30 Days of Gratitude: Day 17
SugarBabe Trish is grateful for a community of understanding friends.
Being a young teen mom is hard, but I’ve found that growing up and being a once-young teen mom, who has been in a happy steady relationship for 10 years, with the same man, is happily married, and now has four kids can get, well, lonely. Especially when you live in a little city in the middle of nowhere. It’s hard to find a group of people who get you and feel close enough in age AND circumstance to be able to turn to when you have questions, concerns, or just want to talk. The people my age don’t have almost 10 year olds, and if they do, they tend not to be in the same place when it comes to relationships, let alone other kids. It has made my past several years as a mom lonely in a lot of ways.
Enter Facebook and its groups, which is exactly what I am thankful for today.
During my pregnancy with Mason, a friend that I went to high school with added me to a local Facebook group for moms in Memphis who have the same types of parenting beliefs that I do. In this group I found an amazing thing—moms who were near, around, or actually were MY age, with kids of all ages, and many who were in happy stable relationships. I actually had people I could go and talk to who could help because they were so similar to me. I could voice frustrations over a problem with one of the kids, and I wouldn’t get told over and over to do things that I don’t agree with. When I complained about the hassle of dealing with some issue or another with the school, someone would actually know who I needed to talk to at the school or district. If I, or anyone else in the group, was struggling or needing help, people would actually come and HELP. More importantly they understood parenting things unique to me. They understood the humor and frustration of taking your kid in for his first day and getting mistaken as his sister. Or of teachers and doctors taking one look at you and automatically writing you off as a parent who will probably not be an active parent.
All of the sudden I was opened up to a group of women who got ME as a person and a mom, and it made my life as a mom not quite so lonely, and not just in an abstract internet way, but in a real life people I could go, see, and touch way. For that community and support I am so thankful.
