Good friends, to me anyway, are essential.
Having a spouse, a kiddo, close family members - all of that is amazing. Nothing, however, can take the place of a great friend.
After I had Caroline, I knew I was going to have to try harder than ever to maintain friendships. I didn't want the stresses of being a new mom to remove me from the rest of the world, which, let's face it, can easily happen with the addition of a baby.
I didn't want to be one of those women who never has a girls' night out or forgets to call her good friend on her birthday. So I made it my mission this spring to try to be a better friend.
Kind of a strange goal, huh?
I wanted to work harder at making my friends feel valued...because they ARE. I also wanted to make new friends.
-So, I started attending a neighborhood Bible study earlier this month and love it. (I met so many women who are right in my backyard (literally), that I can't wait to know better.)
-I started to make regular "dates" with my good friends, just lunch or coffee, but some way to reconnect and keep up with them.
-My husband and I made it our mission to say "yes" to every opportunity to go and have fun with our couple friends. After Caroline, it seemed like take-out on the couch was all we did on Friday nights. We missed our friends dearly. Now that she's old enough that we feel comfortable leaving her for a couple hours at a time, we make it a point to do a couples thing once a week or so.
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| See? Told ya! We took the baby : ) |
-And if the sitter falls through, we take the baby! A kiddo is no reason to keep yourself holed up in the house. This past Friday, our sitter fell through and we had no choice but to take the bambina. Guess what? She was an angel and we had a great time anyway. Point is, sometimes you just have to do it.
Friendships are work and they're something I plan to keep working at. But they're so, SO worth the effort. I feel better when I know that I've been a good friend, don't y'all?
How do you stay connected to friends and make them feel valued?
I wanna be a neighbor friend of yours as well, wish we didnt live in seperate countries.
ReplyDeleteYour friends are blessed to have you
Oh how fun! A neighborhood Bible study would be so wonderful! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to do the same thing too! It's so easy to get wrapped up with baby things as a new mom, but we have been out a few times on our own, and take the baby with us to cook outs, music events, etc.
ReplyDeletelove that you make it a priority to stay in touch with your friends and do things with other couples. i can't count the number of friends that i haven't talked to since they had children. they don't go to weddings, showers, girls nights, because of the baby. i understand that babies are important and obviously their top priority, but i haven't seen my friend for more than 4 hours (total) since she announced she was pregnant and now the baby's a year old. :(
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to make my friends a priority as well. It's hard when you move and leave them all behind :( Good thing for texting and Facebook : )
ReplyDeleteI love this post! I have been thinking about life and friendships after our baby gets here in September. I love the idea of take the baby. Great advice :)
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