MOMSQUAD IS MORE THAN A HASHTAG
Nicolle Clawson
It's true though. It's kind of like religion. Or a gang. But let's leave those political terms aside. And call it what it is. Friendship. Or in other words, fuel for the mother soul.
I've written about this before, but it evolves daily. The importance of this friendship heightens new awareness and new feelings on the reg. Fortunately, with every new stage that occurs in motherhood, we get to rely on this squad more than anything. It's more than a hashtag, it's family.
Nicolle Clawson
Remember when you were young and your mom had girlfriends over for book club or they were over for coffee while you played with your friend on the living room floor? Maybe not. But if my memory serves me right, which I know it does (because my husband says I have the memory of an elephant, and yes the old adage is true), I recall many days I saw my mother rely on her other family. In fact, she still goes on weekenders with her girls and they are just shy of 70.
We may have made fun of them at some point, but at one very poignant point in life, us girls became women. And we started adult-ing, then parenting and we had a million questions and all of a sudden the girls nights turned into mom-texts and the emojis represented real life events. Real tears, real tragedies, real prayers, real laughs, real support. The wisdom gained through witnessing us women encouraging women, mother to mother, became the norm, and also our sanctuary. Through pregnancy, hormones, infertility, miscarriage, marriage struggle, twin pregnancy, child birth, work balance, marriage triumph, illness, fear, resilience, potty training, pre-school, elementary school, and prayer, we found solace in each other. We sought each other out for it all. And we still do.
Nicolle Clawson
And through this bond, comes the children bond. And with this bond, we see life unfold quite magically. Over the years we've seen them skin their first knees, scratch their faces, trade stomach bug germs, but also trade secrets and cuddles. We've been the witness to friendship learned from the mommies who are raising them. And through this, they have understood the importance of the bond of sisterhood and brotherhood alike.
Nicolle Clawson
Nicolle Clawson
And the years pass, and the babies grow, but they still hit the playground running, eager to learn, eager to play, eager to love on the friends they've known since birth. They don't know clicks, they don't know squads, they just know what feels good to them, because of what feels good to momma. And that feeling is mutual and it floats around like a candle scent that you can't get enough of.
And the momsquad remains hopeful, and kind and supportive and also fun. Yes, we are moms on a playground sans makeup. We drink all the coffee and eat all the pirate booty because we're shaky on too much coffee. And we wipe the butts, we feed the children and we sweat it out on the playground with multiple children at our feet. But without the kids, we still know how to throw down. We still like to party. It's just, we don't do it as often. We still like our husbands (thank God), and we rely on each other when we don't like them. We talk it out. We cry it out. We reach out when we feel like we can't quite get the balance just right. And we carry on and balance it as well as we can. Because we are warriors. And believers. And because we have each other. We still conquer the world, we just bounce ideas off each other and offer real support. We pray. We wine. We love. We try to change the world one mother at a time. Because, what are we doing, if we're not doing that? Hashtag, grateful.
