Motherhood and the
Importance of Friends
Ask any mother, and she will probably tell you that one of her most important resources - and sources of sanity -- is a group
of friends who have children similar in age to her own. For centuries women have relied on one another's support as they guide their children
through each vital stage of development
I don't know what I would have done without my best friend, Kathy, whom I met when my son was two months old. We both attended a
breastfeeding support group at the hospital where we had given birth, and although I was nervous about attending a group where I knew no
one, I was so relieved to have a place to bring Danny where no one cared if he cried or squirmed. Kathy and I began chatting right
away, and it was clear by the end of the meeting that we would be good friends.
We quickly made other friends who became invaluable sources of information and support as we struggled through that first year of new
motherhood. What a relief it was to discover that my child wasn't the only one who wanted to nurse constantly. In the back of my head I had
been worried that he would never stop eating, ending up like one of those poor children on a talk show entitled, "My 3-Year-Old Weighs 100 Pounds."
At weekly get-togethers at each other's homes, the fears and insecurities we had been experiencing were replaced by feelings of comfort that someone else was going through the same stage, be it teething, weaning, biting,
hitting, or any other stressful event in a mother's existence.
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