Solidarity

I don't know if it was the blowing snow, or the early morning, or the fact that my husband is away for the weekend, but today I feel connected. Connected to all the mom friends I have all across the country who are performing the same parenting rituals as me. Waking up too early. Making coffee. Planning school lunches. Snuggling babies. Fixing lego ships with fumbling, not yet awake hands. Wrapping arms around children as they climb on and off my lap, or check in as they run by making blasting noises. Finding missing socks, boots, neckwarmers and mittens. Waving goodbye with a baby on my hip as the bus drives away. Coming back home for a snuggle and a snack with my littlest littles.

On days like today I miss the times before I had school aged kids, when I could sneak off to my friends' houses and live in solidarity with other moms of young ones for a few days. I miss those days of sharing my morning coffee with friends, laughing and joking and making endless rounds of toast for hungry little mouths.

I wish our culture shared motherhood more. I wish we opened our homes - clean or not - to our friends for mornings, afternoons, and weekends. Parenting is so much easier when it is shared among a group of mothers and when the children can play with one another. Living together, instead of just formal visiting, is a beautiful, lost art. I wish we could reclaim it.

In the meantime, I will send my words out to you, my friends, across the country (and through this blog the world). Pour yourself some coffee. Make some toast. Snuggle your little (or big) ones close. And invite someone over for the afternoon - whether your house is clean or not.