Why you also need childless friends

So I was reading my own blog posts yesterday night and realized that I sound like like I don't have friends anymore...who aren't new moms.

So ta-da!  Today, I'm writing about why it's important to maintain the friendships that you developed before your stretch marks made you the prettiest tiger outside of the local zoo.

As you may remember, when M was away last week, my friends Kathy and Eric came to hang out with AJ and I to keep us company.  Kathy is also a pharmacist.  I loved their time with us.  We didn't actually do anything super special - just spent time chatting (yay for adult conversation!), watched all 7 parts of Harry Potter, and then some more junkish TV.  But the adult conversation - Ahhhh, what a nice relief!

Now don't get me wrong.  Poop, pee, and spit up always came up in the conversation.  But our conversation topics for the weeks felt like luxuries!  What was going on with her job, where we're thinking about going on vacation next, whether or not this cake recipe looked good, what the hell happened to Neville Longbottom and why does he look so good now. Things we used to talk about before I pooped out little raptor. Our time together reminded me that I'm not just a mom- I'm still an individual who has hobbies, favorite foods, and dreams. Our time together reminded me that I really missed my job - that the decision that I made to go back to work in 4 weeks was the right one.  Our time together reminded me that a lot of people still care for us the same way, despite this massive change that has happened to our family.

I've heard from other moms that you lose friends after you have your child - some of them won't undersand and some of then you'll lose because you simply can't juggle maintaining their friendship while maintaing the needs of your tiny human creature.

But that's not everybody.  There's the true friends who are ALWAYS there to love and support you.  And even though your little creature burps, poops, pees, and spits up, they still find a way to love them...because they love you.  So don't forget about your childless friends.  Yes, it'll take some extra effort to make sure that the friendship is alive and thriving after your precious cargo arrives, but I promise, they're well worth it :)