Monday, March 26, 2012

Mom Groups: questioning my resistance

...I don't know what to do about this issue.

I know I should be actively trying to make mom friends since I'm the first of my local friends to procreate, and socializing is going to change even more than it already has in the last few months. Not to mention, TBD is going to need friends early on. But, I find myself resisting. I'm not totally sure what it is.

Perhaps it's that I'm not super into kids in general? I'm excited about my own, and a few I've encountered through the years...but I don't really see the inherent magic of all kids. I find many of them simply annoying as fuck. And parents of children who can't control themselves...I become the judgement monster!

Is this just an opportunity to confront some of my judgement-as-defense-mechanism?

Do I just need to jump in with both feet and hope I can control my tendency towards a decidedly NOT politically correct sense of humor?

Am I just imagining that these groups are filled with Sesame Street characters who gush when they see infants, and in fact they are filled with brainy and irreverent types who don't see motherhood as the ultimate achievement in a woman's life?

Is this just one more step in trying to readjust my understanding of my changing identity, and I need to just do it?

Seeking: super nerdy, super liberal, super creative parents who make fun of babies and don't want parenthood to be the only achievement of their life.

3 comments:

  1. Good partial solution: take one of my austin friends who's a mom. She's 30, just had her son Truman like 5 months ago, and she's HILARIOUS. I met her when we worked together at a montesori preschool in Austin, where she still works. YOU NEED TO HANG.

    Letty is AWESOME:
    http://www.facebook.com/theillumiletty

    her mommy-blog
    http://theillumiletty.wordpress.com/

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  2. Harmony EichsteadtMarch 27, 2012 at 5:00 PM

    I have a friend who has similar misgivings and is looking for like minded mommies.

    The other alternative is to start your own group and be picky and elitest about who you let in.

    Also - the point is to have community (people you identify with) supporting you. Having one life situation in common (parenthood) does not necessarily mean you will identify with them. EG I will totally come hang out and make fun of babies and talk about diapers, spit up, swaddling, pumping, chapped nipples, sleep schedules, when to start on solid food, whether or not TBD is teething or sick, etc etc etc and I've never procreated.

    Good bet Kristen Ray would participate in some of this too...

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