Mom is the Loneliest Number

I was really happy that on Saturday, despite yet another kids birthday party RIGHT SMACK IN THE MIDDLE  OF THE DAY, that I managed to not only attend Birth Fest at Britannia Community Centre, but have breakfast with my mom too!

IT was really awesome.  A room full of babies and or heavily pregnant mom’s perusing awesome stalls for every kind of baby related service you could imagine and all local.

The estrogen was in the air.

I came home with a wack of cards and flyer’s and am brimming with feel good hormones surrounding birth and pregnancy.

Seriously, for mom and me it was like hitting the shrinks couch for how nice we felt after chatting with so many kind and loving women.

Oh and Caity LOVES her own little dolly sling from Baby Buddha.   And thank you again for the demo…great idea for a sling.  

I also cannot wait to hit a workshop for New & Green and their help and selection of cloth diapers.  Thank you for the encouragement.

Mom and I chit chatted with some doulas and other ladies who offer parenting groups and workshops.  Sharing my story about Scott and why we were now looking at midwifery and doulas instead of Ob/Gyns and nurses was extremely gratifying.  One woman had a similar story, and other just understood.

There are many wonderful services available for new mom and mom’s to be.  Unfortunately they tend to be on the pricey side.   

Leaving the government services and community health services for those who don’t have the income for these services…like Douala’s for example.

With Caity and Adam, I went to a free parenting group run by the ‘Neighbourhood Organization.’  It was good.  I really enjoyed it.   But I rarely hung out at the drop in centre as again, with living in a very multicultural area, there really wasn’t anyone for me to truly connect with or talk to.

I have bitched about my neighbourhood before, most recently here, on the new Canada Moms Blog.

And I really felt it after leaving the Birth Fest and joining my family at the local birthday party.

My kids were having fun.    Probably too much fun.

I said hi to the birthday girl….a quadraplegic 6 year old…..she breaks my heart…..but I love how much her classmates seem to care for her.

I said hi to the birthday parents and tried to help keep things organized, as were most of the other parents.

But there was no feeling (for us anyway) of community or unity.

We have nothing in common with these people apart from our kids being in the same class.

I am sure Birth Fest would have been far too crunchy and granola for them….or too snobby…who knows.

In all my years in this neighbourhood….I have loved the layout.  The trees, the parks, being close to my mom.  But I have met ONE mom…one…that I remotely felt like sharing my own feelings with and enjoyed the company of.

So apart from my other ONE mom friend that I have…all the moms that I have felt any sort of friendship, kinship, sisterhood etc has been through the internet…either on forums or from blogs.

Needless to say, hanging with all these REAL life moms at Birth Fest, was food for my apparently lonely soul.