postpartum body woes, SSRI body stuff — I am forever grateful to have a crew of moms who share these deep things and in doing so, remind me to be kind to the mom in the mirror, just as I’m kind in the comments to others.

I love you, mom group, because you’ve made me kinder to myself, and to others.  I don’t know what I’d do without you.

Oh wait.

I do know.

I’d be kicking way less butt at parenting.

Thanks.

Love,

Hayley