Mum Friends: My Sanity-Saving Sisters

We all need somebody to lean on, as Bill Withers crooned. And us mummies definitely need a good support network around us: mum friends.

I feel incredibly blessed to have some wonderful mummy friends, some of whom I’ve met at soft play, some just on walks around our area, and some who I’ve know for years but as we had children at around the same time, we’ve reconnected and become close. As both hub’s and my families live over 100 miles away in Wolverhampton and Whitby, my mummy friends have become like a family to me and every day I count my blessings to have them.

I thought initially I’d struggle to make mummy friends as Isla and I hadn’t been able to get to many mother and baby groups. We went to baby massage classes when she was about 4 months old and we go to Tumbletots, but other than that, we missed out on going to many classes. By the time she was old enough to get much out of the classes, she was struggling with sleep regression and I had to be so strict with making sure she napped every 2-3 hours and unfortunately, the classes in our villages just happened to fall when she was napping. 

But now she only needs one nap, and luckily, my two closest mummy friends live a short drive away and both have boys a few months older than Isla, and the three of them play together really well.

Having a baby is the biggest, and most amazing thing you will go through and let’s face it, without these kindred spirits who are also in the motherhood trenches with you, you’d go nuts.

Even popping over to a friend’s for a cuppa can be the difference between a good day and a bad day. Watching your kids playing together while you finally enjoy a nice hot cuppa can be a real tonic, I know it has been for me when I’ve been going slowly round the bend!

There’s no one else who can listen to your exhausted ramblings about how you’ve been worried that your baby’s poo is a different colour than usual, or that they haven’t pooed at all, that they aren’t eating or how sore your nipples are when breastfeeding. Because those who don’t have children find such talk dull, or gross.

This past year with Isla has been wonderful, but challenging, and my mummy friends have been amazing during those tough times. If I’ve been panicking about Isla’s eating habits, sleep or just if she’s just being a grumpy little bugger, my friends have been so helpful. Helping out with poonamis, making a mess in their houses, getting covered in pig poo at the farm and having to pinch their food when our munchkins get peckish, we’ve seen it all! 

So thank you ladies, I love you to bits, and owe you my sanity!

Like this? Then you’ll love Rachel’s last blog about having a baby with ginger hair.

About Rachel Armitage

I’m a writer turned stay at home mum, raising our little redheaded beauty out in the sticks and documenting journey along the way, the good, the bad and the very very ugly!