For our children, for each other

Last night I had three beautiful mamas over to my house for an evening of much-needed mommy time. If you'd asked me five years (or heck, even one, haha) ago if I'd be planning mom dates and figuring out how I could become more social in the wide world of motherhood, I'd have laughed, and laughed hard. Although I can't imagine my life without her now, Lydia definitely put a new spin on things with her conception.

For instance, I had NO idea how much I would need other moms. From the first inklings of my knowing I was pregnant till last night as the four of us sat talking about parenting and children's issues, I somehow knew that I would need to sit down with a glass of red wine in one hand, chocolate in the other, and my heart out on the table to be repaired and put back together by other mamas. That sympathy/support/encouragement/readiness to bitch about everything you need to bitch about too is irreplaceable, and invaluable.

But we don't really hold each other up the way we need to, which is a topic covered by Jennifer and a couple of other guest posters to this blog. I'll admit, I am the first one to judge and hold in contempt other moms who do things differently than I hold to be healthy and right. Moms who choose not to breastfeed are hard for me to understand, as are moms who park their kids in front of a TV all day while they're on Facebook or other mind-numbing equivalent. And I'm sure there are many, many things I do with my daughter that would spin someone's head out there...I've vaccinated her, given her solid foods like gravy (actually, that was her dad...), let her cry for a few minutes at the end of a riveting movie...The list could go on, and on, and on, from both sides.

We need to meet each other on the fact that we. are. mamas. We are mothers to our children's generation. We are currently raising a generation who will have a heavy burden of political strife, environmental concern, a heightened climatic change experience, a larger population, and a worsened economy. With all of that turmoil in mind, I hold Lydia in my arms at night and wonder how I can raise her to be the beautiful and healthy daughter I've dreamed she would be. How can we meet the needs of each other, and our children, while keeping all other children and families in mind? There need to be more peer groups, more mothering support groups, more advances in the work of preventing teen pregnancy, more breastfeeding coalitions...

How else, besides blogging about all these great ideas, can we set the futures of our children in motion?