A typical day in any mom’s life requires a lot of emotional output and caregiving. There’s the daily grind of making lunches and hustling kids out the door for school every morning. Then comes after school pick-ups before rushing off to soccer, swimming, hockey or whatever the activity du jour may be. Weekends are filled with grocery shopping, family ‘fun’ time, and cleaning a house that never stays that way for more than five minutes. With all these responsibilities, it’s no surprise that something needs to drop from the list of to-dos.
More often than not, the first thing to go is quality time with girlfriends.
When we finally DO get our act together and spend some time with our ladies, there is almost nothing that compares to how good it feels. We come away feeling refreshed and ready to jump back into life with two feet. With that in mind, here are five good reasons why moms need to prioritize their time with their girlfriends…
1. Laughing until you cry
On a recent girls night, after four hours of grazing on snacks and storytelling, I went home with sore cheeks and an achy belly from all the laughter. Whether it’s retelling a story about one of our sons dropping F-bombs at preschool or a diaper explosion in the middle of Easter dinner at the in-laws, those moments that are horrifying at the time are suddenly the most hilarious when in the company of your female friends. Because we get it!
We’ve been there with our own kids and know how helpless and hilarious this crazy stuff can feel when it’s going down. Although our kids make us laugh often, and we can get a good giggle going with our spouse, it’s tough to compare to the deep and powerful laughter created in a room full of your favourite women.
2. Girlfriends are great confidence boosters
Have you been working out lately? New hairstyle? A job promotion or new endeavour on the horizon? Your girlfriends are sure to notice and shower you with praise. Spouses, of course, often tell us how beautiful we look or how proud they are of us for our accomplishments. But let’s face it, your girlfriends’ praise somehow means more. Maybe it feels more earnest because they actually do notice the little things without being prompted. Or maybe it’s just that peer approval never loses its value no matter what age we are.
We all know the best way to create self-confidence is from within ourselves but it sure is nice when your besties approve of that new pixie cut you finally struck up the nerve to follow through with. In return, we give it right back to them and, in true girlfriend fashion, aim for our ladies to leave feeling a little bit better about themselves than when they arrived. That’s what gal pals do for each other, not because we have to but because we truly want to.
3. When the going gets tough, girlfriends show up
Sometimes life throws curveballs that come out of nowhere and knock you sideways. Painful times are often made even more challenging when you have to show up and be strong in front of your kids. Navigating through a divorce, miscarriage, or the death of a parent feels overwhelming and unfathomable for even the strongest among us. Your female friendships will carry you through these seemingly unmanageable times and show you that you are strong enough to handle whatever comes at you, even if you don’t believe it yourself.
I have witnessed some of my closest girlfriends go through extraordinarily difficult circumstances and cried alongside them in the thick of it all. However, after times of darkness, there is always an inevitable light that comes at the end. There is truly nothing quite as magical as watching one of your girlfriends rise from the pain and become stronger than they ever were before. The truest girlfriends will be there for you through life’s deepest valleys and highest peaks.
4. Frivolity and friendship go hand in hand
Sometimes life is tough, as mentioned, and sometimes it feels good to enjoy a little frivolous banter.
“Do you think Kate and Meghan are actually feuding?” “Did you see the size of J.Lo’s engagement ring from A.Rod?” “How do you think Clooney is REALLY doing with those twins at his age?”
They are conversations that most of our spouses don’t really care to spend time on, yet entire blogger careers are made up of these juicy tidbits! The beautiful thing about girlfriends is that you can finish wiping away your bestie’s tear-streaked face and jump right into some good pop culture banter to lighten the mood. Sometimes after navigating life’s heavy stuff, it feels so good just to enjoy a little mindless gossip session about our favourite royals. It’s called balance and girlfriends seem to know exactly how to whip up the right amount at the exact right time.
5. Our little kids won’t always be so little
Here’s the thing, right now we are in the thick of #momlife, between diaper changes, mini-soccer, parent-teacher conferences, and birthday parties. It won’t always be this way, though, and it’s important to nurture our friendships now so that they will continue to be there later. At some point, our kids will be teenagers with part-time jobs, then off to college and out of the nest. It feels like a lifetime away but in reality, we all know that the days are long and the years are short.
One day, our kids won’t need us day in and day out as they do now and what will we do then? Well, if we’ve nurtured our friendships all along, we will still have our beloved girlfriends well into our golden years. Just imagine ladies weekends in Palm Springs, golf leagues, and late lunches any day of the week! By then our challenges will be different than they are today but one thing that will remain the same is that we will never have to carry our burdens or celebrate our successes alone thanks to our beloved girlfriends.
Tagged under: kids,Parenting,motherhood,mom friends,friendships,mom life
Category: mom-101
