A little while ago I wrote a post called The Great Thing About “Non Mummy Friends” which had a great reception and I think a lot of you could relate to what I was saying in that post. I firmly believe that you need a mix of mum friends and non mum friends in your life but I recently realised that I had never actually written a post about how amazing Mum friends are. I feel fortunate to have a couple of really great mum friends, lots of mums that I regularly chat to at baby groups and also a whole load of amazing fellow mum blogger friends. I’m so grateful to all of these girls for making Motherhood less lonely and way more fun. We all need a mum friend sometimes, and this is why:
We all need a mum friend to tell us that everything we are feeling is normal. That they’ve had days when they’ve considered selling their kid on eBay too and that it’s okay to sometimes crack open the wine at lunchtime just to get through.
We all need a mum friend to come round and help us drink that wine, on days when kids are tough and no one else in the world seems to quite ‘get’ what you are going through.
We all need a mum friend to give us their best sensitive shampoo recommendation or to show us the miracle teething cure they have found.
We all need a mum friend to have ‘does it make me a bad mum if I…?’ conversations with. The answer is almost always ‘no’ but sometimes you just need to hear it from a fellow parent.
We all need a mum friend to chat to at toddler groups to avoid the awkwardness of sitting in silence and resisting the urge to just scroll through Instagram.
We all need a mum friend who you can send pictures of nappy rashes and poo explosions to and know that they will never be grossed out, that they will recommend a good cream or laugh with you because ‘what have our lives even become?’
We all need a mum friend to escape the kids with every so often. To go out to Prossecco brunches or nights out just to feel normal again.
We all need a mum friend who knows as soon as you walk through their front door to put the kettle on and prepare an IV drip of coffee for you.
We all need a mum friend to create a ‘no judgement zone’ with, who can walk into your house and not judge the state of it, or you, or the kid, and just be a friend. Who you can text and confess that you’ve just hid from your child and eaten a whole box of Malteasers before 10am and won’t judge you but just be jealous that they don’t have any good snacks in the house.
We all need a mum friend who you can moan abut your other half with one day and then the next be talking about how great they are. Co parenting is a roller coaster that they can understand.
We need all need a mum friend who will be genuinely thrilled for you when your toddler learns to walk or when they say a new word for the first time. They will understand how proud you are and be proud with you.
We all need a mum friend when things are tough and you just need to let it all out. When you’re not looking for solutions or answers (because we all know that ‘this too will pass’) but when you just need somebody to listen to how difficult things are and to tell you that you’re doing great and that it will get better.
We all need a mum friend. On the good days and the bad days. For the poo explosions and the first steps. For the tantrums and the brunches. It’s all better with a mum friend.
