The Benefit of Friends

Many parents end up finding, that though they have their own views in parenting, the saying "It takes a village to raise a child" becomes necessary. Kind of a need in its own right. I've been fortunate enough to live in an area that has a local mom's group. I never thought I'd need a group like this before I had kids, but now I find it's a necessity.

As a stay at home mom, especially of 4 kids, it becomes very difficult to get out and about to socialize. Even babysitters get scarce the number of kids you gain. Family is helpful, but as anyone can agree that friends are amazing!

I stumbled across the local mom's group through my husband's cousin's wife, and one of my good friends. At first I was really shy, not knowing where I fit in in the group. I also wasn't able to go to the meet ups as much because I was busy having babies. Now that our baby making time is very much done, I'm definitely up for getting out of the house and having the kids socialize all I can. Never mind that I get to socialize too! I've been going to a lot more meet ups lately and couldn't find a nicer group of friend's I'd rather hang out with. It makes me excited to go to a play date with a group of people I get along with so well! We have mom's night out, where just the mom's get away, and it feels more like a group of friend's going to hang out, than a group of strangers meeting up for a bit. Even better than that, they all have kids. Luckily the majority of the kids are right in the same age range as my little ones. It's nice knowing that you have friends that have been there, are right there, and get exactly what you are going through. I honestly can't say enough about these people.


Then there are the best friends, the one's you retain over time. I feel like one of the lucky people that has kept my best friend from high school. We are so comfortable with each other from being together since high school and having a sister like relationship evolve from it. I really don't know what I'd do without my best friend and I hate that we can only meet up on occasion because of our distance. The even more ironic and great part is, all her kids are the same age as my kids, well minus one kid. They are in turn getting a great friendship out of it too!

It's tough being a parent. It gets a little harder when your a stay at home parent. The opportunity to go out and make friends gets fewer and fewer. But when you do find an amazing group of friends, you want to let them know what they mean to you and how they brighten your day!