My Mommy Friends

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I believe in friendship - friendship that are true, genuine and the ones who are there for me in need. For someone coming from a very small family setup (I have just one first cousin), friends are the ones I reach out to always and friends are family. I have friends who know me from the time I started school and we hold each other quite close to our heart. Our friendship has withstood the test of time, misunderstandings caused by jealous third parties and it survived whatever that came our way. I have friends who have travelled down to be with me when I am not well, taking over my home and doing all the chores while ensuring that I rest and their family, over time, became mine too. The innocence of such friendship made by two little minds without any further thought got lost once I grew up. Friendship was made with an ulterior motive - something like an opportunity based friendship. True friends became rare to find and I held on to the true friends I had like I would hold a precious gem. 

By my late 20s I was pretty much sure I was not going to make any more friends who would go out of their way to be there in need and whom I would hold dear to my heart. And then Adhrith happened, we shifted our home to a beautiful apartment complex and I got lucky and met a few beautiful souls. What brought us together were our babies and through them I rediscovered those long lost innocent friendships I made when I was a kid. We became friends just like that - a beautiful relation formed out of a common interest. 

We met daily and soon they became an integral part of our life. With them, we played, we went out, we shopped, we explored places, we pretty much did everything together. The kids thought the world of each other - of course, there were pushing, pulling and hitting but inspite of that they loved each other. In fact, my boy gets up in the morning asking for them and the moment he sees them, his eyes light up.  With our own families far away, we reached out to each other for just about anything and everything. I've had several instances where, when Adhrith fell ill, I just had to look after him - we had food brought to us, friends who accompanied me to the hospital just so that I wouldn't be going to the doctor's alone with the boy while the husband was busy at work, friends who offered to come home and watch over Adhrith while I finished my chores, friends who made me feel safe by just being there. They sense my worry and keep their cool, taking over the next few minutes or hours and just be there with us until I am assured everything is ok. 

With them, I rediscovered innocence and the beauty of friendship again. They are my break away from what is otherwise a monotonous life. They are the ones who empathise with me when life becomes hectic with a toddler. As much as I have other close friends and family in Bangalore, it is them I call late in the night or early in the morning if I need help. It is them who can give me assurance that I am safe while the husband is away or busy at work. Over the past year, they've become family and it is definitely because of them that I call Bangalore my home now!

Trust me, fellow mommies, hold on to your mommy friends. As much as you need your close friends from the past, who knows you inside out, you need your mommy friends too. At this point in your life, it is they who can understood you the best, it is they who are your best bet to vent your worries,  it is they who can relate to you the most and it is with them that your baby is most comfortable with, apart from your family. I, for one, am grateful for the wonderful mommy friends in my life whom I hold very close to my heart!