Being a mom is tough, but it doesn’t have to be lonely.
Jill Savage, Author and CEO of Hearts at Home, shares the benefit of pressing into healthy friendships with other moms. She provides insight from her book .
Jill explains how her personal experience with female friendships changed after becoming a mother.
“Then I became a mother and I was like, ‘I need women in my life!’ I need to know that I’m not crazy, or what my kids are doing is normal, or what to do in this situation. I think we have all been there.”
Why is it so important for moms to have relationships with other moms?
“We have to realize that we’re not meant to do this alone, it’s too big it’s too long term for us to try to do this without support.”
Meaningful friendships with other moms provides the needed long term support and encouragement.
“The benefits of connecting with other moms, just simply knowing you are not alone. That is powerful. We all need ‘me too‘ moments and that is a huge part of why friendship is important.”
“There’s a sense of belonging; just knowing that somebody cares about me, they think of me every once in a while, I think that’s really important.”
Healthy relationships require giving and receiving.
“We all need relationships that we can give and receive in. Most of us don’t struggle with the giving nearly as much as we struggle with the receiving.”
“I think it’s important for us to realize that a healthy friendship is a dance between both giving and receiving. Moms need a sounding board and quite frankly husbands make terrible girlfriends.”
Mothers can relate on so many levels and are meant to build one another up in their everyday experiences.
“You need that girlfriend that understands why you’re mortified that you just found your first chin hair. You need that mom that understands what you felt like when you walked in and your baby had taken off their diaper and you had a mess to clean up. So we need that from each other.”
“Then we need wisdom and experience from others. Moms that are in the trenches, in the same season we’re in, but sometimes we need moms that are a little bit ahead of us.”
Jill describes a personal story about reassuring one young mom who was having trouble potty training her child.
“I said to her in the midst of her frustration, ‘Just back off a little bit, and just relax in it. My daughter had trouble potty training – she just walked down the aisle in her wedding dress and I promise you she was not wearing diapers.’”
“We need that perspective from others who have gone before us.”
