It’s easy to get bogged down in the endless cycle of cleaning, feeding, preparing, sleeping (hopefully), and just trying to hold it all together, mostly, to the point of feeling completely alone as a mom and isolated from your community.
It may feel like no one has the same or similar struggles you do because there’s no real opportunity to hang out with girlfriends and just vent. There are little things moms can do together to help one another out, though. All you need is a small group of moms (two to four) clustered together in a neighborhood or apartment building. The proximity will help in most cases, though sometimes it isn’t important.
If you don’t have a few mom friends or acquaintances lined up, you can join a group or create one. Some neighborhoods will have moms’ groups already in place. If your neighborhood or town has a website, check there.
Start a recipe swap full of easy meals. Bonus points if you have recipes that you can freeze easily and only require a few ingredients. The less expensive per serving, the better, of course.
Now, you can either swap the recipes to make meal-planning more exciting, which is perfect if you’re not all living as close together as you would like, or you can each choose one of your recipes, make a huge batch of it (enough for each family), and then swap. This works best when the meals are easy to freeze, of course.
Going to the store while the kid’s are at school or at grandma’s house? Call up the other moms to see if they were going to have to run out later for a single item or two. Loading up even one child to go to the store can be a production rather than a quick errand, so if you’re already going, take one for the team and pick up the baby formula or paper towels for another stressed mom.
Settle up when you drop off the items or go pick up the money beforehand (this is when it comes in handy to live close together). Next time you’re in desperate need of another tube of toothpaste but you’re completely overwhelmed, maybe someone will call you to return the favor.
Work out a babysitting arrangement with the other moms. One reason my husband and I don’t go out much is due to the extra cost of hiring a babysitter. It suddenly makes a leisurely coffee date too expensive to justify. Having another couple or two to swap babysitting duties with would ensure date nights for everyone.
How do you help out other moms? What’s one thing another mom’s done for you that you were especially grateful for?
Photo credit: skampy
