Motherhood as teamwork

I happen to live on a street with lots of children. It is also a wonderfully friendly neighbourhood.

One great thing about my street is the support between the mums. This is not as evident up my end of the street, where we all have husbands around more and also do some paid work. Though the mums are lovely up my end too, just busy!

The other end of the street, there are a row of defence forces houses. This group of mums deal with husbands who are often away for work. (They are all dads in the defences, I guess it could be the other way around, but so far we haven't seen any families there where the mum is the one in the forces). These mums support each other during these times. Also down that end are a couple of single mothers who have become part of this group of supportive mums. I have got to know this group of women through going for walks, and they often include me in as well.

All these women could have been doing it tough without each other, but with each other they have made our street a place of warmth and care. This is how motherhood should work. Teamwork. And I would hope that if we got any primary carer dads or grandparents in the neighbourhood, they might be included too.

photo from freefoto