Lemony Webbles

gettin with the program

I visited a new members meeting of Mothers and More (which is a support and advocacy organization for women who have left a career to stay at home with their kids, also called 'sequencing women') and I was impressed. They are for mothers in any combination of working inside and/or outside the home. I was intrigued by one of the things they do, which is cook for other members when that member has a baby or any other big life-changing event. That's some good 'village' infrastructure. And they were excited to see me as I was the only new person that showed up. (It was raining really hard which probably scared people away- they said their meetings are usually bigger than five people.) They have lots of playgroups and e-mail lists and events for moms to get out together so they don't feel so isolated. I feel like I've figured myself out as a mom a lot more than the last time I tried to get involved with this group and didn't click because I felt too overwhelmed by other people's opinions and judgements of my parenting. But I feel a lot more confident and not so easily swayed by other people's opinions of me, so i think I could get something out of it, or better yet, put something into it. I'd love to cook for new moms. And when i brought up our (Billy's and my) idea of having a panel with all the choices of schools in C-U for parents figuring out school for their 5 year olds to hear about all the possibilities- from public school to home school, etc., they jumped at it and thought it was really great and all wanted to get behind it and do it, as soon as they group was a little older (it's a young group and most kids are 0-3). And they like Faulkner Fox-esque critiques of false ideals of motherhood ( and I didn't even bring it up, but did jump right in when it was on the table). That was really a sign just for me that this would be a good group to keep in touch with and talk to.

(In Nate Davis villian voice): "Excellent. Excellent."