When I had my first born,I stayed home from work for only 7 months. Since I had my mom to help watch Alessia, I took the opportinity to take on a promotion at work that I was offered...thanks mom!!! During my time off, I took Alessia to baby massage classes, and neighbourhood play groups. I bonded with several moms while I was there but it did not go beyond that. As I felt the need to spend time with other mom's, new and experienced, I created my own group from existing family members and friends. There were 6 moms that spend much time together. We all became the best of friends and shared experiences together and laughed and laughed and laughed. We all had the greatest time and created great memories and lasting friendships.

***Member 1: Myself - first time mom with no experience and many many questions.
***Member 2: My mom who is my best friend. When I had Alessia, we were waiting for our new home to be build and lived with my parents. She was a great help with the new baby and we bonded like I never thought possible with my mom.
***Member 3: My mother-in-law. Another fantastic woman who spend much time with us. She is full of life and always sharing her experiences from when she had 3 children of her own.
***Member 4: My sister-in-law. We were pregnant together and had our babies just 2 months apart. Unlike me, this was her second but since her oldest child was 7 years old, it was like starting all over again.
***Member 5: My other sister-in-law was a new mom of a 2 year old. She was still adjusting to being back at work and the experience of being a mom. She had a little more experience than us truly new moms but still appreciated the support group.
***Member 6: My best friend. She was a mom of two, with her youngest being in his terrible twos. She was a stay at home mom and had a need to share her stories and get advise from experienced moms.

When this unique group of moms/experiences/personalities came together, it created a forum for true expression, genuine laughter and acceptance. Inspite of the age differneces, we all blended together with our similarites of being moms.
We took the kids for lunch at child friendly restaurants, we discovered many different indoor play grounds in our areas and got together at eachothers houses just for coffees. The husbands liked the time away from the ladies and children as well. No complaints from them...

I do miss this time we all spent together. Great memories and stories that we will be sharing with our children one day.